Do you have a "breed"

MotherOfChickens said:
how are they impractical? mine seems up for anything!
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They're just rather large and hairy - my quest to persuade husband that we need one has failed on the grounds that it wouldn't fit in the tent when camping! But I agree, it's the "up for anything" attitude that I like. The only real downside (in my view) is the constant need to scoff everything and anything they can - my friends' retriever, who I used to walk every week for years, once found an entire tinfoil wrapped ginger cake in the middle of the road. She'd wrenched my arms out of the sockets, towed me over there, unwrapped it (at least she did that) and inhaled the lot before I knew what was going on. I say ginger cake, but that was only based on an inspection of the crumbs afterwards.
 
ha, well I like a hairy mutt personally ;) (he's not quite as hairy as the setters and the bearded collie) but he is 30kg at nearly 9 months old. We are going camping with him and a.n.other (wont be a GR though) this summer. He's food oriented but not a thief-he did once eat (or try to before I fished it out) a rotten dead rat crawling with beatles which made me gag a bit. He's very good with his 'leave' command!

He's hardy, I dont have to bother with a coat for him. I dont have to see his shivering and looking miserable in a bit of wind like a couple of short coated dogs I've had (where I live is very windy most of the time). Seems to cope with any sort of terrain/adventure, is always cheerful and happy to be with you without being clingy or sulky if not (setters can sulk like no other), easily pleased and not neurotic in any way. The only reason next dog wont be another is because there's one other breed I've always wanted and one has come up. But in a few years time I will put the idea in OH's head about another working GR ;)
 
Widgeon said:
They're just rather large and hairy - my quest to persuade husband that we need one has failed on the grounds that it wouldn't fit in the tent when camping!
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Never! GRs make the perfect camping buddies!
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Mine isn't food orientated. After a day's shooting she is absolutely filthy but we have a thermatex dog bag - god send.
 
I'm a Beagle person. Wanted one ever since I was a child and my parents took me hunting with a pack of Beagles on New Year's Eve locally. We now have five.

Wasn't allowed one at home with my parents on the farm as we had working sheepdogs and puppy walked Welsh Foxhounds for our local hunt. My OH saw a dog calendar on my wall when he stayed at my house for the first time about 6 years ago and asked what the dog for January was - it was a Beagle. Two weeks later he'd rehomed his first one. He then went on to rehome another one about 12 months later. I bought my first one about 6 months after moving in with him as an 8 week old pup. Our fourth is a pup we kept off a litter we bred; the fifth is a pup we bred a couple of years ago which we've rehomed due to the owner's change in circumstances.

We have a Weimaraner who my OH dotes on as she was his first dog after he was attacked by an Akita so if anything he is probably a Weim person more than a Beagle person but for me it will always be Beagles. They have the same wicked love of life attitude that I do!
 
yhanni said:
My parents used to puppy walk for the Guide Dogs so we had a succession of Labs, Goldies, GSDs and notably a border collie that GDBA trialled, unsuccessfully! When I left home I had Weimaraners then Deerhounds, then Patterdales and Rotties and now I have a middleaged Rottie dog and a rehomed EBT who is very funny and loving but a monster with other dogs, including the Rottie who isn't allowed off his bed unless she lets him! I love EBTs but I couldn't cope with one when I'm more infirm as she crashes into me with monotonous regularity and doesn't even notice . . . . or pretends she doesn't!!
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LOL that sounds like my 36kg greyhound dog - 'oh, I am standing on your foot? I hadn't noticed...' :)
 
I think the OH will always want springers, me too probably. It was originally going to a springer and a Keeshond, childhood dogs respectively, but the latter wasn't practical for the yard!

Dream dogs include salukis, elkhound, standard poodle. I'd also love an English setter, maybe a munsterlander.
 
English setters for me. I've owned a variety of breeds over the years bearded collie, golden retriever, a few staffs. Wouldn't have a bearded again, he was a massive nightmare haha.

