Dogs - classic or dud?

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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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:

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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.

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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!

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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

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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.