to ask for some positive dog relationships please..

[Youcanringmybell]

I would like to hear about some positive dog stories please.

I have read so much recently about how people get dogs and then get bored of them, the dog becomes aggressive because the owner cannot care for them properly or that not many people cope. I have also read about on irresponsible people buying puppies..not about all the puppies that are bought with love and only the best intentions.

I have recently got a new puppy and took a long while to consider it and was over the moon with the puppy. But since getting her I have been told by different people that her breed will turn nasty, will destroy my home and I will soon get 'bored' of her or she will try me
People are so negative about it all and are making me feel like I made a huge mistake.

So have any of you get a puppy, and keep it all their life and actually enjoy it? I had a puppy from 6mths to 17 years some time ago and he was lovely and barely any trouble once out of puppy hood.

Honey. That is soooo lovely. I'm on the bus and I have something in my eye...

We have two retired racing greyhounds , who are 6 and 7 . They are the most gorgeous , affectionate gentle creatures I've ever known , even if they are also the biggest thieves . They adore the DCs , and if one of the DCs sits on a sofa , there will always be a hound curled up beside them . When dd broke her leg and was sofa bound , the black hound refused to leave her side , even for his dinner . And if I'm home and in the kitchen , there will always be at least one curled up on that sofa , keeping an eye out just in case I drop anything edible .

ChestyDog is a 7 year old staffy and sad as it sounds he is the light of my life.

Only thing i would change if I could is he has epilepsy and its distressing.

He's a lovely temperament and has kept Our family going after the sudden loss of DF. At first he was a reason to get up and get dressed to tend to his needs when no one wanted to do anything at all.

If I'm upset now he throws himself on my knee and try's to lick tears off

I wouldn't want to be without him.

We've had our mini schnauzer since he was three months old and we adore him, he is part of our family. He's now 4 and is fantastic with our toddler. He can be difficult when walking on lead but aside from that he gives us no trouble at all. Enjoy your pup, I hope you have many happy years with him :)

Sorry *her!

We got our Springer when he was 8 weeks old - he's almost 7 now and we cannot imagine life without him.

Give a dog attention, exercise, stimulation, boundaries and love and you'll have a wonderful relationship.

My Dog is 12 and a bit, ive had him since he was 6.5 weeks old. He is beautiful. The most lovely, funny, clever, stupid, affectionate dog ever. I adore him.
Hes very old and im fully aware we are on borrowed time, He sleeps on the sofa or on my bed, we feed him lovely home cooked food and shower him with affection. Hes seen me through so many bad times and there have been lots of points where hes been my reason to keep going.
When i lose him life will never be the same.

Puppies are hard work, they are like small children, its relentless and like groundhog day and you need eyes in the back of your head. Its about 2 years hard work, and then you dont have to worry, they are fully trained and you will be left with just the good bits. But it is a committment. I had my boy before i had any children, i learnt an awful lot about him, and myself from those first few years. Hes taught me as much as i have taught him.

I wont be racing out to get another puppy when he goes, because im not in a place where i cant dedicate the time needed to a puppy, as much as i would like to.

Enjoy it, its the start of a beautiful friendship

We have a wonderful dog who came to us from a rescue when he was about four months old. He is a border collie/Australian shepherd mix. Some people warned us about this breed combination, saying he would destroy the house, demand constant stimulation, need to be walked four hours a day, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our dog was a dream to housetrain, only chewed a couple of forbidden things as a puppy, loves his daily walks and adores playing fetch but is very content to spend a quiet evening at home. He is very adaptable, extremely intelligent, very attached to us, and such a joy. He's now seven years old. DH works hundreds of miles away for weeks at a time, and our lovely dog keeps me company during the long evenings.

When I was a child I had an equally wonderful dog, a collie we had from the time he was ten weeks old. When I was in my third year at university, his health started to go downhill. I came home for Christmas that year and he was clearly not doing too well. We spent a lot of time together those weeks. The day after I returned to university, my dear collie died. I know he waited for me, he had to say goodbye to me before he died. Just thinking about it now brings a lump to my throat. What a dear dog he was.

