sushiwelldone

Hi there, I haven't visited in months and thought I would drop by. I have always thought that finnish spitz look like dingos but they are not a common breed so a cross withthem is unlikely. The red coat color is similar. too, but the spitz has a shorter denser coat. She is probably a cross between a few common breeds that just combined to look like she does. Likely is some spitz (not Finnish but I mean husky, keeshond, etc.) given her up ears and curled tail. Perhaps with a sheltie given the texture of the coat. You're right it's always a guess with the crosses but she is a beautiful dog and I hope her owners learn to appreciate her.

One 18 month old neutered male Keeshond, Jasper. Hey, Malamum when is your baby's birthday? Jasper's is June 8th.

I'm sorry, but the breeders of these dogs aren't the idiots (they are the a**holes but not the idiots). The idiots are the people who will pay 600, 800 or even 1200 bucks for these dogs. These ill-informed people are the ones who keep the puppy mills in business. You would think in the "infromation age" that no one would be so ignorant as to fall for this stuff or to even purchase those very poor quality purebreds for hundreds of dollars. I work with a woman who paid 400 dollars a peice for her two poodles. These dogs do not even look like poodles. They are built like daschunds, have bad knees and horrid color and coats. Her sister paid 600 dollars for a shih tzu-poodle cross! I do not understand this. If they did even ONE MINUTE of research before buying a dog they would know not to pay this kind of money for a dog they could get for like 75 bucks at the humane society. These are the people who annoy me maybe even more than the puppy millers. Ignorance is just not an excuse anymore. Take away the demand and there will be no more supply. Perhaps we need to start charging the peple who BUY from puppy mills and disreputable backyard breeders with a crime...too stupid to live among us! (My I [b]do[/b] have my dander up, don't I?) :agrue:

The thing I find so ironic about the PETA philosophy is that they are basically supporting extinction of certain species. If a domestic animal (whether it be cow dog cat or horse) were not maintained by man that species would become extinct. The individual animals are not equipped with the ability to survive without human assistance. As is now true for many species even in the wild. I think if you spoke to a cow and offered them the option to stop being bred for meat or the alternative of extinction..the cow would choose the former. Wild herbivores are basically born to feed carnivores and without that relationship both would cease to exist. All species have one main goal and that is to perpetuate their kind. We may have created these domestic animals but that is now done and you can't tell me any of them would choose extinction over continuing their line (even if that means being in a house, on the end of a leash or between two buns). :-?

Best of luck and...what's your secret? I have a wonderful working dog but he is easily distracted and it shows up in his heeling work (worse ON lead than off..What's with that?) I do work with him more off lead. He is a Keeshond and the breed is said to be easily distracted...mine's weakness is other dogs. I have done the watch me thing to death and he is great as long as no other dogs are around. I asked about this on the training thread but got no reply. Sorry to turn your good news into a plea for advice but it sounds like you have a great working dog and I would love to know if you had to overcome anything like her being distracted and how you did it. He is a happy worker, his finishes are the swing type and he jumps up to my shoulder with no prompting-the crowd loves it! But when we start moving and he sees something of interest ourside the ring he will go wide or forget to sit or something. He never completely leaves me but looses focus. I have only had him in fun matches so far and he is home trained. He is 16 months old neutered and also does agility (which he is a natural at...I on the other hand suck at it). His long sits and downs are good...no breaks but he is still checking out all that is going on outside the ring. Any advice on the heeling work? I must admit I'm a bit jealous. This is the first dog I have formally trained to any goal. Our score in NOvice A at the fun match was 181 1/2 out of 200. Not too stellar. :(

Check out this link [url]http://www.catagility.org/albu.htm[/url]

Thanks for all your replies. I am a bit chicken so I think I am going to bring it up in conversation with my sister first..to test the waters so to speak. She can get pretty hot under the collar so if she goes off on me I will have a better idea of where things stand. :agrue: I am so glad I never got involved in the whole breeding thing like my sister did. I was never as involved as she was in the showing (although I did handle one of my Mom's dogs for a while as a teenager). Just like my pet I guess.

