So, i guess we have a dog.

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Susie570

Susie570

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Not rabbit related of course, but I wanted to share with you folks. I made the decision, yesterday, to adopt a dog. She was listed on Facebook and I sort of fell in love with her picture.

FB_IMG_1449710574211.jpg

I found out that she's a year old (turns out she's closer to two), housebroken, loves kids and other dogs (we don't have any other dogs, but that's always good to know), friendly if a little shy at first, spayed and up to date on her shots.

I asked my boyfriend about her and he, pretty flatly, said no.

I tried to talk him into it, over a few days and he finally said that I could get her if I kept her at the shop. :/ I had been talking to the owners at that point, so I contacted them and said I just couldn't do it. That was probably a week ago.

So, yesterday, the woman contacted me, begging me to take her. She said they would have to take her to the shelter if I didn't. She waived the $65 rehoming fee, but I still had to drive an hour to get her.

So, her name is Sadie. I'd love thoughts in breeds. She's taller than she looks and very thin. I'm thinking some kind of Spaniel? Her tail has the Border Collie 'j' hook thing... Not sure if any other breeds have that. Thoughts?
 
I have confirmed that she is very smart. *VERY* smart. She doesn't appear to have had any formal training, but she's quickly figured out that I'm the 'alpha' and watches me, carefully, for clues as to what I want her to do. She knows 'sit' and she will 'lie down' (from a sit). She walks politely on her leash. She pays attention when she's told 'no'. She's curious about the rabbits, but she's not harassing them. She rides very well in the car. She stayed, by herself, in the bathroom last night and the only thing she chewed up was the handle on the pull toy I got her (even though I forgot to take the trash can out) and she waited until I took her outside to use the bathroom. So far, I can't even imagine a nicer behaved dog. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. :oops:
 
Wheels":tkyer2y0 said:
Does have a bit of a Brittany (spaniel) look to her, doesn't she :) Although her face/muzzle looks a touch short and wide - Active little boogers.
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Yeah, she doesn't seem hyper at all. Well, she seems like she WANTS to be hyper, but just very self controlled. The face structure puzzles me. I always think it's fun to try and figure out a dog's background, but you truly just never know. I saw a pitbull who had been accidentally bred with a Maltese. The puppies were dead ringers for maltese. It was bizarre.

Here's a picture of her tail.

sadie_tail.jpg

And my kid with her

new friends.jpg
 
Dood":14iwzxqh said:
My guess is a Heize 52 with Cavalier spaniel and Border collie
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She does kind of have the head shape of a Cavalier, but she's much bigger and thinner, also doesn't have the long ears. It would be pretty cool if she does have Border Collie in her though, because I love BCs, but I haven't seen any evidence of herding instinct. Time will tell I guess. This is just her first day with us.

So far, the only thing she's done that's kind of annoying, is whining because she doesn't want to be behind the child gate. She's in the back section of the shop with my son and she wants 'free rein'. I want her to whine when she needs to go potty, of course, but not other times. She's not too bad about it though and maybe she'll stop when she settles in more. I'm sure she's confused and a bit nervous right now.
 
:congratulations:

I am so happy for you, but especially for your son. Every boy needs a dog, in my opinion!

She looks like she is mostly Brittany to me as well, although she obviously has another breed or breeds in her.

The length of her coat is right, and the coloring is correct, with the exception of the black pigment on her nose, eyes, and lips which should be liver in a red and white dog. The only thing other that is throwing me is her tail.

Brittanies can be born with a naturally short tail or a long tail, but their tails are generally held straight out like a pointer or setter, which makes sense since they hunt like those, not in the style of a spaniel.

As for her face being a little "off" for a Brittany; since they are primarily working dogs, you aren't going to see as much consistency in type as you would in show lines. She is probably "field bred", where ability trumps appearance.

I also agree that she may have Border Collie in her- I have seen some that carry their tail that way, although it is not "correct".

Susie570":22l3uta7 said:
So far, the only thing she's done that's kind of annoying, is whining because she doesn't want to be behind the child gate.
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That's normal- she wants to be with you. :)
 
MamaSheepdog":25tidtgk said:
:congratulations:

I am so happy for you, but especially for your son. Every boy needs a dog, in my opinion!

She looks like she is mostly Brittany to me as well, although she obviously has another breed or breeds in her.

The length of her coat is right, and the coloring is correct, with the exception of the black pigment on her nose, eyes, and lips which should be liver in a red and white dog. The only thing other that is throwing me is her tail.

Brittanies can be born with a naturally short tail or a long tail, but their tails are generally held straight out like a pointer or setter, which makes sense since they hunt like those, not in the style of a spaniel.