I have had dogs all my life...I cradled them as puppies and taught them to heel, stay, leave, fetch...all the usual stuff. I took them for long walks, showed them affection, loved them very much. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary, I guess, yet I found that each one of them LOVED me back...when I was being bullied at school and then work, and was going through severe illness in my life, they were always there with me.

I had of course to say goodbye to each one in turn (the vet always came to my home so my dogs could pass away peacefully in my arms). But I have never forgotten my dear friends. I will love them forever.

We've had ours For five years. She's a staffy cross, an old lady now, but still lots of energy. I absolutely love her. She is my best mate.
We've had a few moments with her, she got attacked and became a bit aggressive, but as soon as she realised it really pissed us off, she stopped.
She is an angel. Don't know how I'd manage without her.
Dogs are great.

When I got my dog, many people commented on that I would have him for so many years and did I really know what I was doing, commiting myself for such a long time. My dog is now ten and a half and what makes me angry is that his life is much, much too short. We still have so many things to do together and time is running out.

Puppies can be hard work. That's why they are so cute, it's to make up for the horror of what they've just done to your home.

Another big JRT fan here. I have a rescue JRT x Patterdale and he's the soppiest creature, but needs a lot of exercise. He has 2 walks a day (one with lots of off-lead) and lots of games and has nearly as many toys as the dcs.
I do know of a JRT that became "bad-tempered" and was re-homed, but the owners allowed their dcs to treat it like a toy and it never got enough exercise. My own dog was re-homed by his previous owner for "not being good with children". I took him on (after careful home-vetting by a reputable rescue who has the dog assessed by a behaviourist) when my ds was 23 months and they are now both nearly 9. Dog knows what the ground rules are and has always had his needs met and we have not, so far, had any major probs. Dog sleeps in my dd's (15) room and wakes her up to complain when her hamster is too noisy. (In fact, the hamster has now been moved downstairs at night because he disturbs the dog's beauty sleep ) He is a fabulous dog and worth all the hassle he gave us for the first 6 months. :)

I have two dogs. One is my 9 year old yellow labrador, who I have had since he was an 8 week old puppy, and the other is an 8 year old cocker spaniel, who I took on from my BIL when he could no longer offer her a home because of his divorce and numerous other problems. She was 16 months old when she came to live with us.

I can't imagine life without them, and they totally accept each other too. The labrador is very much dependent on me and considers himself to be mine (or is it that he considers me to be his). The cocker is just crazy, and is everyone's friend. They are an important part of our family (as is the cat too), and sometimes I have felt they are my friends and reason for being when all else seems to have gone wrong.

Also op I can totally understand you feeling overwhelmed with a new puppy. On night two with my dog I was thinking "Jesus Christ this was a mistake". But after a few more days she had settled and all was well

I totally recommend seeing a good behaviourist if you need help. My mum had some trouble with her dogs and the behaviourist really helped, you have to do the work by following their advised training program though.

Mum was scared the behaviourist would be mean to her for letting the dogs learn bad habits but she was lovely, really understanding of Mum's circumstances and helped her put together a good training program. You need to find the right person of course.

One of the very endearing things about our Staffie is his nocturnal search for nice things that remind him of us to take to his bed. I came down this morning to find him with his head on DS2's laundry bag, his bed lined with my Brora cashmere cardigan ( thought I'd left that safe) and DH's trainer in there too for good measure. He never ever damages anything, just snuggles up in it. He is much loved

My very first dog was a JRT and she was my best friend. I am an only child who parent's worked full time so my pup would come to my babysitters with me. The only time we were apart was at school, she even came to friend's houses for sleepovers!

She was never a huge dog lover (not agressive but not interested) but she loved people. My best memories are the ones of long summers spent with a group of friends out on our bikes with Jess trotting beside us. Then camping in the garden with her at the bottom of my sleeping bag as we chatted late into the night.

