Mountain Girl

We bought an American bred yellow Labrador retriever last year, and he is now just over a year and a half. He has been great fun to have in our house, over the last year and more. I grew up around a Hungarian Visla and English Springer spaniel and generally find him to be more laid back than both of these breeds. He has a great temperament and is not highly strung.

We usually take him out for around an hour and a half’s walk each day, one in the morning and again in the evening. He gets more on the weekends as we are usually in the mountains hiking. He love’s coming on trails with us and has no problem with long hikes. We can be gone for four hours or more. I quiet often take him jogging with me in the evenings, which is very easy to do here in Calgary because of the many river trails and dog parks.

Health wise he has been 100%, the farm where we purchased him from made available to us hip x-rays of both parents and other health records.
He weighs about 79 pounds and does need to be watched when it comes to food. Keeping a good weight on a lab is advisable as they get older. Generally he is not a chewer if exercised well, but does need a good selection of toys if we plan to be out for a long day. He socializes well at the dog parks and is great with kids. We moved house last weekend and I was conscious of the fact that he may be concerned by this, but he did not seemed fazed at all. We take him camping and to dog permitting hotels and he has always been great.

He loves to swim and at every opportunity take to the water. I think he suffers a little in the really hot weather, which is when we take him swimming as much as we can. He loves the snow and I have yet to see him shiver even in the extreme temperatures. He seems to develop a layer of winter “blubber” that keeps him warm. Last winter he was still swimming in the mountain lakes before they froze, with snow on the ground. We had one problem with his feet last winter when the weather was -20 or below for about two weeks. Due to the extremely dry cold, the pads on his paws stuck to the snow one weekend, so we remedied that with some boots (which didn’t stay on for long I might add).

All in all I am very happy with the breed and as with all dogs, if exercised well, a great addition to the home.

pinkmcfarquhar

Our dog Mac would be perfect for your needs (but he's not for sale!). He's 10 now and still loves to be out and about - would walk all day if he could.

As for the breed - who knows, all suggestions welcome. Definitely Collie in there, but as for the rest? We've heard husky, dalmation, spaniel????? We got him from the dogs home at 4 months.

mclaren family

I would just like to correct the comment made earlier regarding huskies not being good with kids - I have 5 siberian huskies, a 6 year year old rescue bitch, 4 year old rescue boy, 3 year old bitch we've had since 8 weeks old and 2, 8 month old boys from the 3 year old girls litter last year.

I also have 2 children aged 8 and 2, all the dogs have a superb bond with the children and the 2 year old is the only one in the house who can walk up to the 3 year old bitch and take toys out her mouth.

my little boy was only 18 months old when the litter was born and he has played with the pups since they were all several weeks old and has a brilliant bond with them also.

it is also a true fact that the chuckhi tribe 3000 years ago used the huskies to keep the children warm at night by putting them in the childrens igloo's

if you are determined to get a malamute please also note that if you are wanting a small pack then i would advise you to have a mixed sex pack where the malamute is concerned. They can be good being kept with other dogs but with the same sex it can lead to fights i.e. have male malamute with females of other breeds or vice versa, but you would need to consider neutering with this also.

there are also plenty of forums to look at - i use this one a lot, it's for huskies but there are a few people with mals that will be able to help you and maybe direct you to a mal one

http://www.sibespace.co.uk/forum/

dbd33

[QUOTE=mclaren family;7836133 but you would need to consider neutering with this also.[/QUOTE]

Why would one want to keep an unneutered dog as a family pet?

Clay Buster

Well, there's a sweeping and loaded question!!! We keep an intact dog as a pet because....
1) he's a Canadian champion and double BPIS winner (best puppy in show - they love abbreviations at the Kennel Club), so he will be be bred.
2) there's no health reason to castrate him, and he has never shown the slightest inclination to be aggressive to humans. He just assumes all humans love him as much as he loves them.

dbd33

That makes sense. And after that?

newshoney

ooooo dbd... are we to assume that you believe in sterilisation after breeding? And does this apply to our own species as well as to dogs? (Which begs the question... have you had the snip too?)

dbd33

Am I done breeding?

Actually, I know the Kennel Club doesn't require live cover so I don't see the need for any dog to have nuts, they're just a problem waiting to happen.

newshoney

Sorry - I don't really expect you to announce to the world (or the BE forum part of it) if you are done breeding or not... (though done practicing is another thing, eh?)

I don't know enough about the ins-and-outs (forgive the phrase) of dog sterilisation to know whether the benefits in temperament outweigh the un-naturalness of the procedure. My instinct is to let nature be... so I don't believe in docking tails (or nuts)... though I can see certain benefits (to the human owners) of neutering the females.

dbd33

I don't mind sharing, I just haven't been informed.

I don't believe in loping bits off for decorative purposes; tails, ears, claws, whatever else it's fashionable to remove but reproductive organs are something else. The world has enough dogs so, unless you intend to breed and feel the need to watch actual dog on dog action, there seems no merit to having a loaded weapon attached to your hound. The same applies to other animals, I mean I loved that our donkey could do what he could do but good sense had to prevail, it would have been wrong to keep him intact just so we could admire his gubbins.

newshoney

Well if you don't mind sharing.... then I guess you haven't yet stopped breeding?

Just imagine if there were a "Kennel Club" for humans and the same rule applied to men....

dbd33

There is considerable merit in that idea. I think the state could make a reasonable case that having produced one burden on society I should be sterilized.

What is the case for allowing domesticated animals to reproduce at random?

newshoney

Only one? Way to go!

I was thinking more along the lines of restricting the reproduction of scumbags (no doubt you've heard of the Baby P case in the UK and the ghastly people involved) though I'm equally happy to stop the aristo classes breeding as well as the underclasses. (Thank goodness I'm not ruler of the world, eh?)

Clay Buster

Two different issues somehow lumped in to one.....

Docking and neutering are NOT equivalent!

Aggressive dogs exist due mainly to poor ownership. Yes, there are breeds which are more predisposed to aggression than others. These need better ownership! There are dogs with mental problems, just as there are humans. In the case of these dogs (I cannot speak with authority about the humans), neutering is right and proper, primarily to avoid passing that tendency on within the breed. The aggression itself should never be allowed to become to a problem to anyone except the owner.

Regular dog behaviour, as opposed to aggression, does involve posturing to display or attain a high position within the pack. If this is ever pointed at humans, the owner has a problem. For dogs to have little scraps (NOT anything with produces serious damage to another dog) is actually quite normal. The same goes for the occasional hump, both behaviours being more common in the dog equivalent of teenagers (surprise...). A dog of that age, typically one to three years, is not often a candidate for breeding anyway. By the time the dog is a candidate, he'll have calmed down anyway, so why mutilate him???

Now, docking... Yes, this has often been done for cosmetic purposes, including to match the breed standard and for no other reason. However, in certain breeds it is done with very good reason as long as they're working dogs. Spaniels are the obvious example, and they truly love to get into thick cover, regardless of thorns and barbs, when following a good smell. An undocked dog risks serious injury, and subsequent infection, to the tail. It certainly shouldn't, in my view, be a necessity in any breed standard. Dogs should be shown without penalty if they aren't docked, and if they are docked it's not unreasonable to expect the owner/breeder to demonstrate that the dog either works or was reasonable expected to become a working dog at the time of docking.

dbd33

Canada has quite the history of that, tricky though determining who should be allowed to reproduce, some civil liberties problems there. Dogs and cats fortunately don't have civil liberties.