Dogs - classic or dud?

My gran, then my mum both bred and rescued chihuahuas (before they were fashionable handbag dogs) so I grew up with many dogs. My mum has owned over ten different breeds at various times but chihuahuas were always our thing.

It's always been a right doggie family. I'd love to own a dog again but working commitments rule it out. Bah.

Yeah, there is such a thing as taking it too far...

Chihuahuas aren't the nasty wee ankle biters people think they are, they have such sweet trusting natures.

Even the rescued dogs my mum took on (one battered within an inch of his life, he came to us with NO HAIR) they took a while to come to trust people again but never snapped or bit.

(How could anybody mistreat a tiny helpless little animal?)

The only kinds i object to are those such as bulldogs who have been bred in such a way that their health suffers badly for it.

I would rather listen to people talk about their dogs than Celebrity Big Brother. At least dogs are funny.

A chihuahua?

Anyway -- we've always been a dog family, and there have been three family dogs in my lifetime. Lexie will likely be the last -- she's getting on a bit, and my parents have decided not to get a new one after her.

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Tracy's having a good winter, much more perky and active than she was around her cancer surgery of last spring.

After spending three weeks in Mpls with my family dog, I want one here and I'm working on my mom because she's found the right poodle breeder (ie. the one where we got our current clever and well-behaved small miniature/large toy) and HOORAY no quarantine hassles to the UK any more.

Poodles also get a crap name because of a certain kind of owner with lapdog fetish. But they don't shed or fart and can be trained to do daft things in exchange for food.

My parents won't get another dog since Layla died, but they are mad about my dogs. My mother's new way of asking me if I'm coming to dinner on Sunday is to phone and say "should I keep these leftover sausages for the dogs, or should I throw them out?" If I arrive at their house without the dogs, the disappointment is obvious. If I had actual human children they wouldn't be as popular with my folks as the dogs are.

A chihuahua wouldn't be best for me, I'd love to carry on the family tradition etc but I'd like a slightly more heavy duty dog. Perhaps a Cocker Spaniel or a Terrier of some description. I like Dobermans, my uncle had a rescue one Boris, he was chocolate and tan and a big softie. He was afraid of everything and used to shake with fear all the time.

In this case I think it will be true, since my parents want to enjoy their retirement -- ie, more spur-of-the-moment trips without having to worry about what to do with the dog, etc.

My mum keeps saying the two she has are her last, but I can't imagine her being without a dog in the house. It's a huge big house and she's just a tiny wee woman and I like that she's got the security of dogs (even if they do look like a pair of slippers).

esp the HUGE ones

i want an old english sheepdog - they look like indie dogs, with the fringe and the shambling and the air of befuddlement and whatnot

i don't like the noises small dogs make

i have never had a pet :(

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My parents just got a beagle puppy before Christmas (and my brother got one before Thanksgiving), he's cute, friendly, seems relatively low-maintenance when I visit, but dogs just aren't my thing. Too much regimentation, too much responsibility, too much work - and they generally don't smell pleasant.

I could see myself adopting an adult dog some day, when I'm more settled, have a back yard, etc., but I still prefer cats.

i dont trust people who hate dogs.

isnt it strange that dog haters seem mean and cat haters just seem insecure?

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I walk her everyday and on the weekend we take her to Austin's dog park. She's kind of a wimp/loner though and does't really know how to play with the other dogs. When we buy our house we're going to get her a brother/sister to help remedy this.

Lately she's been chewing my CDs which leaves me ambivelant re: C or D. I'm still a cat person through and through,

hmm, wonder why blue heelers might be so timid with other dogs. Whens she sees cow or horses she goes insane but a bumbly, fat lab makes her cower!

That's not what HE would say!

I've had pugs since I was five years old. The original trio I grew up with--the happy little pug family of Rosie, Jubie (Rosie's daughter) and Rocky (Jubie's son)--are all gone now.

