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)