Bichon-Frise. Help please!

[BecauseICan22]

Hello,

I'd like to preface this post by saying I've never owned a dog or ever considered that I would.

However, I married my DH this year and he is a huge dog person. My daughter who is 10, has also stated that she'd love to have a dog. She's currently going through ASD assessments and this has come out through her conversation with the Psychologist.

Because my daughter is allergic to dog dander, we've looked at the most allergy friendly breed and the above keeps coming up.

I would like to educate myself and have as much understanding as possible before we even consider getting a dog.

Any advice, direction, tips or information by experienced dog owners would be wonderful. I could just talk to my DH but he is so desperate for us to get a dog that I don't think he'd be objective.

I'd like to know the good, the bad and the ugly and also how to get a puppy, should we decide to, ethically and from a decent breeder/seller.

Bichons are lovely dogs, we are on our second now and they have been hugely beneficial to my two autistic children. However they do require a lot of looking after.

Because they don't shed you really have to keep on top of looking after their coat. They need to be brushed, ideally daily but at least every few days and they must go to the groomers every 6-8 weeks or so which is expensive. You can have them cut to a shorter pet groom rather than the traditional scissor cut which gives the rounded look but they are still high maintenance. They can also be prone to skin problems.

Temperaments vary, our last bichon was so chilled out except for the occasional "bichon buzz" where they run up and down the room in circles (so funny) but our current dog is a little more neurotic and suffers separation anxiety. He used to hate going out for walks and often had to be "put into the garden" a bit like a cat.

I don’t know much about bichon-frise, but have you considered a poodle? They are very intelligent and often used as therapy dogs.

We have 2 dogs; a bichon/maltese cross and a bichon. They're great dogs and love children. We bought the girl bichon as a companion dog for our autistic son.

The good - love you unconditionally. Will happily sit on your lap all day and follow you around. No shedding so no dog hair to hoover up.

The bad - love you unconditionally! Too much at times. They are very needy dogs and will follow you around. You can't leave them at home on their own for too long as they literally pine for you and experience separation anxiety. They bark, a lot. Often at nothing but any noise is good to set them off. We don't really need a doorbell!

They need regular grooms at least every 6 weeks. That's £30 each time for each dog for us.

Bichons can be tough to house train and my bitch who is 4 will still wee or poo in the house if she can even when the doors to the garden are open all day.

Even with all the bad points we adore them and wouldn't be without them.

I do have to say that we found both our bichons fairly easy to house train but we have always had male dogs.

Yes, they are very needy. I only agreed to take on our current dog when our previous dog died as our father in law was available to dog-sit whilst we were at work.

comefromaway our dog was easy to train but the bitch is something else. She can and does go for long periods of time without weeing or pooing but sometimes she will actually come in from the garden to have a wee in the house!

They are very yappy.

Ours taps on the pedal bin to let us know he needs to go outside. No idea how he learnt that.

And he lets us know in the evening if we have forgotten to give him his daily dentastick!

Our Bichon was the sweetest dog, calm and tolerant of everything, amazing with our daughter and even the cat.

However, she wanted to be with one of us all the time and didn't like be left for very long, also had a lot of skin issues. Grooming was expensive as well but if I ever get another dog, I would get a Bichon.

Im not sure the best way to get a pedigree as we have always had rescue or cross breed. But when you get the puppy my best advice would be to get them used to being in a crate for certain periods of time. Then the crate can be a place where the puppy knows they are safe and wont be bothered. And lets you do stuff you need to whilst knowing the puppy is safe.

We currently have a 9 week terrier cross, she chews everything! This goes without saying, but this includes wires, plug sockets furniture legs etc. Having lots of toys helps a lot.

She is fed 4 times a day and her time table goes roughly like this: 6am wakes up, goes out for wee/poo, has a play and breakfast. 8/9 long nap in crate until she wakes up about 2 hours later. Out for playing and another meal at lunch, back in crate for a nap until she wakes up, another meal and play time. She goes to bed at 10pm ish and sleeps through the night. Apart from first night when she started crying crying and I let her out and settles her back down.

Someone has to be with her at all times as we have adult dogs that can be a little rough and she pesters them. So basically be prepared for a lot of work at the beginning but if you make sure they are socialised as a puppy then when they get older they can fit in around you a bit more.

Because my daughter is allergic to dog dander, we've looked at the most allergy friendly breed and the above keeps coming up.

