Why did you get your first dog?

Why did you get your first dog? As an adult, not as a child.

My parents didn't like dogs, they were cat and parrot people so I didn't have a dog as a child. My Grandmother always had dogs though (but that is another story.)

My very first dog was Butch, a JRT. When I was in my mid 20s, a friend arrived with a JRT and told me that the dog (who belonged to the friend of a friend of hers was going to be PTS if nobody took him and I was her last hope of finding him a home.) She could not have him herself as she already had 3 dogs and no room for another.

His story was that his owners had got him as a pup but when he started chewing things they turned him into an 'outdoor' dog and made him live in their back yard. Walking him quickly lost its appeal so he basically lived in the back yard with no walks or companionship. Not surprisingly, he became quite vicious and would attack people on the odd occasion he managed to get out of the yard (I had actually heard about him before.) Eventually, he started to attack his owners which is when they decided to have him PTS but their friend said she would try to find a home for him and took him but he attacked her too so - same thing happened again and her friend (also my friend) took him to find a home for him.

When she arrived at my house with him and said I was the last chance or he would be PTS I suddenly found myself with a dog! Jeez!

He was awful! For three days he would not move from the hallway by the front door. Every time I went into the hallway he would draw his lips back and growl at me and for that same three days I had to put two sets of gardening gloves on to get his chain on to take him for a walk.

I am not proud of this, but after three days I was so totally sick of him that I let him off lead in the countryside knowing he would probably run off AND I DIDN'T CARE! He ran off as I expected and I kept walking. About 15 minutes later he turned up again and walked beside me the whole time! He had run off and got his freedom then realised he didn't know where he was or even what countryside was so came back to me because I was at least a familiar face in unfamiliar territory. Then, I took him to my biker cousins house. My cousin had a bunch of friends there and Butch did not know who to threaten first until finally wearing himself out with growling, and jumping on my knee to threaten them all from there. That was the start of our bond.

He was 18 months old when I got him, within a couple of weeks I loved that dog to distraction and he loved me. I will never forget him, he was my soul mate, When he eventually died aged 17 I could not face getting another dog again as I loved him so much. It wasn't until six years ago that I could face trying to replace Butch - and it was only because I started having serial dreams about Butch just walking along by my side. When I told Robin (my OH) about the dreams he told me 'it's about tine you got yourself another dog' and that is how Buster came along!

I wanted my own dog cause at the time i was up the town a lot hanging about with people and i would take my old lab but he started getting too old so i wanted a younger dog. Had to have a staff cause i worked with them and loved them!

Growing up nearly everyone in my family had dogs except us. We had cats, hamsters, mice, birds, fish, but I was never allowed one. Then after leaving home it was years before I lived anywhere that allowed dogs. 6 years ago my friends dog had pups and after swaying back and forth for about an hour I decided to take Millie. She was the last pup from the litter and it's been one of the best decisions I've made. She's helped through some rough times. Bella was supposed to be a wee doggy friend for Millie but it hasn't quite worked out that way. At times its more like having two warring kids in the house lol.

I'd wanted a dog since I was about.....a week old! Well, maybe not quite that young, but you get the idea!

I'd been on at my parents for years about it, but no joy. We eventually bought Zena when I was 14 - she was supposed to be my dad's, but to all intents & purposes she was mine & she taught me so much, got me into competition obedience & introduced me to lots of new people!

But my first dog as an adult was Perry, a KC registered Border Collie. In those days they'd only just been accepted by the KC & Perry's father was the first BC champion.

Wendy, that's a really sweet story!

I've been animal crazy practically since I was born. Dempsey was my first adult dog, although I was a couple of years short of being an adult when we got him. The house had been empty of dogs for a while after our old dog died and I'd been desperate to get another one for years.

The idea finally came up when mum and I were visiting a stand for Maxicare (now Animals in Need, I think) and saw this beautiful elderly Stafford who needed a home.