[b]I know there are some here who do not agree with dog breeding of any kind..if it offends you to read about people who produce puppies...please don't read[/b]. My Mother is a highly respected breeder of Miniature Poodles. She has never had more that one litter in a year or owned more than one breeding female at a time. All of her dogs live in her house (never has more than 3 dogs at a time) and she has had the top miniature poodle for conformation in Canada in the past. Almost all of the dogs she has owned went on to get their obedience titles after retiring from the show ring and she has taught obedience and conformation classes. The line she has developed was out of her mentor's dogs (a respected judge/breeder from Toronto) and this was also the woman who my Mother learned her life-long profession of dog grooming from. My Mother's poodles were always very out-going, friendly and intelligent. Some of her past pups went on to become hearing ear dogs and therapy dogs but mostly family pets. Here comes the problem...I have found that in the past 5-6 years she has had 2 or 3 pups that had questionable temperaments and conformation wise I don't think they are up to her previous standards. My sister co-owns one male who has done great things (conformation, obedience, agility and flyball titles) but he is very shy when my sister is not around. When she is there he is out-going and friendly but I have looked after their dogs and when I would try and let him out for a run he wouldn't even come out of his crate for me. My Mom has a female that doesn't like kids or other dogs and can also be quite nervous at times (these are all dogs who could NOT have had more varied or complete socialization). When I am over with my dog her female sits at her feet and snarls at my dog (something called"resource guarding"). She does not have the out going personality I am used to in my Mom's dogs. This female had a litter about 1 year ago and she sold a male pup to a couple who had had 2 of her pups in the past (both died of old age). This pup suddenly became very aggressive at about 11-12 months of age. The people could not control him so they spoke to my Mom who told them to bring him to classes where she worked with them and the dog to show them how to assert dominance. (I think she was too aggressive with the dog...but she knows more than I do I guess). Anyway, they were supposed to do some work at home with him, get a halty for walks, etc. A few days later my Mom gets a call that the dog bit the husband badly and they were going to put the dog down. My Mom offered to take him back and work with him and give them a refund or a future pup as she guarantees her temperaments unconditionally. They felt it would be "unfair" for anyone to have the dog as he was unpredictable. I saw this dog at classes and he was quite nasty but my Mom seemed to be able to handle him without any fear. The lady was very scared of the dog you could tell. I know my sister will be very upset when she finds out the people decided to put the dog down. I think the line my Mother has now is just not as stable as it should be. I don't know how to say this to her without upsetting her. I am no expert but I think I may have a better perspective as I am not emotionally involved with the animals. I don't know exactly where things "went wrong" but I think she is playing with fire and needs to re-think anymore breeding until she gets a handle on this temperament thing. It is such a shame because until recently her dogs were always solid as could be in every way. (I guess that's why so many people like this couple kept coming back for another pup when the old one passed away). How would you approach this subject with someone who is far more experienced in dogs than yourself? I have told her that I don't like her female's temperment and she agrees that it isn't what she would like (but this dog has never been aggressive to people..though she avoids children). I feel that although not aggressive to people, she doesn't have the personality a poodle should, so maybe she shouldn't have used her for breeding. She is spayed now. She has the sister of the aggressive male and she has her conformation title already. This dog is out-going but can become nervous in a new setting (despite going to a lot of dog shows). She has shown [b]no[/b] aggressive behaviour and loves kids. What do you experts here think? Should this female be bred given her brother's problems? I am conflicted on whether I should open this can of worms or not. I should add that I do not subscribe to the belief that "THERE ARE NO BAD DOGS..ONLY BAD OWNERS" I firmly believe that a dog can be mentally unstable for purely organic/genetic reasons. There is no reason why a thinking animal such as a dog couldn't suffer from a host of mental illnesses which may result in aggression. Of course, most of these conditons can be overcome with effort but I do believe there is no hope for some very unstable dogs. Hope some of you can help me decide what to do with this touchy subject (sorry I tend to ramble) :(

I agree that you need to get this under control while the dog is young. Almost [b]any[/b] dog will try and push their luck at some point to see where they stand in the pack. By the way...my dog also sleeps in a kennel outside in our yard with a dog house in it... so no judgement here.. :wink: When mine was only about 3 months old, I was brushing him and he let out a growl and tried to bite me/the brush. I did not put up with it for one second, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck made good eye contact and told him "NO", and then the most important thing...I continued to brush him. With a dog that is trying to assert it's will over yours I think it is very imiportant that you do not change your behaviour in response to the dog's undesired behaviour (ie aggression). They need to see that their aggression will not let them avoid something or get something they want. If she is only being aggressive in her kennel and house then I think it is a good idea to change this up on her so that she doesn't have this place to guard. Is it possible to take the dog house out of the run for a few days? If you remove the "den" than she will not have the security that is giving her or the courage to challenge you and she will not have something to guard. I agree with using food to show you are dominant as well (as in the previous post.) Be careful to only reward her when she comes to you or when she lets you do something that used to result in bad behaviour. Do not reward her for shying away, etc. Even though there are no formal classes for you I recommend obedience training on your own right now. Have one main trainer in the family but get everyone involved. There are alot of website and books on it. I am a fan of clicker training but any form of training will show your dominance and build even more of a bond. It also can be very fun amd rewarding. I bet your son would love teaching her a few tricks! Don't be swayed by some of the hard-nosed training methods that say not to use food rewards, etc. All the best agility trainers now a days use the clicker and food rewards followed later with toy and play rewards. Make it fun. I doubt you have a problem that can't be resolved. Like I said most dogs will try to assert dominance at some point growing up. Perhaps your family missed some more subtle signs that she was creeping up in the rank (in her eyes) and that is why is has progressed to this degree. It sounds like you are committed. Do NOT be afraid of her, show you you are THE LEADER (but be a benevolent one with losts of treats). :D Good luck! Let us know how you make out.

