EPI * Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

I find it interesting that there are lots of folks on this forum that seem to be drawn to a particular breed.....Lynn with her setters; Olesia with her Spanish water dogs; Michele and Nicole and Val and many others with multiple GSD.....we have the sheltie fans, the bulldog lovers, etc etc etc. And so many more, of course! And me, the collie girl.

So I am just curious, why people have chosen to love their certain breed? Is it the looks? The temperament? Because you had that breed growing up? Because you've just never had another breed and this is what you know?

My story is pretty simple and pretty corny. I always loved Lassie. Grew up with Lassie movies and Lassie on TV, and loved collies ever since. Isn't it every girl's dream to own their own Lassie? And then with having Star (a collie mix) and just loving her personality, it sealed the deal on what my next dog would be. Little did I know that my "Lassie" would want to eat my house....but oh well. Interestingly, Maya IS related to Lassie in her breeding lines. Not the original line of Lassies (the Weatherwax collies) but a collie used in one of the more recent Lassie re-makes. She is his Granddaughter. Someone must have forgotten to tell her though....I love her dearly, but she is no Lassie. LOL.

Lisa

Hmmmm...... growing up on a dairy farm my grandpa always liked 'big' dogs, he said' you could see them' .  They were always German Shepherd mixed breeds ( or oops.. or mutts as be called them then )....but looked like  GSD's. Just love their personalities !!!  Habit I guess....     .

My mum and dad were having a cat.

One day Mum left the front door open she  walked into the lounge and there on the sofa was a GSD  who wouldnt move  and my mum was abit wary of it in those days we didnt have a phone so she had to wait until my dad got home to cut along story short this Gsd was in pup and a stray so they deciede to keep her and call her Kim unfortunately the pup died and \Kim did shortly afterwards but that sealed the chain of  them Kim Karl Shep then i have had Wooster Elsie Otto and Maddie.

Yes sometimes i think shall i have something else especially when you have had one with such a cruel disease as cdrm but no what do you do go and rescue one and end up with EPi  .....will i ever a learn.

Ann

Hi Lisa~

What a fun thread!!  I too always had a GSD or GSD mix, hence a special place in my heart for the breed (i swear it's all about their eyes- -they look right into your soul!) 

BUT...................then i got married.........hubby was not fond of GSDs (i think there was a little fear factor in play here)........ so we had "other" breeds.....

THEN.... i decided to do Canine Search & Rescue work...and needed a high drive/smart dog.  Knew i couldn't bring a GSD into my home if hubby wasn't fond of them ..... the dog would sense it.... unfortunately, any high drive breed i came up with, hubby dismissed..... he simply didn't want to deal with an overly-rambunctious dog that lived with us (in the house).... so i hit the internet and started searching for a high drive / high intelligent dog when it was "outside" but something that was very relaxed when "inside" with the family........ yep... pretty impossible to find....until i happened upon the Spanish Water Dog...... that was one of their characteristics... and their intelligence is off the charts.... i think mostly because they are not well know, and are still used as an all-around real working dog on the farms in Spain... This is why i ship my dogs in from Spain.... Izzy's dad - -who has since passed-- was the SWD World "Working" Champion, and Lulu's parents were herding dogs... Lulu's mom actually herded Andalusian pigs....and from what i understand herding big pigs is a pretty dangerous herding job... these black pigs are pretty darn big:

ANyway.... once i had one, i was blown away by their intelligence.... i love training them cause you just show them something once or twice and they've "got it"  and they can make associations real quick....the fact that they don't shed is a bonus too.... SO........this is why i am hooked on SWDs.  They are not for everyone though, they are not the happy Lab type that loves everyone, SWDs  have a strong guarding trait, although they are not attack dogs, they are also very focused when working (think Border Collie) and very agile (picture dogs performing in a circus) and you have to be VERY careful what you teach them... cause them might use that lesson and apply to something that will drive you bonkers!!!!!!!!!!!  BUt i thoroughly enjoy these dogs and because they are so easy to train i cannot imagine getting any other breed in the future....

I think for me it was asthetics.  I love the look of the long muzzle and upright, pointed ears.  I never had any dogs like that growing up, we had a husky/chow chow, dachsund, and labrador/cocker spaniel, in that order.  The first one was pretty amazing, the dachsie was...well, a dachsie (Brenda knows what I'm talking about!) and the lab/cocker was the sweetest, most loving dog ever, but dumb as a rock.  I really wanted my own personal 'Lassie', a dog I knew could be trained, and would listen to me, with the looks I mentioned. 

When fate showed me Lizzie, all perfect and pre-trained, it was like God hand-picked her for me.  She would't fetch (she does now!) but she's just so amazingly well-behaved that I never have to worry about her.  And then Vito...yet another hand-picked perfect dog.  He doesn't have the long, narrow muzzle like Liz, but I love the giant Yoda ears!  And he fetches and listens like nobody's business.  That reminds me, I need to post news!

I grew up with a black short coat GSD cross and she has been my most loving memory ever since. We had other big dogs but the Judy was my icon.

Then I got married and wanted a dog... so Rob went out and brought home a corgi/staffie/something. He was great but a real eacaper and was over the 6ft fence almost as a puppy. After about three years we had a chance of moving from the city to the country and Rob came home with a lab/collie cross I called Puppy Dog.

We moved to the country and Puppy became my heart dog using her collie instinct to help round up the animals on the smallholding.. then Rob wanted a GSD... and another...and another and so they became our standard dog give or take a Retreiver.. a mutt or two ... a Lab...there seemed to be dogs of all kinds all over the place for the next 40 years.

There never was one like Judy my childhood darling though... but I loved them all.

Most were sheherd looking but Razzy was another icon... my golden lady.

