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So, the kids want a dog...
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Luckily our cocker spaniels don't need to eat too much, so we buy 1 bag of Chudleys Original which lasts about 2 and a bit months for two dogs, and is Zero VAT so it costs about £13
Then every night they have a small vegetable based chew stick, a box of 150 works out to just under £40, so far more expensive really (obviously with two dogs that lasts 2 and a half 30-day months too)
With regards to running, being from working lines and well exercised they have plenty of stamina. They are small enough to not overheat, or need much food or water, but are just large enough to be able to handle themselves on a mountainside
Would buy again
My lab is beast she's overweight, but not by much and is hovering around 40k she's just big, her whole family are. When they were 4 they all got together for a walk round bradgate park, Mum and the 9 or so puppies... was a great walk! Ours was taller than any of the others (well that's my excuse for her being fat, she has around 300g of dried dog food, an ear, and a dentastix daily), and the odd egg if the chickens have laid one in the garden and she finds it before us! She even enjoys eating the shells.
Shows there's as much variation in dogs as in people. My black GSD Nemo (6) eats 500g every evening and weighs 35 kilo, white shepherd Charly who was a year old on 15 May, is still growing and gets 600g of meat and 250g of veg and/or fruit. He weighs 32kg. Both have wonderful coats.
Get a Whippet!:
they're great with kids, really gentle and love cuddles and fussing.
Execise wise, they don't need very much; after a decent walk with some off lead time they'll generally curl up happily for the rest of the day - however will very happily run (at human pace) for an hour or two.
Short haired, so don't cast much and very clean by nature. My son has athsma so this was a consideration for us. I also wanted a dog that didn't leave hair or slobber around!
Easy to handle: I'd never owned a dog before we got ours and he's never been any trouble.
They're not as expensive as some of the more popular breeds and don't need too much feeding either.
Good luck with finding the right dog for you.
For a young family best to go with a golden or a lab. They are easy to train and aren't going to bite the kids. They also love and need excercise. You are much less likely to get dominance problems as well.
I would love a dog but can't afford one. With 4 kids in tow it would be another mouth to feed. Insurance is bloody expensive and we go away every year for 3 weeks abroad so kennels would cost me a fortune. And to buy a cocker puppy the cost is over £500.00 I've looked in rescue places but all they have there are bull terriers and staffies, I'm not getting one of these.
Dogs trust seem to have some more family orientated dogs, but they go quick if you can find your local one, and keep an eye on their pages and talk to them they can reserve say a labrador for someone when they come in.... So have a hunt around.
There were some stats published a couple of years back in the Independent. Goldens had one of thr highest incidents of nipping / biting a family member. That's mainly down to the numbers, and the perception that they are a safe breed, so having a kid crawl all over the goldie, poking its eyes out isn't seen as a concern.
Having said that, I have two. After dinner it is time for World Wide Wrestling - they operate as a tag team. I'm undefeated to date, and unscathed.
They are both quite tall males, slim build, weighing no more than 33kg each. Wrestling rules dictate their combined weight can't exceed mine.
Rescues apart, If I bought another dog today, it would be a Golden, Flat Coat, or downsize to a Duck Tolling Retriever.
I used to look after dogs. Worst long time resident was a Newfoundland - too much slober on the ceilings. Favourite was a Border Collie - full on active dog.
I'm not sure what all this focus on whether or not a dog is going to nip a child - in nearly all cases the child provokes the dog and there is no harm done. It can be a good lesson to learn as well - when you are told not to keep poking the dog because it will bite you and the child doesn't listen and gets a bite - whose fault is that!? When I was growing up our dog used to bare her teeth at us and be possessive over food and toys and I certainly felt her teeth a few times but so what? If kids think their dog won't do anything when poked, prodded, kicked etc then they might think all dogs will be the same - that's not a good lesson to learn!
Peter,
sounds like your dogs had dominance issues. A dog should not be possive over food or toys regarding a human at any rate. when our golden was young we would routinely remove her food while she was eating. Dogs are very hierarchical animals and they need to see all human members of their 'pack' including children as being above them.
I train dogs, mainly ones with behavioural problems.
ANY dog can be dog or human aggressive. The most % of dog bites occur from labs and goldies, 'family' dogs. Reasons: lack of training, exercise, boundaries. Humans babying dogs. Bad genetics. Poor socialisation in critical formative age Etc..
Kids and dogs - teach kids how to behave around the dog. I volunteer at a rescue and have had to rehome dogs which according to the owner weren't child friendly.. Neither would I be with half a pencil deep in my ear canal (discovered on vet exam) courtesy of their darling offspring.
Removing food while a dogs eating is THE fastest way to make it a bitey resource guarder.. If someone kept taking my food away as I was eating I would stab them with my fork! Better to add food to the dog's bowl while eating so he associates it with good things instead.
Plenty of cross-breeds out there and I don't mean the designer trend of crossing everything with a poodle in the hope of it not shedding (myth!) and charging £££ for a mongrel. Rescues will have suitable dogs, often with a history too, so why pay loads for a pedigree if you just want a pet?
Don't get a highly intelligent breed - collie, GSD, poodle unless you're prepared to train it. A bored GSD can destroy a room in minutes. Don't get a husky unless you're going to work it by running or biking.