Just a quick note about this in case you're not already aware: all dogs give off dander and allergies can be to some breeds but not others and can be specific to the sufferer. The net result of all this is that your daughter may well have a reaction to a bichon so it is worth some thought about

• how you can test for that before commiting (e.g. spending some time around the adult breed and in enclosed spaces). This won't be a guarantee because there are in-breed variations but it will give you some insight into what is likely to happen.
• what you will do if you get a dog and she does react. Will you be comfortable medicating her and keeping the dog or would you look to rehome the dog - in which case be upfront with the breeder and find one that will accept the dog back in that instance. Note: the reaction could come/get worse several months after getting the puppy due to seasonal and maturity variations, by which time you may all love the dog or the breeder may be reluctant to take them back. Further note: if this happens, it is the worst age to rehome a dog, for them and for the new owners.

There's no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog so if your daughter is allergic, getting a non-shedding breed won't guarantee anything.

As far as bichons go - they're companion dogs and suffer badly with separation anxiety so they're not dogs that can be left alone for long periods at all.

They're quite yappy and will bark a lot - so you'll need to work on training from the beginning.

They need a lot of coat care - daily brushing and very regular trips to the groomer which isn't cheap. Plus consider their white curly coats and how easily they'll get covered in filth in the winter 😬

I would recommend looking at poodles too - they face the same coat care issues (same as any non shedding breed) but they're a bit easier to train, come in a variety of sizes and colours and are generally better at being left by themselves.

My close friend has a bichon
Shes a lovely dog but echo the above. She’s not great at being left. She gets very anxious and will often have an accident in the house even if left for a very short period of time (ie going to the supermarket)
She also yaps.

However she is endlessly patient with children, ignores badly behaved dogs and is easy to take out and about. She is not destructive at all and on occasions where life throws a curve ball will happily cope with a 15 min walk and some garden access if anything probably prefers it, she’s very lazy.
She does require specialist grooming every c. 6 weeks but is all in all a pretty easy dog, just can’t really be left.

I have Bichon, she's adorable.

She's 5 now and is a real lady.

She loves being beside me, on top of me, as close to me as possible and she demands to be petted. If I stop, she lifts her paw and taps me to remind me to show her some love!

She has no idea what personal space is. She follows me to the bathroom and waits until I am finished. She sleeps at the end of my bed (yes, I know...) and is in my face the minute my eyes open in the morning.

She's my little darling and the best wee friend.

Miniature Schnauzers don't shed fur and are hypoallergenic. Fabulous dogs, ours is my heart & soul (along with my child, obvs!)

It's all about them eyebrows!

They do need grooming but don't shed any fur whatsoever! They're not into chewing either and love kids

I have a cavachon which is a bichon crossed with a cavalier King Charles. Non shedding, doesn’t need great long walks and obviously comes from generations of being bred as companions, so is happy just being in the same room as you. His coat doesn’t need as much attention as pedigree bichons and he isn’t yappy. He is a friendly and social dog who grew up being brought to lots of girls’ cricket tournaments and happily submitted to attention from all teams and learnt to keep outside the boundary when off lead. Interesting so many mention household accidents - our front door mat has become the spot he uses as an occasional alternative from going outside which is not ideal. Other than that he is perfect. The kennels we take him to always say they be happy to keep him at the end of his stay as he has such a lovely nature.

Thank you all so very much. I cannot tell you how grateful and appreciative I am of every single post.

I'm also loving the information about other breeds which could potentially be more suited.

I think my biggest concern is ethics. I don't want to help any unethical breeder or be party to any kind of 'puppy farm', it's a minefield and finding the correct person to trust with such a huge addition to our family is hard.

Would also love to see pictures of your wonderful little companions.

That expression! I love it. Thank you for sharing.

Also, hygiene is a big thing for me. How do you all generally care for your dogs? Other than the coat brushing.

Agree with PP about allergies - my DD reacted to a friend's poodle even though they are supposed to be allergy friendly. Both she and I have lots of allergies. We ended up getting a wheaten terrier and neither of us have reacted at all. We spent time with some prior to deciding to gauge the allergy potential.

Here's a photo of our wee pup. It's not a popular breed so hard to find and you might have to wait but we love her.

Our groomer or the vet empties his anal gland on a regular basis.

We sometimes have to clean around his eyes
There is of course the standard flea and worm preventative treatments

In my bed. On my knee. Both their favourite places.

Hello all, I am resurrecting this. Does anyone have any advice regarding finding a puppy from a reputable/ethical source? What should I be looking for? Same goes with if we went with a rescue.

Either way, it would have to be a puppy.

If you are settled on a particular breed, look up the UK breed club for that breed and ring the secretary for advice. They will know who is breeding and will also be able to help with general advice.

What @BathTangle said is good.

ChampDogs is also a good resource for finding breeders.