Something about her captured our hearts and we started mentioning her to dad. He said we should get her, although I don't think he actually meant it at the time - he didn't think we'd do it. He was still very upset over the death of our last dog.

So we phoned Maxicare to ask about her and were getting our hopes up. Sadly, they wouldn't let us get her, as they wouldn't rehome dogs to a household where the dog would be required to live upstairs. We have an upstairs and downstairs, but the living area (bedrooms, living room, bathroom, etc.) is upstairs. So our hopes were completely smashed with that one and I don't think we could take that happening again any time soon, so the subject dropped for a while.

Eventually, we started looking around for Stafford breeders and making enquiries. We were starting to get somewhere when we realised that dad was obviously not keen on the idea, so the search stopped again.

Eventually, shortly after going to a Discover Dogs stall, mum and dad decided they liked Bull Terriers and started looking into them, getting books, reading online, asking around, etc..

After a couple of months, a well-known breeder mum contacted directed her towards a friend of hers, whose dog was due to have a litter. A few back and forths, until we'd paid a deposit for one of the pups.

I'm not going to lie - I didn't particularly like Bull Terriers. I'd had my heart set on a Stafford and just wasn't taking with the change.

When four pups were born, we were sent pictures through. One pup hadn't been claimed - the little red-smut-and-white runt of the litter. I fell in love with him straight away and thought he was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.



We were sent regular pictures of him and his siblings until he was six weeks old, when me and mum went up to see him. The breeder brought this tiny little puppy into the living room, all wrapped up in a towel, fast asleep. We were expecting him to be really timid and shy, but he perked right up and proceeded to nibble everything within reach - including us and mum's bag:



We found out at this point the reason why he'd not been snatched up before we put the deposit down. Although there were four puppies, the litter had actually been seven. Two had died at birth, leaving five puppies left. Three of those puppies were fine and perfectly healthy, but the two others were weak and refused to suckle. Our little red-and-white puppy was one of them. Sadly, his littermate didn't make it and passed away. After a lot of careful hand-rearing and worrying, our puppy managed to pull through. He was tiny, but started to feed on his own.

Because he'd been hand-reared, his bite inhibition was practically non-existent. Despite being the smallest of his litter, he held his own and even made his big sister cry - the brute!

So we decided for sure that this was the puppy for us, with his bold nature and permanently wagging tail. We came back when he was ready to come home and he was as good as gold. In the entire train journey home, he only whined once. During the journey, he found what was to be his favourite food. Cheese. He nibbled a little bit from one of our sandwiches and loved it.

It was quite a worry, as he refused to drink anything on the way home. As soon as we took him out of his carry case on the train, though, he was fine! He wanted to crawl all over the place and meet everybody!

We've had our problems with him, due to his bad start in life, mainly with the bite inhibition, but it's all worked out! He does have a wonky head, which I personally think is what led to the problems at birth, but it just makes him more adorable.

He's not a perfect example of his breed. He has a long, soft coat when it's supposed to be short and harsh. His ears are huge and spaced too far apart. When he was younger, he had loose tendons, which meant his paws used to knuckle over and flop everywhere. He has in-standing canines. His head isn't dramatically curved.

To be quite honest, though, I wouldn't have him any other way. I don't want him to be a perfect example of the breed. He's perfect to me, just the way he is.

Dempsy was a gorgeous pup! How sweet is he!

Back when we could scoop him up under one arm and had to carry him up and down the stairs! Now he's huge and heavy.

People used to think he was a JRT when he was little

Wow - good question Wendy. I've written quite a bit about this in my book which I'm still working on. I've always been a dog lover since I can remember but we didn't have many pets when I was a child - both my mum and dad worked quite a lot. Once, my dad told me if I did a lot of research on dogs, then I would be allowed to get one. I didn't realise at that time that my mum was petrified of dogs. The dog that we got was from a friend's grandparents. They were old and had adopted a Labrador puppy that had become far too much for them. They hadn't done much training and it was boistrous and very very overweight. If you had food, it would jump and snatch. My poor mum, who was already frightened of dogs and who had an 8 year old and a 5 year old at the time, practically had a break down and she was petrified of being left alone with the dog.

