Schnauzers?

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#1
There is a Mini Schnauzer mix at the shelter I volunteer at and he has gotten me interested in the breed. He does have severe DA and will snap at any dog that comes close to him, either in or out of his pen. He is great with people and loves to have his eyebrows rubbed.:rofl1:

Is DA a common issue in the breed? What are some of the main health issues to watch out for?

Won't be getting another dog for at least another decade. Just getting a feel for different breeds.

Here are some pics of him. I did not take the pics.
 

thehoundgirl

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#2
I have a mix. She isn't really DA. She loves Rudy and tolerates Buster. She however hates my brother's dog when they come to visit but I don't think it's aggression. She just doesn't want to play with him. She is generally healthy we have never had any issues with her health. :)
 

Laurelin

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#3
I know a lot through agility. I haven't noticed any DA but have noticed that schnauzers have a way of really setting a lot of dogs off. Mia hated the one in our class and a lot of the other dogs have as well. No idea why. I think they may be hard to read and also very shrieky?

Hank loooves the schnauzers because they will play rough with him.
 

Elrohwen

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#4
I grew up with mini schnauzers. My parents had 4 over the course of 30 years, in male/female pairs, but I only really remember the second two that we got when I was about 6. They were good dogs. Both males were goofy friendly dogs who were very very attached to my mom. Both females were much more aloof, though sweet.

None of our dogs really liked kids. I was a kid when we got them, and they liked me, but I was quiet and they were used to me. We tried to babysit the neighbors' boy toddlers and neither dog was happy about it. The male barked at them, and the female hid until they left.

None of them liked other dogs as a rule, but they were perfectly fine with their housemate, though not affectionate. In general, they just did not have great dog-dog social skills or any desire to interact with other dogs, even the ones they lived with. The second pair were littermates, because in the first pair the male never really liked the female and my parents hoped littermates would get along better. They got along fine, but I don't remember them interacting much, and neither had any issue with being apart - I think the female actually enjoyed when the male was gone. So IME, they were not DA at all, they were just dog indifferent to the extreme, and reactive. All 4 were like that, though they weren't from great breeders or socialized all that much.

Most of ours weren't crazy prey driven. One killed many little critters, but the others were only mildly interested. I got gerbils and they barked at them for a couple days, but after that never noticed them again. I'm sure that varies a lot, because you would expect high prey drive with terriers.
 
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#5
I know a lot through agility. I haven't noticed any DA but have noticed that schnauzers have a way of really setting a lot of dogs off. Mia hated the one in our class and a lot of the other dogs have as well. No idea why. I think they may be hard to read and also very shrieky?

Hank loooves the schnauzers because they will play rough with him.
I think you may be onto something about being hard to read. I noticed his, I'd guess you'd call it "facial expressions" where never the same as the other dogs. The eyebrows and hair around the muzzle seemed to hide his face.

I grew up with mini schnauzers. My parents had 4 over the course of 30 years, in male/female pairs, but I only really remember the second two that we got when I was about 6. They were good dogs. Both males were goofy friendly dogs who were very very attached to my mom. Both females were much more aloof, though sweet.

None of our dogs really liked kids. I was a kid when we got them, and they liked me, but I was quiet and they were used to me. We tried to babysit the neighbors' boy toddlers and neither dog was happy about it. The male barked at them, and the female hid until they left.

None of them liked other dogs as a rule, but they were perfectly fine with their housemate, though not affectionate. In general, they just did not have great dog-dog social skills or any desire to interact with other dogs, even the ones they lived with. The second pair were littermates, because in the first pair the male never really liked the female and my parents hoped littermates would get along better. They got along fine, but I don't remember them interacting much, and neither had any issue with being apart - I think the female actually enjoyed when the male was gone. So IME, they were not DA at all, they were just dog indifferent to the extreme, and reactive. All 4 were like that, though they weren't from great breeders or socialized all that much.

Most of ours weren't crazy prey driven. One killed many little critters, but the others were only mildly interested. I got gerbils and they barked at them for a couple days, but after that never noticed them again. I'm sure that varies a lot, because you would expect high prey drive with terriers.
The shelter staff may have read his indifference as "hates other dogs". The only snapping I saw was when another dog got to close. So probably just indifference, combined with reactivity.

