Can dogs get venereal disease? How does falling rain bounce off without causing injury?
Dear Cecil: I’m contemplating dog pimping — selling my rare-breed male dog’s procreative capability to owners of his female counterparts. Is there such a thing as doggy venereal disease that could thwart my plans? — Warren Cecil replies: Yes, Warren, dogs can contract a variety of diseases while getting it on. These range from the run-of-the-puppy-mill (e.g., genital herpes) to the reasonably exotic — the parasitic infection leishmaniasis, endemic elsewhere in the world but seen only occasionally in the U.S., can apparently spread via dog intimacy. Of major concern is canine brucellosis, a nasty bacterial infection of the reproductive tract that can lead to inflammation and infertility in males and aborted litters in females. Purebreds are often tested for brucellosis before mating (it seems to be especially common among beagles); it’s rarely fatal in itself, but infected dogs are sometimes euthanized to prevent its insidious spread. The really sexy dog STD, though, is something called