Feeling a bit weepy now. I am grateful for my two doggy best friends who helped me after losing Jess and I am going to cuddle them now!

We lost our dog last Thursday. He was 13 and we had him from 21 months old. He was crazy and bonkers and our house is so quiet without him. But he was part of our family and he fitted in from the day he came home from the rescue centre. He wasn't a puppy so we didn't have the training to do. We tried 'puppy' training for older dogs but he just couldn't focus as he didn't have the attention span lol. He came knowing the basics anyway and I was confident to let home off the lead the first day I got him. We bonded as soon as we laid eyes on each other.

We will get a puppy soon. I would love to rescue again by DH has his heart set on a staffy and has decided it needs to be a really good pedigree to avoid the hip problems etc so leaving him to it. I would love a staff too so will leave it a while and then go for it. My mum has a puppy at the moment so getting our doggy fix round hers.

Only thing I don't like about JRT's is the 3 that live next door to me that bark constantly . I like them other than that lol

Meerkat
I beg you with all my heart not to get a staffie puppy, when there are literally thousands languishing in rescue centres utterly desperate for homes.
Staffies aren't particularly known for hip problems, where as 'pedigree' staffies are now quite overbred (read: interbred with close relatives mating with each other) so are now getting other problems as breeders chase bizarre breed 'ideals' for appearance. Getting a very pedigree staffie won't save you from a dog with health problems...

I've now had 3 rescue staffies. None have come with any particular 'issues' and all were in the rescue for reasons beyond their control - mostly break downs in the owners relationships.

But staffies really can be the most loving, sweet, affectionate and loyal dogs ever. And their 'I want to please you' attitude makes them quite easy to train.

The only thing I can say is: "There's nothing nicer than dogs!" I truly mean this.

My poor JRT (nearly 15 years old) is suffering at the moment as we have a new baby who is taking all of my time. My poor dog is neglected in the sense I am struggling with walking so can't take her out in the day so she is reliant on DP who usually does this after work and she has also lost out on the loads of fuss she normally receives.

My JRT has been brilliant with the baby so far - all she has done is come up to her and have a sniff then go back to her bed. I think most dogs just reflect their owner's temperament and how they have been treated. Look after your dog well and you will have a real best friend.

Oh and to just add I had to have my other JRT put to sleep on Easter Monday this year as he had cancer and despite 6 months of chemotherapy he couldn't fight it any longer.

I loved that dog sooo much and I promise you if I could have taken 10 years off my life to give to him I would. He truly was the love of my life.
I chose my dogs over several men in my time and never regretted it.

I second what sparechange said, to get a pedigree, brand new staffie pup wouldn't sit right with me either - not knowing how many staffsare in the rescue centres looking for a good forever home. Please get your DP to consider this - get staffie rescue on your FB page and emotionally blackmail him . You can't garuntee even when paying £££ for a pup that there wont be health problems. I wasn't aware of hip issues with staffs. You can get young dogs/pups from rescues. I got a six month old JRT from the dogs trust - the bond between us is probably the closest of all my dogs, old and new. I luffs him to the moon and back. There is a very maternal "oh you poor thing whatever happened to you for you to end up there" protective feeling that goes with a rescue dog. I had the same with my rescue rottie, he was forgiven a multitude of sins because of his background, to be fair we were aware of his issues when we took him on.

My exP had a pure pit bull when I met him. I was wary at first but he's a big soft baby.

When I feel pregnant everyone tried I bully us in to getting rid of him because he'd "attack and kill the baby"
Well we knew that was nonsense and decided we'd just be extra vigilant.

The bigger I got, the more interested, protective and loving the dog acted towards me, even trying to comfort me whole I laboured alone for the first 6 hours.

When we bought DD home, he was quivering with excitement, I sat with her on my chest and he came over, sniffed her face and let out a content sigh before resting his head on my lap.

They've been inseparable for the last three years, he's so caring and gentle with her even when they're playing.

All round such a lovey dog and misunderstood breed!