Paws for Pups

08/31/2024

Puppies got a family reunion!! Bear and Waffles (orange and blue) were happy to see mom and sister Kala.

08/06/2024

***found a great home for them!! Woohoo!***

Looking for retirement home for these 2 pups. Their owner died and they need a new home to live out last few years of their lives.
Meet Cash and Molly. They are Yorkie/sh*tzu mix.
They are ~11 yrs. Both are fixed.
Missing teeth but they eat well.
No big health problems and just need loved again.
Message me and I will get you in contact with person fostering them.

07/19/2024

My niece needs help to get another therapy dog. These are highly trained dogs that help detect seizures and can find him if he takes off as he is a runner. This dog is needed but his last dog is ready to retire and has had health issues too. Even a small amount helps.

Meet Michael. Michael is a remarkable individual, he faces the daily … Jennyl Bennett needs your support for Help Michael reach his goal for a new service dog

06/19/2024

Helping care for a foster pup for just a few days. This is the sweetest and best mannered pup!! He is only 4 months old but he is playful but not hyper, kennel trained and coming along on potty training. He will likely be around 40 lbs when grown. If interested contact

https://www.pathofhoperescue.com/
Ask about Nantucket.

04/10/2024

Kala is so smart. She was having fun playing with baby toy. She eventually figured out touching keys with nose made noise.

04/03/2024

Kala and Jupi get to visit weekly and they love their bro/sis time!! They play hard then nap together.

12/29/2023

A lapful of labs and doodles. lol

11/29/2023

Kala got a bath today and she is so fuzzy! She hardly shed at all in bath. I love her soft coat too!

11/07/2023

All the dogs were playful this morning even Bane the old man. Lol

10/31/2023

Georgie was a hit at trunk or treat! Cowboy dog! Lol

10/20/2023

Kala loves water! The lab in her is coming out. Lol

10/14/2023

I need someone who is willing to foster a sweet golden retriever. His owner is in hard times right now and can’t care for him but she wants to get back on her feet, then she hopes to take him back. Boaz is really good with kids and other animals. He loves people and he is a sweet boy. He is neutered also. Please help me find a good temporary home.

10/10/2023

Love all the doggos! Georgie loving on kids. And all the dogs and pups playing together!

09/10/2023

Kala and mama napping together.

08/25/2023

Did you know?!

THE CAUSE OF HIP DYSPLASIA IN PUPPIES

This is long, but important. In fact, if you read nothing else here, read THIS.

Many studies have documented that genetics explains part of the variation among dogs in hip scores. This is usually 15-30% of the total variation, but in some cases it can be as much as 60%.

This means that environmental factors must account for the remainder of the variation; i.e., as little as 40%, but usually 70-85%.

When breeders are focusing on selection to improve hips, they are trying to chip away at genetics, which usually matters much less than environmental factors.

"Environment" as used here encompasses all factors that are "not genetic", which can be anything from type of exercise to food consumption.

One way to tease out the effects of these environmental factors is to isolate one, manipulate it, and observe the effect on the trait of interest, in this case, the hip score. There are hardly any studies of this sort on hip dysplasia dogs, but there is one on rats that is key to understanding the role of traction in the whelping box in the risk of developing hip dysplasia.

I have explained to you the importance of a tiny ligament (teres ligament) in the hip socket that keeps the head of the femur snugly in the hip socket in newborn puppies. ([Do your puppies have enough traction in the whelping box?](https://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/blog/do-your-puppies-have-enough-traction-in-the-whelping-box)) In that post, I showed you how that ligament is stressed when the puppy's legs are in the "extended and adducted" position (straight behind the puppy and pulled together). (Review that explanation if you don't remember how this works - it's important). This position of the legs can result in hip dysplasia in human infants, as when the baby is swaddled up tightly like a burrito. How can we prove that the same mechanism applies in animals besides humans?

You could do an experiment with animals that mimics the "burrito swaddle" by putting the legs in the extended/adducted position and looking at the effect on hip conformation.

Here's a study that did exactly that. This experiment was on rats, but similar studies have been done with rabbits and other mammals. The experiment was simple. The legs of baby rats were taped together ("swaddled") and evaluated after 5 days and 10 days, and compared to a control group (no tape).

