Keeping The Dog Fit

Ummm, no.  I KNOW what play fighting looks like.  I happen to have SIX german shepherds so I see a fair amount of it.  My dogs don't have skin and coats that look ripped up, like some of the dogs on your link.
 
You can call it whatever you want to call it, but the reality is that that particular site is promoting dog fighting.

"fitness fighting"???? normal, real, dog fights usually last all of ten seconds. How can that improve fitness? and the risk of injury is so high.   

ORIGINAL: mudpuppy

"fitness fighting"???? normal, real, dog fights usually last all of ten seconds. How can that improve fitness? and the risk of injury is so high.   

 
Dogs can display dominance tendencies and snap or bite a bit. It preserves their fighting ability and social feeling too (male dominance tendencies are a part of it). The risk of injury is not so high when all the rules and limitations are kept.

dogs very rarely actually fight, you know. They posture and make noises at each other. Really dominant dogs are very unlikely to ever actually fight. Most real fights break out between insecure, nervous, middle-ranking dogs. Dogs have to be trained to fight the way people want them to fight in organized dog fighting.
And what does that have to do with fitness? my alpha bitch air-snapped at the visiting puppy. I doubt either got any fitter or improved their fighting ability.

I agree that real fight is a very rare matter in the pack. But I consider snapping and chest-to-chest impacts and some jumping and turning around each other a kind of a little exercise that can be called fitness.

My FIVE male german shepherds don't need to "play" fight to maintain their dominance and they certainly don't need to retain their "fighting abilities".  That's a crock.  The site you linked is clearly encouraging dog fighting and all one has to do to see that clearly is to look carefully at the injuries to some of the dogs.

OK--now I disagree. Real fighting (that's what it is, no matter what you call it) is NEVER something that should be encouraged. Actually, I have no idea where this site is based out of, but if it is an American or Canadian site you are BREAKING THE LAW.

 
I agree as well, just saw that site.  Looks like fighting, not playing.  That would never be ok with me at all. [:@]

    in wolf packs,fighting is detrimental to the health of the pack.the only time you will see a fight is for a power struggle to become alpha dog.other than that,it would be rare to see a real fight...wrestling in the pack is common tho.
fighting is fighting and wrestling is wrestling,and to me it isnt hard to tell the difference..
body language tells alot...the set of the ears and tail is a stong indicator in my husky and w.d..
i would NEVER condone bringing two dogs together who dont know eachother, or for that matter havnt lived with eachother in a pack environment,specifically to "fight"or wrestle,because it could turn ugly pretty quickly.
I could snap pics of my dogs wrestling that look terrible,and when they first started wresltling,my wife would get upset because of the noises they made...sounded pretty nasty...learning the body language really helped alot..
now again,i have had 2 of my dogs get into a fight before over a bone that wasnt picked up before they came in...they were both seperated immediately and put to the ground by me...i am alpha in my house and will not let the lesser dogs quarrel...the wrestling is fine and i enjoy seeing them at it..

 here is a pic or two of Kiara and Kovu messing around...i dont let them do this on the runs because of possible injusry,but i wanted to get this pic..

Promoting dog fighting through experience, video, books is not permitted. Continued promotion through this forum will result in suspension

ORIGINAL: MhadDog

    in wolf packs,fighting is detrimental to the health of the pack.the only time you will see a fight is for a power struggle to become alpha dog.other than that,it would be rare to see a real fight...wrestling in the pack is common tho.
fighting is fighting and wrestling is wrestling,and to me it isnt hard to tell the difference..
body language tells alot...the set of the ears and tail is a stong indicator in my husky and w.d..
i would NEVER condone bringing two dogs together who dont know eachother, or for that matter havnt lived with eachother in a pack environment,specifically to "fight"or wrestle,because it could turn ugly pretty quickly.
I could snap pics of my dogs wrestling that look terrible,and when they first started wresltling,my wife would get upset because of the noises they made...sounded pretty nasty...learning the body language really helped alot..
now again,i have had 2 of my dogs get into a fight before over a bone that wasnt picked up before they came in...they were both seperated immediately and put to the ground by me...i am alpha in my house and will not let the lesser dogs quarrel...the wrestling is fine and i enjoy seeing them at it..

 
You are right. Even in wolves is fighting very rare, i have seen wolves how they divide a large piece of meat among one another, and it was with no fight. If dogs and wolves in the pack would really fight, they would destroy one another. Therefore dominance gestures and so on is often present to make respective dogs clear about their position in the pack and to preserve their health at the same time.

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ORIGINAL: amstaffy

Promoting dog fighting through experience, video, books is not permitted. Continued promotion through this forum will result in suspension

 
I did not want to promote that, if it sounded like that then please accept my apology. As I have already said, i am against real dog fighting.

I did not want to promote that, if it sounded like that then please accept my apology. As I have already said, i am against real dog fighting.

 
This is off the FRONT page of your site....
Free download of ebook on dogs. Images, pictures and photos. Breeding, feeding, [color=#ff0000]dog fighting and training[/color]
 
[color=#000000]You can learn important information on breeding, education, feeding, dog fighting and training in general[/color]
 
 
 

Ummmm, could the link back on the first page maybe go away?  And perhaps even in the sig?

[quote]
These genes are to a small extent influenced by the environment the dog lives in, nutrition, upbringing, training, kind of experiences it lived through etc.


The influence of majorgenes cannot be influenced by the owner, but he can affect the influence of minorgenes to a degree.

 
Well, I read some of the genetics part of your site as well (for what you ment by the degeneration of dogs) and a lot of it (your minor gene theory) is based on a concept known as Lamarckism. According to the text book Animal Diversity (3rd Ed.), Lamarckism states that the mechanism that drives evolution is from the inheritance of aquired characteristics. In its most basic meaning, in states that, say, a human can do body building and have great muscle tone/strength and pass that muscle tone and strength onto their children. This theory was debunked over a century ago; a human can pass on genetic tendancy that might make it so his/her children are prone to be able to have such muscle mass/strength (if he/she posessed it him/herself), but the child would still have to actually body build to achieve it. So, no, a border collie's purpose will not eventually be lost because its parents and grandparents didn't herd. Selective breeding for other traits could cause this (such as the border collie having herding bred out of it so it won't try to nip/herd children), but not the fact that it's predisesors did not perform their original task. OTOH, I would personally avoid such claims as it would give those who support BSL some ammunition.
 
So, your reasoning for fighting dogs cannot be backed scientifically, unless, of course, I am reading/interpreting it incorrectly. The reason I say that is I believe that there is somewhat of a language barrier going on which can make it difficult to understand what either side actually means.