small dog question

[DerekP Houston]

no dog sleep outside at this house!!

Same here, though we do kennel them at night. Just replaced most of the carpet to laminate and if we don't all you can hear is clicking nails on them walking all over all night still.

They did serve their purpose last night and alerted me to take a walk around. Heard 5-6 fairly distinct bangs...way late and past fireworks season here. So, I took a lap around the block to see what was up. Only people I saw were the sketchy neighbors outside who claimed someone else was setting off fireworks...but no smell of gunpowder, no firecrackers in the street or anyone else outside. Still seemed weird and kept me up awhile. I did see a sherif take off to a different end of the subdivision....just....weird feeling for awhile.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Here is a feline one. There is a possibility of a substitute cat creeping in at some point, but some of it is undoubtedly true. Of course Unsinkable Sam couldn't strictly be called a hero. He just got wet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsinkable_Sam

[Ithaca Gunner]

no dog sleep outside at this house!!

Not unless I sleep outside with em!

[frank505]

What about a border terrier? I'm looking for a smaller dog than my beloved German wirehaired pointers. Something that can hike with me and warn us of bears etc. A fine companion someday...

[Ballistics in Scotland]

What about a border terrier? I'm looking for a smaller dog than my beloved German wirehaired pointers. Something that can hike with me and warn us of bears etc. A fine companion someday...

That should be extremely good. They don't have a troublesome temperament, and are better at running and long-distance walking than the shorter-legged terriers. They vary greatly in trainability - which isn't the same as intelligence, as like most terriers they tend to have firm conviction that you like them the way they are.

A healthy border terrier tends to be very healthy, and long-lived, but the breed does have quite a few inherited health problems. Their have increased greatly in popularity in the UK in recent years, and might be increasing in the US now. As I said earlier, that is a situation in which it is a good idea to look for an AKC accredited breeder scheme, check up on the breed association policies, see the puppies early and with the mother, and check the pedigree for excessive inbreeding.

In the US they are subjected to trials in synthetic underground burrows, with cages of protected but no doubt anxious rats. Parents which have done well in this might be worth looking for.

I believe it is an exceptionally trained border terrier that you can see in the 1943 "Lassie come home", the movie in which Elizabeth Taylor hit her peak. That dog seemed far brighter than the temporarily transgendered male collie which played the leading lady. I showed that movie to Saudi students who had been made to come in on a weekend to keep the course validators happy about contact hours, and they got quite sentimental about Lassie's puppies.

[jlchucker]

Nothing wrong with cats in my eyes, just aint the same as having a dog. Oh and my wife is allergic to cats...though her name is Cat....funny to me!

Agree wholeheartedly. I have two--an 18 pound yellow tom, and a 10 pound solid black female. Both are neutered. They have unique personalities, and although I got the black one some years after the tom, the pecking order was established with one quick right paw after they first stared at each other for a moment--and big ol' Skippy was no longer the ruler of the roost. They get along fine. I never was much for those little yappydogs, until I spent a winter in Florida with a lady friend who had one. I don't recall his breed--a little white furball with floppy ears and a bark that would pierce eardrums. When she brought him to my house, that dog had no experience with cats, and barked excitedly at my little black cat, who was lying on a low shelf. She just looked at him until she figured he'd barked long enough, and then two very quick right-paw swipes and the dog shut up and hid behind his momma. A few minutes later, all critters were no longer strangers, and got along pretty well. The cats stayed home, and the dog went to Florida with us, and I got to like him quite a bit. Not exactly a pit bull, but he was a dog who would bark and growl like something way bigger than he was. His kind made for a great pet, and he got along with other dogs of all sizes for the nearly 3 months we were wintering a miserable winter in a great place to be in the winter.

[jlchucker]

My suggestion is to go to a shelter i have a lab German short hair mix comes in right at 60 pounds that we rescued from a shelter one of the best dogs that I ever had

When I was growing up, our family dogs as well as those of most neighbors were mixed-breed dogs. All sizes and who knows mixed with what. Purebread dogs are OK, but mixed breeds, raised with affection, can be every bit as good or better than lots of purebreds. If someone is looking for a pet, and wants a dog, the shelters are full of nice dogs just waiting to be rescued (or sadly, put down for lack of someone taking them home).

[toallmy]

Yes Sr a good American mutt is a darn fine buddy . I have had home made , and store bought doggies unless you are bragging to your friends , or after a special trait eather will be fine .

[Lloyd Smale]

one good thing here in our shelter is dogs are never put down. They stay until there adopted or die of natural cause. I know that that's where I should be looking and if I found a pup there id grab it but I'm a bit nervous about an adult dog. I'm sure theres lot of good ones but theres also problem dogs there. Am I sharp enough to tell the difference? Probably not. Also this dog is for my son and its his first and theres a bond that's formed with a puppy, training them right from the start that I don't want him to miss out on.