Jubie was the first to go. She died in her sleep in early 2002, during an hour-long episode of Will & Grace. :( I was pretty devastated. Yet, surprisingly, I found myself wanting a new puppy soon after her passing. The first time I opened the newspaper to Classifieds to look I found an ad for fawn/black mask and black pug puppies in a town nearby. I brought my baby, Oliver Jose, home one month later. Rosie was half-blind in the only she had left (a rooster got her when she was young), so she didn't pay the new arrival much mind. He sure gave Rocky a new spark, though. Rocky would sit beside Oliver's box and watch over the little one while he slept. And once Ollie got a little bigger, he took to sleeping with his head resting on Rocky. It was terrific. They were good buddies. :)

When Rocky died suddenly in January 2005, it was devastating. (I didn't even get to say goodbye.) It wasn't just my parents and I who were heartbroken, though. Oliver didn't understand why my mom had taken Rocky away (to the vet) only to return that night without him; he became really depressed. It was so sad. :( He didn't know what it was like to be the only pug in the house. I knew I had to get another pug for him ASAP.

My mom and I got together a large assortment of newspapers from around the Bay Area and Sacramento. Amazingly, the first one I picked up (The Sacramento Bee) was packed with classified ads for pug puppies. One of them was for a litter of fawns and brindles. I'd never even seen a brindle pug before, so I had to call that one first. The lady had one male brindle left. She emailed me some pictures of him and I fell in love. They were coming from Oregon, so all the new puppy parents had to meet in the parking lot of Sacramento's Arden Fair Mall. When they pulled up, I rushed over and saw two big round eyes peering out from one of the kennels in the back of their SUV--a pug! Then I looked past the pug puppy sitting quietly up front to the one tearing up newspaper behind him. That was my Jack! haha As my dad drove us out of Sacramento, I put on the Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet. Jack raised his little head up and looked attentively at the speakers, like he was really diggin' the music. I later learned that he likes James Brown and harmony vocals (cf. CSNY), too. I was so proud. Anyway... When we got home, teeny little Jack actually chased Oliver. It was like a mouse chasing an elephant. hahaha We'd been telling Ollie that we were getting him a new toy to play with, but it took a while for him to warm up to Jack. You know puppies aren't supposed to go outside until they have all of their shots. When Jack was finally able to go into the backyard, Oliver--to our great surprise--began chasing Jack and wrestling with him in the grass(I got pictures, of course). It was hilarious. Now they're like real brothers.

I love my puggies. The biggest dogs in the Toy Group. Not little yappers! They've got personality by the ton. Charming, boisterous, sweet, fiesty, soulful (those eyes!), funny, curious, clever as can be and oh so lovable. Their very thinking creatures and you'll see it written all over those wonderfully expressive faces. Another expressive feature of a pug is their snort. Oliver & Jack mostly do it when they're happy or content. I love it. Pugs are very loyal and loving but they do possess a great stubborn/independent streak. Yup, they've definitely got minds of their own. It's pretty funny to see a pug get indignant. I don't wanna make it sound like they're not difficult to train, though, 'cause they are not. They're very intelligent and quick learners. It only took Jack one or two lessons to catch onto to "sit" and "come inside" (treats helped!). Oh! How could I neglect to mention how cute they are?! http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/froehlich/e006.gif

If you're thinking of getting a new dog, Sick Mouthy, I wholeheartedly recommend the pug. They're awesome. Don't know what I'd do without 'em. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v503/CitizenGatsby/1grinsmilie.bmp

"I want CHAKI!"

Oliver:

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Scrappin' with a couple chihuahuas in the parking lot of Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento:
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my friend ellison's dog Knoe died last week, she was 12 and had cancer. she had to be put to sleep. :-( she was a great dog. RIP Knoe.

This is my dog guarding the weaponry in our office hallway:
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I know a few sweet rescue dogs, and their owners also got that benefit, although they came with some problems (mostly super shyness) as well. So it's not always a perfect situation.

Cats are unable to kill you, but would want nothing more and this angers them immensely.

Personally, I bear dogs no ill will but I've got no use for their barking and shedding and drooling and farting and the hair all over the place and the licking their ass and then licking your face and the filthiness and all of that. Cats, I'm highly allergic to so I've never thought much about it. I exist separately from them and always have.

But pugs are cute as hell, as are dachshunds and welsh corgies. I'm tempted sometimes.

ok, so this is the funniest thing i've read today so far.

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Is that a pitbull/freetail bat hybrid?

OMG PUPPY I LOVE YOU! That is the same face my dog makes in that position, except when you aren't giving him a belly rub, he looks at you from the corner of his eye like, "Where's mah bely rub?"

yay! fat beagles!

