kelpiecuddles

Thanks Christina. Temperament wise I'm not worried about my dogs. Bassets being a pack breed are generally quite accepting of other dogs and Josie is very gentle but as I say they can be boofheads and not look where they are going. My children are also well trained around dogs and by that stage they would be 12, 10 and 7 so old enough to understand the need to be careful. Max who the dog is for is very quiet and gentle, he just wants a little friend as a companion.

Silky terrier he'd probably quite like. he's never met one but I might add it to my mental list and we'll try to hunt some out at a show at some stage. ETA: He definitely wouldn't be able to pick up a petite, like I say in hindsight I don't think it's his sort of dog so much. Unlike my other two children he's very quiet, softly spoken and can be even a bit timid at times. I think he'd love a little lap dog to be part of his little life and sit with him in his room, etc

Maybe not 9 weeks but I managed to convince the obedience school I had one of my dogs in to put her up to the advanced obedience class at 14 weeks where she was frequently used for demos. She was a very smart little pup who learnt quick. I'm often at the other end of the stick where people assume I'm exaggerating when I say things as simple as that my basset hound keeps up with my kelpie in play, I frequently get laughed at when I say she can run just fine and runs down the beach with me quite happily. I now have videos kept on my phone for the specific purpose of proof for the doubters :laugh:

oooo, now that's one I can't believe I hadn't thought of! There is one around here that we met a few weeks back but he didn't want to chat(had a bad experience a long time ago i the show ring and was a nervy dog sadly as a result) so I sent the kids off the play to give him some space while I chatted to his owner. He was a cute little guy though. Or a fauve. Hopefully Trisven might wander in and give an idea of whether they might suit temperament wise. Still probably bigger than he would like LOL(pretty sure he wants one he can pick up and carry around :laugh: ) But he might have to compromise on size for the sake of safety Although in hindsight this is probably me projecting what I like in a dog on him, he didn't show much interest in the petite we met.

Height wise bassets at least aren't much taller than many toy breeds and are generally very gentle but they do have a bit of a tendency to not really look where they are going when they are in play mode and I guess that would be my main concern. I guess though that could be managed somewhat. I think beagles would be too full on for him, a mature well trained beagle he'd be OK with but he is easily overwhelmed by a boisterous dog, even our own dogs I can sometimes see a hint of nervousness in his even though he knows they won't hurt him or jump on him. Obviously I'd be doing much of the training anyway but it needs to be a breed that is quiet enough and small enough for him to bond with it as 'his' dog, it would sleep on his bed and be generally spoilt. :)

I think the cav shedding would do me in unfortunately. I'm an asthmatic and two breeds that really setme off are goldies and cockers and I would imagine a cav coat would be quite similiar?

We will always have bassets and maybe down the track a bloodhound or two, they are mine and my husbands breeds of choice and my oldest son and my young daughter as well :). Interestingly my younger son(who strangely, given the large number he lives with, can be quite nervous around animals in general) has expressed an interest in showing a dog of his own but is quite taken with tiny dogs like chis. He's 7 now and I'm thinking around the time he turns 10 we might get him his own dog to show if he is still keen but I wasn't sure what breeds might suit. Preferences for me are minimal coat maintenance(brush out OK but not clipping) and not too excessive in the shedding department. Personally I'm not a huge fan of terriers although I may be convinced. I also like dachshunds but prefer the standards and I think this is bigger than he would like. He frequently talks about chis but I am concerned they wouldn't be robust enough amongst a group of boofhead hounds although we will have two separate yard areas so I'd be interested to hear from people about how they manage chis with larger breeds. Any other toy breeds that may be more suited that I could maybe point him towards would be great.

Agree with everything said here. We are pretty much the opposite on paper of what would be considered 'ideal' (young children, two with behavioural disabilities, full time workers in the past and will be again next year once our youngest starts school, busy lifestyle and renters) but we have two well loved and well adjusted dogs who have proven themselves as wonderful pets and one has done high level obedience and even had a part in a doco and the other is about to complete her training for pet therapy. As far as dogs go they are about as well adjusted as you can get and it really shows that no matter what your lifestyle may be like you get out what you put in to raising and training your dogs.

Yep, soon all the people with brindles will be flogging them as rare because there'll be so many blues out there LOL

Lost Golden Retriever Murphy who went missing in Tahoe National Forest in california has been found safe and well 20 months after going missing http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2666353/Couple-reunited-golden-retriever-lost-two-years-forest.html

I actually just bought a crate not long ago but it's turned out to be a little small and it was 3 times the price of these, wish I'd seen these first

She's so tiny! I know nothing about cresties, is she within the size range you could expect with cresties or is it likely she has chi r something in the mix? (Wasn't sure whether when you mentioned you tracked down the breeder nyou were talking a proper breeder or a BYB)

Wow just saw how cheap they are, think I might have to get a couple!

haha yeah would probably be like the pop up tent I have that has never gone back in the bag! They do look good although very light weight so only for dogs who are very well crate trained if you know what I mean.

They don't slow down here either, the time I got sick I pulled 4 off myself in August after a Saturday spent gardening and happened to miss one that I didn't find until Thursday after i started to feel ill. She's very well, been thoroughly checked over and no signs of any issues. We nearly lost the (indoor) cat to ticks after she snuck out the front door so please don't think I don't understand what may happen, despite how my previous post sounded we are very careful. It's also one of the reasons I don't have long haired dogs, not prepared to take the risk here in a high tick area, i like to be able to more easily check them over.

