Category: Dogblogging

Montgomery County 2025

Dogblogging 26 Comments

Long time SDA readers know that I breed and show Miniature Schnauzers in my real life outside of politics, and that we travel annually to the Eastern US to show at our national specialty near Allentown, PA.

This year was no exception, and we enjoyed a ton of success, including winning Best of Breed at the prestigious Morris & Essex show with my 7 year old veteran, AmCanGCH Minuteman Colder Weather, followed by cheering on his son AmCanCH Maiha Make It Rain the next day under the cell phone lights in the group ring at Hatboro KC. (The show ran rather late).

I seldom use images of myself on the blog for security reasons I no longer need to explain, but I’ll share this brief ring video from Sunday’s AMSC National Specialty, showing my 9 month puppy, CanCH Minuteman Sea The Stars, to give you all some idea of what we do. “Sailor” went on to win the points that day.  (I never look this good in real life and the likelihood that you’d recognize me in the grocery store based on this is extremely low.)

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the co-bloggers who take up the slack when I’m on the road. Our days begin at 5 am, and with nearly 4500 miles of travel and dogs to care for, there’s virtually no time for internet when we’re on the road. And that’s a good thing.

Merry Christmas, All

Dogblogging 48 Comments

Have a fine one, my fellow deplorables!

My plans to lounge about the house and share slow news day content are on hold, as I’m heading out shortly to join in searching for a Scottish Terrier puppy who escaped an acreage home near Grandora yesterday.  Should you live in that area (near range road 3080 north of HWY 14), please watch for “Ruthie”.  Wish us a bit of Christmas miracle luck, the little one will need it.

 

Bumped for Update. No prayers answered, alas. A full day of walking ditches, tree lines, prairie scrub and pasture land turned up nothing.  I snapped this quick frosty photo as I headed out to walk deer trails.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Dogblogging Unsettled Science 28 Comments

BVA Journals: Neutering is no longer the hallmark of responsible ownership

She is especially keen for vets to understand the breadth of ways in which research has shown the reproductive system contributes to an animals physiology. Take for instance the role of luteinising hormone (LH), which is responsible for triggering ovulation in females and production of testosterone in males — and is a key research focus for Kutzler and colleagues at her lab.

“When we first started looking at it, we found luteinising hormone had receptors on lymphocytes, so these immune cells that are floating around and involved in everything from fighting off viruses, fighting off bacteria, to making antibodies. When we started to review the literature, ‘we found that other people before us had demonstrated there were these receptors in humans, laboratory animals and even in dogs.’

In itself, that didn’t necessarily mean a great deal. Just because a cell has a receptor for a certain hormone doesn’t mean that it actually does anything. If you think of a receptor asa lock and the hormone as the key, you could unlock the door and theres nothing behind it,” she explains.

Indeed, Kutzler suspects the general assumption had been that there was nothing behind the LH receptor lock on the lymphocyte door. ‘Not that there was any science behind it, but it was just: “Why would there be reproductive hormone receptors on lymphocytes? They must not be functional.”

To test the assumption, Kutzler and colleagues collected lymphocytes from both neutered and intact dogs. ‘We grew those lymphocytes in cultures and added increasing levels of LH to see what happened. Did it unlock the door and there was something behind there? Sure enough, what happens is LH induces neoplastic changes in lymphocytes. Among them are cell proliferation, cell adhesion and cell ‘migration into tissue.”

For Kutzler, this provides an explanation for a finding seen in research studies – that lymphoma, along with certain other cancers, occurs in much higher rates in neutered dogs.

“We know that there are a number of serious neoplastic diseases such as lymphoma, haemangiosarcoma, osteosarcoma that can develop after gonadectomy,” says Stefano Romagnoli, professor of small animal reproduction at the University of Padova; president of the Italian Society for Animal Reproduction; and chair of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association reproduction control committee.

“And we also know that some castrated dogs develop prostatic carcinoma. It’s strange; counterintuitive.

I’ve been recommending (with rare exceptions) against routine neutering of my male puppies for at least 25 years, because we knew it was bullshit.

Montgomery 2023

Dogblogging 33 Comments

As many of our regular readers know, each September my friend Karen and I embark on a two week trip to Michigan and Pennsylvania to show our dogs, culminating on the first Sunday in October with the most prestigious terrier event on the planet – Montgomery County Kennel Club.

This year, I took my own AmGCHCanCH Minuteman Life Below Zero, who captured the first specialty we competed at in Michigan, but she was soon eclipsed by a young male I’ve been handling for a friend from Osaka, Japan sired by my 2019 Montgomery Best of Breed winner, AmCanGrCh Minuteman Colder Weather.


Luca and I, waiting our turn in the Montgomery group ring.

AmGCH Cherry Field’s Super Fly not only captured five of seven shows he was entered in, he repeated his sire’s 2019 win, going Best of Breed at the American Miniature Schnauzer Club National Specialty, placing fourth in the terrier group at Montgomery to defeat nearly 1000 dogs.


