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Dogs are freaking AWESOME. (1 Viewer)

Our newest dog was featured on the site of the organization we adopted him through recently. He (Zeus) is amazing. We have no idea what his background is, other than that he was on the streets in Istanbul, and in a shelter, before coming to us, but he was very obviously a family pet at some point before that (he understood some commands before we got him though not in English and is way too comfortable on beds and couches - see the pic in the link).

The female in the picture (Abbey) we've had since a puppy, she's almost 8. She is the most ridiculously well behaved and loyal dog I've had. Last weekend we were up at the family cottage and we had them off leash to play. Zeus eventually took off next door to play with the 3 neighbour dogs. We were calling him back but he didn't give a ####, he was playing with 3 dogs! We're friendly with the neighbours, so we let them play for a bit. That's when my wife called over to say Abbey was standing at the edge of the property watching, wanting so much to play with the other dogs but knew she wasn't allowed past the treeline unless we called her over. As soon as I called her, she was so happy to join the fun.

 
[scooter] said:
I love dogs but hate the responsibility. What's a good low-maintenance dog?
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Big dogs tend to be pretty low energy.  Mastiff, St. Bernard, etc..  They don't require much exercise but you're going to end up with more dog hair/slobber/poop with them.

 
Well we made a big decision over the weekend and I am really giddy.

So I grew up with dogs. I have had 2 German Sheppard's in my life (always loved that breed and they are great) and then when I was 30 my wife and I rescued a beautiful golden colored (with gorgeous markings and 4 white socks) Pit/Lab mix from the Broward Human Society in 2000 and we named her Asia. We loved her to death. Then my son was born in 2005. I had really prepared Asia for his arrival as she was our baby for 5 years prior. After we brought home my son she was great with him. Everything was going well, but 2 months after we brought him home we noticed he started developing eczema and it just got worse, and worse and worse. We kept asking his pediatrician is it our dog? He kept telling us probably not (he had a dairy allergy as well)

When he was just over a year old we were able to get him blood tested for allergies and safely rely on the results. Low and behold he had a high allergy to dog dander. We were heartbroken. My son had cigar size burn marks all over him from the eczema. It was that severe. We had to find Asia a new home. Thank god I was able to get my brother in-laws mother to take her in. I then drove her to Elizabeth Town North Carolina and said my goodbyes to her. It was rough.

Fast forward to today. My son is 11 and has only a peanut allergy (he outgrew his dairy and egg allergy thank god). He still has though a high allergy level in his blood to dog dander. But the kid has been busting my balls to get a dog going on 2 years as he plays with his buddies dog down the street (a labordoodle) and never has had any skin issues even when sleeping over their home. I researched and researched and over the last couple of months we decided a Standard Poodle would be a great choice as they are the best hypoallergenic breed on the planet (that is actually a large dog), are highly intelligent, athletic and mild tempered. We did not want a toy breed or a lap dog. We wanted a larger breed or no dog at all. We had been looking at various breeders and pictures for over a month.

Low and behold this past Saturday we came across a 9 month year old male named Rusty. His coat pure red (more of a rustic red hence his name). He looked so cute. He picked us. We called the breeder yesterday and put a deposit on him so he is off the market. We are driving up to Lake Mary Florida the day after Thanksgiving and surprising our son. We are going to Orlando that weekend anyway to see my niece play in a soccer tourney in Disney. So fate was aligned in the stars for us to give Rusty a new home. I had a long conversation with the breeder and he told us that he is already house broken and crate trained. That he is well socialized and a sweet and highly intelligent dog. He said we will be very impressed with him. I said no doubt and we look forward to coming up to meet him. 

I already know in my heart we found our new member of the family. My son is going to be so happy. I am really looking forward to having a dog in the house again. It will complete us as a family. It's been missing for some time. If you are a long time dog owner....you know exactly what I mean.

