As an aside. I was horrified to see how many dogs legs are wrapped in flyball because of the injuries to stopper pads and dew claws. Imagine if that was a show dog??

Yes its logical, if said others where as active, but what "risk " is there to a dog that does not encounter the same strenuous pressure on their joints.

Is it just assumption that a dog who is active (and without dew claws) will suffer joint problems , more so than those with.??

Heavy pounding on joints can result in joint problems in humans as well as dogs, we don`t remove appendage , yet we still suffer, could it be that its simply down to friction on joints on hard ground that is the cause of such issues?

Could well be. It would need the study to be repeated a number of times before a trend could be established

Ahh I see your confusion
As a scientist it is actually standard to never say 'X IS the case' things are always quoted something along the lines of 'from the results shown here there is a statistical significance that X MAY be the case'
That is just how scientific research is published
I used to have to send reports to the FDA for the manufacture of penicillin and I could never send a report that would say 'this change is perfectly safe for human use' you would have to say 'From the findings it appears that this batch would likely be safe for human use'

It is just the way things are said, it dosent mean something is in any more doubt than any other study, I appologise I realise that most people are not used to putting forward things in a scientific manner so it looks odd to read

The studies have been posted here in the past but I will try and did them out again

I am trying to find a correct way to put this without putting it in the fuzzy way I have been trained to

In a random selection of agility dogs more dogs who had had their dew claws removed suffered arthritis in that area than did dogs who still had there dew claws
makes sense??

Me too, have to say it really worried me that amount of pressure those joints took, in flyball, every time a dog hit the stopper pad, it sent shivers up my spine..........but its OK, because the dogs are not in the show ring ?

http://caninesports.com/DewClawExplanation.pdf

cant find the study yet - but here is a description by a vet of what they have seen

Cos its not for looks you see. Just for the owners pleasure.

I did flyball for a few years---I think you are right about the pressure on the front legs, they hit the box at a funny angle at great speed.


Having said that it didn't appear that any dogs I did flyball with were damaged in any way except for my collie x retriever and it would have been a toss up as to what caused any joint damage for him I am sure flyball made its contribution.

As a vet said, anything you do with dogs has a pay back for them. I also think that had he been asked he'd have chosen to do the flyball---he loved it. I wouldn't do it now though.

rune

I hate to see that also, dont know where the show ring comes into the point here at all

It also makes me wince to see really fast dogs do a 2o2o contact at agility because the pressure I see on their shoulders
and it makes me sad as well to see really fast dogs given commands so late that they are tying to turn in mid air - so they land with so much pressure on their joints and sometimes skid

As I have said plenty times I do not agree with everything that goes on in my hobby or any other hobby, Im not going to say everything is hunky dory
all I can do is try and do the best i can for my dogs and try and explain the risks of other things to other people

It made sense the first time to me!

rune