It must hurt your feelings to have her react to you this way when you know you wouldn't harm a hair on her head. :( I would suggest just being her "food" friend to start with. If she is really scared, use treats to show her you are a good thing. If she will come to you on her own, just sit and let her come to you and give her a treat for approaching you and give her [b]quiet[/b] verbal praise. I would suggest [b]you [/b]feed her her meal in the evening as well. Once she is accepting you more readily, I would start playing games with her (does she like tug..or was that frowned upon in the hunting world?). Most dogs gain a lot of confidence with a good game of tug or fetch. She will learn that you are worth knowing if you provide food and fun and not pain. Also, remember body language through the whole process. Try not to lean over the dog while she is frightened. I have had some foster dogs that were nervous around my husband and he would do the worst thing- as the dog was slinking up into a ball in front of him he would lean over the dog to offer his hand in friendship and all the dog saw was this big thing it is afraid of hovering over it in a threatening manner. Get down on a knee, avoid direct eye contact and keep it fun. Good luck! I'm sure she'll be in love with you in know time.

Though it was not routine for young dogs where I worked, serum blood testing (chemistry) was a precaution my vet would take with older dogs before going under general anesthetic. The anesthetic puts stress on the kidneys and liver especially. Because it is quite rare for a young dog to have problems in these areas they are not routinely tested but different vets would have different policies on this. The CBC (complete blood count) tests for infection and inflammatory processes which also could cause problems for surgery. So it is just a personal choice if you are worried about complications. I personally think the chances of a healthy young dog having these problems is rare enough not to warrant the testing but we all have our level of risk that we are comfortable with. Hope this helps.

I'm sure it's just a bit too soon for her. She's been through a big trauma and lots of changes. When I worked for a vet we often asked people to bring in the dog's favorite treats from home and give them some private time in one of the rooms away from the other animals for a while. It often helped. The other thing to consider is that if there is swelling perhaps an infection is what has her down. I'm sure they have her on antibiotics but it's something worth asking about. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time. Complications are almost inevitable with a big trauma like this but are none the less very frustrating! Hang in there!

Hi there, I don't usually reccomend a Keeshond for people because of their coats..but after reading how much you like to groom dogs..a Kees would certainly give you ample opportunity! You can look under my post in the forum entitled "Anyone want to start our own dog review?" I have listed some of the pros and cons of the breed. They may not be as big as you are looking for...18 inches and about 35-40 pounds. The amount of grooming they require has kept the breed from becoming overly popular (which is a good thing asfar as health is concerned-they have very few health issues) but the breeder I got Jasper from said that almost everyone he knows who gets a Kees stays with the breed for life. He has a lot of repeat customers. I know I couldn't be happier with mine. He is doing well in agility and obedience and my sister thinks he would make an excellent flyball dog but I'm not ready for that yet! Here are a few links for more info (the first 2 deal with questions about the breed and the last is a link to a woman who does a lot of dog sports with her Kees') There is even a message board dedicated to Kees in Agility (agilikees) as they are getting popular as agility dogs in the US. [url]http://www.catalina-inter.net/Cari-On/faq.html[/url] [url]http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/breeds/keeshonden.html[/url] [url]http://www.akc.org/registration/ilp/ilp_superstars.cfm?page=2[/url] Good luck in your search!

Great reviews so far. My, Taurus is a handsome boy! Here is my take on the Keeshond. (kayz-hawnd) plural= Keeshonden. They are a spitz breed related to dogs like the Pomeranian, Chow, Elkhound, etc. They are not like a typical northern breed, however. They were developed in Holland as companion dogs and had no real

Congrats, :bday: Good luck :D and Don't forget the pics! Things should be really fun in about 4 weeks!