Golden Retriever or Newfoundland

I would love to have a Newfoundland. My husband likes the Landseer (black and white) variety. I like the brown ones too. These are huge dogs! They can be 150 pounds and I've read that they can fling doggie drool up to 20 feet!! *shudder* That and their tendency to "save" people from drowning whether they are truly drowning or not, are the only downfalls of the breed that I found. As per temperment, I keep reading, "gentle giant," "sweet," and "devoted." I think that personality wise, this breed is a fit for our family.

That said, my son wants a Golden Retriever. He thinks the puppies are "cute" and he really doesn't look much beyond that. I think that Goldens would also have a mild personality, but really, the dog we choose now will most likely be in our household past the time that my son is even living at home. Is it selfish to get the dog I want? My husband says our son can get a Golden Retriever when he buys his first house. LOL

In the dog house

If it looks like this one

that might not be so bad after all!!

Beta dog

I am the Alpha in our pack. This, I have been told, is how it should be. Now please tell me how I can get my Beta dog to quit peeing on my shoes.

When we first got Shiloh, Maggie (our then 7 y.o. German Shepherd Dog) did NOT do well with the new puppy. The only way Shiloh could get her to back off was by TOTALLY submitting including rolling onto her back, exposing the neck and even peeing. For some reason, Shiloh will still "submissive pee" when she is scolded. It is very frustrating to me and I'm not sure how to retrain her that she does not need to pee to ensure me that I am, indeed, the boss.

Shiloh does not approve

We recently removed carpet and replaced it with prefinished hardwood flooring in most of our house. Shiloh has a dust mite allergy, so carpeting has a negative affect on her little (well big) dog ears. The dog shakes her head so much it makes ALL of us dizzy, not to mention the fact that the occasional launching of grotesque dog ear wax is a very real possibility. These truths do not change the fact that dogs do NOT like to rest their weary bones on hard floors. Shiloh is contantly seeking out a soft landing spot.

This led me on a search for dog beds. There are so many cute beds out there, but not such a great
selection for 95 pound dogs.


I think I will be going with a mattress that looks almost like a real bed for the bedroom.
Like this bed, perhaps.

I hope to find a bed like this one but for larger breeds. Somebody has got to make one -

So cool!!

Half the yard is done!

I had no fun picking up the poo in my yard today, but I did read a funny email forward, so the day wasn't all bad. Here it is:

Yesterday I was buying a 2 large bags of Purina dog chow at Walmart, for my dogs Winston, Chief, Gus, and Maximus. I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. What did she think, that I had an elephant? Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I ended up in the hospital last time. On the bright side though, I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food had poisoned me. I told her no; I had stopped in the middle of the parking lot to lick my butt and a car hit me. I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard!

Choosing a breed

I love German sheperds. I had never had an indoor dog. I grew up on a farm and animals were outdoors. I did sneak Mama Kitty into the basement to have her kittens, but even Mama Kitty didn't want to be penned up inside and would just go in to tend the kittens, then off she went again. In 1995, my now husband, then boyfriend and I got a GS puppy. My first ever "live-in" pet. Maggie was like my first child. LOL Seven years later, we got another GS puppy. Two German Shepherds were a bit difficult to deal with though. Especially since we had one toddler and another baby on the way by that time.

Maggie did not like the idea of 4-legged competition in the house and was over exhuberant at putting the new puppy in her place. In hindsight, her trying to keep up with the new puppy may have led to her back injury which eventually (after extensive treatment including surgery) led to the most difficult decision we had to make.

Right now, our family consists of three children, aged 7, 5 and 2 and our 6 year old GS dog, Shiloh. Although the idea of a new puppy is appealing to me on some levels, I want to take more care in choosing a breed that may be more docile and maybe easier to transition into the family.

My son's quest for a new puppy!

My oldest will be 8 soon. He wants another dog. He has puppy on the brain, but that brain never thinks about the work of another puppy. Right now, my lawn looks like a mine field of dog poo. The snow has melted to reveal the results of a long icy winter of no poop collecting. This is all damage done by our 95 pound, female German Shepherd dog named Shiloh. I see adding another puppy in pounds of poo added to the spring yard clean-up.

At least the potty training would be easier this time around with the cool new dog door we have installed. I was scared to put one in thinking it would be COLD, but I got

this one.

Seals like a DREAM!

these guys had
plenty of doors to choose from!