With Hiromi, Luca and some of the loot.

We were back in Saskatchewan on Tuesday night, but it’ll be another day or two before I’m fully caught up on sleep and back to my regular routine.

Thank you once again to our guest bloggers – Francisco, Dennis, OJ, Robert, David and Brian – who donate so much of their time to support the site and diversify the content, and keep our readers informed and amused while I escape to this peculiar alternate universe with my dogs, where the news of the world seldom penetrates, and the only politics under discussion are a judge’s choices on a muddy horse grounds in Pennsylvania.

This Is The Time At SDA When I Update The Readers

Dogblogging 39 Comments

Many thanks to all who replied to this post of a couple weeks ago. So many of you pitched in with advice, I think I owe it to you to bring the saga to a close.

I drove my new truck home this afternoon — a 2018 GMC Savana 3500 with a 6.0l V8.

Because  when it comes to hauling an 80lb payload of fancy terrier dogs across the  continent – a one ton is just the truck for the job.

I need to send a big tip of the hat to Jaden at Saskatoon Truck Centre. He found me a niche vehicle in in a red hot market,  set it up for towing, and at a fair price.  Not to say it wasn’t pricey. Ouch ouch ouch.

But I think I have a project in mind to help offset the inflationary pain, so stay tuned. (No donations, please).

Blog Notes

Blogging Dogblogging 37 Comments

As readers have likely surmised from my infrequent postings, I’ve been on an extended road trip over the past two weeks. We (including my friend and wildlife spotter, Karen) returned last night from our annual terrier extravaganza in Pennsylvania, covering over 2,000 miles in about 53 hours in our 2008 E350 Econoline war horse.  Say what you like about Fords, but it will be a sad day when we put that beast out to pasture.

My own dogs did very well, with several major wins over their two weekends shown, while the “extended family” of breeders who have incorporated our Minuteman dogs into their own lines did extremely well — including a clean sweep of the top awards at the American National at Montgomery County on Sunday.

Ch.Kaos Black Is King, Best of Breed at the AMSC National was bred in Ontario and owned by Dr.Lisa Sarvas (originally from Biggar, SK). “Nyo” is a grandson of our top sire AmCanCh.Minuteman Up With The Birds.

Below:  AmCanCh.Minuteman Lex Luthor, making his first appearance at the “big show” with a win over the top winning males in the USA on the second day of competition (handled by yours truly).

I have one more long weekend trip with family coming up later this month and then my travel season is over, probably until early spring. My deepest thanks to the guest bloggers who kept the place running in my absence. I did check in from time to time, your content was just exceptional as always!

I should be rested  and back to regularly scheduled blogging by tomorrow. Until then, I have a lot of gear still waiting to be unloaded.

This Is Not Your Grandma’s Humane Society

Dogblogging Retail Rescue 9 Comments

Puppy Importing Leading To Disease Outbreaks In Colorado

By the time the seizures began, Elliot says, it was too late.

“They were happening back to back to back to back.”

She says he was diagnosed with distemper despite paperwork from the rescue showing he’d been vaccinated.

“I had to explain to my 4 year old, who had the dog for three weeks, that we had to put him to sleep and that he was not coming back home.”

Billy is one of five dogs from New Hope Rescue that would be euthanized. Owner Joann Roof, who had no comment, was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. Investigators say she knowingly imported and sold sick dogs from a New Mexico Shelter. The state suspended the facility’s license. […]

Fisher says, last year, rescues and shelters imported 37,000 dogs, most of them puppies that are in high demand. CBS4 went undercover and found people lining up for them at adoption events. Fisher says some even buy the dogs right off transport vans. We got video of dogs being unloaded in parking lots.

“If an animal is being taken right off the truck, that rescue has no idea what’s going on with that animal,” said Fisher.

It’s not rescue — it’s international trafficking.

Blog Notes

Blogging Dogblogging 59 Comments

I’m back from my annual trek to Pennsylvania for the Montgomery County weekend – this time by air.

Did I tell you I hate flying with dogs? No? Well, I hate flying with dogs. I really hate flying with dogs when nobody at Air Canada can give me a straight answer, the flight is delayed and we lose an hour to make our connection, and it culminates with a flight attendant bending over our seats to advise “you’re not going to like this but your dog is still at Customs” just as the doors of the plane are about to close; followed by a subsequent last moment deplaning and an all-nighter at Toronto Pearson trying to scrounge food for a hungry dog and some sleep for myself in the wretched torture chairs they acquired from East German government surplus.

We did some good winning. Not as much as we wanted, but enough.

I need some rest, but I should be back into some sort of blogging routine tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of “Roadie” (CanCh.Minuteman Boardwalk) when he’s not lying in a crate being hand fed a egg and cheese breakfast biscuit from Tim Horton’s.

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