sharke
Pugs: then and now
 

Is this an argument for now or then?

soens
 
 
Out here it used to be common to cross breed huskies with wolves. No longer legal due to their unpredictable nature. I say they're totally predictable. At some point the wild side of your wolfsky is gonna wanna eat you. Plain and simples.
 

In fact I have owned two canines that were wolf hybrids, one a 3/4 tundra wolf 1/4 shepheard. In the twenty eight years these animals lived in my house, slept on my bed., and played at the dog park, they never showed any indication that they were going to eat me, the other dogs they met, or the cats that slept next to them. I currently have a purebred dog, and I would not recommend that anyone own a wolf hybrid, not because they are unpredictable, but because the prejudice against them is so vicious and pervasive. Living with a wolf hybrid is like having a Jewish family in your basement in Nazi Germany, constant fear that the neighbors will realize that the dog they are petting is a dangerous and des.p.i.cable breed. I live in my current home because they would have been seized and euthanized in the county I used to live in.

slartabartfast
Living with a wolf hybrid is like having a Jewish family in your basement in Nazi Germany

 
Oh my!

sharke

Kamikaze

sharke
Pugs: then and now
 

Is this an argument for now or then?

I don't like that they've been ovebred and have health problems because of it...

Yeah, the pug is one of those breeds that really has to suffer because some members of another species like the way they look:

• Serious breathing difficulties
• High blood pressure
• Fainting or collapsing due to a lack of oxygen
• Facial skin fold infections
• Serious eye problems
• Excessive flatulence due to excessive gulping and swallowing of air to try to overcome their breathing difficulties
• Difficulty walking
• Highly disrupted sleep

craigb
(Besides, aren't ALL of the so-called "pure-breds" descendants of the wolf anyway?) 

Only if your uncle really was a monkey.
 
I don't believe any of that stuff... but I'm confused, so what do I know?!
 
Some wolfdogs can be friendly with years of captivity and breeding never showing signs of wildness. But in the past there had been many cases of unpredictability resulting in injury and death. Some states allow it while others restrict it. A few outlaw private ownership. Here it's illegal to hold almost any wild animal in captivity.

Susan G
I love this picture. Some have said it's photoshopped, but I hope not! I love the various tongues and the fact that they're all immediately recognizable as dogs, back to front!
 
 
 
-Susan

It's a nice picture and I love the dogs, but I'm going with Photoshopped! It's quite apparent if you zoom in. The human eye is good at detecting elements of an image that have been photographed in different spaces, and if you look at the back 2 rows especially, it's very obvious that they've been layered artificially. 

Yeah, the shadows and lack of shadows in places gives it away (let alone the incredible talent required to keep them all looking ahead while sitting and behaving).  But I still like it! 

Maybe they're trained acting dogs and this is a class grad pic...
 
I've 'shopped a ton of pics and honestly don't see any glaring obvious clues this one is, though I've been known to be confused.  A couple are hiding in the way back that would be hard to photoshop, I think.
 

Susan G
I love this picture. Some have said it's photoshopped, but I hope not! I love the various tongues and the fact that they're all immediately recognizable as dogs, back to front!
 
 
-Susan

When I was in high school, one of our dogs was 50/50 German Shepherd/wolf hybrid. The dog was huge, had a low pitched bark you could hear from a mile away, and was absolutely terrified of thunder. I mean, it would quiver and whine until you brought it inside and let it hide under a blanket. The rest of the time, it guarded the property like no other animal ever could. No one, and I mean, No One ever got out of their car until he was chained to a tree and they were reasonably certain that he wouldn't just rip the tree out of the ground to come after them. He had been raised to guard a farm, so he had no concept of "play." I'd try to play with him and he just didn't get the idea. He had scars on his nose from multiple occasions where he fought off a pack of coyotes. We'd find what was left of the coyotes later. You could watch him perform a threat assessment whenever a new animal or human would approach his perimeter. If he decided you were not a threat, he ignored you. If he classified you as a possible threat, he would charge. Dropping to the ground and sobbing uncontrollably was your best hope of survival. 
 
He eventually died of an enlarged heart and I've never met his equal ever since. Shadow was a fantastic dog.

paulo

SteveStrummerUK
 
Dog shows should be banned, as should the standardisation and classification systems related to pedigree breeds.
 

I've always hated the whole pedigree names thing......and here comes the dog known as Rufus, whose "real" name is Sir Bentley Pineapples Postlethwaite-Hulme of Old Lytchett......
 
give me a break will ya !
 
I think now that we apparently have show dogs being murdered by rival owners it really is time to put and end to the nonsense. That's one really messed up crime. I really hope the police catch the culprits.....
 
 
 
......apparenty they are following several leads 

Steve never was a fan of the Royals... 

Maybe a bit late to chime in on the photoshop debate, but I am impressed by the sharp focus on all the dogs that subjectively makes them look pasted on. At first I thought it was one of the digital reconstruction techniques combining several shots of the same subject at different focal lengths. But the focus on the bamboo fence blurs as expected as the distance increases, while the dogs are all in sharp focus throughout.

They would be if the photographer held a certain meat item...

jbow
My best dogs have come from the pound...

 
Not me.
 
Poor old Titus, he was a useless dog.
 

 
He'd get lost almost every time we took for a walk in the woods, and we'd invariably find him just sitting on the path about a mile away from where he blundered into the trees. If he even got scent of another dog, he'd spend the entire walk pulling on the lead and snarling. If he saw one, he'd do his best to try and kill it.
 
He also liked to try and emulate our lurcher, who could *almost* catch a crow on take off, and could run a hare down. He burst both cruciate ligaments doing that.
 
My daughter loved him though.