Hello from the Bailiwick of Guernsey

[Insula]

My companion is a small cross-breed bitch with bird dog ancestry on both sides. She's one year and three months old. I want to give her as "natural" a life as possible. She's the first dog I've ever owned and I want to know everything I can about her kind in order to make her life a long and happy one.

She's a healthy, cheerful, intelligent and lively animal and not a lap dog, although she does sleep on my bed. We are together all the time as I'm now retired. I feel that she's done more for me than I've done for her so far, so I want to put that right

I've been learning from books - especially those about dog behavior and canine communication - but I also want to learn more from the experiences of individual dog owners as I don't want to assume that I know best what's good for my dog.

So far, she's home-made raw fed and gets lots of time off the leash on beaches and in my wildlife garden, which, I feel, is a good start.

I looked at many other forums relating to dogs before deciding on registering at H&H. Looking the posted answers makes me feel that I would be much more at home here than on any of the other forums, as although I'm an amateur naturalist, and care deeply about all animals, I'm not sentimental, and I appreciate good practical advice, either based on experience or on sound research.

I don't feel qualified to answer questions yet, but will be asking many at first.

So I do hope I will be welcome here, as I don't have a hound or a horse, but I do love the latter, commune with them over fences, and often photograph them for sheer pleasure. There are so many handsome and interesting horses in our archipelago and they're incredibly beautiful animals in my eyes. I never tire of gazing at them on my walks, and my dog absolutely adores them!

À la perchoine

 

[dogatemysalad]

Your dog is very lucky. I hope my dogs feel that their lives are as good as possible too. Without them, I wouldn't walk for miles everyday or go camping to take them hiking in remote parts of the country. In trying to maximise their quality of life, mine is also better.
Ps, you don't need to be an expert to share your experiences, I hope you'll feel welcome enough to join in here.

 

[Insula]

Hello ?

I apologise for being so late with my reply to your lovely welcome. Just after posting my introduction something caused a break somewhere along the phone line to my house, and I was unable to get online or use my landline until it was found and fixed.

Since my dog came to live with me, she's done so much good for my ageing mind and body, so I know exactly what you mean about the way dogs teach us how to get fit and healthy!

Tug-of-war games are great for building muscle in the arms, and I've also learned to incorporate balance exercises and a bit of what passes for Tai Chi poses into our other indoor games too - one of the many joys of living alone is that I don't have to worry about anyone seeing me doing anything like that! ?

Sadly, unlike you, we don't have too many remote parts left in our archipelago, but I do enjoy taking the pup to the smaller islands, especially off-season, as I'm very fond of solitude. Thankfully she's never been travel sick in her life, which is a huge relief when sailing over high seas. She's lots of fun, and really seems to relish doing anything adventurous, and I imagine your dogs are very much the same!

Thank you so much for the advice about not having to be an expert in order to join in. It made me realise that I could probably contribute by sharing the many mistakes I've made in "bringing up baby" which might prevent others from doing the same.

Just off to enjoy browsing the site over lunch ?

 

[Insula]

Well...I did a lot of browsing and have realised that I'm on entirely the wrong forum after reading through this thread:



https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/crazy-cockapoos.765892/


Since getting my dog I've not experienced any prejudice against her in our islands, and was hoping to get some advice about training her to go out with some local hunters as I've seen plenty of evidence that Cockapoos can make excellent bird dogs, and she's shown great natural promise from the beginning.


I do realise that cross-bred dogs are variable, and there probably are Cockapoos out there who have the negative traits mentioned, but I got my dog from a reputable breeder, and I would find it very hurtful if I posted questions about her here, only to get the kind of negative responses that the original poster got on the thread above, so I'm unsubscribing as soon as I post this, and never looking at this forum again.


It's a real shame, as I know that the information about dog health and welfare here is second to none, but I had no idea that people could be snobbish and judgemental about dogs as well as people, and on such an otherwise professional forum too! Silly me!


As I'm not interested in forums like "I Love my Cockapoo" either, I'll just have to go straight to the local hunters and try my luck there.


Rather wish I was living in the States after reading this:

https://williamhaywriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/gilbert-cockapoo-hunting-dog.html

By the way, the photograph I posted earlier was of her in her long winter coat as she was still a pup then, but it's a devil of a coat to keep well-groomed, and now she's much more comfortable being shaved. Looks like a whippet, and runs just as fast. She was picking up too many seed heads and the like on her country runs once summer came.

Would any kind admins please delete this message, and the only question I got around to posting before I read the Cockapoo thread. I tried to delete the question myself, but couldn't find any way to do it.

It's a great shame that so few of you seem to realise what incredibly intelligent, good-natured and fun-loving animals most responsibly-bred Cockapoos are. They make fabulous family dogs, especially as they adore company (both animal and human) and all seem to love young children, being naturally especially gentle with them.

I don't know much about England, but it must be full of puppy farms if you've only ever met the "crazy" kind. I'm surprised you're not doing more to stop that kind of animal cruelty!


Bye bye.

 

[Insula]

...Oh great! I've just been rummaging around my account details, and can't find a way to unsubscribe. Admins - please do this for me. I'll be eternally grateful, not that I'll be looking back, as I said earlier.