afghan, salukie and danes...oh my.

FoxyWench

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#1
so just because its been playing in my mind...

im "thinking through" my DISTANT future "big" dog...
(my next dog probably in about a years time (if we have a house by then will be a 3rd crestie lol)

theres are 7 breeds that i absolutly LOVE

Staffie Bull, Doberman, Standard Poodle, Standard Xolo, Saluki, Afghan, and Danes.

obviously all are EXTREEMLY different breeds

i think, with the cresties a poodle would be too much coat upkeep so i think ive ruled a poodle out...

Xolos are a realy cool and interesting breed, but i think mabe too similar to the cresties...id like to "expand" so i think ive ruled these guys out too...

Staffie bulls are a favorite, but id want to import one from the uk if i was going to get a staffy...and im very worried about dog agression with the cresties and such a powerfull breed. they are also a "high risk" breed in the area and there trying to get them under legislation...as well as making getting affordable house insurance a pain in this area...meaning there probbaly out of the question too...

Dobies also fall under the "expensive home owners liability insurance" category...and as much as i love dobies the bf is warey of them...rulling them out for the most part too...

this leaves Danes...

i had a dane growing up who was the love of my life...
and ive fostered danes.
i love the way they look and they have great personalities, but their short life span, health concerns and potential same sex agression make me warey of making a dane a perminent addition...

Saluki
i love the way this breed looks and moves, they are a stunning breed...but ive not had any first hand experience with them

Afghan.
My grandfather had an afghan, and ive spent quite a bit of time around sighthounds...
cresties also have a sighthoundish personality...
i LOVE these guys, such sweethearted gentle giants...even if they can be "hard of hearing" lol.
i do have a little bit of concern about running a sight hound...were planning on having a good fenced garden but it wont be huge...and walks are no problem...but id want to find a lure coursing club or soemthing before going for it.

im also concerned with prey drive in the sighhounds, the cresties arnt "tiny" but there definatly small enough to insite "bunny" thoughts...


no matter what breed they woudlnt be left alone with the cresties unsupervised...
but yeah..

any thoughts, opinions, even experience with these breeds...
would be apreciated.
 

noodlerubyallie

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#2
Foxy, there are insurance companies that don't have breed restrictions, and they tend to love it when you get a CGC on a Doberman.

I would be more concerned about their prey drive and same sex aggression in the household. Males are much more notorious for this, but depending on the attitude of the female, it happens with females as well.

Is he wary of them because they look intimidating? That's the point ;) But when you own one, they love you like life itself.

I'm biased, though ;)
 

Pops2

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#3
Foxy

sighthounds are generally smart enough to tell the difference between a small dog and another type of animal. a bigger problem is that they don't understand their size and power, this is why they injure & kill most small dogs. they simply hurt them in play. the british breeds are accustomed to working WITH smaller dogs that flush the game to them. my own has lived w/a mini dachshund and currently my daughter's maltese. he understands they are dogs, keep in mind my shag is an active hunter that has caught and/or killed everything from 1# squirrels to 4# rabbits to 250# wild boar. yet he still has no difficulty discerning the difference between small dogs & game.
 

FoxyWench

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noodle, im honestly not sure what it is about dobies the bf doesnt like, he wont tell me he just says he doesnt realy want a dobie...
which i have to respect since he didnt realy want ANY dogs but is being great about the cresties and isnt putting up a fuss about me getting a big dog in the future.

pops, thank you.
i personally thought that there smart enough to tell the difference (and wouldnt be playing together unsupervised so im nto too worried about the rough play lol) but ive had some people try to insist that they would veiw the cresties as prey so i wanted some who have more experience with the true sighthounds (since cresties are more a sighthound x terrier personality) than i do :)

i think afghan hounds are simply gorgeous dogs!
 

noodlerubyallie

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#5
I saw my first ever Afghan puppy a month ago...I fell in LOVE! They are cool dogs, sighthounds aren't for me though :)

I'm sure you'll fall in love with something that everyone will enjoy!
 