 
Todem said:
I already know in my heart we found our new member of the family. My son is going to be so happy. I am really looking forward to having a dog in the house again. It will complete us as a family. It's been missing for some time. If you are a long time dog owner....you know exactly what I mean.
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you mean.  We had a border collie when I was growing up, then when she passed, my parents got two labs that I had til college.  I then get my own dog, Lab/Rottie mix and had her until about two years ago.  She started having kidney problems, couldn't hold her urine and actually started having a lot of blood when peeing.  Vet recommended we put her down as you could tell she was getting miserable.  My oldest son was devastated.  We then had another kid, and wife opened an in-home day care so we decided it wasn't time for another dog quite yet.  She's decided she's done with that and we started looking at puppies.  Thinking of getting two labs, one for each of my boys, and am so excited about the thought of having a dog again.  Just feels so different not having one.

 
Todem said:
Well we made a big decision over the weekend and I am really giddy.

So I grew up with dogs. I have had 2 German Sheppard's in my life (always loved that breed and they are great) and then when I was 30 my wife and I rescued a beautiful golden colored (with gorgeous markings and 4 white socks) Pit/Lab mix from the Broward Human Society in 2000 and we named her Asia. We loved her to death. Then my son was born in 2005. I had really prepared Asia for his arrival as she was our baby for 5 years prior. After we brought home my son she was great with him. Everything was going well, but 2 months after we brought him home we noticed he started developing eczema and it just got worse, and worse and worse. We kept asking his pediatrician is it our dog? He kept telling us probably not (he had a dairy allergy as well)

When he was just over a year old we were able to get him blood tested for allergies and safely rely on the results. Low and behold he had a high allergy to dog dander. We were heartbroken. My son had cigar size burn marks all over him from the eczema. It was that severe. We had to find Asia a new home. Thank god I was able to get my brother in-laws mother to take her in. I then drove her to Elizabeth Town North Carolina and said my goodbyes to her. It was rough.

Fast forward to today. My son is 11 and has only a peanut allergy (he outgrew his dairy and egg allergy thank god). He still has though a high allergy level in his blood to dog dander. But the kid has been busting my balls to get a dog going on 2 years as he plays with his buddies dog down the street (a labordoodle) and never has had any skin issues even when sleeping over their home. I researched and researched and over the last couple of months we decided a Standard Poodle would be a great choice as they are the best hypoallergenic breed on the planet (that is actually a large dog), are highly intelligent, athletic and mild tempered. We did not want a toy breed or a lap dog. We wanted a larger breed or no dog at all. We had been looking at various breeders and pictures for over a month.

Low and behold this past Saturday we came across a 9 month year old male named Rusty. His coat pure red (more of a rustic red hence his name). He looked so cute. He picked us. We called the breeder yesterday and put a deposit on him so he is off the market. We are driving up to Lake Mary Florida the day after Thanksgiving and surprising our son. We are going to Orlando that weekend anyway to see my niece play in a soccer tourney in Disney. So fate was aligned in the stars for us to give Rusty a new home. I had a long conversation with the breeder and he told us that he is already house broken and crate trained. That he is well socialized and a sweet and highly intelligent dog. He said we will be very impressed with him. I said no doubt and we look forward to coming up to meet him. 

I already know in my heart we found our new member of the family. My son is going to be so happy. I am really looking forward to having a dog in the house again. It will complete us as a family. It's been missing for some time. If you are a long time dog owner....you know exactly what I mean.
Click to expand...
you already gave up a dog and it sounds like your kid is still highly allergic.  labradoodles are well known to be hypo allergetic, so i hope this isnt masking issues.  is the adoption a trial basis to see if your kid can deal first?  

 
Chemical X said:
you already gave up a dog and it sounds like your kid is still highly allergic.  labradoodles are well known to be hypo allergetic, so i hope this isnt masking issues.  is the adoption a trial basis to see if your kid can deal first?  
Click to expand...
Standard Poodles are hypoallergenic and have been shown to be one of the best (if not the best) hypoallergenic dogs available. 

I already have talked at length with the breeder about his dog allergies. The breeder has 4 year old twin girls who also have a bad dog allergy. They have 9 Poodles running around their home with no issues. I told him if my son can't handle it can we return him to you and he said absolutely and he will help me sell him to recover my costs as best as he can.

The fact he has slept over his friends home with the laboradoodle several times with no issues is a great sign that a hypoallergenic dog will be fine. When he has slept over other friends homes with coated shedding (high dander) dogs he has come home with some rashes. 

So I can see the difference.

