fish are pleasent and easy to care for!
Crating - the absolute easiest and best way to housetrain a dog. Crate them at night, when you are eating, or whenever you aren't home (unless you are gone for long (> 4 hour) periods, then you need an outdoor kennel or a drop in petsitter).
I have a friend that got a puppy with his girlfriend, they stick it in a crate for 8 hrs a day, isn't that too much? I wouldn't bother getting a dog if I had to lock him up that long.
Only at night should the dog be crated that long. The idea, of course, is to teach them that they "go" outside, not in the house. Eventually, they also learn to sleep through the night (no puppy ever will though).
Slappy, who was crated as a a child, is extremely sensitive to this type of thing.
Yes, except I didn't even get any newspapers.
'course, you don't have to crate or train a chow. They "get" the idea of keeping their house clean immediately.
Soz --- remember, the costs are in the vet care & the food. The better food you give an animal, the less likely you'll have illnesses which can really run into the money. We feed what the vet feeds -- works out to (for two 45-pound dogs) about $100/month. ($40 in dry food plus $25 in canned food. Greenies for their teeth (currently on sale 54/$32) and healthy treat biscuits at $8/box.)
Also, the better food you feed, the less you will have to feed and the less poop you will get.
Our dog is a "Gerber Baby"
We feed him dry food laced with Gerber baby food (chicken, veal, lamb, beef). And as treats, those little chew sticks,
and just about every week a new stuffed animal (that talks).
chows are great family dogs. They tend to be very protective to the little ones. When I was a little farmerkid, we had a chow. My folks had movies of me really roughousing with the dog and he was so gentle and just took my play with patience and a certain resignation. I was, after all, his job.
Chows are harder to get now and they too have been overbred.
I am partial to border collies, but they do shed. They will win the most hard anti-pet person with their will. They are, however, pretty m uch a single person dog.
CJ -- nice summer haircut! A Gerber baby, huh? Good thing it is a small dog!
Our chows are very loving but they haven't been raised with kids so I wouldn't trust them alone with 'em. (I did get to see both the mom & dad & some grown siblings before we bought ours.) Our first chow was raised with our young ones & believed (like Farmerman's dog) that watching children & keeping them entertained was her duty. Now that Chows have been put on the "killer dog" list though, I'd hesitate to recommend them. Still, I think it is the truth that once you've had a chow, it is hard to go back to a regular dog.
They are different... in a good way.
my neighbor has a bichon/cocker spaniel mix. He doesn't shed and he's good with her boys. He's bigger than a cocker spaniel so he might be a good size for you. He doesn't shed, but they do get him groomed every few months. He's crate trained and still goes to his crate for food and sleep (he's now 4 years old). He does bark quite a bit, but not as much as the cocker spaniel next door to me.
I just realized that in my first post, "went anywhere they wanted whenever they wanted" followed by a cleanliness/ order comment sounds like I meant they WENT, as in peed/ pooped. That's not what I meant!! They were all housetrained, and wasn't particularly difficult.
I just meant that they like meandered, and got hair everywhere, and sat on the couch (my last dog was supposed to stay off the couch but went up there every night -- when he died peacefully in his sleep at ~10 years old, that's where my dad found him), and walked around with dirty paws, and made NON-excretory messes everywhere. They had the run of the house. I was wondering if the whole crate-training thing would help with fewer incidental NON-excretory doggies messes.
I agree with Slappy though that at some point it's like why have a dog if you keep it crated so much?
Thanks for the advice, keep it coming.
All four of us are allergic to dogs and cats, so when the inevitable subject of a dog came up with the kids, we thought we'd try a so-called "hypoallergenic" poodle. We tried on a couple of occasions and each time the pup went back to the breeder within 48 hours due to the sneezing and wheezing. We gave up for years.
The kids finally persuaded us four years ago to try again with a poodle. Mr. M. was absolutely against it, for reasons identical to sozobe's husband, and it took a lot of persuading, but he's a sweetheart and he agreed, finally, and Maxie came to live with us when he was 8 weeks old.
The allergies are a problem. We cope by washing hands or faces after doggie kisses or playing with him. That controls the welts or hives. Maxie has a bath once a week, but by the sixth day, we're sure looking forward to his bath. Also, we keep his coat very, very short. It works for us.
We'd determined to use crate training, in hopes of saving our carpeting, but didn't have the heart for it. He could not stand to be in the crate.
Aw, that's sweet, mckenzie. What kind of poodle is Maxie? What's his personality like?
I'm allergic to poodles. Then again, I'm allergic to all rodents, large and small.
Anyone ever notice that Calamity looks like a mature Lyndsey Lohan?
Woof!
He's a miniature poodle, sozobe. The standard for a mini is 10 - 15 inches at the shoulder, and he's 15 inches, and weighs about 18 pounds. He was the largest of his litter. He's big enough for our 5-mile walks, but small enough to get his exercise in the house in bad weather.
Because of the way he's clipped, he's often not recognized as a poodle. He's clipped right down every six weeks, no feathering on the ears, or poofs anywhere. Because of his short coat, grooming isn't a problem, neither is the bath. The whole process takes about half an hour.
Personality-wise, Maxie's the best dog I've ever had. (We had spaniels and a welsh terrier when I was growing up.) We were prepared for a yappy, high-strung little dog, but he's very calm and good-natured. As a breed, they're intelligent, so he was very easy to train. He's great with children. I think he sees them as a source of more hugs and pats.
Sozobe--
Some dogs beset by young children might accept a crate as a place of sanctuary (particularly if the door were left open).
Locking a mature, housebroken dog in a crate seems to me one step above chaining them outside with nothing to do but bark. A dog may be the member-of-least-status-and-clout in the family wolf pack, but s/he is a member of the family.
Also, crating a dog would say "protect the crate" rather than "protect the house and family".