After 2 weeks, they found the dog another home with experienced Labrador owners - they didn't keep it either.

My dad told us that we could maybe try with a puppy but the damage was done as far as my mum was concerned and the idea was quashed as soon as mentioned for the rest of my childhood.

I can't remember what made me start looking for a dog when I did, I suppose I was just ready to do something different in my life. Getting Caesar (and then Gemma) has totally changed my life and I definitely think this has been for the better. I'm 26 (for the next 2 weeks at least :-S) and not the type of girl who particularly loves going out on the town etc. I'd never really found many people I had a lot in common with until I got Caesar and then suddenly, I met a whole new type of person. I've made so many friends and I'm so happy. The problem is that now I want more and more!!!

What wonderful stories!

"Why I got my first dog" is more prosaic. My husband had been brought up with one dog or another, and periodically grizzled about getting one. I liked dogs, but wasn't keen - I had two small children and a biggish house to cope with already. Then one day my little children were playing in the back garden and whilst looking out of the window I saw a youth on a bike on the footpath between our back fence and the river. He kind of peeped round the corner at my children and dodged back again and remained hidden behind a bush. I told hubby and he raced outside and saw the bloke off. That night I said to hubby "If you want a dog, we'll get one, so long as it's a Dobermann" (I'd always liked the look of them). It had to be a puppy, and we found the last of the litter advertised in the Exchange & Mart (we knew very little in those days about, well, anything much!) and we brought Zeta home aged 12 weeks. Much more by luck than judgement she was KC registered from a good bloodline and never had a day's illness until she succumbed to bone cancer at 10 years old. She was always a bit aloof and never showed a great deal of affection, but she was a heck of good guard dog!

P.S. That's Zeta in the banner!

Wow Lynda that is scary.

Why? honestly because we could

Really for those who don't know Harvey is my first ever dog, yes i grew up with family dogs but never had mine own. Ok he is mine and my Mr's but hey! We had just been accepted and got our new house so had moved in 2 weeks prior to getting harvey, we said we'd wait a couple of months, but i innocently saw the ad for him and well here we are. No harv isn't KC reg and from what is probably a BYB but i wouldn't change him for the world, he is honestly the easiest dog i could ever imagine bringing up and living with, a complete smart arse, laugh a minute, outgoing type of dog

6 months later i happened on a fun dog show and took harvey, I happened to look on their website before going to see what dogs were available and lo and behold there was MY chancester, so yep chance is our second dog and WHAT a dog he is, he's certainly taught us so much about troubled and human aggressive dogs and is the complete opposite of harv, but he will always be my mummies boy.

 

I love reading these posts

Xan is my first 'my own dog'. We've always had dogs. I grew up with staffies, we got our first when I was 5 and when he died at age 11 my mum changed to Great Danes.

With Xan I had moved to Mosselbay and for the first time lived in a house with a yard. I lived in appartments before and had 2 cats.
This was the first time I felt like I was living on my own and decided for companionship and safety I would like a good set of ears and teeth around. I'd also settled down from my wild ways so felt I could care for a dog properly.
Did loads of research to decide what breed would suit me best but in the end just went with my first love - Staffords.
I started looking at pups but just didn't click with any.
The 6th litter I looked at were byb but I'd found my baby.
8 years on Xan has taught me so much. He is the most amazing, smart dog you could wish for. There is nothing I have attempted that he hasn't been able to do: Obedience, agility, tracking, search and rescue, therapy work, he just learns it and does it.
I don't know how I'm going to cope with losing him one day not to distant.
He's protected me, comforted me and loved me unconditionally through some of the worst events in my life.

I love reading them as well They all sound like little gems!