Dogs

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A community about dogs.

Breeds, tips and tricks about training and behaviour, news affecting dog owners, canine photography, dog-related art and any questions related to dog ownership.

Rules

Posts must be related to dogs or dog ownership and must not be void of content.
This is a neutral space. No bigotry or personal attacks. Criticism should be polite and constructive.
No automated content. This includes AI generated imagery, post body, articles, comments or automated accounts.
No advertising or self-promotion.
Illegal or unethical practices are frowned upon, and any comments or posts suggesting them will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, backyard breeding, ear and tail cropping, fake service animals, negative reinforcement, alpha/pack/dominance theory, and eugenics.
No judging or attacking community members who care for dogs with cropped ears, docked tails, or those from puppy mills or questionable sources. While we discourage these practices (per Rule 5), all dogs deserve loving homes and compassionate care regardless of their background or physical alterations.
No breed discrimination, all breeds welcome. Our stance matches the ASPCA's official stance and is not up for debate.
Citing your sources when making a claim is encouraged. Misinformation will be removed.

founded 2 years ago

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isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca

isVeryLoud@lemmy.world

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Definitely a good initiative (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 week ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/dogs@lemmy.world

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

German wolf hounds (large dogs, full snouts, etc.) live maybe 8 years total.

You're singling out a single obscure breed of dog for some reason (where I assume you mean "German wirehaired pointing wolfhound"?) and then also making a claim about their life expectancy without presenting any evidence. Not only can I not find something saying eight years, I can't find any credible information saying anything at all about this specific breed's lifespan.

My pug dog lived 15 years, died of cancer, and never had trouble breathing during those 15 years.

I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad they lived a long time.

French bulldogs are being discussed here, not pugs. They both suffer from brachycephalic airway syndrome, but French bulldogs are substantially worse (see below).
Even if your dog were a French bulldog, a single anecdote is not statistically significant data.
French bulldogs demonstrably have a much shorter life expectancy than most other dog breeds. You can see in the data that pugs aren't too far behind.

If you google “name of dog breed you think doesn’t have problems” + health issues, you’ll get a list of the problems that breed is prone to.

...Okay? The point is that we know this is a health problem for French bulldogs and pugs; there's every reason to believe changing their facial anatomy would make things better and seemingly no reason to believe it'd make them worse. This feels like whataboutism.

I’m not against breed changes to improve health at all but the hurr durr I-just-learned-the-word-brachycephalic-and-now-I’m-gonna-act-like-I-invented-it shit needs to die in a fire.

I agree that the modern Internet is too capable of rallying people behind causes they don't invest the time to understand, but I don't see anyone underinformed here. We inbred this feature into dogs in the 1900s because it was considered aesthetically desirable. We now recognize this often causes severe medical problems. Changing the facial anatomy should help millions of sentient beings live their lives without said severe medical problems. Becoming aware of a problem and then advocating for a reasonable solution isn't "acting like [they] invented it".

Let’s make all dogs live longer and healthier lives without shitting on any of them.

They're not. The reason French bulldogs were singled out here is because of their exceptionally low lifespans, and I think you're thinking people who care about this are getting some smug, fart-smelling satisfaction out of this when really they're just happy to see a glimmer of light in a world that's falling into darkness.