When my goldie was pts aged 16 I said I wasn't having another but I kept thinking of the English we had when we were kids. Phoned and spoke to a few breeders about pups but would have had to travel too far. Ended up finding an old advert for a 4 year old dog 10 minutes from home!
They aren't the easiest dogs to train but they are so gentle and loyal. Love them!
 
monsterwillow said:
English setters for me. I've owned a variety of breeds over the years bearded collie, golden retriever, a few staffs. Wouldn't have a bearded again, he was a massive nightmare haha.

When my goldie was pts aged 16 I said I wasn't having another but I kept thinking of the English we had when we were kids. Phoned and spoke to a few breeders about pups but would have had to travel too far. Ended up finding an old advert for a 4 year old dog 10 minutes from home!
They aren't the easiest dogs to train but they are so gentle and loyal. Love them!
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Oh yes, my mum always had English setters. I would love one, but it would have to retrieve, one day. :-)
 
Jack russells and Goldens. So so different but I couldn't be without the spark and entirely unique personality of a feisty little JRT - yet the way my golden looks at me makes my heart melt. So daft- nearly 3 but is just a massive puppy- but up for everything and the gentlest dog I've met. <3
 
Do you think older ladies should stick to small dogs? Most my age , nearly 70 (god its a shock seeing that written down )seem to have westies or **** zhu types or pugs. I am a lover of large dogs but do wonder if its more practical to have a littlie next. At least you dont have to break your back heaving them into the car !

ETA Ive been edited!
 
Snuffles said:
Do you think older ladies should stick to small dogs? Most my age , nearly 70 (god its a shock seeing that written down )seem to have westies or **** zhu types or pugs. I am a lover of large dogs but do wonder if its more practical to have a littlie next. At least you dont have to break your back heaving them into the car !

ETA Ive been edited!
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I have to admit I adore my greyhounds but I reckon I am going to swap back to whippets when I get to around 70 years old, simply because of the maneuverability factor :) Having said that, it depends on how active and agile you are so maybe I will still be running around after greyhounds when I am 90 (like my eldest greyhound) :D
 
Oh no Snuffles! I am that age though I don't admit it! I have two Flatcoated retrievers and a Goldie. I walk at least 6 or 7 miles a day with them( well not the rescue fat Goldie). They keep me fit since I stopped riding. I don't lift them into the car, they jump in and have a ramp when they can't jump.
 
I never had dogs as a child, but I wanted a bedlington lurcher when I was in a position to have my own. And I got a mongrel/lurchery thing, Bosworth, I suspect he had bedlington in him, but I adored him for what he was. I then had a first cross bedlington whippet, and when bosworth died I got a purebred bedlington and thats it........ I have to have a bedlington. Such a character, so intelligent, a fantastic friend, the level of naughtiness thats just endearing, and no destruction. I also have a whippet, and I think i must be drawn to the elegance of their shape and their loving nature. As a pair the bedlington and the whippet work so so well together on all fronts. So I see my life as being a mix of bedlingtons and whippets, one of each is perfect :)
 
Bosworth said:
I never had dogs as a child, but I wanted a bedlington lurcher when I was in a position to have my own. And I got a mongrel/lurchery thing, Bosworth, I suspect he had bedlington in him, but I adored him for what he was. I then had a first cross bedlington whippet, and when bosworth died I got a purebred bedlington and thats it........ I have to have a bedlington. Such a character, so intelligent, a fantastic friend, the level of naughtiness thats just endearing, and no destruction. I also have a whippet, and I think i must be drawn to the elegance of their shape and their loving nature. As a pair the bedlington and the whippet work so so well together on all fronts. So I see my life as being a mix of bedlingtons and whippets, one of each is perfect :)
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I've always admired the Bedlington but have been put off by being told they are quite hardcore terrorists! is that not the case then?
 
