Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: muckmaw on October 05, 2003, 10:18:28 AM
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I always get great advice from you guys, and I thought you might be able to help.
I promised my daughter when she was a little older we'd get a family dog.
So here we are, trying to figure out what breed would be best.
We've got a good sized, enclosed yard, and my daughter is almost 4.
The dog would be alone from 9-5 mon-fri.
After that we'd get him plenty of exercise.
I was thinking of a Jack Russel Terrier, or a Lab.
I don't want anything too big or too small. (No girlie dogs!)
Anyone know about the Jack Russel? Can you recommend another medium sized smart dog that's good with kids?
Thanks in advance.
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If it's going to be alone through the day, I'd go with a Lab. They have a good temperment and are great around kids. Just make sure you do some training when it's real young. I started training both of my dogs when they were only about 7-8 weeks old and they pick it up fast. Once you get the basics...sit, lay down, etc, they are easier to deal with. Don't know much about Jack Russells, everyone I've seen was hyper as ****. I got a chocolate Lab and Border Collie....whatever you do, don't get a Border Collie unless you have lots of time to spend with them. They need lots of exercise and need to be challenged with work and stuff or they like to surprise with gifts...like eating your cell phone and remotes :)
Don't think you can go wrong with a Lab, but you should probably get a Lab pup checked out by a vet for hip dysplasia before you get it.
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dalmations r good medium sized dogs cause i got one and he sleeps all the time when i'm on the computer, but when it comes to gates thats where the problem comes in. he always jumps the gates. and when ur not home i suggest locking the dog up somewhere where he can't tear anything up
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Labs are almost impossible to beat. But, study it before you buy. Labs can be docile, mellow and just a happy to be here dog. Or they can be a hunter, and somewhat hyper till the get older.
For small dogs, I grew up with Scottish terriers. Great kid dogs, smart, they don't shed and great personalities.
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GO with the Lab, our family has always had them and raised them. Well only black labs that is, best dogs IMO for the family security and are great with kids. Hope you have water near by, otherwise if you don't plan on taking him for swims a couple times a week that is just cruel ;)
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2 breeds that you may want to consider are Golden Retreivers or a Basset Hound. Both are great dogs around kids. Best advice I can give is if you're buying from a breeder go see some of the folks that the breeder has sold a dog to and check them out. DO NOT BUY from a pet store, many if not most animals in a pet store come from "puppy mills" and are usually very poor in quality. Best thing to do if you're not set on a specific breed is to visit your local SPCA and "rescue" a pup or dog. If your heart is set on a particular breed there may be a "Rescue Society" in your local area for that breed, such as Greyhounds etc. Hope this helps and g/l !
(http://home.villagephotos.com/2003-6/9433/pics/Zoe.jpg)
P.S. She was a pound pup
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Lab here. Loving and enjoyable, but might be a little too big for a little girl to handle. Especially in the "puppy" stages. Used to own a miniature schnauzer. Great little dog with a big heart and tons of brains.
Do Not get a herding dog ie. Australian Shephard or the like. They are incredibly smart, but require an equal amount of attention. If he's home alone for 8 hours a day he will find something to do.... if you know what I mean.
I got my lab from the pound. Lots of great dogs in there.
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/ah_94_1057871605.jpg)
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One other thing you might want to look into is the breeding of the Black lab. There breed has been destroyed since the 80's. Everyone wanted one and breeders did their fair share in making up for it. Look into the dog's lines beforehand, if you are getting one from the pound don't worry, and to be honest that is where I would go first. I have three cats and a Norwegian Elkhound, the cats I got from the pound minus one that I found in my pool shed. The Elkhound has been a complete terror until he turned 7. I highly advise not getting one of these breeds with children around. Super Intelligent, problem solving breed with a chitload of energy and a bark that will drive you insane. All in all a great dog "now".
Stick with the lab lol.
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Heheh...
Problem solving breed....
So THAT's how the can opener works!
I'm going to go over the the animal shelter today and pick one out.
I really want a lab now, but my wife is saying it's too big for our house!
I don't get it. We've got a 3 bedroom house, that sits on 6000 sq feet of property. (Granted not a farm, but nice size for Long Island)
ANyway, I'm trying to convince her that a female lab would'nt be THAT big.
BTW, do they shed like a nightmare??
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My brother and his wife have a Jack Russel Terrier. A ton of character and a really cool personality... but devious as hell. Not recommended if you're not going to be around from 9-5, as they want a lot of attention and know how to really mess yer toejam up if they feel slighted.