The prevalence of developmental dysplasia was highest in the pups that were swaddled for the entire 10 days (36 of 44 pups), and in most of these the hips were dislocated. Dysplasia (as subluxation) was less frequent (21 of 44) in the pups swaddled for only the first 5 days or the second 5 days.

Think about this. These rat pups differed only in whether their legs were taped together or not. So it is the position of the legs - extended and adducted - that resulted in hip dysplasia. In the pups with legs taped for 10 days, the teres ligament was simply gone. In pups with legs taped for only 5 days, the teres ligament was present but damaged.

The first question you are asking is whether we know if this applies to dogs. A similar experiment has been done on puppies, but one leg was put in a cast to keep it in the extended position, and this also resulted in dysplasia in the hip on that side.

How is this relevant to dogs? Look at the many photos and videos of very young puppies nursing and crawling around in whelping boxes with poor traction. The back legs are extended and adducted, over and over, as the pup tries to push itself forward. Over the course of the three to four weeks before it starts to walk, a puppy could do this thousands of times, putting stress on the teres ligament every time.

From the experiment on rats and others that have been done on other newborn mammals, we should expect this leg movement that we usually call "crawling" will result in dysplastic hips.

Notice that although all of the rat pups in a treatment group were treated the same way, not all of them developed hip dysplasia (e.g. 36 of 44 in the 10 day group). The reason for this would have to be revealed in additional studies, but it demonstrates that we should not expect clear, consistent differences among the animals in each group.

The purpose of the Traction Mat is specifically prevent this leg position of extended and adducted. It does not provide general traction like a rough surface would, but instead provides a vertical surface the pup can push against instead of slipping over the surface of the floor.

If you understand this, you will realize that we will never solve the hip dysplasia problem by trying to choose parents with better hips and removing the others from the breeding stock. This also means, however, that if the teres ligament is damaged early in a pup's life, other factors - both environmental, like exercise and overweight, and genetic, like large body size - can determine the whether dysplasia is modest or severe.

If you want to produce dogs with sound hips, you must protect the teres ligament from the damage that occurs when the puppy extends and adducts the back legs to try to move itself forward.

In fact, we cannot eliminate hip dysplasia in dogs without doing this, because the risk starts at the moment of birth, and the damage is done in the first few weeks after whelping. We know from the rat study that we can't expect every puppy, even in the same litter, to have excellent hips. But we should be able to reduce the incidence and severity of hip dysplasia by addressing the basic traction problem.

--------------------------
REFRENCES
Does Swaddling Influence Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip? (the rat study)
http://bit.ly/Wang_rats

A Dynamic Canine Model of Experimental Hip Dysplasia (the dog study)
http://bit.ly/Schoeneker
_____________________________

Learn more here -
ICB Hip Dysplasia Project
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ICBHipDysplasiaProject

08/19/2023

Puppies playing w mom. Kala getting into trouble in the yarn. She loves to grab yarn and run.

08/16/2023

Sammy (red) has a forever home but he gets to stay with us a couple more weeks until his family gets back from vacation. He and Kala aren’t sure what to do with most of their pack gone. Other pups are rockin it in their new homes with potty training and all the smart puppy stuff!

08/12/2023

3 puppies went home to new home and 1 puppy will go to new home in 2 weeks and last pup being looked at tomorrow! So love my pups being loved!!

08/08/2023

08/06/2023

Holding sweet puppies. Love the snuggles. Mama even got held!

08/04/2023

These 3 boys are still available. Well rounded pups. Used to long car rides, variety of people, thunder, airplanes. They are little troopers. Love people and easy going. Message me for more details.

08/01/2023

Puppies are going on big road trip to Colorado! They are ready for their new homes.
Parents ofa and genetically tested. Early neurological training done on puppies. They are good travelers and love people.
Message me for any questions.

07/28/2023

Puppies are ready for their new home! Went to vet today and got clean bill of health and first vaccinations. Vet was impressed how calm and mild mannered they were! Want a sweet, snuggly puppy with top breeding, message us!

07/21/2023

Puppies are so much fun. Love being played with!

07/11/2023

Got a great picture of mama begging for food. The lighting was great!