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Definitely not. the softest core terrorist you can imagine. Think hairy whippet, but with more of a cuddle factor. Mines an entire dog, from show stock not working. The working ones tend to be aggressive and hard core. But Ive not met a pedigree one like that, mine rats, and rabbits and is a rough tough type. who scrubs up well and got a second at Crufts. The terrier has definitely not been bred out of them, and they are the calmest of terriers, wont start a fight, but if they are provoked they will fight back and tend to be the ones that win. But see them all at Crufts and the bedlington area is the quietest of all the terriers they are just all snoozing, or being cuddled or chilling, the other terrier areas are as noisy as hell :)
 
Can't say I have a 'bread, although my Daisy is a Bichon. She's hard-core though - loves her walks (in the summer we'll regularly do 6 or 7 miles a day) and is a real fun dog.

I have to day that I'd love a GSD one day. They are simply fantastic dogs.
 
Snuffles said:
Do you think older ladies should stick to small dogs? Most my age , nearly 70 (god its a shock seeing that written down )seem to have westies or **** zhu types or pugs. I am a lover of large dogs but do wonder if its more practical to have a littlie next. At least you dont have to break your back heaving them into the car !

ETA Ive been edited!
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A lovely walking pal had an aged Labrador and a lightweight plastic step for her to get into the boot. She was 80+. Saying that, the OAP owner of the GSD that attacked big dog the other week can't control it, yet my very frail neighbour has a GSD who walks perfectly, because she's been trained.
 
Having spent the morning rolling around in the hay being 'attacked' by five Beagles all wanting their tummies scratched at the same time, I am as convinced as ever that I've found my breed! What a distraction, the horses barely got a look in today!
 
His recall is good, I can take him anywhere off lead and he never runs off, he hears me, and looks at me then finishes what he was doing and comes over in his own time. But he never really goes out of my vision, he likes to know where I am. As to cats, he loves loves loves them. He so desperately wants another of his own, as they fascinate him, and he was brought up with one as a puppy. I do know people who have house rabbits with their bedlington and no problems at all. Still likes to chase other peoples cats when he sees them in my garden. But would never ever attack one.
 
At various times I've focused on many different 'types' of dogs, from lurchers as a child, to gundogs, dogs doing protection work and more latterly to collies because for the last 30 years I farmed sheep. I don't really have a favourite having enjoyed all of them. Were the OP to ask if I could only have one dog and it were to live in the house and be my companion, then probably a lurcher and a bitch at that.

I wouldn't really want a terrier or a hound, or anything that was bred to be an ornament, but otherwise I'd be fairly open to suggestions!

Alec.
 
Terriers. We had a scruffy JRT when I was younger, and when I got my own dog in my early twenties I chose a Patterdale. She's 9 this year and is the best dog, and a typical Terrier. Big dogs just don't do it for me.
 
I love my sight hounds. I should imagine I will always have a whippet or perhaps a greyhound when I'm old.

I would love another border collie when my elderly girl goes however I don't feel I have the time to give one justice anymore. Mine is old and arthritic now so an hour a day exercise does her just fine but when she was young she would be up and busy all day. I got her when I was just 17 and at college. I only had college two hours a day so we would spend hours on the farm together. I don't think I could commit to the exercise requirements anymore as much as I would love another :(
 
Whilst Danes always have been, and always will be, my first love, my next dog will be a Bavarian Mountainhound. Having always had two Danes together, I would love to have one Dane and then something smaller as well. I have met many Bavarian Mountainhounds and I am absolutely smitten. Wonderful dogs, but hard to find in this country sadly.
 
I'm a Cavvie girl, my husband wanted one 9 years ago and I wasn't convinced but we got a puppy and have been obsessed ever since. Got a new addition last year and just love them-perfect for us and so friendly and loving. I can easily see how people end up with lots of them! The breed health issues are always a concern, I just hope things improve in the future.
 
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