Best dog breed for me?

[Harris5]

Quote:
Actually, my Boxer does not drool. She is sitting in the picture waiting for my attention. I was consistent with her from the very beginning that I expected her to sit patiently and behave when she wants affection. She does 'box' with her front paws, but the 'sit' rule solves that when she is near me.

Like you said, it is all about what you are willing to compromise with on the dog you choose. Good luck in your search!

 

[Xtina]

Quote:
Canidae. I've always had them on a high grade food, but Max in particular is a big shedder. ... Because I'm unwilling to crate him, that means that I accept that every time I come home, I will come home to something eaten or broken in the kitchen. .

Why in the world won't you crate him? It doesn't sound like EITHER of you are happy when you're gone. Crate him and let him relax.

If he's shedding that much, SOMETHING is wrong health-wise. Dogs just don't shed that much if they're healthy. Not the tufts like that. Either he has a thyroid issue or Addisons or he's got a problem absorbing the nutrition in his food or something. Thyroid would be the first thing I'd check, and I'd switch his food and add an oil supplement. You can use Mrs. Allen's Shed Stop or Linatone or just a good mix of oils poured over his food. If that didn't stop it I'd consider Addisons or Cushings. It's also possible that he's screwing himself up somehow by eating garbage, which would also be helped by crating him.

That's interesting. I'll have to look into that. The vet has never told me he has a problem and I've never heard that shedding is an indication of anything. If I didn't vacuum, Max would release a dog's worth of dog tumbleweeds every week.

Max has historically had a horrible case of separation anxiety that makes him start acting out in neurotic ways like licking his paws till they bleed, jumping more than normal when he gets let out, and so on. I crate Marla because I started her crate trained as a puppy and she endures it well with no problems. But Max is a different case and because he wasn't started that way and has other emotional problems, I find it more humane to deal with his scavenging than to crate him. It's just too difficult for him.

 

[Xtina]

And God forbid the dogs ever get stressed out about anything...then they start losing tons of hair. At first I thought it was my imagination, but if they go somewhere in the car, or we're in the vet's office, they'll just start dropping hair.

 

[Xtina]

Quote:
Actually, my Boxer does not drool. She is sitting in the picture waiting for my attention. I was consistent with her from the very beginning that I expected her to sit patiently and behave when she wants affection. She does 'box' with her front paws, but the 'sit' rule solves that when she is near me.

Like you said, it is all about what you are willing to compromise with on the dog you choose. Good luck in your search!

You really have a beautiful dog. I can't tell you how much I love boxers. Sometimes I feel like even though I can't explain why, I just don't think a boxer would be happy living with me. And that instinct I believe is really important.

 

[welsummerchicks]

The dog is probably so stressed out when you're gone because he isn't in a crate.

Amazing how that works.

A house is like being out in open country, lots of stimulation, lots of strong scents, lots of decisions to make. A crate is like a den. It's secure and calms dogs down so they don't stress so much.

A dog shedding 'a lot' isn't necessarily 'abnormal' or a 'sign of stress'. Some dogs just have a lot of fur. Dogs with a lot of fur need to be groomed/lightly stripped every few days, so there isn't excess hair floating all over the house.

 

[purr]

My friend had a Airdale, Dixie. Her DH was coast guard and they started out here Northeast moved to Maryland and then to Alaska so weather wasn't an issue. She didn't bark alot was very protective of their 3 daughters , didn't shed or druel. And with walks every day was medium energy

 

[turney31]

Basenji

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Yep, I applaud you for putting a lot of thought and learning from your previous experiences into what you want in your next dog. All dog owners know their dogs aren't perfect and they love them anyway, just as you do and will. I thought of poodle when I read your post but I don't have much personal experience with them.

X2

However,

And the barking? Well, I'm starting to feel like it's sending me closer to a heart attack every time they have an uncontrolled barking fit. I want good guardians, but I also want them to listen when I say "that's enough." Sending up the highest alarm howl for the cleaning lady that comes over every day, who they've known since puppies, is just too much. Especially if I have a sleeping baby.

It seems like your interests are not so much about a "breed" but rather about an "individual dogs training", yet you are unwilling to spend much time to train them? Unless you get an already trained adult from somewhere who matches your criteria, you are ALWAYS going to have to train a dog. The above sounds like training issues not breed issues.​

 

[welsummerchicks]

You're right. It sounds like training not done. Unless the next dog is trained, t will be just as much a 'bother' as the current dogs, regardless of breed.

 

[Xtina]

I've always blamed myself for my dogs' bad behavior. But in the last year or so I've started to change my mind. I've spent years researching the problems I have and implementing the solutions, excepting only the ones that are so far outside of what could possibly be implemented in a normal household as to make them impossible. This is what spurred me to even apprentice for a dog trainer (a very well respected one) and to pursue a retail dog training job. I'm not the most accomplished trainer: basically I'm great at teaching puppies basic commands. But what I did learn over the last ten years is that a lot of a dog's traits are innate. This really started hitting home when I started interviewing people about how to teach a dog to heel off-leash. I knew what I had been taught in formal school and I knew I wasn't even close to accomplishing it with my dogs, so I set off to ask as many people as possible who I saw walking their dogs off leash. The overwhelming answer was, "I didn't train him to do it, he just was born knowing it." A lot of them went a step further to say "My other dog could never do this." Most of them cited breed differences as the reason.

So I took it further and started interviewing people about their dogs' good behavior when it came to incessant barking or getting into the trash. Again, same answer. "I didn't train him to not bark. Breed X (whether it was boxers, dobermans, whatever) just doesn't bark that much." "I didn't train him to not jump on the counters; he just never tried it." The same thing goes for me. I didn't train my dogs to not kill chickens. They just don't do it. I'm pretty sure that if I brought other dogs into the mix, they couldn't be trained not to kill chickens, because it would be in their instincts.

No one is as ready to blame me for my dogs' behaviors as I am. I've been doing it for years. And it's really self-evident that a lot of these problems are just in each dog, when I think about the fact that I've never been able to train Max to stop jumping, no matter how consistently I do what the trainers recommend, but I did the same stuff with Marla and she stopped jumping very young. Same thing goes for peeing. I didn't have a hard time housebreaking Max, but Marla at age three, I can't really call her housebroken. She peed right by me the other day for no reason. I let her out a million times a day.

As far as whether Max would stop being stressed if I crated him, I guess I wasn't clear there. He is stressed when I crate him, and not stressed when I don't. It's just that when I don't, I have to make sure the house is perfectly free of any garbage in a can or bag before I leave and that there are no dishes in the sink..and I stink at that so he always gets something. The dog knows how to open cupboards and the oven and jump baby gates as well. It's just an example of how dedicated I am to keeping my dogs. In order to keep my Max the way he's happiest, this is what I have to go through. So I do. For ten years so far. Any normal person would be put off having dogs after him. Me, I'm pretty sure I won't ever live without dogs again.

Sorry if I sound cross. I have beat my head on the wall for years blaming myself and trying to be consistent, follow the training advice and fix their problems. I've had to let go and realize that it's not all my fault. Some, or even most, of this is dependent on the dog. There are two parties involved in a training relationship, and I sure made my share of mistakes as a first-time dog owner, and different mistakes as a second-time dog owner, but it's NOT all my fault.

So moving on from the self-defense...I think Airedales and Basenjis are good suggestions. Thanks guys. Does anyone have a medium-sized schnauzer? Do they bark as much as the mini schnauzers do? I don't want a giant one because they really intimidate me for some reason.