Romy

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#6
Foxy

sighthounds are generally smart enough to tell the difference between a small dog and another type of animal. a bigger problem is that they don't understand their size and power, this is why they injure & kill most small dogs. they simply hurt them in play. the british breeds are accustomed to working WITH smaller dogs that flush the game to them. my own has lived w/a mini dachshund and currently my daughter's maltese. he understands they are dogs, keep in mind my shag is an active hunter that has caught and/or killed everything from 1# squirrels to 4# rabbits to 250# wild boar. yet he still has no difficulty discerning the difference between small dogs & game.
Definitely this. Strider plays with our neighbors boston terriers most days, and there is a much larger size difference between him and the bostons, than you would have between a saluki or afghan and the cresties. I don't let them run in the pasture together, because at those high speeds an accidental collision would be terrible for the small dogs. Mainly he just rolls around in the yard with them and does his "gentle wrestling" moves.

With how much you like grooming, you'd probably love an afghan. Salukis are neat too, I never was very into them until I met one at a coursing event, he just kind of snuck up to me and leaned on my leg, then turned on his big brown eye magic, lol.

Sighthounds in general have a good sense of their size and strength. We have found ours to be good with dog savvy children because of this.

For exercising a sighthound, access to a fenced off playground or ball field is a lot more important than a coursing club. Most clubs only meet a couple of times a month, and then the dogs only get a few runs in, spending the rest of the time standing around waiting for their turn on leash. If you don't have an acre yard at least you should be able to get them to a safe larger fenced area. Every day is ideal, but every other day would probably be okay.
 

FoxyWench

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#7
thank you!

you have borzoi right? (i LOVE borzoi but the coat doesnt apeal to me for some reason...) and i think its the afghan coat that origionally drew me to them...they're absolutly stunning!

the place were looking to eventually buy has a huge securly fenced playing feild in the back so that might work.
 

Brattina88

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#8
I've recently fallen for sighthounds... Afghans are gorgeous, but I don't know if I could deal with the coat! When I meet a greyhound I can't keep my hands off of them ;) lol maybe I'll have on of those in the future!

I say Afghan! Selfishly... only because I don't remember seeing too many on chaz and I want pics ;) LOL

On a more serious note, good luck on your search :)
 

Doberdogs

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..and as much as i love dobies the bf is warey of them...rulling them out for the most part too...
.
What is his excuse for this nonsense? :confused:
Don't let your BF tell you what type of dog to own... :popcorn: Reminds me of a saying: Whatever, whatever, I do what I want...:lol-sign:
 

Zoom

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#10
There is compromise in any relationship and if the BF is scared of Dobes, for whatever reason, that's how it is. It's not like he's banning her from any dogs, she just said she's got the Cresties even though he's not a dog person and he's willing to have a larger dog, just not a Dobe. For that, I think it's only fair to go with the "least objectionable alternative".
 

IcyHound

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There is no 'running' issue with afghans. If you have a tiny yard that is enough. Afghans are agile runners and turners. They are not as fast as other sighthounds but they can turn on a dime and they get a lot of pleasure out of it. They are also horribly lazy.

If you keep up with their coats it is not a big deal. A house pet can do a bath and brush every 2 weeks and stay gorgious. The hard part will be when they have the coat blow from puppy hood to adult hood. I shave half of mine down at this point because I just don't have the time to deal with the transitional grooming. Plus afghans have all sorts of amounts of hair and what most people think of an afghan hound coat is *not* what the average person can accomplish unless the dog is altered and then it will be a hair factory. I think about 90% of people clip down their afghans to some degree. I have six and one is bald right now, one is clipped, and 4 are in coat because that is all my current schedule allows and sometimes that can be a battle when the weather is crappy as it is now. Also carpet will destroy an afghans coat faster then almost anything else so if you have carpet your dogs coat may not get but so full and long.

I also have dobies and your boyfriend should try to work through his preconceived notions of the breed. Everyone has things they like and dislike about a breed. I don't care when people have issues with looks (positive or negative) I do as well. However, Dobies have such a bad rep and as a dobie owner it is totaly frustrating.

edited to add: Afghans are not big. A proper sized afghan female weighs about 40-50lb and is about 24-27 inches tall. A male is 26-28 inches tall and weighs about 55-65 pounds. A 65 pound afghan is huge. Some people are breeding these HUGE afghans these days. Ugh. They are not meant to be 70lb and 30 inches. Not a bit of agility in those dogs at all.

