Wednesday, August 20, 2008

#5

Five dogs? Am I crazy for even thinking about this?

I really, really want to add to the pack, not a pug this time though. My guys really are good. I have the occasional spat between Rudy and Kittie, but they're few and far between. I have the time and money for them.

I like running more than one dog at trials. Kittie's 6 1/2 and Abby's 2 1/2 so if I got a puppy right now (I'll probably have a bit of wait anyway) Kittie would be 8 1/2 & Abby 4 1/2 by the time the puppy would be competing. I really don't know how long Kittie will last, she's a good girl with no real signs of slowing down, but she's not built like Pugsly, she's a heavy boned, cobby conformation bred pug. I'll run her as long as she's having fun and it's good for her, but I don't want to push her beyond what's best for her. I'm hoping she's going to be running for a long, long time!

I may have to change the name of the blog sometime in the future.........

5 comments:

Margie said...

I can't wait to hear what you decide on at whatever point you do decide. As we've chatted about before, I have no idea on what kind of dog I would go to next only that I'd like to stick with 8" or 12" dogs. But I personally would have a hard time moving away from pugs. But I'm always open to looking around. ;-)

westoverpugs said...

So I'm not crazy?

I already know what breed, but I'm keeping my mouth shut for a bit : )
I may be getting a rescue this time too, which I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

I think I'll always have a pug, but it's time for something a bit different.

Jamie said...

Congratulations. How exciting....Two of my pugs are rescues and have been wonderful. Both were adopted a bit older as well. Seamus has a few problems with strangers (not aggression, but avoidance). But, training him has been a blast. He by far is my most responsive pug. The only times he has bad days in the ring (like this last weekend) is when something frightens him and then he takes an exceptionally long time to recover. For example, last weekend, he missed the second jump in rally. So we went to repeat the exercise and the judge stood so close to my backside that if I took a step back to encourage him (which you can) I would have ran into her. Well, Seamus didn't want anything to do with running towards the judge who was staring at him like she was....so we just skipped the jump and therefore NQ (you have to complete the jumps to Q in excellent). I would love to hear who you bring home. Personally, I'm yearning for a Siberian, but my husband has firmly said no.

westoverpugs said...

Jamie, I don't know if he/she will be a rescue, I'm just open to it this time. It's great to hear your experience with it though.

I've made some contacts with people in the breed I'm getting, one is a show breeder who also does rescue. I told her what I'm looking for, (young, good structure, high drive, playful) and she's going to keep in touch.

It's weird, I've heard so many people say they've had negative experiences dealing with pug rescue (no response from them at all) I have to say people have been womderful. Here I am, giving a near impossible request and she's told me she'll do whatever she can to help me find what I'm looking for! It could be a year or more from now, but I'm not in a hurry.

Oh and I'm staying with little dogs, that for sure!

Margie said...

So what do I have to do to pry it out of you?? ;-) Is it one of the breeds we chatted about?

I've been very happy with both my rescue experances. Of course what was not to like when I rescued an 8 week old puppy that had been with the rescue since she was a day old. Clancy was six months old and he was from an all breed no-kills shelter. But I heard about him from my friends with NIPRA and they put in a good word for me.

But I think you are leaning the correct direction with looking for a young, high drive pup. My critera when I was looking for Clancy was, male, young (six to a year old) and good agility structure. I looked for almost six months before I found him. When I was looking to add #3, I discussed several prospects with NIPRA but then Aoife came along.