So hey, all you graduates of Dogsafe, what was one of the first things we covered in class? That's right, prevention. So K9ABCs is now branching out to help you, the pet owner's and industry to help prevent a very real preventable disability that many dogs needlessly have.
We're going to do our best to do this through education and and spreading the knowledge.
The knowledge of the DOUBLE MERLE. A lot of you already know about it already, many don't. But there is a huge issue of breeders not educating themselves to the risk and of course those who know and still breed to merles together.
Skye is one of the many, many dogs who was at a big disadvantage of being born with one of the two conditions. She is hearing impaired (completely), others are blind and some are both. So yes, Skye is doing very well and you occasionally see dogs doing very well in sports etc with these disabilities. Some go so far as to say that they make the best dogs ever. What you don't see is the number of dogs euthanized because of these disabilities and how many are homeless. The ones you see excelling in their homes only do so because their families have put a tremendous amount of time and dedication into their training.
Skye herself was surrendered to a shelter because of the challenges of training a deaf dog. As far as I can tell she really didn't have much training at all, absolutely no volume control, startles very easy at the smallest visual cue, jumps awake from deep sleeps darting around until she see me and knows she's safe. I shocked myself by actually thinking of looking for a better home for her because I've felt so overwhelmed. We've come a long way but we have a long way to go. Granted this is not just because she's deaf, she is an adolescent Catahoula after all.
So I've discovered a small non-profit rescue group dedicated to rescuing Double Merle's. Keller's Cause does what they can rehoming them and educating people about the situation. If people put more pressure on breeders to not breed merle's together perhaps it'll make a difference. So check out their site, They've been good enough to share one of their info pamphlets so I can spread their message. I'll be sharing that very soon.
Thanks
We're going to do our best to do this through education and and spreading the knowledge.
The knowledge of the DOUBLE MERLE. A lot of you already know about it already, many don't. But there is a huge issue of breeders not educating themselves to the risk and of course those who know and still breed to merles together.
Skye is one of the many, many dogs who was at a big disadvantage of being born with one of the two conditions. She is hearing impaired (completely), others are blind and some are both. So yes, Skye is doing very well and you occasionally see dogs doing very well in sports etc with these disabilities. Some go so far as to say that they make the best dogs ever. What you don't see is the number of dogs euthanized because of these disabilities and how many are homeless. The ones you see excelling in their homes only do so because their families have put a tremendous amount of time and dedication into their training.
Skye herself was surrendered to a shelter because of the challenges of training a deaf dog. As far as I can tell she really didn't have much training at all, absolutely no volume control, startles very easy at the smallest visual cue, jumps awake from deep sleeps darting around until she see me and knows she's safe. I shocked myself by actually thinking of looking for a better home for her because I've felt so overwhelmed. We've come a long way but we have a long way to go. Granted this is not just because she's deaf, she is an adolescent Catahoula after all.
So I've discovered a small non-profit rescue group dedicated to rescuing Double Merle's. Keller's Cause does what they can rehoming them and educating people about the situation. If people put more pressure on breeders to not breed merle's together perhaps it'll make a difference. So check out their site, They've been good enough to share one of their info pamphlets so I can spread their message. I'll be sharing that very soon.
Thanks
RSS Feed