I just (yesterday) got home from house/dog-sitting a labrador. It is joy being in a home with no dog hair and no wet doggy smell. I vacuumed that place every day and there was STILL hair everywhere, nearly drove me batty. The dog was gentle and lovely, but a tad clingy - I'm glad to be home not having her following me everywhere in the house. I think if I ever got a dog it would have to be reasonably independent and not pine for me every time I left the house.

dogs=classic!!!
we have a staffy/lab/? cross called Bella, and she brings so much joy into our house (fuck that sounds corny, but it's true). she's kinda like an ADD 4yr old on smack sometimes, but she's so much fun, so loving and so smart. awhile ago my flatmate was imitating the sound of a motorbike (don't ask) and bella started to imitate *her*...

a couple of nights ago i gave her some bones, but because she swallows everything whole, she started choking on it. it was one of the scariest things - my flatmate put her hand down bella's throat and pulled it out, and she was ok. but it made me realise how devastated i'd be if anything happened to her.

Oh so classic.

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v62/8/65/19400695/n19400695_30292316_384.jpg

I'm okay with dogs as long as they're the quiet type. The ones I've known like this were also big dogs.

But I am a cat man, always will be, etc.

My wife found this on the internets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/whippetgood.jpg

It's a whippet.

for some reason that dog makes me think of the robot dogs in neal stephenson's 'snow crash'.

I like other people's dogs but don't want one myself -- like lots of people say about children. Had dogs growing up and have "known doglove" but still vastly prefer cats to dogs. My mother is coming to visit in a few days with her dog who growls at and nips at children. Should be a hooot.

http://www.gotpetsonline.com/pictures-gallery/dog-pictures-breeders-puppies-rescue/catahoula-leopard-dog-pictures-breeders-puppies-rescue/pictures/catahoula-leopard-dog-0019.jpg

me and my closest childhood companion, jody.
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we had to give her to my aunt and uncle when we moved a few years later. they were fuckheads who treated their pets like shit. about a month after my grandfather died (my other closest childhood companion) i found out from my cousin that his parents had jody put to sleep "because they wanted to get a new dog". i have never forgiven them for this.

Anybody see this one yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0dzMp61G5w

Big dumb yellow lab wanders into Tour de France, hijinx ensue.

OMG Rubyred that is so utterly evil. You look v. v. happy with your little dog friend!

I wanted a dog more than ANYTHING as a child. Me & my neighbor worked out one day that we'd trade his collie for my Nintendo. When our parents came home, we of course were forced to undo the trade with which we were both very happy.

I didn't get a dog until I was 23 but he brings so much fun & joy & entertainment & calm & love to my life.

no offense to your family but those people were shits xxpost.
what maria d says, i've never had a dog and i love them but don't really ever want one.
dogs are great, but there's nothing worse than listening to dog owners talking about dogs.
i actually love these conversations! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> child owner conversations anywy. unless it's the parenting thread amirite

I have become a dog person and i wasn't even trying.

no offense taken, tremendoid. most of my family are indeed big shits. the dog (bella) isn't technically mine; she belongs to my housemate. i thought it was going to be kinda a pain having a dog in the house, but like abott says - she 'lights up my life'!!

I grew up convinced I'm a cat person, but I think I'm more of a dog person these days once they're beyond the floor-crapping puppy stage.

Oh man. I want a dog!!! We don't have the time or space and it makes me so sad. I got to hang around with my parents pugs this weekend and imt was awesome but made my puppyfever go crazy. Not fair.

Rubyred, that is such a cool t-shirt!

i also think my polyester tracksuit is pretty cool ;)

i love dogs. dogs are allowed in the building i'm moving into and i want a puppy so bad. are they expensive? i thought about a cat but my cat (who my parents are taking care of back in nyc) has cost $$$ in terms of prescription food, vet bills, etc. i can't afford that right now.

are there particular breeds of dog that are healthier and more self-sufficient than others?

I'm mad about cats but almost indifferent toward dogs. This sounds shallow and arbitrary, but with cats it's like you're dealing with some sort of alien intelligence -- they're bewitching. A dog, and especially a puppy, just seems like a toddler and a dim one at that. And since I don't own dogs, it's always someone else's dim kid. So, dud.

A dog, and especially a puppy, just seems like a toddler and a dim one at that.

