Narrowing down dog breeds (retriever, terrier, or Aussie)

[Debby in france]

I have two dogs, both totally different.

Alfie - a Havanais; smart and incredibly loyal a true companion dog. His idea of heaven is me with a book curled up on the sofa with h8m next to me.

Ben - a golden retriever; dim but also incredibly loyal always wants to play. Life just gets in the way; balls rule his life. His idea of heaven is me with a ball and the chucker.

 

[ShrekDawg]

I have two dogs, both totally different.

Alfie - a Havanais; smart and incredibly loyal a true companion dog. His idea of heaven is me with a book curled up on the sofa with h8m next to me.

Ben - a golden retriever; dim but also incredibly loyal always wants to play. Life just gets in the way; balls rule his life. His idea of heaven is me with a ball and the chucker.

They both sound like great dogs!

 

[Debby in france]

Spoilt !

However, with a view to getting a dog. I can’t help but, sadly, think that you need to consider the health issues that are related to each dog nowadays.
Alfie is a strong robust dog, very little in the way of health problems. We have had him for five years and the only vet appointment other than vacc. Was for dirty ears!
Ben, however, eats everything and at nearly two years is on first name terms with all who work at our vet. Sadly. Ben is our second golden retriever, lucie, our first we lost to liver cancer when she was seven years old. Very common amongst spayed females. When we got Benjamin we did a lot of research into his blood line and haven’t had him neutered.
Getting a new dog ... lots of consider !

 

[ShrekDawg]

Spoilt !

However, with a view to getting a dog. I can’t help but, sadly, think that you need to consider the health issues that are related to each dog nowadays.
Alfie is a strong robust dog, very little in the way of health problems. We have had him for five years and the only vet appointment other than vacc. Was for dirty ears!
Ben, however, eats everything and at nearly two years is on first name terms with all who work at our vet. Sadly. Ben is our second golden retriever, lucie, our first we lost to liver cancer when she was seven years old. Very common amongst spayed females. When we got Benjamin we did a lot of research into his blood line and haven’t had him neutered.
Getting a new dog ... lots of consider !

Yeah, sadly Goldens seem to have a lot of health problems. looking for healthy, long lived lines helps but some of it just seems inevitable.

Havanese seem like great little dogs though.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Do you think they can learn tricks and/or do agility?

 

[Debby in france]

Do you think they can learn tricks and/or do agility?

That depends how patient you are lol,
Alfie is very fast to learn and remarkably obedient for my dog !
He has non allergic fur but as he doesn’t moult he needs grooming. A lot ! This can be done by a Toilettage (sorry forgotten the English word) or you can do it yourself which is a lot more fun. Alfie is very patient considering some of the bad hair days I have forced on him.
He is very gentle and gets on well with the golden, three cats and our chooks. Secretly the girls chase him and scare him but I wouldn’t say as it would embarrass him lol

 

[Debby in france]

Do you think they can learn tricks and/or do agility?

Groomers or poodle parlour sorry I forgot. Not Toilettage which is French.

 

[ShrekDawg]

That depends how patient you are lol,
Alfie is very fast to learn and remarkably obedient for my dog !
He has non allergic fur but as he doesn’t moult he needs grooming. A lot ! This can be done by a Toilettage (sorry forgotten the English word) or you can do it yourself which is a lot more fun. Alfie is very patient considering some of the bad hair days I have forced on him.
He is very gentle and gets on well with the golden, three cats and our chooks. Secretly the girls chase him and scare him but I wouldn’t say as it would embarrass him lol

Groomers or poodle parlour sorry I forgot. Not Toilettage which is French.

That's okay!! He sounds amazing. I found some videos of some doing agility, pretty impressive lol

 

[ShrekDawg]

I also found this. So smart and cute lol

 

[ShrekDawg]

This one is like lightning lol, other vidss I've seen they're usually pretty slow

I imagine it takes a lot of time and training to teach all those tricks and agility though lol