Fri 5th June: Top of the fashion list - the shiba inu

Hobo was born with a heart problem

A one year-old shiba inu was surrendered today, and I immmediately posted his photo and details on the HKDR Facebook page knowing how popular this breed currently is and needing the space in our Homing Centre.  Although seemingly sweet this is not a small shiba, rather a Mong Kok pet shop version weighing twelve kilos, so I was quite keen to get him into a home.  Sure enough, within a very short time I had received a lot of questionnaires, some good others not really, so I took Hobo to Acorn with me in the afternoon to get a quick health check carried out and discovered that he has a quite serious heart murmur, the cause of which will need a proper heart scan to ascertain.  I then had to reply to all of the questionnaires letting everyone know about the situation, as well as adding something to the Facebook post saying that Hobo couldn't be homed until we had details on his condition. 

Some heart murmurs aren't life-threatening, others are, so we have to see what's going on. This is usually a congenital defect meaning it's been passed on from the parents and no dogs with these health issues should be used for breeding, not that any Hong Kong breeder ever bothers to consider.  Many other health problems are passed down from generation to generation, including demodex (mites) to bad knees and hips.  Any ethical breeder would only use fully healthy males and females, but such breeders are as rare as honest politicians.

Apart from the fact that so many pet shops are selling "bad" puppies, it's also very upsetting for me that there is even such a thing as fashionable breeds, the shiba inu being right at the top of the "in" list now.  It's not even that this is an easy breed as they are often bad-tempered and aggressive to other dogs, just the same as that other currently popular breed, the French bulldog.  Frenchies also come with an almost-guaranteed breathing problem, a fact that is overlooked because they are cute.  How can you judge or choose a dog based on fashion trends?  Isn't it about character and suitability?  It should be.

Some of our current Ap Lei Chau residents

We also collected another group of small dogs from AFCD in Sheung Shui, three poodles, a Yorkie and a papillon, all but one almost certainly ex-breeder dogs.  How do we know?  Because they had no licenses (age was estimated by the AFCD vet so may or may not be accurate) but came with the standard ear mites and possible scabies. One also has heartworm.  They are very sweet, and we need foster homes please!

Now for the good news about two lovely Tai Po dogs, Frederick the husky and Otto - now Clark - the doberman, both of whom have found their forever homes.

Otto-now-Clark is on the right

Frederick is out of the rain and hot sun - yay!