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Labs are good, but in my opinion the best child breed are Boxers.
Need less manteinance (short hair), they are not as energetic as labs when young, labs can get too big too soon and they are pretty strong, so they play kinda rough, which can be too much for a small kid.
Boxers are the sweetest breed you can imagine.
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My friend had a boxer. He was sweet, but a little unruly, and not that bright.
The dog, not my friend.
Then again, he did not do try to hard in the training dept.
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As a JRT owner I would have to advise you against getting one.The dog would be miserable alone in a yard for 8-9 hrs and would no doubt destroy your yard tunneling out or digging for imaginary prey.A brown or black lab would be a far better choice. Also you might consider the German shepard rescue association. Finding a dalmation to adopt might prove futile as the ones for adoption usually have a bad charactor flaw from breeder inbreeding. I love my jack but she has not always been in my good graces. :rolleyes:
Good luck and don't rule out the hienz variety, some mixed breeds tuen out to be quite a good choice.
RafBader
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JRT's, austrailina shepards, and collies are out, all too damn hyper, when left alone during the day they will tear your yard apart.
labs are always good.
I've had the best luck with chow-pitbull mixes. very good with kids, very clean, level headed and stable. but if you're asking about breeds on a bbs then you probably don't have the experience to train them properly so it would be a bad pick. also many obedience schools wont take pit-bull mixes as they get bad publicity, and don't always get along with other dogs.
I'd go with the lab if I were you, reasonably smart, cooperative, and fairly forgiving of mistakes made in training.
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For a small girl, I would recommend a beagle.
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My buddy has a jack russel terrier... fun dog, but he's alone all day while my friend is at work. He likes to chew things, everything from couches to linoleum floors. He knows to stay off of the pool table, so they are trainable. I don't know if it's the breed or if it's because this dog is from the pound that causes him to be a bit unruly.
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it's the breed.
Furious is right though, I completely forgot about beagle, excellent dogs for kids
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Well i have a border terrier and i would reconmend them because they are great with kids and they are medium sized (15-25) but they are active dogs which need exercise everyday. One of the bad things though is that they have to be "stripped" every 6 months. Stripping is were the outer hair off the dogs body is literally pulled off so that all tha remains is the soft inner layer plus they hardly shed at all!!!!!!! They are more obidient the russle terriers!
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I've had 2 of the breeds suggested here.
Labs are good dogs..but remember, they may be docile and very popular, but they also grow to a decent size and do have appettites. Their body hair also tends to smell rather strongly when wet...and labs LOVE to get wet.
Dalmatians I'd not recomend. They are good companions but they are very destructive. If you get one, expect to replace lots of items in your house. If it fits in their mouths, they will chew it. This includes your daughter's toys and shoeware.
The breed I'd recomend is the Boxer.
Very noble dogs, very protective of children. They are small to medium sized, dont eat very much, easy to train. Short hair means your wife (or you actually) wont have to pick it up from your carpet (and lets be honest, the dog WILL go inside your house more times than you want.. because you will let the dog in ) or off your clothes. Best of all the Boxer is very playful even when they are very old.
When I was a kid my first dog was a boxer. She lived with us for 16 years, and on her last day she was as active and playful as when she was a puppy. We had a lab which had a temper (and attitude).. was an excellent guard dog and loved to play catch... the dalmatian we had to give away before it chewed what was left of the outside of the house (we had almost an acre of land as our 'front' and 'back' porch, the dogs were rarely let in the house...but my sis and I snuck them inside whenever we could).
And i hear you can speak German to a Boxer and it will understand you. So you can get yourself a copilot when you take off in a waffleride :D
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Corgi.
(http://corgi.ncn.com/ALBUM/members/images/ClassiJump.JPG)
They are smart, herding dogs. They are not weiner dogs. They're basically small german shepherds.
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Originally posted by Nash
My brother and his wife have a Jack Russel Terrier. A ton of character and a really cool personality... but devious as hell. Not recommended if you're not going to be around from 9-5, as they want a lot of attention and know how to really mess yer toejam up if they feel slighted.
This is probably true during the first year or two. I've got two Jack Russell Terriers. You absolutely must put them through obedience training. They are head strong and stubborn, but they also have a great personality.
With regard to children.. hit and miss here. My first Jack (the one in the background) won't put up with any crap from a young child. He has no patience for it even though he's the "quieter" of my two. The second (foreground) is absolutely fierce. He thinks he weighs 150 pounds, but at the same time, he very calmly puts up with all sort of toddler abuse.
