Hello from Connecticut!

Hello from Connecticut here!

I am a twenty-three year old college student in my senior year of an Animal Science program. My focus is animal behavior. I own a successful pet sitting business and occasionally (though not currently) take in foster dogs. I have two Border Collies and a Xoloitzcuintli of my own right now.

I bought four mice (Shirley, Temple, Madonna, and Cher) at the beginning of February and have been enjoying learning about them ever since. As it turns out, one of the mice was pregnant when I purchased her. She has since had her beautiful litter of five! This has peaked my interest in breeding show type mice. Though I am not particularly fond of showing dogs (I am more of a "working type" person- I prefer to have dogs bred for their original job rather than bred to walk around a show ring), I find the concept of showing and breeding mice to be rather interesting.

I have a particular fondness for reds and texels.

I am looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Welcome Welcome!

Xoloitzcuintli are amazing dogs! I saw the one in Westminster last week and they are stunning!!

Looking forward to meeting you at RF!

doganddisc wrote:
I have two Border Collies and a Xoloitzcuintli of my own right now.

Welcome to the forum! What do you do with your Xolo working-wise? I was under the impression that they were bred to be companion dogs (although they look like they could be neat agility dogs).

Thistlebrook, the Xoloitzcuintli doesn't do any work. (Unless laying in front of the fire place is work!). He came from a hoarder in New Hampshire so he is a foster failure. I had a friend call me up and say that she had a Xolo and a Chinese Crested that needed a place to go. Ironically, I do herding breed rescue. I seem to keep ending up with hairless dogs though, because one year after the Xolo and first Crested, I ended up with another Crested!

Welcome. New Jersey here. I lived in Ct. when young. Windsor Locks, when Bradley "International" Airport, was just a landing strip and 1 hanger. LOL Am I revealing my age? Enough of that. Welcome!!!

Welcome! My boyfriend's family is from CT.

Lunalady, I am right next to Windsor Locks, in Windsor actually! Minutes from Bradley.

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome!! I am in Northern NJ, right by NYC!! I can't believe you have a Xoloitzcuintli - they are a rare breed and in my opinion, very stunning. I have three dogs myself - a red nose pitbull, a pitbull boxer mix, and a german bred german shephard. My shephard is a working bred dog who I am going to start training for agility and search in the spring. He is a year old and under contract he was unable to do any agility work and such until a year old per my contract with his breeder. So yea - I prefer the working dog over the show dog as well. lol

I am also in animal medicine - a Licenessed vet tech. And I do cat rescue. lol

Anyway..... welcome to the forum!! Everyone here is very friendly and you are guareented to learn alot!

Kawmice- That's a good breeder that will give you a contract like that. Agility training isn't supposed to start until later to give the dog's growth plates time to set before they do any major physical work. (Did the breeder also give you a neuter contract, if you are planning on having him neutered? A lot of breeders don't want their pups spayed or neutered until after one year, sometimes a year and a half, for the same reason- it is thought that the growth plates set better when they have the hormones from the gonads and that spaying/neutering too early causes issues with bone growth). I'm sure you know that though, being a vet tech. That's a pretty cool job. I have a lot of friends who are studying to become vets. It isn't an easy job!

I'll post a photo of my Xolo in the pictures section He isn't the prettiest because he had a pretty rough life before I got him. Missing a lot of teeth and has really bad skin, but he is a sweet dog!

doganddisc wrote:Agility training isn't supposed to start until later to give the dog's growth plates time to set before they do any major physical work.

Not completely true. Jumps are "bad" before a certain age, but there are tons of other things you could practice that would be beneficial to agility (targeting, cavalettis, tunnels, etc).

I have 2 newfs and they weren't allowed to go nuts as puppies, climb stairs, be on wood/slippery surfaces, etc as puppies in my contracts.

My girl is being spayed but we are waiting until after her first heat. She's in heat right now and will probably be spayed no earlier than 2 months from now. (she's about 1 year and 1 month old).

My male is waiting on getting neutered as I was showing him as a pup and if his teeth go back to the way they were, want to continue showing. Most of the breeders I know don't only show, but also title in WRD-WRDX, Draft, and other things.

I want to do obedience as well as WRD, draft, and I want to get my girl her TDI .

Not completely true. Jumps are "bad" before a certain age, but there are tons of other things you could practice that would be beneficial to agility (targeting, cavalettis, tunnels, etc).

Good point

Mouselover, that is so cool that you do draft with your newfs! I have a lot of respect for what those dogs can do!

Welcome

Actually I do disagree on the spay neuter thing. The longer you wait the higher the risk of cancer or other. I got Ace neutered at 6 months and Kaiya spayed at 9 months. Chewy, my shephard is still intact however. His breeder is excellant. Breeds and trains service and police dogs and gets them directly from Germany. I have a two year contract for his hips and elboes. I have to get his OFA certs and xrays at 2 per contract. If all is good I will be leaving him intact for now pet my own choice since I may want to breed him. If he fails he will ne neutered. Actually- everyone at fest will get to meet him. Lol

I will post pics of Them all soon!!

And mouselover it is great that you do draft with your pups! Very cool!

I would get more I'm the spay neuter and other such topics but it is so hard to type using my new touch screen phone. I just have to get used to it! Lol.

Spaying and neutering before physical maturity actually increases the risk of some cancers in many breeds.

That's not what I was taught in vet tech school. But of course there are always new research and studying going on. I did graduate in 2004. Lol

Yeah, Newfoundlands are prone to Osteosarcoma.

Fixing before a maturity actually increases the risk of Osteosarcoma in my breed, and, since they are already susceptible, I didn't want to elevate that risk.

Plus, I hear several theories, either spay/neuter "messes up" plate closure times and the two theories are
1- the bones in the legs to grow longer and
2- it causes premature plate closure thus a "smaller" dog.

I think more studies proved theory 1 to be correct.

Either way, I didn't want to take the risk of either.

Isn't it true that as soon as your dog has a gonadectomy, the risks of cancer are eliminated?

But in female dogs the risk increases with every heat cycle you allow her to go through. I did know this going in.

Either way, so far I'm happy with the choice not to spay. My male dog is too stupid to care my girl is in heat so he's not causing a ruckus, my female is clean, and everything is good. I could do without the nipples but what am I gunna do. LoL. She'll be going in for her spay/pexy in the next few months.

Ah ok. Yeah - I can definately see a problem in the giant breeds.

And you are right. With each cycle the chances of cancer are higher. Even if an animal is spayed or neuteted at an older age they can still get cancer but their chances will be less if not eliminated. But a younger animal who gets fixed are much less likely or not at risk at all of getting cancer. I worry about pyometras as well in intact females.

I would not risk my babies either. So I understand and agree With your decision. My shephard is intact but my other two are fixed. Kaiya was spayed at 9 months old. She went into her first heat cycle and had a severe vagional prolapse and almost died. Ace was neutered at 6 months. And he is a big dog - 94 pounds as if two weeks ago. Lol. I believe The smaller dog theory is just that- a theory. I can definately see number 1 being correct in some breeds. Especially the giant breeds.