Tell me about your experiences of having 'odd couple' dogs!

[RickJames]

I bought a Havanese four years ago. She has been fantastic, lovely calm girl that's bombproof with children and just generally the most loving, eager to please little thing. My husband decided he wanted a manly dog to do manly walking with and so acquired a Friesland Pointer puppy recently.

So I now have a gorgeous little hairy (somewhat dim) angel and a beautiful wild puppy that is horribly intelligent and needs constant stimulation.

Puppy is lovely natured and completely submissive to the Havanese and slowly they are building a relationship. I'm currently sandwiched between the two on the sofa.

They scrap a lot. Mainly the little one being grumpy about the puppy thundering about, poking her massive nose in her face. They don't hurt each other though and just this morning I walked into a room to see the Havi laid on her back, wagging her tail whilst the puppy laid next to her waving her paws about, as soon as they saw me they jumped up and went back to being suspicious l

How have your doggy 'odd couples' turned out?

There's manly dogs and there's pointers. I do hope your DH is very good at training and likes walking or even running for miles.

My pointer is best mates with a labradoodle, spends a fair bit of time hanging out with an elderly mini schnauzer (seems to be a calming influence influence on her) who was lonely after his Chinese Crested housemate passed away. I think your combination should work well, just keep training that pointer.

I'm rather jealous as I quite fancy a Stabyhoun as a second dog, just don't think my nerves or knee joints could take two nutters.

Hi @Postdatedpandemic

Well thank goodness my husband thinks pointers are manly and didn't come home with something enormous or aggressive

Like your dog and his little friend, I think the Havi has a positive effect on the Stabij's behaviour. Certainly she sets a good example and she enjoys bossing the pup about.

From what I know about Stabijs they do settle right down as they mature so maybe you should get one! Although they are bolters, everyone we know with one has electric fence round their garden (us too). Apparently they do like to make their own decisions

I have the most gorgeous looking regal standard poodle, and a mean looking shepherd/staff cross.

Literally Lady and the Tramp.

Also, the ‘mean’ crossbreed is the complete softie, loves attention and cuddles, and the poodle is very independent.

You're going to have fun with the pointer

The hunt-point-retrieve breeds tend to be intelligent and driven and I don't think the stabyhoun is any exception. Train train train. Do everything you can to nail recall and teach the stop whistle.

On the plus side, the HPRs are usually very social, esp with dogs they know, so things should work out well.

Thanks for your comments!

I love a standard poodle - so glamorous!

I've just contacted a training school so fingers crossed I'll get her in soon. She's learned sit, paw and lie down very quickly but 'come here' in the garden is very mood dependent so I'm looking forward to recall training. I wouldn't dream of letting her off lead in any capacity right now.