Advice needed regarding choosing a dog breed
ivamae
11 years ago
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mountain_lady
11 years agoNancy in Mich
11 years agoRelated Discussions
What dog breed for us?
Comments (44)Hey coleen, interesting that you should say that your Westie would look away when you asked her to sit. Looking away is actually a "calming signal" for dogs. There are some excellent resources out there that explain more about calming signals than I ever could, but the gist of it is that dogs display certain behaviours when stressed, and people often misinterpret them. Yawning is a really common stress signal in dogs. I compete in dog sports like obedience, and it's REALLY common to see stressed dogs yawning throughout very stressful exercises like the long stays. Sniffing the ground is another calming signal, which again is very commonly observed during obedience stay exercises. It's really common to hear people come out of the ring and say "wow, there really was something stinky on the floor that Fido just had to sniff at", when it's just as likely that Fido was stressed out by the weird environment and an owner who was also stressed by competition, and tries to deflect the stress by sniffing. My guy's stress signal is looking away, and lip-licking. If you watch dogs in situations that make them nervous, like meeting a strange dog, you'll see that they look away. On the rare occasion that I have been really steaming mad with my guy, he desperately tries every calming signal he knows ... he turns away from me, he curves his body, he makes himself small, he walks very slowly and deliberately, he licks his lips and he lies down facing away from me. In fact, I have to be careful with my guy, since he reads my mood better than I do ! If he is displaying any of these behaviours, I have to stop and ask myself if I am mad at anything ! Last night I was cranky with my contractor, and my poor dog was trying his best to get me to calm down. So maybe your girl was not sure what you were asking her to do, and was a little stressed about it ? I am really glad to hear what a good relationship your DD has with her, and it sounds like she will be wonderful with the new pup. I really second oceanna's advice to get pup into a good puppy-K class right away, and socialise, socialise, socialise ! Take him EVERYWHERE until he is 16-20 weeks old, help him see lots of different people, places, activities, events, happy things, scary things etc. The socialisation window for puppies is short and closes around that time ... now is your chance to set him up for success later in life....See MoreAdvice for daughter of dog breed
Comments (20)" Her time consuming activities (school) and my lack of energy have prevented us from getting another lab mix. I've considered getting a shih tzu, because the ones owned by my friends have all been wonderful, easy going," quasi if you have a lack of energy then a shih tzu may not be the best breed for you. They have an incredible amount of energy for such a small dog and they aren't couch potato dogs at all. I have two of them and they love nothing more than to have fun, whether that's a game of fetch, a walk, roughhousing with each other, or being chased around the house. Some days I have trouble keeping up with mine and just wish I had more energy to. They are a wonderful breed though, so full of fun and cheekiness. Even though I've owned shih tzus for 5 years now, there's something I never knew about them until recentlly and that is they are particularly prone to eye problems. They have shallow eye orbits so the eyes are more exposed to damage and can even be dislocated. But they are also prone to ectopic cilia, distichia, medial entropion, trichiasis, eye ulcers, and nasal fold trichiasis, all of which can damage the eyes. One of my dogs started having problems earlier this year, it started with an eye ulcer that wouldn't heal as well as recurrent pain in the other eye and she ended up having surgery recently which was quite expensive because her eyes were being damaged and it would eventually lead to blindness. Many shih tzu's have mild versions of these conditions but for others they will be more severe, but according to the eye specialist, shih tzus are one of the most common breeds he sees. I love my dogs to death but I think I would be much more hesitant to get one in future knowing how common these problems are (and they are expensive to fix)...See MoreI need help choosing a dog from the shelter !
Comments (30)I agree to neuter your dog first then take it to meet the potential new dog. I also would like to add to lift it's feet, touch it's ears and handle it's mouth, try looking inside. See how it responds to these. If it is overly aggressive make sure you know what you're getting into and are ready for it. I would even take a brush along and see how the dog acts. Sometimes a dog will get along great with general handling and even with other dogs but be aggressive. The behavior can be changed but takes time and lots of work usually with a trainer. I would also see if the dog has been tested for food aggression. These suggestions are all for adult dog adoptions. If adopting a puppy and you want one that is a bit more laid back hold it in your hands and turn it on it's back. If it's healthy and doesn't squirm a lot then it's a more mellow dog. I also want to say that adopting a dog from a rescue group that has fostered it does not guarantee health, mine had gihardea (sp?)! They said that they are not responsible once the dog is adopted. Our shelter has shelter care insurance for 3 months and it would have been taken care of no charge....See MoreQuestion: Breeding a dog
Comments (63)Labmomma, I should have included the winkie, my comment about purebreds is a semi-sarcastic reference to the "fights" that have broken out lately. I personally think that we should all have the pets of our choice, but I do find it hard not to go "Duh" when people say on one hand that one must be so careful about breeding purebred dogs to avoid genetic problems and on the other hand say that people should not breed mixes. I breed nothing, so I am not involved in the arguement at all, I just like my mutts. I was also raised to ridicule instead of resent things that I could not have (lets be honest here), so there is an evil impulse inside of me to put down purebreds, since we were not of a class who would spend a penny acquiring a dog. Regular folks got mutts, hoity-toity people who were full of themselves got purebreds. It is an unpleasant side of my personality that I prefer to supress. I sprung a small leak in the form of a joke and I hope you will accept my apology. Yes, for years this has been a friendly group of people encouraging each other and admiring our pet pictures. Lately it has gotten nasty. I am not sure why. I-village kind of encouraged it more by adding that "pets debates" forum, too. Did you ever hear the story of how SylviaTexas saved the life of a dog in Canada (or one of the northern US states, I don't remember)? Pretty impressive tale. She is humble and may not take much credit, but that day I realized the power of the 'net to make differences in our individual lives. And I learned that these forums may not be just a silly pasttime. Beanne- the Debate forum is new, and I wonder if it was started in response to the many threads here that went out of hand. It encourages the less-than-polite practices we have been noticing. Funny thing is, I think it is sometimes more polite over there than it is here! Yes, we all have right to our opinions. I don't think that old-timers have any ownership of the forum, it is just that we once had better manners here and it was newer people leading the headlong rush into incivility. And you are absolutely right about spelling errors. Over on Building a Home, a group of folks who had been there for years got ticked off when one of them was Sent to Disney. In the old days, when Spike owned and ran these forums him/herself, if incivility popped up, Spike would send you an email warning. The second time, he would fix it so that every time you tried to log onto This Home Site, you ended up getting forwarded to the Disney World site. You could not reregister easily under a different name, because the computer signiture was recognized. Folks on Building a Home got fed up that their friend was exiled for what they considered a minor infraction and off they went to start their own forum elsewhere on the web. I hung out there for a while, but it was kind of negative, people seemed to be over-enjoying the freedom of being away from Spike. I think for a while now, the Pets Forum has had that same feel. It used to be, in the days of Spike, that old timers would sit back and watch newbies who broke the rules get booted off the site. We would probably roll our eyes and just wait for the impolite person to learn the hard way that civility was THE rule here. Then Spike sold to I-village and things slowly changed here. We knew what Spike's rules were, we trusted that they would be enforced. So if old-timers just treat these arguments with a bit of humor and then get a bit POed when they go on and on and on, it may be because we still kind of expect Spike to be out there keeping the forums safe for disagreements, as long as they stayed polite. Sometimes I miss our Spike....See Moreryseryse_2004
10 years agoYorkies2
10 years agoangiepangie
10 years agorobertz6
10 years ago
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