(http://dotdoubledot.com/img/jrt.jpg)
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Definatly go to the pound, I don't know what kinda dog you should have, but the pound is the best place to find a friend.
The dog picks you...
Go with gut feeling aswell. How you feel with the dog.
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Don't know if it's good to leave any dog alone for hours at a time.
Maybe it might be best to get two.
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Originally posted by SaburoS
Don't know if it's good to leave any dog alone for hours at a time.
Maybe it might be best to get two.
Most people I know who have dogs work.
*shrugs*
I went to the animal shelter. Nothing grabbed me...aside from a cute little lab...well..not so little. I was considering her as a pet until she showed she did not have such a great temperment.
Growled and got a little vicious there.
Oh well, the search goes on. I'm thinking beagle.
The JR looks like great fun, but I just can't give it the attention it needs.
Thanks for all the help! You guys rock
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I've had 2 Collies over my short life ;) You can not go wrong, with their witt's and smartness. You can not go wrong. Their are two breed's a Smooth-Hair and a Rough.
My current dog is a Smooth Tri-color. My frist one was a Rough Blue Merle
This is a smooth and is a Sable & white
(http://www.collieclubofamerica.org/images/jordan.jpg)
This is a rough Tri-Color.
(http://www.collieclubofamerica.org/images/johnson.jpg)
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Hey you cant go wrong with a Lab;)
there great with kids.
And there smart dogs that learn fast.
I have Akitas and would recomend one to you but you said you where leaving outside 9-5 and they hate being alone(would destroy your yeard LOL).
LAB all the way. good luck.
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For what you're saying you need, tell the shelter that when some young pups come in, give you a call. If the parentage is known, and their small, just take a pup and raise it.
Some of the best dogs I ever had when young were mongrels. Seems like they were all pretty smart and would love the snot out of you if you just showed them a little love.
Get a kennel (6x10) and get a dog crate. When you're not going to be around either kennel it or crate it if in the house. Leave it plenty of chew toys and "jolly ball" type stuff. When you are home, exercise it and play with it.
Leaving a dog loose in the backyard or house when you're gone all day is not a good thing for you or the dog.
My .02.
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Maybe it might be best to get two.
very bad idea. don not get more than 1 puppy unless you have a fully trained adult dog for them to learn from.
my neihgbors bought 7 chihuahua puppies at the same time. the most horible thing I've ever witnessed. 3 years later and they still don't have one trained or even disciplined dog, just a wild yapping pack of oversized rats.
most dogs are fine with a bit of alone time. but you should spend some time (even 5 minutes) playing with or walking the dog before you go to work or you are in effect leaving the dog alone for 20 or so hours a day (bedtime to arive-home time)
also spring or early summer is the best time to get a new dog, it makes house training much easier. you'll have a hard time teaching a dog that going outside is the prefferable method if it's cold outside. so if you get them in the spring you have 6 months or so for the training to sink in before outside becomes uncomfortable.
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Not that I'm trying to push a Collie's :D
Heres a link where you might find a collie shelter where a family might have had to give up there dog for moving issues & such.
http://www.collieclubofamerica.org/rescue.html
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Wouldnt a cat, or a rabbit or something be more suitable if you intend on leaving it alone for so long, so often?
8 hours a day, 5 days a week alone? As a puppy? That dog, no matter what breed it is, is gonna present problems.
After all, you arent it's 'master', just some dude who shows up at what it will see as his/her house every so often. Sure, it'll be glad to see you and all, just dont expect much obedience from it.
What you are talking about is increasing the size of your family by one, not just 'buying a dog'......dogs take a whole lotta time and love, just like kids.
Treat a dog just the way you would your own children, and you will end up with an obediant, loyal, loving, great fun pet and best mate, who would lay down his or her life to protect you or your family or property without a second thought.
Treat it like a dog, ie, chained or locked up for long periods of time, and you will end up with a canine, of dubious loyalty, and most probably rather annoying habits (like eating your mobile phone/ TV remote, digging out the wife's favourite rose bush, tearing your laundry apart etc.)
Anyway, just thought I'd throw my 2c in....be fair to the animal, would you like to have been left alone all day chained up while you were growing up? What do you reckon you would think about the person who did that to you? Do you think a dg is all that much differant?
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Boxers are great. They are the best dogs to be with children - very smart, tolerant, have high pain threshhold.
At the same time boxers can be real vicious when protecting your kids.
They weight about 70 lb.
