Paula89

We have a Finnish Lapphund. His coat is fairly low maintenance, just a weekly brush for most of the year. We asked our breeder for a quiet one and have been extremely happy with her choice. Kody is perfectly fine with a 30 minute stroll each day, as long as we throw his ball or do some kind of backyard activity as well. He is still very playful with our son and incredibly gentle and patient with him. I wouldn't rcommend leaving a lappie outside fulltime, but Kody has a dog door sodo can go and out as he pleases, and he chooses to spend a fair amount of time outside on his own. Perhaps its a bit of that independent spitz nature showing through, but although he loves attention he also seems quite happy to do hin thing on his own a lot of the time. He has not been difficult to train (and I.was a complete dog novice prior to getting him).

The vet who we last took Kody to (purebred Finnish Lapphund) told me that we should have gotten a cross breed because they have less health problems due to hybrid vigour. Having said that, he had to look up lappies because he had never even heard of them.

He is a Finnish Lapphund :)

Thanks ladies. I will check out Alida's pet resort and keep your advice in mind lavendergirl.

Apologies if this has been asked before, I searched and couldn't find anything. Can anybody recommend a good boarding kennel on Brisbane's southside? We will be going away for a week in a bit over a month and this will be the first time we've gone away without our boy, so I know nothing about kennels or what to look for. Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for to know if a kennel is any good? Any advice is greatly appreciated, I'm nervous about leaving Kody behind and I want to find the best possible care for him.

No, my lappie doesn't drop hair everywhere, no, he doesn't get "really hot all the time" and no, I don't have to bath him a few times a week. When he was little, I got asked if he was an alsation or German shepherd a lot. The vet nurse who was there when i took him in to get desexed was convinced that he was a German shepherd.

Yes you're right. I thought she said low shedding for some reason

Geeze lucky you they're a double coated breed who normally shed by the bucket load and once again they're a working dog.. Just my 2 cents they are lovely dogs though I'm guessing you don't have one if you think they shed by the bucketload. They do a coat blow once a year (twice for females) but the hair sticks together in clumps and isn't difficult to pick up. The great thing about the double coat is it catches the undercoat that falls out and then you can just brush the old hair right out once a week. Plus it means they smell less and don't need to be bathed very often. The rest of the time, they drop practically no hair. And they might be a working dog but that doesn't really mean much for us, Kody will happily go for days without a walk if the weather is bad.

Finnish Lapphund. Medium sized, doesn't really shed (i find maybe 1 hair on my shirt after a cuddle session), needs a brush about once a week, not too high energy (Kody doesn't mind missing walks on rainy days). They are gorgeous, affectionate lovely snuggly dogs. Once you've had a lappie cuddle you'll never go back!

Finnish Lapphund! Medium size, friendly and intelligent, don't really shed, they just require a brush once a week. Pretty darn cute too :)

Thanks bluefairy. I wonder how much floor there actually would be to clean once it goes around all the toys :laugh:

How do the robot vacuums go with items on the floor? Do they just go around them? I have a toddler and no matter how often I tidy, he has toys and random kitchen items scattered all over the floor.

You live in Brisbane and you don't use preventative regularly or do daily tick checks? Wow, you're brave, especially at this time of year. The majority of ticks are found around the head/neck/ears area. If you get all 4 fingers and slowly drag them through the fur in a marching motion, do it again 12 hours later to catch any tiny ones you may have missed. And don't forget to check under the tail and around the anus, people seem to miss that area.

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My puppy likes his crate more than my toddler likes his cot! Maybe I should swap them :laugh:

It's not a matter or whether I like it or not. I just don't take parenting advice from people who read a few sentences and think they know me or how I parent. You have assumed my son has full access to anything he likes in my house. You are wrong. And i have managed to answer the phone, front door and take showers for the last 20 months without any problems. My child is perfectly safe, but thanks for your assumptions.

Lol thanks for the advice alpha bet, but I'll take my parenting advice from people I know and trust and who know me and my son.

To be honest, the breed does change things slightly for me. But its more size than anything. For example, I would think it an overreaction if the dog had been a toy poodle or little white fluffy. But yeah, any medium to large sized breed and i think the officers reaction was the best thing that could have been done under the circumstances.

I thought I'd come and update you all. We have had Kody for a week now and he has been going very well. He slept through the night right from the start which was a pleasant surprise. We have had a few accidents inside (wees only) but by the time i got to him it was too late and he was done so i decided there wasn't much point taking him outside. So i haven't had to worry about the poo issue, although ds knows they are poos and generally avoids them in the backyard.

Of course he had his gun in his hand. He had probably been told that there were 2 pitbulls attacking a beagle. I didn't see any storming either

It was running towards the police officer and barking directly at him. If there was a large dog coming towards me like that I would be pretty freaked out too.

Imagine if you're a police officer and you get a call saying there are 2 dogs harrassing and potentially harming a beagle. You arrive to hear it screaming and it is too far away to see if it has been injured. One of the dogs rushes you. You have no training with dogs, all you know is that there is a screaming animal (and to someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with dogs it would probably sound like it was injured) and a large dog running towards you and barking in a menacing manner. I can see why his first instinct was to shoot. It's easy to say "well why wasn't a ranger or someone else called instead of the police". And someone should have been. But that wasn't the cops fault. He showed up to a tough situation with limited training and he reacted in the best way he could.

Spitzes don't shed? I should tell the samoyed down the street, he must have missed the memo :laugh:

I spoke to her. She and her daughter spend about 3 hours playing in the backyard everyday, slightly less in bad weather. She is happy for the dog to come inside while her daughter is napping, which is 2 hours in the middle of the day. Add to that walks and time her partner will spend outside after work and on weekends and it should get about 6 hours of company a day. They are also thinking about getting a second dog at some stage to keep the first one company. Only one or two of you have actually suggested breeds. I know the situation is what many of you would consider to be less than ideal but surely there has to be a breed that would handle it better than a beagle?

I don't know. You'd have to ask someone who has an outside dog.