Val

ok

right when i was akid we had a terrier who was horrible

so when I was about 10 my mom brought a beared collie pup home and he became my soul mate his name was Scamp

he was near 20 when he died and it killed me

after this we had cats and one was such a bitch we could never have had a pup

so she went at 15 and we went to the dog shelter and we found Ben I still miss him he was perfect

we then got Kai what a nightmare scared of everything and we loved him he was again my soul mate

and then we got our little girl geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzz

dont know where to start with this except to say I was very close to letting her go and my good friend Gillian was there and here we are....

and we love her

all shepherds and all with pointy earrs and long noses

Derek tells me as a kid he used to keep his mid morning biscuit for a gsd on the was to school...............

GSD ARE MY DOG

but so are everthing else...............................

jeanxx

I love the stories!  (By the way, Olesia - are you going to get some black pigs for the dogs to herd?)    As for me, I had always had a dog growing up (mixes from the ASPCA) and I loved them dearly.  As a young adult, I lived in apartments and couldn't have pets, so I had a bunch of years without a dog.  After I got married, I convinced my husband to get a dog (he agreed as long as it wouldn't get on the furniture or bed...yeah, right!).  We lived in a condo where we could have pets, but we lived in a 1 bedroom unit on the 3rd floor.  I was afraid if I went to the pound for a puppy it would grow into a small horse and be too big for the apartment, so we did research to find an "apartment-sized" breed.  We were considering shelties and dachshunds, but being on the 3rd floor, all those stairs would not be good for a doxie's long back, so sheltie it was.  Our first sheltie, Caesar, was just so wonderful, eager to please, smart, friendly, that we absolutely fell in love, and it's been shelties ever since.  It was quite the coincidence that my mother-in-law's dog was also a sheltie (Pixie, that is!) so she fit right in!

Wow,   this IS a great thread.    I love all these crazy stories of how "fate" brought us to our perfect place in the dog world.  Here is mine.

WELL,  growing up my Mother had 4 Doxies in a row.   They all were Mini-Red, Females......exactly like the picture.    Now, I must preface this with an important statement here.  There was no love lost between myself and my Mother.  I usually simply say "I was an only child, but I was NOT my Mother's favorite."  Enuf said about that.  So, because of that issue, I would NEVER want a Mini-Doxie, like my Mother had.  

So, I went for large breeds.   First dog of my own was a GSD named Duke.  He was so great.   Anyway, then I went to a Siberian Husky.....get the Big dog trend here.  Finally I got my DREAM dog....Ms. Beasley, a wonderful Blue Great Dane.  She was my soulmate.  

Beasley had been gone ony 3 months when my Mother passed,  and I was STUCK WITH Suzie.  HAHa    Cursed by my Mother with a SMALL dog!!!!    Being the only child, I had no choice, there was no one else.   She stole my heart.   Suzie was called a "rescue" by a psychic animal reader once, and I have to admit, Suzie did RESCUE me.   She brought me out of the pit of dispair.  

Doxies are a crazy breed.  They are demanding, controlling, and self-centered little shits.   They always rule their kingdom and are trained by NO ONE.  Infact, they train their people very well, just ask any Doxie owner.  Most of you have heard the stories of Sailin Suzie here in the marina and how she has more friends than I do.  I am usually referred to as "Suzie's mom."   She has "trained" many people here to come by on their kayaks and jet skiis and water toys to pick her up for a ride.  However, she will not hesitate to "loving" snap at your fingers if you disobey, and offend this Queen of the Sea.   She considers it training techniques.  Seems to work, as no one is offended, and they try harder to do her bidding.   If I were to coin a word for Doxies, it would be "Personality."   LOL   They are full of it.  Some of it likeable and some not so much.  

I know it will be impossible to fill her shoes someday, but I will definitely give another Mini Doxie the chance to try.

Thanks Mom

Awww-great stories! Funny Brenda about your mom "cursing" you with a dog! LOL

When I was growing up, we had toy poodles, which were all fun & I loved every one of them, but I always dreamed of having a dog that would be more of an outside dog, that could go hiking, catch a frisbee, etc. When I got out on my own, I wanted a medium sized dog that wouldnt require a lot of trips to the groomer. I had always loved Collies, but I had a small place so I began looking at Shelties. Just fell in love with that soulful face & the intelligence-plus they loved to fetch & play frisbee! I was hooked- First Brodie, Kenzie, Baillie, Hannah & then there was ADDIE! ;)now 5 shelties later........

Toby was my first dog and I didn't even know that I had a "type" when we got him. I picked him because I thought he was beautiful and because he was shaking and so frightened in his cage at the shelter. Because all our dogs are rescues, we don't really know what they are. We think Toby was a retriever x collie and he was just brilliant and trainable when he wanted to be. Ayla was our 2nd dog and she was a GSD x malamute/husky absolutely the sweetest girl, dumb as a post and very eager to please and trainable, so very different from Toby. She had down ears not up ears so who knows what else might have been mixed in. Cedar and Bree are retrievers, Bree may be straight retriever and Cedar is a mystery mix...likely GSD but maybe some Chow too since she is so very red and of course our young Griffin is a GSD x husky and he's our first up eared dog. I favour the retriever, collie crosses because I just love their intelligence, the shape of their faces and their feathery coats. But I also seem to like those husky x GSDs. 50-75 lbs seems to be the size we like too. Now since joining the Forum, I've fallen in love with Shilohs, but haven't ever seen one on a rescue or shelter site and I'm committed to adopting only rescue dogs. And we're at our bylaw limit with 3 so we're done for a while :-) But I definitely have a "type" of dog that I find beautiful and appealing. Feathers, wavy coat, interesting markings, balanced face, not snooty, not smooshed, not too big, not too small...fussy aren't I?