As for her face being a little "off" for a Brittany; since they are primarily working dogs, you aren't going to see as much consistency in type as you would in show lines. She is probably "field bred", where ability trumps appearance.

I also agree that she may have Border Collie in her- I have seen some that carry their tail that way, although it is not "correct".

Susie570":25tidtgk said:
So far, the only thing she's done that's kind of annoying, is whining because she doesn't want to be behind the child gate.
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That's normal- she wants to be with you. :)
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Thanks :) I'm not very familiar with Brittany Spaniels, I know they're working bird dogs and that she looks vaguely like the breed... both in body type, coat and color. I know nothing about their temperaments. It was suggested to me that she might have 'pit bull' in her, which would be very common around here, because of her head shape. It's possible, but I don't think so because nothing else resembles a Pit. Her jaws aren't made like that either.

She definitely carries her tail like a working BC when she's moving around. She doesn't have that slinky walk though.

I'm also pleased to see that she's a good 'alert' dog. A guy came into the shop who's kind of weird... he comes in every so often. Anyway, she was watching him carefully from behind the gate and kind of 'grrr-wuff'ing at him softly. He noticed her, but didn't say anything. That's good because she's actually large enough to make someone think twice about messing with her.

As for the whining... yeah, I know it's normal. ;) It's kind of cute, really... but she IS back there with Skye, so I don't feel too sorry for her. I just want her to understand that whining must be kept to a minimum. I don't want it to turn into a constant thing. She's being really good right now though. She's just laying in there, relaxing. :)
 
Susie570":3pxdcbui said:
I'm also pleased to see that she's a good 'alert' dog. A guy came into the shop who's kind of weird... he comes in every so often. Anyway, she was watching him carefully from behind the gate and kind of 'grrr-wuff'ing at him softly. He noticed her, but didn't say anything. That's good because she's actually large enough to make someone think twice about messing with her.
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I trust a dog's instinct ;)

DH isn't a huge animal person, although, neither am I. We don't have them just to have them, they have to earn their keep around here. The dogs seemed a bit... pointless? to him, until he heard Dave Ramsey say that they are the cheapest (OK, I know I am going to misquote, b/c I don't remember exactly) first line of defense you can own. On night around midnight some idiot fired off 5 shots by the house, our guess was shooting at something in the cow pasture from the road. Scared the living daylights out of us. The dogs were going nuts, but soon settled down. That really eased our minds because to us that meant that any potential danger had passed with the truck, that there wasn't any one lingering in the shadows. I doubt we will ever not have a dog at this point... I love the reassurance of their various "alarms" and the fact that I can tell the difference between them.
 
Something else kind of neat... one night we were gone, camping with the church youth. DH's grandma said the dogs didn't bark at all that night (compared to their usual all.night.long racket). As much as it annoys the crap out of me, their intent truly does seem to be to protect us.
 
Yeah, although I know that having her here wouldn't help if someone came in with the intention of just shooting us all, I do think that having a dog 'warning' a person will make the average hoodlum think twice about causing trouble.
 
She kind of has a bully-typey face... looks very "mug-y" in that first picture. I can definitely see the cavalier in her though, I think I see brittany spaniel too. A lot of breeds tails will do that. I had a Maremma who's tail did that too and seen lots of pyrs with it too. Seems to really just be a tail length thing and not a breed specific thing (seen britts with tails like that too)
 
She's so beautiful! I told my hubby about her and he was like "why the heck would no one want her?!" people pay good money for well behaved dogs. lol

So congrats and I hope it works out well. She's a beaut. I'm a dog groomer and I just want to trim up those cute grinch toes! hahahahaha
 
dayna":21lmj8g4 said:
She's so beautiful! I told my hubby about her and he was like "why the heck would no one want her?!" people pay good money for well behaved dogs. lol

So congrats and I hope it works out well. She's a beaut. I'm a dog groomer and I just want to trim up those cute grinch toes! hahahahaha
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Got them trimmed today! :) She had an appointment at the groomer and did very well, except she kept trying to bite the blow dryer. :p
 
Susie570":eykdyosb said:
dayna":eykdyosb said:
She's so beautiful! I told my hubby about her and he was like "why the heck would no one want her?!" people pay good money for well behaved dogs. lol

So congrats and I hope it works out well. She's a beaut. I'm a dog groomer and I just want to trim up those cute grinch toes! hahahahaha
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Got them trimmed today! :) She had an appointment at the groomer and did very well, except she kept trying to bite the blow dryer. :p
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hahahaha I use a product called "groomers helper" to stop the trying to bite the dryer. I'm glad to hear she did well at the groomers, that means you really do have a great animal on your hands! Enjoy her!
 

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