I've been two weeks home alone with my fiance and the cats but the dog went to stay with my sister. I missed her so much and tomorrow she is finally coming back! Yeah!
I really like dogs, but I'm really a "dog"person like they call it. I'm a horse person.
But my fiance really wants a dog later and I'm okay with that as long as I don't have to walk it everyday and as long as it isn't some insane expensive dog and I prefer one from the animal shelter or someone who sells his dog instead of buying a puppy from a breeder.
There are already a lot of dogs who are living on the streets, are being neglected and abused etc... so why encourage breeding by buying a cute little puppy?
Okay, if you buy a puppy you can train it all by yourself and you know it since it was a little baby but there are so many older (sweet) dogs around who can use a loving family. It's not because you buy an older dog that you don't get a strong bond...
Another thing I don't get is why people want a particular breed. Okay some dogs look nicer then other dogs but you don't have to stick to a breed. You need to try to find a dog with a character that fits you. Okay, some types of breed are know for some special things, but that doesn't mean the dog you pick has them.
Every dog is different even thought they belong to the same breed.
I was talking with an internet "friend" earlier this week and she told me about her dogs. She has two Shiba Inu's and she said the young one was so much different then the old one. She had a lot of trouble raising her youngest one because he was such an evil little puppy. And one them (I can't remember which one) has a killer instinct and well she kills everything (except cats, humans and dogs) that she can reach. I know this breed is pretty "primitive" but this shows how a breed isn't defining for a character.
The most important thing about owing a dog is: taking good care of it.
In my eyes taking good care of a dog is: give them food and love, don't leave it alone home for more than a few hours and walk it every day, no matter what the weather is. I can't think of a dog that doesn't enjoy coming outside (unless it never has learned it). All the interesting scents, the sounds etc...
I watched a episode of the Dog Whisperer last week and there was a dog, I think it was a Shiba Inu, but I could be wrong (why do I hear/see a lot of these breed the last few weeks :s), and it had developed "behavior" problems because he only got to go out in the garden. Poor dog.
The other thing that I find funny is that dogs are so expensive! 950 euro's for a puppy seems to be a normal price... and people say horses are expensive... yeah right.
I do understand why people want a particular breed. For example, we've got a golden retriever, we got him when my sister was still quite young, so we needed a dog who was good with children and wouldn't attack them. Golden retrievers are very kind to pretty much every living thing.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenSome dogs are known to become vicious once they get older, and some are simply bred for particular things; if you get a dog that's bred for fighting, defending or attacking, you can't expect the dog to be very trustworthy around children.
These are just a few examples, but people pick a breed depending on why they want a dog, whether they want a lap dog, a dog to play with, a dog to defend their house, etc. It's very, VERY important to check out some breeds before you buy a dog when you have children or other pets. Dogs from a shelter are often traumatised and not very safe, so it could be pretty dangerous. It's very noble to want to save them, of course, but then again, you shouldn't forget your own safety.
If you go and look for a pet in the shelter, the people of that shelter always know if the dogs and go with kids or so. But most dogs in the shelter are just "dumped" and not traumatized :s
BeantwoordenVerwijderenBut if you have a dog from puppy, almost every dog can go with kids/cats/... as long as you just train them well.
True about the puppy part, but people don't dump puppies, 'cause puppies are cute. Then they grow up and they're not cute anymore, so people dump them because they figure big dogs are not something for them. Dogs do get traumatized when they're dumped. They love their owners and if they leave him all at once, the dog will feel miserable and often get traumatized. Dogs get VERY attached to their owners.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenBelieve me, you need to be lucky if you get an animal from a shelter. Those people don't always know that, because there's so many dogs in a shelter and they haven't seen them in social situations yet AND they want the dogs to get a good home. Obviously they're not going to tell people "Don't take this dog, it's agressive", no one would adopt it if they did that.
We once had a 'sweet' (according to the people of the shelter) cat who had been left behind. She attacked us ALL the time, almost scratched my eye out at some point.
As I said, I definitely think it's noble to want to adopt a dumped dog, but it's also dangerous.
Well the animal shelter for wish I volunteered a few times, knew exactly what they were doing and there were no traumatized dog because they had given them time to "adapt" and work with them. Even in some cases they let a behavior expert come to work with the a certain dog that could be placed. But I'm still on the opinion that a breed doesn't say anything about a dog. I know someone who has a jack Russel and normally they aren't "lap" dogs, but that dog is.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI think "type" is more defining. Like shepherd, dogs, guard dogs, "lap" dogs etc....
But then again, it's not because it's bred as a guard dog or as a fight dog (once) that it isn't a good family dog.
Of course the breed can't define the entire personality, but some things are true for almost every dog of that breed. I'm not an expert, I don't know why it is as it is, but for example, I've never met a golden retriever or a labrador that was agressive (except for those that don't get treated well, there's a possibilty of them getting mean of course). It's just general guidelines, to have SOME idea of what you can expect.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAgree on the type :)