Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Maggie is now about 5 months old and is doing great, she is doing well with commands and we checked out several places locally for obediance and found one we really liked now it's just a matter of getting her enrolled.

  She sits, lays down not only by voice command but also hand signals which I have been working with here at home..she is still has  hard time with stay but is working on it and latley I have been teaching her to turn around via voice command and hand signal she  is doing great and very very smart. 

  We just love her and everywhere we go people question her docked tail all they see is black lab and wonder why the short tail till we explain she is part Rottie and her tail was already docked when we got her..even then they get a funn look on their face..me and hubby we can see the rottie in her by the way she walks and moves even though she has no color traits of the rottie. We have taken her several places the longest so far was up to my moms which is about an hour and a half from us she did great in the car, we have had a few local street fair type things that we have taken her to and she does great in public very polite.

  I have some new pictures I just have to get them all dowloaded in my photo album to share.

 I also have one quick question can anyone suggest any good places or site that make tough durable toys for large dogs...we have a tire toy, a couple knong toys and this one that is made of some kind of canvas material that is suppose to be very durable it is bright orange and looks like a football can't remember the name since maggie chewed the label off but so far has not destroyed it.

Hello, I was on a while back as my husband and  I had been thinking about adding another dog to our family. We had been looking at purebreds and deciding what we wanted and also were very open to a mixed breed, well memorial day weekend we decided to go check out some local mixed breed pups that were for sale.  Mom and Dad were both on site so we got to meet both and Dad was your typical Black lab anyone new is a friend of his and mom was a very sweet Rotty just mellow, calm and so friendly. The pups were quite independent kind of wandered around their yard not really paying us no mind which made getting ones attention hard, so my husband got down and called to them one came running right over to us and sat down in front of hubby for some rubs and scratches and then was off again to go explore..he then again called to them and another came running over to us this one though when  you reached out to pet her shyed away a bit so we definantly did not want that one...the others seemed so into exploring so again he called one more time and the first pup came running right over so we figured that was she was ours..the big deciding factor for us though was how mom and dad acted and how the pups re-acted to someone they had not seen before and the family who had them was very nice and took great are of the pups very nice fat healthy pups.

 Maggie is doing great, she is 12wks old and already weighs 20.2 pounds our vet is guessing she is gonna be big as she has some huge paws on her his guess 80 pounds at the most.  She is very smart, has already picked up sit and lay down..we are working on stay and will be enrolling her in obediance classes as soon as we find one we like, there are two close to us we are going to go check out all they do is dog training from puppy classes up to more than just the basic obediance, we are going to go sit in on a class or two and see how it is before making our choice.

  The cats and our other two dogs have adjusted just fine, course Maggie has decided our Lhasa Apsos tail is for dragging her across the living room floor..and our Lhasa Tibet takes it all in stride and lets Maggie know when she has had enough and has been putting maggie in her place and has even backed her into her dog bed letting her know she is one the top dogs in the house and that the new puppy is not..Maggie is learning quick when tibet has had enough. As for our Black Lab/Chow/Daschund mix well he let her know on day 1 he was the alpha dog in the house and Maggie does not mess with him anymore that was settled very quickly.

  Maggie took to being on a leash great all it took was putting our Lhasa Tibet on a leash and then putting a leash on Maggie and haveing Maggie follow Tibet around the yard with lots of praise and a couple of treats and instantly she figured it out.

 It has been 7 years since our other 2 dogs were puppies so having a puppy in the house has been a bit strange doing all the potty training which is going well.

  Well thats about it for now, will update when I can.

My husband and I have turned our home over to quite a Menageri of animals and included in that menageri we have 2 dogs Dolittle is 7 years old he is a Black Lab/Chow/Daschund mix, and Tibet is 6 years old and she is a Lhasa Apso both are fixed.

 We have been considering adding another dog to the family and have been thinking about a larger dog, partially due to the fact I am home at night by myself as my husband works right now 4pm-4am, now Dolittle tries to act tough but due to the fact he is part Doxy he is vertically challenged and many strangers that have come up on our porch sales people, survey people are not bothered by him at all granted he does the whole thing showing teeth hair brissled up on his back the whole nine yards people hardly flinch at him.
Now I am not looking for a dog just for watch dog, guard purposes but a loving family member. We are looking for a dog that is large, but yet not aggressive by nature if raised with our other pets will get along ok with cat and other non canine or feline animals as we have birds and reptiles..now a few dogs have been suggested to us everything from English Mastiff, Bull Mastiff, Great Dane, even a Bouvier De Flanders..we are also limited on the breed of dog due to the fact our home owners insurance has certain dogs listed we can't have in order for them to insure us and those dogs are Akitas, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Great Danes, Chows, Pit Bulls or any dogs mixed with the breeds listed..now we got lucky with dolittle he does not resemble a chow physically he looks like lab thats been shrunk down and had short legs put on him so we got away with saying he was Lab/Daschund.

 We are not a active household neither of us jog, nor hike so we are looking for a dog that is not high energy that would be just as happy puttering around the backyard when we are out there, going for a slow walk or just being a couch potato. We are also very much trying to avoid a high prey drive instinct due to the fact we have birds and cats. Also looking for a dog that will be good with kids as we have plenty of neighbor kids who love to come over and see all our animals and I do my part and educating them on their care and their needs when they ask they are mostly fascinated with our reptiles and birds.

Our work schedules work out well my husband is home during the day and works nights, I am home at night and work 4 days a week with, so someone is always home and we live close to several relatives (all live on the same block) so someone is always able to come over and let the dogs in between my husband leaving for work and me coming home or if we are out running errands.


So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, we want to make the right decision on the right breed of dog so we are in no rush to run out and get one yet...And yes mixed breeds are also a consideration to.  Since we also have a female and male dog I do worry about same sex dog aggression now our lab mix who is male  is the more dominant dog and our Lhasa is very submissive female I have been told we would do fine with another female dog in the house.