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14881. Macnas - 5/9/2005 2:29:35 PM I don't know that you can ever get the "right pup", or that you will ever know until the pup is home with you for a while.
I do think that any pup can be a good fit, if you give it the attention it needs and know not to spoil it either.
It does help to get a clever dog. If you are picking a pup from a litter, you might (without actually going in among them) take, say, your car keys and give them a little jangle, just a shake to make a little noise.
The pup(s) who come over to investigate are more likely to be clever, curious and a bit braver than the rest. A clever dog is easier to train and more willing to work/please.
Whatever you do, I know the dog will be lucky to live with you and Bob. 14882. alistairconnor - 5/9/2005 2:45:51 PM especially if you let them run free much in the country
... that's the number two issue, for me. I couldn't stand to leave a dog tied up all the time, as many people do; and if you don't, it had better be well-trained to leave the livestock alone. A dog that gets a taste for chicken or duck will catch a bullet pretty quick. (In fact, any untied dog runs that risk, in season.)
The number one issue is training the dog in the first place. 14883. arkymalarky - 5/9/2005 2:52:49 PM How sweet, Mac!
I just know the breed I want (because of the indoor/outdoor, level of energy, I'm very familiar with their traits, etc) and some general traits I want in a puppy. You're right about not knowing. You can only use your best judgment at the time and work to train the dog properly for your particular needs. Ours--even strays--have worked out well. Some of our best dogs (including Mojo) just wandered into the yard one day.
We're pretty slack on the training because of our environment and we don't really need our dogs to do that much--stay off the furniture, don't jump on people, stay away from the driveway, cut it out, etc.
I learned from Diva and Chili that I don't want a dachshund that's too independent or overly-confident or aggressive--that can easily turn into defiance and that can get them killed. Chili was defiant and she would run off after anything. She knew how to mind, but she also knew how to judge distances, and if you couldn't get to her and she wanted to do something, she did it. Diva was very smart and intuitive, but very interested in pleasing us. Chili couldn't have cared less.
Dachshunds can be very stubborn, but what Diva did was so out of character that we wouldn't have been able to prepare for it, though we played the "what if" game a lot this weekend--a futile effort, but one that's hard to control. 14884. arkymalarky - 5/9/2005 2:57:25 PM it had better be well-trained to leave the livestock alone. A dog that gets a taste for chicken or duck will catch a bullet pretty quick.
OH YES!
Diva loved cows, and part of our trail is next to a cow pasture. She finally quit chasing them, but I was afraid she would get shot. And even if you know the neighbors out here, they'll just shoot your dog if it's a nuisance and likely never even let you know.
Fortunately in our yard it's not a problem and the dogs would have to go a considerable way on their own to bother neighbors' animals. I will have to figure out how to make sure the next dog comes in by dark. That's when we had our main problem with wandering and hunting. 14885. arkymalarky - 5/9/2005 2:58:02 PM Um, Diva did not catch and eat cows--she just loved to make them run. 14886. Macnas - 5/9/2005 3:10:38 PM Well, most dogs can be trained not to chase stock. The same situation applies here by the way, farming landowners have the right to shoot any dog they see on their land, whether it is bothering stock or not.
And as for coming in at dark? well, that is easily enough done too. A small meal or snack will of course, concentrate the animals mind as to it being a good idea to be around when it gets dark out. My dogs are always put to kennel at night. I don't care how good you think your dog is, or how clever or well trained it is.
At night, dogs change and if they can, forget about us for a while and will leave and go awandering. I remember one night, I was out fishing with my brother, and coming home through the fields we saw a black and white shape moving along the ditch across the way from us, moving parallel.
When we almost converged, we saw that it was one of our dogs, who had seemed to have managed to escape being put in for the night.
She saw us, recognised us, turned around and ran for home.
When we got there, she was stuck half-in and half-out of her kennel, trying desperatly to get inside before we had got back. 14887. arkymalarky - 5/9/2005 3:19:01 PM Hahaha! Sounds like a kid who climbed out the window trying to climb back in before his parents catch him!
