Ford and Nixon

The two pictures below, are of Gerald Ford, who died this week, and Richard Nixon, whom he replaced.

Terriers have often occupied the White House, from George W. Bush to FDR.

The Rat Terrier was named by Teddy Roosevelt who used to hunt rats in the White House basement with a small feist he picked up on his travels out west. For a litany of presidential dogs, see >> HERE

Other terriers owned by U.S. Presidents include JFK's welsh terrier, and Warren Harding's Airedale.





A very young Gerald Ford with a Boston Terrier, about 1916. In the White House, he owned a Golden Retriever named "Liberty".




Nixon on the beach with a Yorkshire Terrier jabbering at his side. This picture is all Nixon: a man wearing a suit at the beach, uncomfortable, the picture askew. Nixon's other two dogs were a French Poodle and "King Timahoe," a brain-befogged Irish setter.

Carrying On

The "animal rights" lunatics in the U.K. are in a paroxysm. Here's the problem: Two years after the "ban" on fox hunting took effect, folks are still legally hunting them with gun and snare (to say nothing of the more than 100,000 fox that are run over by cars every year).

In fact, fox hunting is more popular than ever: two new mounted hunts have been created, one third of the hunts are claiming an increase in membership, and another third say they have been granted increased access to land. As for terrier work, it is legal and continues unabated.

The "ban" on fox hunting has had no impact at all on fox numbers generally -- they continue to be at record numbers, just as they were before the ban went into effect. The difference now is that every missing cat, duck, chicken or pet rabbit in the country is now blamed on animal rights loons who managed to divide the country for the sake of an ineffective -- and apparently unpopular and unnecessary -- law.

When the history of the Conservative Party is written, I hope someone will remember to thank the animal rights fringe for supplying an organizing vehicle.

This week, Boxing Day saw the largest hunt field ever, with more than 320,000 people participating in the hunts.

The latest poll shows that more than half of all Britons expect the ban on fox hunting to fall.

To tell the truth, the ban on fox hunting seems to be going a bit like the war in Iraq: Whatever it is was that was being fought for has not been won, and now it seems pretty clear there is no good way to "win" whatever it was.

So what have the anti's decided to do? Go home? Recognize that you cannot force things down people's throats if they really do not want it? Oh no! The new program is to try to use a vague "anti-social behaviour law" (or "asbo") written in 1999 to try to curb graffiti, abusive language, excessive noise, litter, drunkenness and drug dealing in the cities. The game is to see if (somehow) it can be used to curb organized fox hunting in the country.

Andrew Keogh, a Manchester lawyer who edits "Asbo Law Reports," says, "The easiest [complaint] to go for would be dogs barking or being unruly. But I view the chances of success as very slim indeed."

"Very slim indeed" is now the last best hope of the anti's. My bet is that they will demonstrate, even more forcefully, how silly, unnecessary and ineffective the law is. In a democracy, nothing makes a cause more popular than fascist opposition to it.

Meanwhile, more than 100,000 fox a year are being run over by cars, proving that Rudyard Kipling was right when he called road-kill "the real blood-sport of Britain." The mounted hunts, in their hay-day, did one-fifth the damage to fox, with less suffering, and a great deal more economic benefit to the countryside..





You will never see anyone in the Animal Rights movement leading a campaign in opposition to road construction or road widening. These folks are entirely absent from efforts to protect farm land, preserve wildlife habitat, or slow human population growth.

Conversely, as noted wildlife biologist David MacDonald has noted, no human action has been as beneficial to the red fox as the mounted hunts which have fought long and hard to protect fox habitat.

Turning Japanese ... I Really Think So

Remember the old Vapors song "Turning Japanese ? Well, let's pray it's not true!



What do you get when you cross the trendyness of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, with the displaced maternal instincts of people without children, and the aggressive inbreeding of tiny dogs?

Here's a hint: It's not a pretty sight.

Today's edition of The New York Times notes that these three disasters have slammed into each other in Japan, where (to quote the title) "A Pet Craze Leads to Genetic Defects." The International Herald Tribune has the same article >> here.

Care for a Chihuahua with a blue hue?

Or how about a teacup poodle so tiny it will fit into a purse — the canine equivalent of a bonsai?

The Japanese sure do.

Rare dogs are highly prized here, and can set buyers back more than $10,000. But the real problem is what often arrives in the same litter: genetically defective sister and brother puppies born with missing paws or faces lacking eyes and a nose.

There have been dogs with brain disorders so severe that they spent all day running in circles, and others with bones so frail they dissolved in their bodies. Many carry hidden diseases that crop up years later, veterinarians and breeders say.

The New York Times puts part of the blame on a strong Japanese passion for fads and conformity, but does not shy away from the displaced maternity issue:

Some veterinarians and other experts cite another, less obvious factor behind widespread risky inbreeding in Japan’s dog industry — the nation’s declining birthrate.