I disagree. Puppies can be like toddlers, but once dogs get older, they gain a certain dignity. Some of the older dogs I've known have been very dignified and loyal creatures, and haven't seemed dim at all.

I love my dog. She makes the mornings seem that much less blah.

sorry, i'm living with a puppy who I kind of wuv but really I'd rather he wasn't here. he's distorted my view on dogs. it's my roommates dog and it's making my cat miserable.

Cats are kind of like warm, purring throw pillows.

If you want a dog with fewer risk factors, probably best to look at some kind of mutt - certain breeds are much more prone to cancers/hip problems/etc. than others thanks to inbreeding (or just the way they've been bred to a certain look - breed wikipedia pages are good for this). 'Working' dogs and very popular dogs (and their mixes) are probably the hardiest - large breeding population, genetic mixing, bred for health and so on.

My family's chow/lab mix basically cost nothing in vet bills (excluding those paid by the woman who rescued him from some asshole's closet where he had been starved) until he was in his teens.

The 10 most irresponsible reasons given to Dogs Trust staff as to why owners could no longer look after their dog are:

1. "My dog doesn't match the sofa."

2. "The dog looks evil and has different coloured eyes, just like David Bowie."

3. "My black dog doesn't match the new white carpet, can we swap him for a white dog?"

4. "My current dog is too old, can we swap for a puppy or younger model?"

5. "My dog ate the Christmas turkey cooling on the work-top."

6. "My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

7. "The dog opened all the presents on Christmas Eve."

8. An owner accidentally knelt in the dog's urine while cleaning it up so brought the dog in the very next day.

9. A puppy was bought as a present for an elderly couple with dementia.

10. The owner was paranoid about recent bad press on Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and the dog was given up through no fault of its own.

geez

Pretty much dud.

They smell bad, they eat their own excrement, they are thick and, most irritating of all, they are sickeningly, vapidly faithful.

"My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

Haha my mom-in-law got rid of her guinea pig because she thought it was making her dog nervous. (He is a weird old dog with dementia BUT she also projects like crazy.)

Also, if you're buying furniture, get it to match the dog, duh! (If your dog was made by Eames be prepared for a bit of an expense.)

Heavens to Murgatroyd! Shall we next be seeing a "Human Beings: Classic or Dud?" thread? Dogs are intelligent and emotionally complex creatures - so they are both unclassifiable and unfuckwithable.

I have a mild distrust for people who dislike dogs. (Unless they are terrified of dogs because a dog attacked them, that one makes sense.)

some real sad sacks on this thread

I should have searched first: Human Beings: Classic or Dud?

I walked my little guy to the convenience store the other day and brought him in. The clerk (who is a nice, chill guy) came out and started feeding my dog Jack Links jerky sticks. After the fifth jerky stick, I was like, "He's gonna get spoiled!" (meaning 'plz quit feeding my dog 600-calorie treats'), but I am glad my little guy brightened his morning.

How do you know when it's time to get a new dog after your old dog passes on? I don't want the poor new dog to be the object of subconscious derision for not being Mr. Snitter, but on the other hand, the house feels so empty and wrong without a dog around that it's just breaking my heart every day.

Abbott, I'm sorry you lost Mr. Snitter, but if you're asking and you're a dog person, the time's drawing near (also you'd probably be going to a shelter, right, so some little guy gets friends and a home before Xmas). In my family, it sometimes seemed like our poodles were auditioning to be the drummer in Spinal Tap: apart from the one that bit me when I was three and had to go 'live on a farm', we had two killed by cars and one killed by another dog - all male dogs. The only one to die of old age was female and her last six months were shared with the puppy my cousin sprung on my mom - Willie will be 10 in March. My mother has had a black poodle on call since she was 16 and every time we came back to an empty, dog-less house it probably only took two weeks TOPS for her to get motivated and send for reinforcements. So, basically, as soon as she had the cash we had a new dog. The thing with dogs is that we don't really resent a new one as replacement, because IT'S A PUPPY and they imprint from the second they interact at the breeder/shelter. The only other thing I can pass on is that puppies who don't get mad when you squeeze their paws grow up to be the best-tempered adults.

