Vivien could completely have a form of PTSD, living through something like Katrina where she was abandoned and had to survive the storm on her own definitely could have had a lasting effect. Just because she is a dog doesn't mean that they don't react in many ways like we do to overwhelming situations. Why do you think they do psychological research on dogs before doing ape or human studies?

I agree that Dogtown has the best of intentions, but the handlers could use LOTS of lessons and advice from Cesar Millan. Every time I see them soothing the dogs at the wrong time and letting the dogs walk out of the door first, ahead of the handler, I always say that Cesar would show them how to do it correctly.And for viewers that don't know any better, it sends the wrong message, and that could be detrimental to their own dogs.Dogtown gets an A for effort, though.

Hybrid Vigor isn't a myth so much as the misleading way the vet described the pure breed problem. The actual population of "pure" blood lines are so small now a days that breeding them together is almost as bad as inbreeding. There was a documentary I saw a while back on the Kennel Club Breed Standards...it's like trying to orchestrate the creation of an abomination. There are some populations of dogs with such low numbers of "pure" bloodlines that there are maybe only a few hundred animals. You can't honestly expect healthy offspring when each of these animals is so closely related already...second, third cousins and the like.And, yes, there are various studies on the health and life spans/longevity of pure breeds vs mutts. Pure breeds generally live 8-10 years and have severe health complications (bone problems, cancer) whereas mutts live 12-15 and are generally healthier overall for most of their lives. Genetic diversity is paramount to a healthy population.