advice on a new dog?

[Micro_87]

get a beagle.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

Thanks all, you responses and feedback has been very good.

@ Res-Q - I must say that I have been looking at various hounds and I think i'd very much like one. I will most likely try to train it for SAR. but of course i'd need some pointers on training them. Unfortunately, my wife doesnt want to get one because she thinks that they "look sad" all the time.

@ newfie lovers - I do think that it'd be a cool do, but I think my wife's allergies would kick up too much.

I'd love to have a husky or a HUGE St Bernard... but thats just me. there's no way were getting a fluffy or "yapper" dog like the one we have. the dog we have does very well with other dogs surprisingly... just not small ones.

any other suggestions... maybe pertaining to hound dogs?

Careful. If you get into hounds, you first need to understand how strange they are. If you are getting a hound spoecifically for SAR, realize that hounds tend to be "boxed in" in specialty. Hounds are typically more suited to trailing, although they have been trained (with a lot of work) for other disciplines. When it comes to those other disciplines, however, a wide variety of dogs can be trained depending on individual capabilities; labs, shepards, rotts, dobies, newfies, retrievers, and mutts; to name a few. If you are serious about wanting to make this dog "emergency services friendly", take a pause and REALLY do research as this commitment is 10 times more serious than just getting a dog.

 

[guardian528]

golden

 

[flhtci01]

How about a 60 mph couch potato? Look into a resuced retired greyhound.

 

[mycrofft]

A lot of great suggestions! Thanks for the thread.

I'm a beagle lover, but they do bay and bugle, so probably too loud for your apt. Needs to be able to get out and around, might do a number on your doors if not able to for their individualk temperments. Hounds are goofballs, many (esp bassets and beagles) are really big on eating trash and anything they can steal. Radar reflective dog droppings are a little scary and the vet bills can be high.

We adopted, after hours of checking and trying and multiple visits, a chihuahua mix (maybe X shiba inu?), super yappy defensive but if you hold your ground she becomes the best lap dog in the world...and a "barbie", hates to get her paws wet or go off the sidewalk.

The only breeder to buy from is someone local who just has a dog with a litter, lives in the home, family deal. Having worked with baby rapers and animal farmers, I hesitate to actually class them together, but a commercial breeder strictly keeping a dog for the money will sell you the culls or dispositionally ruined dogs just for the money. Ditto big chain stores.

Go volunteer at a local shelter, nice folks, and you can meet lots of "eligible" pups...cats, rabbits, rats, boa constrictors...

 

[WarDance]

any other suggestions... maybe pertaining to hound dogs?

The bigger hounds can be harder to train and I would generally stay away unless you have a really distinct job for it.

A Beagle is also a hound and I think a better choice for just a pet. I really can't say enough about them. A very beloved beagle was responsible for teaching me to love dogs at a young age. Plus they live a good period of time as opposed to the bigger ones. Ours lived to be about 15.

Also the pointers (german and english) could be for you if you like the hounds. They are also hunting dogs so they have some similar traits but I think they have a less independent mind set and a more willing attitude.

 

[PhilipM3]

get a beagle.

+1
I rescued my dog from a death sentence at the pound, and it's the best decision I ever made. She is a beagle-terrier mix, and the best mannered and smartest dog I have ever had.

Here she is when I got her at 5 weeks old.

And here she is about 10 minutes ago, at 6 months old. (She's sitting on a box because I just moved and havent completely unpacked yet

 

[Seaglass]

Seconding the stuff about hounds being unlike other types. You're going to need to watch out for that food drive... a lot of them will eat anything, and you get some who don't care about much but eating.

They do often take a lot of attention to train, but if you're already looking to train a dog for SAR, you'll need a ton of that to spare anyways. With bigger breeds, set limits while they're still young. If you get a nippy puppy, don't let it grow up to keep nipping. Important for small dogs, but bigger dogs can do a lot more damage with a single bite.

The stuff about the lifespan is true, sadly. Smaller will generally live longer.

 

[Mountain Res-Q]

Seconding the stuff about hounds being unlike other types. You're going to need to watch out for that food drive... a lot of them will eat anything, and you get some who don't care about much but eating.

They do often take a lot of attention to train, but if you're already looking to train a dog for SAR, you'll need a ton of that to spare anyways. With bigger breeds, set limits while they're still young. If you get a nippy puppy, don't let it grow up to keep nipping. Important for small dogs, but bigger dogs can do a lot more damage with a single bite.

The stuff about the lifespan is true, sadly. Smaller will generally live longer.

Food drive... yep! But, what I found was harder to deal with was the "prey drive", or as it should be known: the "nose drive". Hounds live by their noses, which is why they are the prototypical breed for tracking and trailing. Unfortuately, that drive can not be turned off and it will dominate their thinking (if you can call it thinking).

For instance, in SAR dogs trained as air scenting or area search are usually worked off lead, meaning that they are allowed to range out of sight of the handler as they sample the air for scent. Trailing Dogs (and Hounds typically are trailing) are almost worked on lead (a 20-30 foot leash). The reason is simply that these dogs are supposed to be on that scent 100%, and their dedication to that scent is so strong that overrides all other thinking; they WILL ignore everything else and go. My hounds, and hounds that I have been around, have all be well trained and obedient, until it come to that prey drive.

Cassiopeia, my beagle (died from Renal Failure at the age of 9), had an incident once where she got free during a winter snow storm and was no where to be found. I tracked her for about a mile (she was following deer track/scent) before I lost her track. She showed up 2 days latter. She was so intent on following her nose that she made it "god knows how far". That same nose allowed her to find her way back, but it got her in trouble due to the fact that she arrived back home bloody and bruised; probably found those deer, and they were probably not to happy. With Belle a big part of her training is conditioning; things like teaching her to "leave it" when it omes to her attention to wildlife, food, or scents that she needs to ignore. It ain't easy... hounds live for their noses.

Oh, and despite the fact that I love the sound of a good howl, most neighbors will probably want to kill you when the hound sees a critter or "smells a shadow" and starts braying at the moon. ^_^

 

[Seaglass]

Food drive... yep! But, what I found was harder to deal with was the "prey drive", or as it should be known: the "nose drive". Hounds live by their noses, which is why they are the prototypical breed for tracking and trailing. Unfortuately, that drive can not be turned off and it will dominate their thinking (if you can call it thinking).

This is true, though I've personally found sighthounds and cur breeds (which use sight, scent & hearing) to be easier to control when there's food/prey around. But if your sighthound wants to get in some trouble, they can accomplish that very, very quickly...

 

[kittaypie]

i recently adopted a yorkie from a rescue that saved her from a puppy mill. sweetest dog i have ever met in my life, and she is perfect for me. super cuddly, very loyal, and she even "smiles" when she gets excited (shows her teeth in a non-menacing way, so cute when she's happy). i am all for rescuing a dog from a foster home or the pound. it's such a good feeling

 

[mycrofft]

Lifespan versus physiognomy

DIsregarding dogs with adverse breeding (like genetically pugged or dwarfed breeds), dogs with wide chests tend to live longer than those with narrow ones. Go figfure.

 

[TgerFoxMark]

i love my black lab...sadly he thinks hes a lap dog...