He got adopted last night to a lady with two other dogs, so hopefully it works out.
 

thehoundgirl

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Dixie isn't hard to read at all.. lol but she is very vocal. I wouldn't say she is shrieky.
 

Elrohwen

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#9
I forgot to mention that all of our schnauzers were super barky. I guess they didn't bark at nothing, but small things would get them going for 5min at a time. Or my female would sit outside and bark to get the neighbor dog to come out. They were not quiet dogs.
 
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#11
My parents have a rescue one (a standard maybe?, he's about 30 pounds) and he's pretty reactive, they get charged/attacked by loose dogs all the time and he goes bananas but nobody ever gets hurt, just noise. He's met a couple of my dogs, gets along good with my sister's lab, seems fine if introduced properly although not super interested in playing and I think a lot of the leash issues are just poor handling. He charges and barks at the door if someone comes over pretty intensely but doesn't seem to want to bite anyone, that's probably my main dislike of his habits but again just training, sometimes I remember to bring treats to toss which shuts him up. He's ok with the grandkids and good with their cat. Several of my coworkers used to have mini's and liked them, they all had eye issues and several died of cancer around 10 or so.
 
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#12
Well they are terriers and terriers are loud. ;)
Kieber's my first "little terrier(or)" and now I see why alot of people avoid them.:yikes: Don't get me wrong, I love him, but dang that dog is insane!

My parents have a rescue one (a standard maybe?, he's about 30 pounds) and he's pretty reactive, they get charged/attacked by loose dogs all the time and he goes bananas but nobody ever gets hurt, just noise. He's met a couple of my dogs, gets along good with my sister's lab, seems fine if introduced properly although not super interested in playing and I think a lot of the leash issues are just poor handling. He charges and barks at the door if someone comes over pretty intensely but doesn't seem to want to bite anyone, that's probably my main dislike of his habits but again just training, sometimes I remember to bring treats to toss which shuts him up. He's ok with the grandkids and good with their cat. Several of my coworkers used to have mini's and liked them, they all had eye issues and several died of cancer around 10 or so.
If you know, about how much grooming does your parents one need? Do you know what kind of eye issues your coworker's dogs had? Congenital deformity, allergy, issues caused by all that fur on their faces?
 
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#13
My fiances Grandfather has a miniature schnauzer. Her name is Shortcake, she's about 10 years old, or something...

Very sweet, no DA whatsoever - very 'on schedule'. She's a definite lap dog.
Not sure how biddable she is, as far as I know she's not been trained, but she has a great LLW and she's quiet - very quiet.



(seat next to Toby)

The only health issue she's had that I'm aware of, is a cyst/nodule on her side that needed to be drained (daily) and was eventually removed. She has another though on her neck that does the same thing. I'm not sure if her owners plan to have it removed too though as it's fairly small.

She goes to the groomers probably about once every 2 months.
 
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#14
We have one Miniature Schnauzer named Simba! Going to be 11 this year; he's my first dog, actually and I choose him at 2 days old when I was 9 years old (now 20) and he came home at 6 weeks.

I'd say the dog you posted is actually a purebred Miniature; not a mix!

Simba is a sassy brat! He is very vocal, both in alerting and in backsass! He will tell you what's up when you get home and during the day! Always has something to say! He is very affectionate and has no problem coming to lay on top of you and tell you how before that moment how deprived he was of attention. He's not too reactive, most of his dog reaction comes from him not being fixed (mother would never allow it done, huh), and him getting very horny whether boy or girl and feeling he needs to get near them and in turn, hump - but past that he's fine with other dogs. Also is just fine with all people. As for his prey drive; Simba's is in the middle. If they're lose and running outside, he'll want to go after them, but just in general he's been with everything from hermit crabs to hamsters to guinea pigs in our house and he's fine with them all besides needing to try and eat their poops (I think when the birds are out is his favorite time as he follows them around and just laps it up as they let it out).
 

Elrohwen

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#15
I agree that the pic you posted looks purebred.

I also agree with BostonBullMama about the "on schedule" thing. All of our schnauzers were sticklers about their schedule and rules they came up with.

For grooming, I think we did them every 4-6 weeks ourselves. We just used cheap clippers to do a simple puppy cut, and left their ears fairly long and feathered.
 

Elrohwen

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I found some pictures of our dogs in case you're interested. They also show the simple way we groomed them (much longer than the traditional schnauzer cut)



 

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