Working breeds can be difficult if not trained - herding dogs are bred to nip to control stock, then some people wonder why the dog's nipping their kids when it plays. In today's Blame Claim culture a dog only has to yawn at a child for some parents to deem it 'dangerous'.
Research the breed, don't buy for coat colour or looks. Take someone with you who knows dogs. And the whole family. Don't be pressurised by rescue staff - some say the dogs got to be out in a week or it will be pts.
Never buy from a back yard breeder, no matter how sorry you feel for the dog.. You're just perpetuating their evil trade. Walk away and report them to the local authority, not R£PCA.
Check out some gun dog rescues, a lot have lovely dogs that are just gun shy and therefore 'work' failures. They make great family pets.
Feral,
We took our golden's food away regularly when she was young and now she is the most gentle dog imaginable. Our two year old niece can do virtually anything with no danger. We have never hit her btw.
SR,
Sure if you do it when they're pups there's usually no issues. I deal with problem dogs & rescues so was coming at it more from that perspective. We get ones in where owner has tried to be Cesar Milan (other TV celebrities are available) and think they're being 'Alpha' by putting food down & taking it away multiple times.. Then wonder why dog resource guards!
Most pet dogs are over-fed anyway so that reduces resource guarding.. By that I mean the dog knows it will get fed x times a day.. and will often remind owners of the time. Though if an owner withheld food for a week, and THEN messed with the dog's food when they put it down.. I think one would see a different set of behaviours...
Get a Border Terrier. Great wee dogs, will exercise as much or as little as you like, practically no health problems to speak off, fantastic with kids, not too big, reasonably long-lived.
Retrievers and labs - would go for working stock if you can as some of the pet breeders just aren't up to scratch. Only do this if you can put the time and effort in to keeping them occupied. What kind of dog owning experience do you have already?
Flat coat retrievers - nice dogs but they will die of cancer. Often quite young. Not so nice.
+1 for Labrador. We have a 9 yr old choc lab. He runs with me & we keep him nice & trim. Kids are 7 & 3 and have grown up with him. He is incredible with them and incredibly patient. Having said that, we are v strict about the kids treating our animals properly.
I'd go for a rescue dog every time. All this talk about dogs biting kids really annoys me - the kids need training as well as the dogs. If I told a child to stay away from my dog, I'd expect them to do as I ask - if they didn't then I'd be having a few words with the parents. Dogs need to be treated with respect and not mauled by badly trained children!
I have a rescue Jack Russell and he is great with kids and people of all ages. He just loves to be fussed and loved. Maybe we're just lucky with his temperament, but I'd also like to think that this is a reflection of the way we treat him and train him.
Seconded for a border terrier, lovely dogs and shouldn't shed (although ours does)...
We took ours up snowdon the other week and he was still bouncing around afterwards
I know it's been a while but we did get a family dog in the end. We have a rescue dog, about 4 years old, that came from Greece. She is a mongrel of note, looks different from every angle and is an absolute darling with the kids.
We know her history and it seems she grew up with a family but was largely ignored.
And she runs.
Nice dog Snap! I'd only recently been reading about dog rescues in Greece re-homing all over Europe. Do you have to translate the barks or are you bi-lingual?
Joking apart, we have tried speaking Greek to her but it didn't work, probably because our intonation was wrong. She learned English commands very quickly. And she still hasn't barked.
Cheers!
gorgeous......quick question....why are we rehoming dogs in this country from abroad......have we run out of dogs who need adopting
seems strange to me to ship dogs here.what with the need for passports etc for them ..wouldn't it make it very expensive
I know what you mean.
For my part, I approached a local rescue home and the dog we were after had already been re-homed. A couple of weeks later they approached us, saying they had a dog that they all thought would be a great family dog. We met the dog and really, at that point, I didn't care whether she came from Greece or not.
Anyway, she's got a good home, and most rescue organisations here won't home dogs with children under 12. And as someone else has said on here, they're all staffs. I've nothing against staffs but I see so many of them in the wrong hands, I don't want a problem one in my home. And not sure how a staff would stand up to my running program.
She looks absolutely gorgeous Snap! Congratulations on the new addition to your family and new running partner.
snap......most rescue centres won't supply adult dogs to houses with children as its hard to assess the nature of an abused or neglected dog.....
how did they satisfy you that this dog would not have any problems with young children.......wonder what tests they do
I know most recommend having a puppy if you have young children so that its doesn't carry mental scars
We lost both our dogs, a Rhodesian Ridgeback and a Springer in February (in the space of 48 hours). We now have an 11 week old springer puppy and it is giving me mental scars! It is like a furry exocet with needle like teeth. Add a 4 and 6 year old boy into the mix and I go to work for a rest!
It is so easy to forget how much hard work a puppy is when you get used to your grown up lovable old dog. You can't take a puppy running either. I am so looking forward to him calming down and being able to run on the fells with me next summer.
Snap, enjoy your running companion.
I know what yiu mean about puppies as I was horrified at the mess and destruction 2 little kitchen could do.I had had my old cat for 17 yrs and had forgotton........now my kittens are 9 yrs old its hard to imagine them climbing the curtains and destroying the christmas tree
Beautiful dog and really great that you decided to rescue. Hope you and your new running buddy have a long and happy future on the trails.