Oxymoron or Morons? Both or Neither? Me?
- Thread starter keg11
- Start date
Silaria
Forums Sage
(Oops.. this turned out a bit longer than I intended.)
Wow! I got very lucky when dealing with my local Sheltie club and my breeder. I didn't have any issues at all with either; if anything I gave them more problems because I was looking for a 1 - 2 year old and not a puppy. (I ended up with a 7 month old who was already crate trained.)
Before contacting ANYONE I spent months on line researching the the various breeds I had shortlisted for my new dog. I knew I wanted to do agility and I didn't want a large breed dog; 40 lbs was my limit. Whatever breed I selected had to be fairly easygoing because we had a 15 year old Finish Spitz (who is now 17) also. Research into temperments quickly narrowed my list down to 2 - the Eskie and Sheltie.
As my luck would have it, our local dog show occurred in the middle of my search so it was a great opportunity go to and talk to breeders and agility handlers to help narrow my search. (Turns out most of my talking was with the agility handlers.) By the end of the day, I knew I wanted a Sheltie and was fortunate enough to have one of the local breeders at the show introduce me to the person responsible for putting people in touch with breeders with dogs for sale.
When I spoke with her, I explained that I preferred a male dog with sable coloring but was more interested in the temperament of the animal than the color. I was also upfront that I don't have a fenced in yard but the dogs are never outside unsupervised and we lived at the very end of a dead end street with minimal traffic. I also made it known I was interested in performing with the dog in agility. Finally, I made it know had experience with intelligent dogs having already owned a Malamute and currently had a 15 year old Finish Spitz.
About 2 weeks after the show, I was told about a then 6 month old male mahogany sable. As I mentioned above, it took some convincing to look at the puppy because we really wanted an older dog. When asked why I was honest - we didn't have time to stay home and house break a puppy. This is when we learned the pup was already crate trained and had not had accidents in the crate in a few months. The crate training is what made us look and I'm SOOO glad we did because I'd have missed out on my dear little boy.
Anyway, I was put in touch with my breeder and talked to her a few times on the phone in great detail before making arrangements to visit and see the pup. The fact that she allowed us to bring our Finish Spitz with us to see how they'd get along was a feather in her cap.
I still correspond with my breeder; in fact I just saw her and her pups the other day. (My husband fell in love with Edan's sister, CJ.) Her dogs not just show dogs, they are her pets first and she always has their well being in mind.
Wow! I got very lucky when dealing with my local Sheltie club and my breeder. I didn't have any issues at all with either; if anything I gave them more problems because I was looking for a 1 - 2 year old and not a puppy. (I ended up with a 7 month old who was already crate trained.)
Before contacting ANYONE I spent months on line researching the the various breeds I had shortlisted for my new dog. I knew I wanted to do agility and I didn't want a large breed dog; 40 lbs was my limit. Whatever breed I selected had to be fairly easygoing because we had a 15 year old Finish Spitz (who is now 17) also. Research into temperments quickly narrowed my list down to 2 - the Eskie and Sheltie.
As my luck would have it, our local dog show occurred in the middle of my search so it was a great opportunity go to and talk to breeders and agility handlers to help narrow my search. (Turns out most of my talking was with the agility handlers.) By the end of the day, I knew I wanted a Sheltie and was fortunate enough to have one of the local breeders at the show introduce me to the person responsible for putting people in touch with breeders with dogs for sale.
When I spoke with her, I explained that I preferred a male dog with sable coloring but was more interested in the temperament of the animal than the color. I was also upfront that I don't have a fenced in yard but the dogs are never outside unsupervised and we lived at the very end of a dead end street with minimal traffic. I also made it known I was interested in performing with the dog in agility. Finally, I made it know had experience with intelligent dogs having already owned a Malamute and currently had a 15 year old Finish Spitz.
About 2 weeks after the show, I was told about a then 6 month old male mahogany sable. As I mentioned above, it took some convincing to look at the puppy because we really wanted an older dog. When asked why I was honest - we didn't have time to stay home and house break a puppy. This is when we learned the pup was already crate trained and had not had accidents in the crate in a few months. The crate training is what made us look and I'm SOOO glad we did because I'd have missed out on my dear little boy.
Anyway, I was put in touch with my breeder and talked to her a few times on the phone in great detail before making arrangements to visit and see the pup. The fact that she allowed us to bring our Finish Spitz with us to see how they'd get along was a feather in her cap.
I still correspond with my breeder; in fact I just saw her and her pups the other day. (My husband fell in love with Edan's sister, CJ.) Her dogs not just show dogs, they are her pets first and she always has their well being in mind.