Interesting Find This Season...

[fireman 10,884]

Well having a day or two to mull it over and the pal who was with me was round today chatting about the whole thing and he just mentioned "that maybe the bitch had a turn",well this twitched in my head and the bitch has allways sounded like a staffy with snorting and grunting and snoring that i could hear up stairs in bed and i have stood having a fag outside listening to her and the thought has gone through my head "i wonder if that will ever affect your work girl?" .She never once coughed or wheezed when out mooching or earthworking before so she wasn't a asmatic like dog as such so i was never worried about the noise she made but the way she was in the tunnel on her side and not jammed in,in fact she was a yard back from her fox (which had dug on and suffocated itself as that was tight in head away from us) she had met him as she was pepered and she's wasn't one for letting that go unrevenged .So my take is she met him she got to battle then her breathing packed up on her,the fox then heard us digging pushed on tried digging on itself and suffocated,it is just one of those things and it stinks but we do move on but thsy sure take a bit with you when they go eh ...

[pablo esc 1,598]

Sorry for your loss of a brave dog from the go. And hope you will go forward no doubt. Atb. If any consolation, at least you never smothered your dog and you was out to sort pests out, Keep the faith

[dillydog 8,463]

Have a look at elongated soft palate, when I used a certain stud dog I had in both litters pups that didn't show the trait until they worked. One was so bad I phoned the vet when I heard a bitch show, he instantly said "elongated soft palate" . The palate fills with blood and shuts off the air supply, you wouldn't now while the dogs at rest but it shows up when they're exited or being worked.

[fireman 10,884]

The soft palate bit was what my pal was explaining to me and it did make sence,ok when normaly exercised but she would sometimes seem to catch her breath and when on her side in a tunnel and up to her fox i can see it happening totaly and that is whati think happen Dillydog and what was wrong with her

[dillydog 8,463]

I can't put a link up but there's plenty on Google about it, they say it comes from Bull blood but i honestly could't say where it came from with the dog i used. It can take up to 1 - 2 years before it shows but when it does there's no mistaking it. My bitch works well and hasn't shown it apart from when she runs. When she runs she rattles in the chest or throat just as her front feet land, her sister is spot on to work but bad in the summer or when she's unfit. The bitch that i was on about i gave to a lad up north, i put him in touch with a vet but he was to tight or skint to get it done. It's easily put right, a simple operation to shorten the palate by laser or knife, it's not cheap at around £500 but i give the pups away so it's cheap in relativity.

It's not showing up in the next generation at all but it's there. My bitch is 5 years old and spot on to work but i won't be breeding out of her or her sisters.

[pjmc 90]

Good read rabbit hunter.surly someone knows the story about the viper dog and what really happened,it's only back in 81 I'm sure there are plenty of men know something about the hole.and as for running your dog put it like this to you if you hadn't of seen the printing on the tree I have no doubt you were going to see was there anyone home ha.atb

[pablo esc 1,598]

I don't see how your dog can be any different if on it's side like any other terrier working, to do with the palate.?? My dog loved to be on his side when faced and always settled. But last season i lost him on a great hunt, i found him after me looking around the area. He was to ground and stuck, his quarry in front, which had done the worst damage to his palate, he never give up and i liftedhim aand shot the fox. And this quarry was neighbor to the one best huntsman in the country. The dog survived

[dillydog 8,463]

An elongated soft palate isn't the roof of the mouth, it's basically the flap of skin that the tonsils are on. When a dogs hot or excited it fills with blood and partially shuts of the air supply, hence the grunting snoring sound. When a terriers to ground it's hot through work especially in the weather we were having and I'm pretty sure she would have been excited to. Google it or put it into YouTube and you'll get the idea.

[neil cooney 10,416]

It sounds very similar to the wind op given to race horses.

A lot of the top trainers swear by it.

[Rabbit Hunter 6,613]

An elongated soft palate isn't the roof of the mouth, it's basically the flap of skin that the tonsils are on. When a dogs hot or excited it fills with blood and partially shuts of the air supply, hence the grunting snoring sound. When a terriers to ground it's hot through work especially in the weather we were having and I'm pretty sure she would have been excited to. Google it or put it into YouTube and you'll get the idea.

Interesting that DD I've never heard of it, I'll havto have a read up on it. Would you class it as a fault/weakness? As I suppose if it can be sorted by a vet, it's not as bad as say having fits or a bad mouth, then it's fixable and not such a problem if you know what I mean.

[dillydog 8,463]

It's a massive fault, my bitch has a slight version of it but her sister is worse. Her sister is ok as long as you keep her fit and the temperature is low. I know you can sort it with a vet but I wouldn't want to perpetuate it by breeding from them, if I had no choice I'd do it but I have other routes.

 

I see the working terrier keeper as someone who does his best to keep the best stock available, we don't want to go down the road of breeding animals like bulldogs who can't even give birth naturally.

[Rabbit Hunter 6,613]

Yes I agree they need to be as good physically as we can get them.

 

Where does it originate from? Too tight breeding somewhere or maybe one 'fluke' dog/bitch has it unnoticed and it gets bred from?

[dillydog 8,463]

I haven't got a clue, I've never seen it before and I don't want to see it again. I used the same dog on two different bitches and a couple of pups out of each bitch showed it, none of the dogs showed it and when the dogs were used on other bitches no pups as yet have showed the problem. The best I can do is to keep away from that side of the kennel and never breed from the bitches.

[fireman 10,884]

As it goes Dillydog i was waiting for the bitch to break down this summer and i would have bred from her,so sort of releaved and now it won't be passed on to offspring,i've been offered a half sister of hers to have or to breed from and is exactly the same way bred as the dog i was going to put over my bitch so all is not lost and upwards and onwards but by god that was a lesson learnt the hard way ...

[Rabbit Hunter 6,613]

Good to hear you have related stuff to carry on. Good luck.