Magical world of lethal Whites

Poor, little Possum
I agree with Dr Shelli... do we really know that it was just because she was deaf and blind or other factors...
There are a lot of other genetic or non genetic factors that could have made her snap. I wish they could have figured out what it was, it's so sad to hear. I imagine you must have been awfully upset when you heard that.

One step at a time, with little Mia and Duncan.
There is no indication Mia is just going to snap, if she hasn't had reactions to unknown situations and things before. She sounds like she trust you and Brian to keep her safe, and that you guys are gentle and mindful leaders, whom she trusts implicitly. She has had very good experiences and came to you fairly young, I think those are all good signs she will not go the road of Possum.
 
Michele I don't think you have to worry about Mia, you have done wonders for her and she knows she is loved. Such a sad story about Possum and like Toffee said we don't know all of the circumstances around her. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
 
I think most of this is just plain common sense. The reality is that a deaf and blind dog does need to be treated differently than a dog without those disabilities. In the same way that a severely abused dog will require different treatment.

I think its important to remember that dogs are still animals and will react to certain events by instinct. Remember my "gentle" Bacca biting the hand the feeds just over two weeks ago? You can never trust an animal 100% and its a mistake to give human characteristics to animals as well.

Years ago, I was dog-sitting for a friend. She had a 12 year old cock-a-poo that was going blind and deaf. I knew this dog well and he knew me. When I was going to bed, I came up behind the dog to "say goodnight" and give him a pat on the head. Because of his deafness and blindness, he did not see or hear me and when he suddenly got touched on the head, out of a dead sleep, his first reaction was to bite. (I was off work for a week, btw, on pain meds and anti-biotics to deal with the infection that resulted).

So do you need to worry that Mia is going to "lose it" some day and go feral? Not necessarily. But you do need to be aware of the impact of her disabilities and adjust your and visitor's behaviours accordingly. And you're doing all that already.

And that goes for any dog, with or without disabilities.
 
BOO'S-DAD said:
A white dog? A blind dog? A deaf dog? Why narrow it down to this dog? Any creature can do this. Humans do it. The nicest guy down the street on Monday can snap and kill their whole family on Tuesday...and they also are sometimes euthanized. It is harder on a blind or deaf creature because it is hard to know what is going on around you ( I know this for a fact) but do you take away this life just because "you" can't understand what happened? Try to understand what it is like to be blind or deaf or both rather than take the easy way out...they are different, so their brain must be screwed up, so let's just get rid of them. Do you execute blind humans, deaf humans, mentally challenged humans? Do you keep these challenged creatures away from "NORMAL" creatures? If they react possibly out of fear, as we humans do quite often why not try to comfort them and reassure them that they have nothing to fear and that they are loved. As my eyes have been opened I am sorry to say that I am finding that humans are a sad group...a sad, sad group
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I agree with you for the most part, but I think you were missing the point; That if you can prevent it, why purposely breed two types of shelties that create defects? I think that is all. Some of the best people I know are disabled in one manner or another, and they don't see it as a disability at all.
 
BarbV said:
I think most of this is just plain common sense. The reality is that a deaf and blind dog does need to be treated differently than a dog without those disabilities. In the same way that a severely abused dog will require different treatment.

I think its important to remember that dogs are still animals and will react to certain events by instinct. Remember my "gentle" Bacca biting the hand the feeds just over two weeks ago? You can never trust an animal 100% and its a mistake to give human characteristics to animals as well.

Years ago, I was dog-sitting for a friend. She had a 12 year old cock-a-poo that was going blind and deaf. I knew this dog well and he knew me. When I was going to bed, I came up behind the dog to "say goodnight" and give him a pat on the head. Because of his deafness and blindness, he did not see or hear me and when he suddenly got touched on the head, out of a dead sleep, his first reaction was to bite. (I was off work for a week, btw, on pain meds and anti-biotics to deal with the infection that resulted).

So do you need to worry that Mia is going to "lose it" some day and go feral? Not necessarily. But you do need to be aware of the impact of her disabilities and adjust your and visitor's behaviours accordingly. And you're doing all that already.

And that goes for any dog, with or without disabilities.
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I agree. Dogs will react out of fear, and a dog that is blind and deaf may get startled more easily.
 
danisgoat said:
The AKC needs to be petitioned to stop registering dogs that are from a merle to merle breeding.
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I'm gonna play devils advocate here for a second And probably tick people off but honestly the akc banning Merle to Merle breedings won't do a thing. Tha
The vast majority ( I'm gonna say 90% or even more) of Merle to Merle are byb and it's not going to make a difference whether it's banned by the akc or not. It's more of preaching to the choir if you will.
 
and people will stop registering merles as merles just to get around it.

Poodle people frequently mis-register their dogs, on purpose. The call blues "black", dye them, finish them, then maybe change the registration.
 
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Lightplum said:
I'm gonna play devils advocate here for a second And probably tick people off but honestly the akc banning Merle to Merle breedings won't do a thing. Tha
The vast majority ( I'm gonna say 90% or even more) of Merle to Merle are byb and it's not going to make a difference whether it's banned by the akc or not. It's more of preaching to the choir if you will.
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I dunno... even if it only affected a small percentage of puppies born, I'd really, really like to see an end to double-merle dogs showing up in the Stud Dog class at our national. The possibility of getting a good breeding animal from a merle-merle breeding just doesn't outweigh the intentional breeding of animals who will likely be blind and/or deaf. Unless they're the last two Shelties on the planet, there just isn't a need to breed two merles to each other.

You could argue that a "good" breeder would euthanize any double-merle puppies who are obviously blind/deaf, to "spare" them the suffering, but shouldn't it bother us that one is intentionally producing puppies who one plans to euthanize at six weeks, on the chance that there's a "good" one to be used for breeding?
 
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Lightplum said:
I'm gonna play devils advocate here for a second And probably tick people off but honestly the akc banning Merle to Merle breedings won't do a thing. Tha
The vast majority ( I'm gonna say 90% or even more) of Merle to Merle are byb and it's not going to make a difference whether it's banned by the akc or not. It's more of preaching to the choir if you will.
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BYBs still sell their dogs as AKC registered. I see it all the time. BYBs think just because their dogs are AKC papered, they can breed them together and make money off the pups. AKC has nothing against BYBs.

If it saves even a handful of breedings, it is worth it.
 
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