Dogs

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All about dogs - dog breeds, dog training and behavior, news affecting dog owners or handlers, puppy pics, etc.

Rules (Will be refined later on).

Don't be a dick. This should cover most things, just keep in mind that everyone started somewhere and try to be helpful rather than rude or judgmental.
No personal attacks based on training style or tools.
Discussion of balanced training including proper use of aversives is allowed here.
All breeds and mixes are welcome. You can criticize backyard breeding practices but don't pile on people because they own a specific breed or prefer purebreds or mixed breeds.
Do not support backyard breeders or puppy mills. Please do not link to or suggest buying from high volume breeders or those with an obvious lack of standards and testing.
Do not help or support fake service animals. Please do not encourage people to buy fake service dog vest or ESA letters to get around rental or other restrictions & do not give advice on how to misrepresent a dog as a service or support animal.

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Definitely a good initiative (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 4 days ago by StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works to c/dogs@lemmy.world

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[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 42 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days 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.