That's excellent advice. Bob likes to hang around the yard at night, and I'll try getting him to keep a treat in his pocket to get the dog to stay with him and just come in when he comes in. Diva was not so adventurous until the last year or so, and coming in at dark wasn't an issue (it was with Chili) until fairly recently, and she'd always come in eventually because she doesn't like the cold. 14888. wonkers2 - 5/9/2005 4:05:32 PM I've always admired Brittany Spaniels. Had a Springer Spaniel when I was a kid. My wife prefers cats of which we've had several and currently have one that's 17-18 years old and still spry. 14889. Magoseph - 5/9/2005 4:06:50 PM I am reading this talk about dogs with much interest. In the past, I always left the care of family dogs to the man in the house and his sons. I have decided to get a dog for Flexy’s birthday in July. It just happens that he has a daughter-in-law who for the last fifteen years runs an animal shelter near Chicago that is a well-financed foundation—so I'd say that I’m lucky that I don’t have to get involved around here looking for a dog and that most likely we'll get the right guard dog. 14890. Macnas - 5/9/2005 4:11:34 PM Better a barker than a biter for a guard dog Mago. 14891. Macnas - 5/9/2005 4:17:07 PM Wonk
My brother in CA has a britt, and I've always ran springers.
But, I have a real hankering to try out one of these:
 14892. Magoseph - 5/9/2005 4:17:10 PM Oh, yes, Mac--around here, no dog is free to roam around-our association fines are pretty steep if the police nab a dog, I tell you. 14893. Ms. No - 5/9/2005 4:21:13 PM Arky,
I'm so sorry to hear the news about your Diva, but I'll forever now have an image of a dachschund herding cows. 14894. Ms. No - 5/9/2005 4:23:04 PM Mac,
That dog is a Rock Star. He needs an electric guitar. 14895. Macnas - 5/9/2005 4:24:19 PM Groovy looking, isn't he? 14896. Ms. No - 5/9/2005 4:36:14 PM Very. What kind of spaniel is that? My first thought was that it was a standard poodle but the coat isn't right and the face is spaniel-y. 14897. alistairconnor - 5/9/2005 4:37:27 PM ... it's a birrd dawwwg. 14898. Macnas - 5/9/2005 4:40:31 PM Its an Irish water spaniel. Big curly haired chocolate brown dogs.
Supposedly a cross between French poodles, back when they were actual hunting dogs, and the Irish setter. 14899. Ms. No - 5/9/2005 5:05:38 PM Looks like.
I nearly got into a bar fight two weeks ago when a couple of drunks started telling horror stories about Pitt Bulls and PB-mixes. This one idiot -- barely able to stand up straight when he started -- was trying to impress this other idiot -- tottering in her high heels --- with his knowledge of dogs and his special witness status having seen multiple children on several occasions mauled by Pit Bulls. (At least we were led to believe it was multiple since the first time he told the story the child was 3 and the second time the child was 7 and then 2 and then...well, you get the picture.)
Of course he starts this whole thing after we've all piped up about what kind of precious furry lumpkin we all have at home and it's my mention of Billietta that starts him off on the whole Pitt Bull Horror Story Hour.
All of the hysterical fabrications about locking jaws and 5000 lbs of pressure in the jaw muscle and turning on their owners and never being safe around children and my mother's neighbor's son's kid was at a birthday party and the family pit maimed one of the two-year old guests and they had to shoot the dog and then use a crow-bar to break its jaw in order to release the child's throat and everyone almost died.
And the woman is responding with counter-tales about her little Boston Terrier and how he thinks he's a big dog so he's always picking fights with bigger dogs but that he never approaches Pits or Rottweilers and all I can think is "I don't care how little your dog is, he's an aggressive and unpredictable animal and you should keep him out of the dog park." and yet they're both looking at me like I'm a criminal because I take my very well-behaved, never been in a fight, never bitten anyone Pit Mix to the park all the time.
My dog doesn't bite but I sure as hell thought about it.
14900. Ms. No - 5/9/2005 5:06:24 PM And my friends wonder why I lie and claim Billie's a Lab mix.
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