My hope is everything will work out, and I am highly confident it will. We will know within 2-3 weeks of bringing him home. It won't be a situation of getting the dog settled and 6 months later we have to bring him back. It either is going to work out or not and it will be pretty fast knowing if it will.

 
Tackling Dummies said:
Dog goes to 11 on his trick
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I don't even know how you get to this point.  Love to see a step by step on how he got to the final product.

Update on my dog, got a few months ago.  Still dealing with submissive peeing, but getting better.  Current work around is to walk in the door, ignore her, walk directly to the back yard and play with her there.  Sometimes she still pees a little, but at least it is outside, so who cares.

She's an awesome dog so far.  My first dog (which was an adult when we got him) was a serious wanderer, and never really bonded with the family.  He would get out of the fenced yard if you turned your back on him for a second.  Inside, he wanted to be in the same room, and be fed, but otherwise didn't really care to play, or if you gave him attention or not.  Farrah, the new pup, is extremely different.  She loves everyone in the house, and is super excited to see everyone come home (the main correction we need to make is to keep her from jumping on people when they walk in the door).  She is very smart, in multiple ways.  First, she likes to learn tricks (as long as she's being fed).  We can get her through the steps of learning new tricks, but once we get to the point of not rewarding with a treat each time, she loses interest.  However, if you try to get her to do something later, she will remember and do it.  Also, she generally knows what she's supposed to do or not.  She's never bitten/chewed anything she's not supposed to (11 months old or so now, we've had her a few months) despite loving to chew and destroying any dog toy we get her.  "Give" her something and she goes crazy for it, but she doesn't touch shoes, or even my youngest' stuffed animal collection (though I don't think I'd leave her in his room unsupervised).  We have a basement we close off to her since it is unfinished, and not really dog safe.  We have a child gate up at the top of the steps.  Twice she's gotten down there when someone didn't close the gate behind her.  She's comes right back up after being called and hasn't gotten into anything.  I've left the gate open multiple times just to see what she'd do and she doesn't try to sneak down.

Best of all is she is not a wanderer.  We have a smallish area in the back yard I use to exercise her mainly (tossing a frisbee, chasing each other, etc), but haven't let her off leash outside of it much.  I have started experimenting lately.  Yesterday, instead of walking through the house to go to the back yard, I just let her out the front door and walked to the gate to go to the back yard.  She followed right along without running to the wild.  A couple of nights ago she was stick to her stomach.  Before I figured it out, she was pacing in front of the door.  This is not her normal sign to go outside but I was going for the leash anyway.  She stacking hacking like she was about to puke so I just opened up the door and got her outside.  She yakked a little in the driveway, then walked to the grass and yakked a little more.  Then she trotted right back to the house with me.  Old dog would never do that.

 
Ok. I've always wanted a big dog. Anywhere from Husky to St Bernard. Wife wants a dog that won't leave hair everywhere. What are my options cuz I don't have vast knowledge on dogs. 

 
Annyong said:
Ok. I've always wanted a big dog. Anywhere from Husky to St Bernard. Wife wants a dog that won't leave hair everywhere. What are my options cuz I don't have vast knowledge on dogs. 
Click to expand...
Standard Poodle.

Males get up to 70 pounds (our 10 month old male is 46 pounds and growing). They are very smart, easy to train and as long as you exercise them (at least two 30-40 minute walks a day and if you have a yard for them to run around in that is a huge plus, otherwise take them to a dog park once a week as well). They are mellow and very loyal. Great with kids, great with people as long as you socialize them early (like any dog). They also love to swim. He has jumped into the pool a few times and has had a blast.

We are now going on 3 weeks with our Standard Poodle ("Rusty" as his coat is apricot red) and he has been a joy. No shedding at all. My son has been great with him (he has dog allergies) no issues at all with dander or hair everywhere.

We are so happy.

We keep him groomed with a puppy cut...not those crazy styles you see at dog shows. He looks like a normal, shaggy dog. Brush him once a day, bathe him once a week, use de-tangle spray after each bath after we blow him out. Takes about 30 minutes a week to keep his coat looking great and clean. We will take him to be professionally groomed every month (we don't want to deal with shaving and cutting hair).