I didn't think it was right, but I got a new dog right away after my dog died. I thought it might be disrespectful, but dogs bring a warmth and sense of safety to a home and once we brought our new dog home we didn't feel like we were "replacing" the old dog. The new dog seemed to know that an old dog had been in the home before him. I would recommend getting a dog that is completely different from the older one, unless you fancy a particular breed.

We ended up getting another dog pretty soon after, too, about one week. I still miss my old dog a lot but the new dog, Mandy, is really sweet and affectionate. She makes things a lot easier. She has a pretty different personality than my old dog, who kind of had dog aspergers. She came with a kennel cough, though, so she hacks and has a gross runny nose even after two weeks of antibiotics, poor thing.

Yay hero dogs:

http://www.ktla.com/media/photo/2010-05/53623954.jpg

What a boss little face he's making.

They are fascinating, but I ultimately find them annoying. Their barking sounds ugly, especially when it comes from the small ones. I don't like their unpredictable aggressiveness (especially with other dogs), or excessive jumpiness. I wouldn't want to put up with their potential destructiveness (after hearing, for example, "my dog ate my laptop" type stories), although cats are probably worse on that account. Would not want to live with one, and prefer not to live near them if they bark much at all (again--mostly the little ones with the piercing cries).

Once I saw a friend's mother pick up a dog and use it to wipe away her tears, hardest moment of my life trying not to laugh in her face

What is a good dog toy for a dog whose favorite thing to chew on is paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, Q-Tips, etc – paper products?

Classig generally but dud when they go out and roll in shit (like our filthy creature did this morning)

*classic

omg I need to know the paper question too. Benson thinks paper is the most amazing thing ever.

I thought chewy rope toys would be good, but she chews them up so fast, and makes such a mess with them, that it feels kind of pointless to buy them. (This might be a weird attitude – I feel this same way about cantaloupes. "Why pay $3 for this thing when I'm just going to eat it all right away?")

I usually just let my dogs have cereal boxes or other bits of cardboard that I'm finished with, but you still have to clean them up.

Have you tried withholding some portion of your dog's faily food allowance and using it to stuff a Kong? If you mash up a banana, add it to the kibble, then freeze it and give it to her, it'll give her something to do. Being hungry stops her from giving up when it's difficult.

I have a huge strong dog and used to have a (dear and smart) cat. The cat was eighty thousand times meaner and more destructive to property and used to scratch visitors to boot. My dog's biggest crime is giving hugs to strangers and guests.

I am a huge dog lover, but to me that means admitting that some dogs frankly suck and I feel guilty that I think this. My dog thinks this too. Some dogs are just dumb.

Dog that lives next door to me needs to chill the fuck out and shut the fuck up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/whippetgood.jpg

Shouldn't this dog have a scarier face?

I was at the greyhounds last night, and would definitely have bet on that fucker if it had showed up. That's not actually real, is it?

That's a "bully whippet" – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myostatin

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Douglas has developed this habit of finding either the longest stick or the heaviest log and stubbornly trying to bring it back to the house. He's such a competitive type if I try take it off him he will fite me to the death for it!

fs the size of that thing. pmsl what a good boy

he gets huge long sticks as well and becomes a marauding pikedog on narrow paths, trying to knock old folks over who've just recently had hip replacements!

I demand a clear photo of Douglas carrying an enormous stick, captioned "branch manager" as is traditional with photos of this kind.

lol that's his current job title alright!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EQkGTbWX0AAjXmN?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

I lost my archive of pics of Douglas with huge fuckoff sticks when my last phone got drowned unfortunately because I had pretty funny ones, but this is from half an hour ago!

Douglas is best <3

damn I did it from my phone and just realised it doesn't really capture how amazingly handsome he is!

xxp aaaaah I’m dying he’s perfect

as a scotsman I approve of dogs called doug

I can hardly ever get a good photo of him, it's almost like he's got some preternatural ability to move or it always is blurred cos I'm rushing to take it before he does move!

dud

douglas i love u

this is the first result for "dud dog" on google, poor fella

https://medium.com/@amelapay/my-first-dog-was-a-dud-thoughts-on-chip-in-advance-of-his-death-d7832e015913

Douglas is classic.

My dog, who I had to shove up my jumper yesterday to get him to stop crying because he was cold because he won't wear the jumper I knitted for him, is a dud.

sounds classic to me

He is the Tom Haverford of dogs.