Another edit: They get along fine with small dogs and cats. When we moved in together my husband had a shih-tzu (who later had a stroke and died) and we have a herd of cats together. The biggest issue is Hollow who wants to sleep on and kneed the dogs and them not wanting it because they are bony.

And they are not aloof with their owners or 'sighthoundish' with their owners. They are actually super dooper affectionate and loving if not clingy. But to strangers they are cold.
 

FoxyWench

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#14
Pictures would be wonderfull :p

thank you icy, i apreciate first hand experiences and its nice to hear they are affectionate with their owners...
i dont mind an aloof dog or one standoffish with strangers but i also want a breed i can have that bond with...

zoom: you hit the nail on the head. in our relationship i pretty much said "its me and my dog" then said "im getting a second crestie" he had no choice in the matter, but he accepted it and is getting on well with them...
he never wanted a dog...but i told him its me and the dogs or nothing at all and he has worked with that and is actually realy good with them...
i told him eventually i will get a 3rd crestie...he rolled his eyes and sighed but still no fight, no telling me "no you cant"...
and then i told him eventually id also like a big dog...but at that point id want him to enjoy and be involved with the dog (because he is softening and hopefully 4-5 yrs down the line, he migh be interested in being more involved) so would like some input from him on the kind of breed...
so i told him the breeds im interested in and hes very open to almost any breed but simply doesnt like dobies, or rotties...
he insists hes never had a bad experience with one, he jsut isnt "keen on them"...

If that only rules out one breed on my potential future list im ok with that...:)
 

YodelDogs

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A mentally stable and socialized sighthound will not consider toy dogs as "prey". They are fully aware that a dog is a dog no matter what size it is. If you start with a responsibly bred sighthound and raise it with your Cresteds you should not have any issues related to "prey drive" with your dogs.
 

Romy

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#16
Pictures would be wonderfull :p

thank you icy, i apreciate first hand experiences and its nice to hear they are affectionate with their owners...
i dont mind an aloof dog or one standoffish with strangers but i also want a breed i can have that bond with...

zoom: you hit the nail on the head. in our relationship i pretty much said "its me and my dog" then said "im getting a second crestie" he had no choice in the matter, but he accepted it and is getting on well with them...
he never wanted a dog...but i told him its me and the dogs or nothing at all and he has worked with that and is actually realy good with them...
i told him eventually i will get a 3rd crestie...he rolled his eyes and sighed but still no fight, no telling me "no you cant"...
and then i told him eventually id also like a big dog...but at that point id want him to enjoy and be involved with the dog (because he is softening and hopefully 4-5 yrs down the line, he migh be interested in being more involved) so would like some input from him on the kind of breed...
so i told him the breeds im interested in and hes very open to almost any breed but simply doesnt like dobies, or rotties...
he insists hes never had a bad experience with one, he jsut isnt "keen on them"...

If that only rules out one breed on my potential future list im ok with that...:)
If it makes you feel better, Robert saw my borzoi book laying on a table while we were dating and said:

"Can't we please NEVER get one of those dogs?"

I was disappointed, but he liked dogs in general, and otherwise was amazing so I married him. It was the right choice. When we looked into getting our own dog he wanted a GSD, so we got one. But then he forbade sighthounds all together because he didn't like how they "look scrawny".

Well, now we have a borzoi and he LOVES sighthounds. He's planning on a scottish deerhound of his own some day. If it's meant to happen, it will happen. Maybe when he's ready he'd be open to an uncropped dobe, as they have a houndy look?

Looking back on my uncles afghan, he was extremely affectionate to family. He would jump up on our shoulders and lick our faces when we came to visit, doing full body happy wiggles. He didn't like total strangers, but after being introduced and spending time with someone (a few visits in his case) would begin to accept them as worthy to rub his ears.
 
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#18
I don't know anything about your lifestyle, about your knowledge about dogs. So, I want to say, that you need to pick that breed, what are the easiest for you to grow it. I can say a lot about sighthounds- they are fantastic dogs, but not all of people can grow them... If you will buy sighthound- you need to be with that breed all of your life. They are different, not like other dogs. You need to be very strong and at the same time very soft with them.
 

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