Which Breed is THE Breed?

Today was fun. No second thoughts on that one. The only thing not fun about it was the heat (which was an extremely humid 94 degrees), and the sunburn. I still haven't learned the lesson about sunscreen lotion. Maybe next year?

Today we went to the confirmation/obedience/rally show in Medina, Ohio. There was every breed and flavor of dog that you could imagine. There were fluffy Pomeranians to massive Cane Corsos. Amoung all those dogs, was a Leonberger.

Let me tell you about the Leonberger; soft, sweet, politely mannered, yet curious to see that is going on, the two that were there were large, and in your face polite. One was a female seven month old puppy. She was easily the size of Sere, if not larger. The male was tall. Gorgeous and tall, probably around 160lbs. The owner and the breeder were both there on hand to talk about the breed. When I asked her about the energy level she informed us that they were probably a little more active then the berner, but not much more so. Another question that I asked her was what health questions to ask breeders that we might think of getting puppies from. She said to make sure they had their hips, and elbows checked, but to also make sure that they had thyroid, and a new test neuro-something. It is a new test that was released this month, to check for a neural problem that Leos seem to be prone to. Ugh, wish I could remember the name of the test!

The next breed that we went to go meet was the Great Dane. The breeder/owner/handler that we talked to owned a number of danes. With her today was a nine month old harlequin male. She said she knew that he would not win today due to being so skinny, and not having his width, so she had not concerned herself with doing a full doll up on him. Still he was so sweet! Great Danes are still in the running for maybe a later breed. For now though, I want a dog that I can do activities with that won't endanger the house! He was TALL! He reminded me of our Irish Wolfhounds. His tail wasn't quite as powerful, but it was still a viable weapon. I regret I didn't really get to talk much about health with her. She had her mind focused on the dog and the heat.

Part of the reason why we went was to look over the Golden Retriever. They were the last dogs to show in ring one. While they were lining up a woman sat down below us on the bleachers (which no one else was on due to them being in the sun, and the light they were reflecting back), each dog that went past she would make a comment about under her breath. Thomas and I had not had a chance to talk to any of the Golden's people, so thinking it a great opportunity I asked if she owned a Golden. She turned around and looked at me, and after brief smiled answered in the negative.
"I used to own and show them ten years ago. Now I can't even stand the thought of one in the house. I have been a dog trainer for thirty two years, and now just the sight of them upsets me."
Understandably Thomas I started to get into a discussion with her. She warned us off the goldens due to their health problems, behavior problems, and aggression problems. She now owns Irish Setters. When we told her we had a Bernese Mountain Dog she shook her head,"Great dogs, short life. Another breed with to many health problems." Well, we agreed with her on that assessment! However, we love Sere!

Once we got home, we went over the breeds that we had seen, and a few others that hadn't been on the list before. We assessed our feeling about each breed, and our information. Then we decided. The next dog is going to be a leonberger or a bernese. If we have to wait a while we will. We want a breed that will fit our home, and our lifestyle.

Of course, ironies abound in life. Thomas looked up bernese mountain dog in the akc listings once more, as we had every day this past two weeks, and there was a litter listed with two girls and four boys for $600-800. When I called the number I found out the history of the dogs. Turns out that both the mother and the father are over six years old. They were rescued from a puppy mill. The rescuers took them to their local vet, and discovered that not only were the dogs malnourished, but that they both had heart worm, and oh yes, the female was pregnant! So they spent $600 for the medication to clean up the male's health, but they couldn't do any thing for the female. They still need to get her heart worms taken care of once the pups are old enough to leave mom, and are going to spay mom. So the puppies are both a blessing and a curse. The pups are paying for mom and dad's treatments.

Does anyone see the humor and the irony in this? I am looking at still rescuing puppy mill dogs. This time though it is from a kind family that saved them of their own accord and simply want safe loving homes for the dogs. They are not making me feel a monster for not spaying my dog, when the doc told me not to.

We are going to go look at the pups tomorrow and see if their is indeed one that we want to bring home.