Boxers are a unique breed in that they do not lose their playfull puppiness with age. A 3-year old lab is a bore, not so with a boxer.
Contrary to popular opinion, boxers do not drool - as long as you do not feed them off your table or tease them with food. If you spoil them by throwing them fod off your table, they will be sitting while you dine and waiting for food - drooling puddles.
Short hair of boxers does not mean they do not shed like any other dog (also depends on what you feed them). It's not so bad especially if you have strategically selected colors for your carpet. But forget walking barefoot on that carpet - a dig's short hair enters your foot like a steel splinter.
Jack Russels are the breed I love second most, though I never owned them. Consider getting a pair - this way they will not go crazy while staying home alone. you will actually have less trouble with two of them than with one dog that is driven psychotic by loneliness and starving for attention.
miko
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"They are the best dogs to be with children - very smart, tolerant, have high pain threshhold."
That is so true. I am ashamed to even think of all the stuff my sister and I did to our boxer when we were little. :D . never a growl or nip or bite or even a bad look. just pure play. Gawd i miss that dog.
"At the same time boxers can be real vicious when protecting your kids"
When I was 14 and my sis 11, we used to have a gardener working at our (rather big as i said before) 'yard'. This guy had found one of my sister's dolls she had left outside... one of those cry-if-you-tilt-them dolls.
All I remember is my dad going outside when we heard the boxer snarling and growling in a way we had *never* heard in our lives (and never heard it since)... and coming back inside with my sister's doll. Apparently the poor gardener had picked up the doll, it had begun to cry, and the guy tried to make it stop crying by flipping it around a few times.. and the dog saw him. Now this was a doll my sis played with a LOT since she was like 5 (and we got the boxer when sis was 3). So in my mind i can imagine the boxer, having seen my sis play with a crying 'baby' for years, then this guy treating the 'baby' in a hostile way... well, *groowwwll* :mad: :p
That gardener asked us to put the boxer inside the garage and close the garage door when he was working in our yard from then on. Kinda funny that this guy was more afraid of the rather small sized, little teethed boxer than the big black labrador that kept him under watch the whole time he was working in the yard.
Get a boxer! You wont regret it :D
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I'd go with the Lab... They will tolerate just about anything a kid will throw at them without ever biting. They are awesome dogs.
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My 2-year old is a vicious little monster when it comes to torturing a dog. He would persistently pull on the dog's ears (they are not cut), stomp on his feet and run him over with a bicycle time after time - that in between petting and hugging and licking each other's faces. The dog would cry out and even growl and feign a snap at the boy - but never break his skin or scare him.
At the same time one minute of roughhousing with the dog leaves me swearing and bleeding from multiple wounds - and I used to train attack dogs...
Nevertheless, the dog would never stay in the room alone, even if he really wants to sleep - he would always follow people and subject himself to torture...
I am prertty sure that an average boxer would be less likely to snap at a child than a Lab or even such icon of nanny-dog as Collie.
miko
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Originally posted by muckmaw
Most people I know who have dogs work.
*shrugs*
I went to the animal shelter. Nothing grabbed me...aside from a cute little lab...well..not so little. I was considering her as a pet until she showed she did not have such a great temperment.
Growled and got a little vicious there.
Oh well, the search goes on. I'm thinking beagle.
The JR looks like great fun, but I just can't give it the attention it needs.
Thanks for all the help! You guys rock
You might also want to consider the border terrier. They dont howl like beagles and they are better with kids then russle terriers. these are hunting dogs originally were used to hunt foxes in the fox dens. I would highly recomend these over the beagles
here is a link for more info:
http://www.petsmart.com/aspca/dogs/border_terrier.shtml
(http://www.petsmart.com/aspca/dogs/border_terrier.shtml/border_terrier.jpg)
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I had a Choc. Lab for 13 years. Great dog, smart learns fast. If you insist on a dog you can't go wrong.
But I have to say this in all seriousness, I just had to put mine down, One of Hardest damn things I've ever had to do. It will happen to you, fact of life, we out live them. I had my dog before my boy was born he was only 2 years when I had to do it, he doesn't remember much about him, thank God.
Your girl is 4 now that means around 16-18 years old you'll be dropping that on her. Just a thought. As a dog owner I don't recommend dogs to anyone.
The day my boy asked for a dog, will be the day mommy get allergic.
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The Centers for Disease Control study dog bite incidents, including the types of dogs most likely to bite. The breeds that the CDC considers highest risk are pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, huskies, Alaskan malamutes, Doberman pinschers, chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards and Akitas.