Talk:Maltese (dog)

Edits

Deleted suppositions with respect to the presumed lineage of Malteses. Dog breeds as we know them did not exist millenia ago. I also removed the sentence about Malteses being generally healthy. They have too many breed-specific ailments for that, so comparatively they are not generally healthy. Aleta Curry 04:00, 16 December 2007 (CST)

I disagree. I have four of them, and, except for dental issues as they age, all are over 10, and all have been healthy. In addition, aside from the shunt issue...which is not a Maltese issue, but a toy issue, my breeder has never voiced any "breed-specific" ailments. --Michael J. Formica 11:27, 17 December 2007 (CST)

Well, no offense intended to your healthy little ones. I took that from your own writing, from my general knowledge and breeder sites. You cannot say "these breed is generally healthy, but they have this that and the other ailment" (well, of course you *can* say anything, but you know what I mean). It's interesting, because people often go to extremes, describing the breed as "healthy, except for...." OR describing it as having a myriad of problems ANY dog could get regardless of lineage.

It's really not that different from problems associated with human ethnic groups: an individual can be free of the problem, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue with the group in general. Nor does the fact that people in other groups can have the ailment change the fact that it's a specific problem for some. Creatures are either generally healthy, or not. So what does "generally healthy" mean? With respect to dog breeds, it's necessary to speak comparatively. I would call a robust breed "generally healthy"; there are breeds with no breed-specific health issues at all. If what you mean is that Maltese have no breed-specific issues and toy-specific issues are screened for, then that's what you should say and give the section a rewrite. But it doesn't sound like that's what you mean, and I'd say that heart ailments, chills, "notorious" dental disease and proclivity to sunburn are noteworthy breed problems. Aleta Curry 21:58, 17 December 2007 (CST)

Points taken. Listen, here's one for you...the "shaking little white dog syndrome"... One of mine shakes on occasion, and when my ex brought it up to the vet, he said, "oh, that's shaking little white dog syndrome". He's kind of a card, so she thought he was joking, but he told her, no, go look it up on the net. There's no real evidence-based diagnositic profile for it, but it appears to be a ubiquitous kind of thing. Funny. --Michael J. Formica 08:12, 19 December 2007 (CST)

It is an interesting phenomenon. AFAIK, we just don't know enough about the "SWF" shaking thing. It doesn't seem to hurt, and part of it may be feigned. Some terriers, for example, learn to "turn it on". Dogs are smart, smart, and can exaggerate behaviour that gets them attention. They shiver, Mummy says "oh, poor little doggie, what's the matter?" picks dog up and cuddles it, pets it, give it snacky-poos, gets a blanky, bills and coos--dog shivers more. Jeez, I'd shiver, too! Aleta Curry 15:31, 19 December 2007 (CST)