Thanks. I couldn't find my spay bottle this morning so i haven't done it yet but just found it now so i'll give her a good spray now. I'm almost certain there are no more but just to be safe in case there's one hiding somewhere. I know it takes about 4 days for a paralysis tick to start giving an animal real trouble so having got the first one off within 24 hours and spraying her within 48 hours we should be fine. I became very ill myself from one once but it had been on for 5 days before I found it(it was very small)

I'm in a little bit of a bind. i found a tick on Josie tonight, only small and I got it off straight away, probably a souvenir from walking yesterday. I've thoroughly checked her over and found no others but would like to spray her with permoxin to be on the safe side. Only problem is that I have to bath her tomorrow afternoon. So I'm just wondering whether anything knows how quickly Permoxin works to kills nasties and how well it washes out? I'm thinking of giving her a good spray with it when I put her outside in the morning and leaving her outside for the day if the weather is nice and then bathing her in the afternoon, will this be enough time for it to kill any ticks that are on her or is it a waste of time? I don't have any spot on plus there's really no point this close to a bath ETA: just to be clear I can't bath her first as she need to be groomed for her pet therapy assessment Wednesday morning so she can't be covered in chemicals.

Oh then not really no :laugh: That said I do pick Josie up quite a lot, to put her in and out of the car, so that a person with less mobility can pat her and smooch her up close, lifting her up so she can say hello to my neighbour over the fence and so on

Josie isn't big, only around 23kg. Although a lot of people say to me that they are big dogs when they see her and then I tell them she's a small basset. that said if I were keeping her in 'show condition' she'd be closer to 24-25kg. I certainly don't feel like I live with a large breed when you consider that she is shorter than my 17kg kelpie.

Huski do you find the syntek ones rub at all or are they nice and soft? I'm almost considering getting an orange one and putting it aside for down the track if my dog is out with SES but needs to be OK with the loose neck skin. (hope you don't mind me derailing a bit Steph)

Given I presume this was prompted by discussions in my thread I'll share what i have already done as it may help others. How do you get to know the breed standard and different lines to figure out what you want I have tracked down various resources that break the breed standard down and examine the different parts of the standard, what those parts mean in relation to the dog as a whole and why they are important to the structure and purpose of the dog. My first dog was well researched and I have been extremely pleased with her health as a result. This time the pup will be more than a pet, it will be a working animal as well so I have specifically researched lines that tend towards the more athletic end of the standard. I have also enjoyed a number of discussions with the breeder I have chosen regarding different aspects of the breed to better understand. Breeders - sorting the wheat from the chaff Over the past 7 years I've 'followed' a number of breeders looking at where they were going with their dogs and their breeding and narrowing it down to those who i felt were operating in a way that meshed with my needs in a future pup and who I felt would also be supportive and helpful to me as someone moving further in to the breed. . How to convince a breeder you are "safe hands" for a show prospect I have been talking to this breeder for well over 12 months already and following the progress of their dogs. Ultimately I would hope that he has seen my commitment to the breed in the discussions we have had. In the end I haven't actively requested a pup but he has asked me if I would be interested if the litter works out as planned. What does "show prospect" mean and dealing with pups that don't turn out as well as expected. Well obviously show prospect means just that prospect only. As said though this will be a working pet so while I will show it won't matter if for some reason I can't (and if for some reason he couldn't work then he'd just be a loved pet) Dealing with disappointment - no litter, no gender you were after, no testicles etc, no pup for you In my case patience is a virtue, i know what i want and as I said I haven't actively sought out to ask this breeder for a pup but have been offered one, if one isn't available to us this time then it will be next time or the time after that. If you want something very specific then you have to be willing to wait.

Little Gifts my understanding was that they owned the dog from a rescue background, not that they were fostering it. Hiding food is great mental work in our house, really helps. As far as physically tiring stuff my kelpie will play fetch all day so I taught her to put the ball straight in to my hand and when i was heavily pregnant and my children were babies i could just sit in the yard and throw the ball.

I saw a thing about the winner, apparently it's a rescue dog and is a cruelty case that was burned by it's previous owner as a pup. The dog is apparently well now and recovered but is missing a lot of hair as a result. As for that man holding the crested like that

Yep no way have I ever spent that much. Bedding has been $2 blankets from the op shop until they were older and then they got second hand shell type beds(which were actually given to me by a lovely DOLer but even if not I would have hunted some cheapish ones) which are still lined with blankets from the op shop. Main costs for us first year were desexing, vaccinations, worming and food. 1 collar and lead(buy the largest collar that will go down small enough to fit so it lasts longer), a car harness and a crate if you plan to crate train. I used blackhawk puppy which would last months for a pup that size at $80 for 20kg (I feed two med-lg dogs for 6 weeks on one bag). Cheap toys from kmart, etc I think it's a bit like having a baby, you can go out and buy the ridiculously expensive $1500 pram that Beyonce uses or you can buy a simple lay back from kmart for $40. What I have mentioned there are what I would call the essentials. Work out what you want to do in terms of unexpected vet bills. Some like to have insurance, I choose to have a credit card set aside for the purpose(so far we are well ahead even if we ended up with a vet bill of $5000 or more). Over and above that it's what ever extras you want, you can feed your dog in an old tupperware container if you want, it won't care, but do you want a fancy bowl or a collar with more bling, etc, they are extras you will pay more for.

Yes I'd be getting out in the yard and doing some on lead training with him while the kids are playing to essentially desensitise him too the excitement and get him out of the habit. Keep him inside and send the kids out to play, then put him on his lead and lead him in to the yard and do on lead activities to hold his attention(sitting, heeling, etc, etc) just in a little area as far as possible from the kids(if he's really excited the first day might simply be to stay near the back door and ask him to sit a few times). Each day repeat gradually getting closer and over time once he is remaining calm on lead progress to asking tasks of him off lead. If he becomes worked up you've gone too fast so pull back and work at the last level of success before moving forwards again. Take him back inside on the leash once you are done so he doesn't get an opportunity to bark which will undo your good work(cos it's fun!).