As the number of childless women and couples in Japan has increased, so has the number of dogs, which are being coddled and doted upon in place of children, experts say. In the last decade, the number of pet dogs in Japan has doubled to 13 million last year — outnumbering children under 12 — according to Takashi Harada, president of Yaseisha, a publisher of pet industry magazines.

“Households with few or no children are turning to dogs to fill the void,” he said. “For a dog to be part of the family, it has to be unique and have character, like a person.”

Indeed, many of these buyers want dogs they can show off like proud parents. They are willing to pay top yen, with rarer dogs fetching higher prices. Coveted traits like a blue-tinged coat are often the result of recessive genes, which can determine appearance only when combined with another recessive gene.

Inbreeding is a quick way to bring out recessive traits, as dogs carrying the gene are repeatedly mated with their own offspring, enhancing the trait over successive generations.

When done carefully, some types of inbreeding are safe. But in Japan, all too many breeders throw aside caution in search of a quick profit, experts in the business say. In these cases, for every dog born with prized colors, many more appear with defects, also the product of recessive genes.

It Ain't the Shoes

With only one bit of modern gear in a terrierman's kit, you would think debates over the relative merits of branded technology might be given a bit of a rest.

But you would be wrong. In terrier work, as with every other sport, some folke are obsessed with gear.

But guess what? Terrier work is not about the locator collar any more than basketball is about the shoes.

The simple truth is that 99.99 percent of the time, it hardly matters what brand of of locator collar you use. The old Mark I collar was not that hard to tape up and keep dry (I have never felt a need to change), and the new Deben LRT and Bellman and Flint systems are far beyond what most folks will ever need to keep their dogs safe. Let's be honest: the number of folks digging to 12 feet is vanishingly small, and the number of folks digging to 40 feet is smaller than the total population of red-headed eskimos in the world.

Whatever locator you chose, for whatever reason, remember the most important thing about terrier work: "It ain't about the shoes."

Suicide Raccoon

My dogs have free run of the back yard, and can enter the garage down a simple wooden staircase that is connected to a dog door that comes through a ground-level window at the back of the garage.

The staircase is penned in such a way that at the base of the stairs there is a small area of blank floor -- about two feet by four feet -- and under the stairs are three dog crates with heating pads in them.

The situation is a bit unconventional, but pretty close to ideal, as the dogs have free run of the yard, and can tuck in to stay warm and dry whenever they want. This set up has worked very well, and without a hitch, for about 10 years. And then there was last night.

Last night, I was in my study doing a little bit of reading when a terrific commotion came from the dogs out in the garage. At first I thought the dogs were fighting, and then I thought maybe one of them had gotten his leg caught in a crate somehow. When I got outside, however, it turned out that the dogs had a raccoon down inside their little area inside the garage. The raccoon must have entered the garage through the dog door, and then come down the stairs. The raccoon's bad luck was that Trooper, Mountain and Pearl were asleep, each asleep in their heated crates, doors off, at the bottom of that staircase.

I did not have any shoes on and I was not getting into that pen to sort thing out before I got them on! With that done, I opened the top of the half door into the pen, and got it sorted out in short order. I am happy to say the dogs came out without a nick and Trooper, long retired, proved that he still ranks as the World Hardest Dog.

This suicidal raccoon tipped the scale at 18 pounds. I would have let him go if there had been any other option, but inside the garage, in such a narrow space, and with three dogs on him, there was no other option but the one I took.

Merry Christmas to All!

Dumping the Dog ... and Then the Man

(Eric Jamison/AP Photo)


From Associated Press:

"While Britney's parenting skills have been under a microscope for months, the pop star has also topped the list for the World's Worst Celebrity Dog Owner of 2006, according to an online survey by New York Dog and Hollywood Dog magazines. 'Britney was the overwhelming choice,' said Hilary O'Hagan, editor of both publications. 'She once had three Chihuahuas (Lacy, Lucky and Bit-Bit) and never left home without at least one of them on her arm. As soon as she met K-Fed and had kids, they disappeared.' Spears told TeenPeople.com that she gave the dogs away to friends.

For the record, I think anyone who has a teacup dog is guilty of canine abuse. The litany of health care issues associated with "micro" breeds is nothing short of a nightmare: collapsing tracheas, hydrocephally (water on the brain), epilepsy, seizures, broken bones (a jump from a chair can do it), serious dental issues (their jaws are always too small for the teeth), moleras (soft spots on the skull), hypoglycemia, lens luxation and eye infections (due to over-large bulding eyes), and liver and heart problems.

The reason these dogs are expensive is that they have about a 70 perent natal mortality rate. Microbreeds are guaranteed death.