I also want to retract what I said using the term "hypoallergenic". No dog is truly hypoallergenic and that term is misused. A dogs saliva carries the enzyme that people are allergic too. Those enzymes also keep their skin balanced and when it dries it flakes and falls off as dander.

Since Standard poodles do not shed they have little to no dander. However after a thorough licking session all over my sons face...he started to get little red bumps....so now we know he needs to wash up after Rusty licks him. 

So as long as you know how to mange your dog allergy your good. My son has a skin allergy reaction, not the traditional nose head and throat (environmental). So as long as we keep rusty groomed and clean (which we do) and our house clean (which we do) he has been able to manage the licking thing LOL.

It's been a joy. We are so happy to have a dog again own our lives.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree - standard poodles are great, fit both your criteria.  Do keep up with the grooming, though - it's very worthwhile to learn to cut dog hair, saves a lot of money.

If you decide to learn that, I strongly recommend an Oster Turbo A5 clipper.  We dicked around with crappy Wahl models from the pet stores for a few years before stepping up and getting the right tool for the job.  It makes a huge difference.  Yeah, it's $100 for the clipper, but it's ~$40 each time you pay to get it cut.

 
my new guy is almost a year to his "gotcha date".  likely from being out on his own for a bit, he seems to have a strong flavor for eating other dogs' poo.  our walks are good, but he is on the sniffout for logs when he can.  when he grabs one, I have to grab his snout and open his mouth and pull out the poo, which is bad enough.  my neighborhood has a pool and parking lot and grassy area.  we walk here a lot.  I think young adults park here sometimes in the evenings for privacy.....so we are walking and yup, he grabs something in his mouth, I pull it out and it's a condom.

I can't really shower enough right now.

 
My pup is doing well, but she doesn't love the snow.  She will go out and go potty fast and look to go back inside right away.  Going number two is a little different, as she usually needs to run a bit to get that worked out.  When it was warm out, we'd do walks and she take care of it then.  Since the snow came, we mostly get her exercise done inside.  But, yesterday she needed to jog down the street a bit.  About four houses away she was finally ready and did her business.  I cleaned it up, and then tried to get her to go back to the house.  She did this little hop thing where she was trying to keep her back paws off the ground, both at the same time, and it obviously wasn't working, and she wasn't getting anywhere.  I wasn't bundled myself as I thought it would be a short trip, so I just picked her up and carried her back to the house (she's only 30 lbs).  Once inside I got a towel and got the snow off her legs and tried to warm her paws.  Once done she was devouring me in "kisses."  It was pretty funny.  She might have just wanted to play but I'm thinking she was thanking me.

Time for some doggy boots I guess.

 
Bull Dozier said:
My pup is doing well, but she doesn't love the snow.  She will go out and go potty fast and look to go back inside right away.  Going number two is a little different, as she usually needs to run a bit to get that worked out.  When it was warm out, we'd do walks and she take care of it then.  Since the snow came, we mostly get her exercise done inside.  But, yesterday she needed to jog down the street a bit.  About four houses away she was finally ready and did her business.  I cleaned it up, and then tried to get her to go back to the house.  She did this little hop thing where she was trying to keep her back paws off the ground, both at the same time, and it obviously wasn't working, and she wasn't getting anywhere.  I wasn't bundled myself as I thought it would be a short trip, so I just picked her up and carried her back to the house (she's only 30 lbs).  Once inside I got a towel and got the snow off her legs and tried to warm her paws.  Once done she was devouring me in "kisses."  It was pretty funny.  She might have just wanted to play but I'm thinking she was thanking me.

Time for some doggy boots I guess.
Click to expand...
some dogs hate the boots, if they can't feel the floor, they get schizo.

 
Chemical X said:
my new guy is almost a year to his "gotcha date".  likely from being out on his own for a bit, he seems to have a strong flavor for eating other dogs' poo.  our walks are good, but he is on the sniffout for logs when he can.  when he grabs one, I have to grab his snout and open his mouth and pull out the poo, which is bad enough.  my neighborhood has a pool and parking lot and grassy area.  we walk here a lot.  I think young adults park here sometimes in the evenings for privacy.....so we are walking and yup, he grabs something in his mouth, I pull it out and it's a condom.

I can't really shower enough right now.
Click to expand...
I hope you are not cooking tonight.

 
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