When I was growing up, our family dogs as well as those of most neighbors were mixed-breed dogs. All sizes and who knows mixed with what. Purebread dogs are OK, but mixed breeds, raised with affection, can be every bit as good or better than lots of purebreds. If someone is looking for a pet, and wants a dog, the shelters are full of nice dogs just waiting to be rescued (or sadly, put down for lack of someone taking them home).

[toallmy]

Lloyd here is a picture of my girls watching for me to come home from work .

[pmer]

I didn't read all of these yet but we have a 23lb or Boston Terrier / Rat Terrier mix that is pretty relaxed and well mannered. Bostons are laid back dogs. Ours can hunt, he mouses and can climb trees but that could be the Rat side of him. Another good house dog would be a 40 ish lb pitbull like a well bred runt of the litter. I had a bigger pitbull years ago and she was one of the best farm dogs we had.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Here are a couple more military dogs. This one didn't have to be conscripted:

https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780...rsonality-rats

There were lots of Catholic areas in Northern Ireland which weren't particularly hostile to British troops. But South Armagh, and in particular Crossmaglen, were a particularly bad place, and the Crossmaglen sangar, a word inherited from Afghanistan in an earlier age, was a wired fortification. Rats was a stray who wandered in, attached himself to the soldiers, and took to going out on patrol. He knew his job very well, and was a valuable ally, for he could smell guns, explosives and guilty intentions. Soldiers rotate, and he wouldn't go out with recent arrivals until he knew who he could trust. He was partially blown up twice, but it didn't seem to bother him.

The IRA actually put a price on his head, both because of his military value and because (I joke not) he was an Irish dog, and therefore a traitor. On one occasion a woman tried to run him down with her car. It is a long-term characteristic of the country to hate informers much worse than overt enemies, and my Irish nationalist friends could talk to me, a staunch Empire loyalist, as they never could among their own. The second priority on finding a garbage-bagged body on a country road (after determining whether it was booby-trapped) was to find out whether it had shoes on, as that meant a soldier, policeman or loyalist, while informers underwent the sort of interrogation that began with their shoes off. So Rats was eventually retired to a secret address in the UK, like witness protection.

Bobbie was also a scruffy mongrel, but he accompanied the Berkshire Regiment at the disastrous battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan in 1880. He appears to have been present when the last eleven fit men charged the enemy to give the wounded (in fiction including Sherlock Holmes's friend Dr. Watson) a chance to get away. He was brought back to the UK and introduced to Queen Victoria, at much the same time as Cetshwayo the Zulu king, whom she also appears to have liked. Unfortunately Bobby was run over by a hansom cab and killed the following year. I've seen him in the regimental museum in Salisbury, where although being stuffed might be considered a misfortune, he has an immortality which many a Victorian government official might envy him. The apparent difference in colour from the photographs of the dog the Queen met can be explained by the orthochromatic photographic plates of the day. The medal he wears is probably that of an unknown soldier, despite the myth that he was decorated by the Queen.

http://www.thewardrobe.org.uk/resear...earch/q:bobbie

[Ithaca Gunner]

[toallmy]

I love it giving him a raspberry .

[kmw1954]

My choice. In loving memory of Roscoe. This was the morning before we had to put him down. He was almost 12 years old.

[shoot-n-lead]

My choice. In loving memory of Roscoe. This was the morning before we had to put him down. He was almost 12 years old.

I feel for ya'...

Sorry you had to do that.

[Lloyd Smale]

your putting tears in my eyes again!

My choice. In loving memory of Roscoe. This was the morning before we had to put him down. He was almost 12 years old.

[44man]

Mine is pure Pekinese. Most laid back and loves everyone. Not snippy at all. The fear is she will be stolen so she is never loose and always on her leash. She will run to everyone but does not like strange dogs. I take her to my neighbors with two border collies and they get along fine.
Neighbors drive by and I have to pick her up so she gets petted, She will whine to do it. Paper lady, mail man. She loves all. Everyone here loves the little poople.
I ask if she want's to go see mike or Sheryl and she runs to the Polaris. She watches squirrels and deer and loves chickens. We can go 10' from deer.
I don't know what it is because most of her breed are nasty. Dogs know when there is love or bad feelings. Pete does not like dogs much since he works long hours and will not get his son one, but when he comes over, he scoops her up and she will be on her back on his chest and he does not want to put her down. My dog goes crazy when any friend comes over. She knows all by name too.
Don't fear little ones.
I don't teach my dogs to do anything. Just want a hug and to hold them.

[44man]

your putting tears in my eyes again!

Me too. So sad it can't be put into words.

[NavyVet1959]

I don't know what it is because most of her breed are nasty.

My parents had a Pekingese many years ago in their later years... Mean little bastard... To trim his claws, it took two people and one person had to be wearing thick gauntlet type welding gloves to hold him while the other clipped the claws. More than once I kicked him down the hallway when he growled at me because I came too close to his food, toy, or whatever else he had protective issues with. With all that hair, they slide really far... Actions that people would not put up with for a minute with large dogs just get ignored by some people with the small dogs.