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Pit Pet Thread

Toby, our 8-year-old Gordon Setter.

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Hannah, our 7-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog.

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Every dog posted is cuter than the last. I don't know how the Pit does it...
 
Whenever Stanley is being bad, I stick my hand in his mouth and dare him to "be the man."

High risk, high reward is the way to go.
 
Hannah, our 7-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog.

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If and when I reach a point in my life that I can afford to own a dog, I really want a Bernese Mountain Dog.

From what I understand, they are smart, inquisitive, intuitive, and gentle. What's been your experience so far? Pros? Cons?
 
If and when I reach a point in my life that I can afford to own a dog, I really want a Bernese Mountain Dog.

From what I understand, they are smart, inquisitive, intuitive, and gentle. What's been your experience so far? Pros? Cons?


The dog has snow-boots on... what the hell do you think he's going to say? ;)
 
The dog has snow-boots on... what the hell do you think he's going to say? ;)

When Bernese mountain dogs are puppies they are the cutest, most well-mannered puppies in the world. Do they retain these factors as they grow older?
 
Wolfdeac mentioned his dog dropping toys in a bag when they're packing for a trip... Spooner did something similar recently that astounded me (and in my mind, is post-worthy).

When a Verizon rep (an older guy, probably mid-50's) was installing my FIOS a few weeks ago; he was on his hands and knees beside my wall outlet & Spooner (true to form) dropped a toy beside his knee for him to throw back to her.

He was obviously uneasy with her being so close to him; so I shoo'ed her off & she came over to me. He proceeded to tell me that he's never owned a dog (or been a 'dog-person', in general) but a couple of weeks back, his friend had rescued some pitbulls and was having to give them to an animal shelter where they'd never find homes.

He said he (and his wife) couldn't help but help out; and they took one of them. It didn't take long to realize that he had obviously fallen in love with the dog already and was mesmerized by the companionship the new pup was offering.

He asked me some pretty typical questions (what kind of food he should be buying, etc). The last thing he really talked about dog-wise was the fact that he hadn't succumb to buying a toy for the dog yet; pretty much saying that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Anyway, about this time, Spooner disappears (Side note: we have a doggy-door in the back of the house that I've never seen her use). The rep moves around the house for another hour or two and eventually packs up his equipment (including his bag from the backyard).

About 5 minutes after I signed the installation receipt... the doorbell rings; he's standing at the front door with his toolbox open, returning the toy (her favorite) he had just discovered as he was driving away.
 
Wolfdeac mentioned his dog dropping toys in a bag when they're packing for a trip... Spooner did something similar recently that astounded me (and in my mind, is post-worthy).

When a Verizon rep (an older guy, probably mid-50's) was installing my FIOS a few weeks ago; he was on his hands and knees beside my wall outlet & Spooner (true to form) dropped a toy beside his knee for him to throw back to her.

He was obviously uneasy with her being so close to him; so I shoo'ed her off & she came over to me. He proceeded to tell me that he's never owned a dog (or been a 'dog-person', in general) but a couple of weeks back, his friend had rescued some pitbulls and was having to give them to an animal shelter where they'd never find homes.

He said he (and his wife) couldn't help but help out; and they took one of them. It didn't take long to realize that he had obviously fallen in love with the dog already and was mesmerized by the companionship the new pup was offering.

He asked me some pretty typical questions (what kind of food he should be buying, etc). The last thing he really talked about dog-wise was the fact that he hadn't succumb to buying a toy for the dog yet; pretty much saying that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Anyway, about this time, Spooner disappears (Side note: we have a doggy-door in the back of the house that I've never seen her use). The rep moves around the house for another hour or two and eventually packs up his equipment (including his bag from the backyard).

About 5 minutes after I signed the installation receipt... the doorbell rings; he's standing at the front door with his toolbox open, returning the toy (her favorite) he had just discovered as he was driving away.

Great story. Dogs (and sometimes cats) are awesome. I really can't wait until I'm in a situation to own one.
 
If and when I reach a point in my life that I can afford to own a dog, I really want a Bernese Mountain Dog.

From what I understand, they are smart, inquisitive, intuitive, and gentle. What's been your experience so far? Pros? Cons?

I'd say that's pretty accurate. Our Berner is the sweetest, goofiest, gentlest, most lovable dog we've ever owned, and we've had quite a few. We rescued her when she was ~10 months old (why anyone would ever abandon one of these dogs, let alone this particular one, remains one of the great mysteries of my life) and she was already 85 pounds, so there are definitely drawbacks. For example, you will buy so much dog food that you'll start buying it in bags that are bigger than the trunk of your car, and you'll vacuum up so much dog hair that your opinion on owning a Roomba will go from "extravagant frivolity for only the uber-rich" to "holy fuck how did I ever live without this thing?!?"

Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better breed of dog. They're extremely loyal to their owners, but are also good around other people, dogs or children. They're also surprisingly active for such big dogs, so it's a plus if you have a big yard or are a relatively active person that enjoys hiking, walking, biking, whatever. The downside to having an active 100-pound dog is that bad things can happen, like when ours tore her ACL while playing in the back yard a few summers ago. It's a relatively easy fix with surgery, but that doesn't mean it's cheap (I think ours was ~$2,500) and it doesn't mean it's easy to keep a dog like that from putting any weight on the injury for 4-6 weeks (I had to carry ours up and down the stairs every night/morning so she could sleep in the bedroom with us).

One last consideration would be where you live. These dogs are bred to live in the mountains, so they are wearing the equivalent of a parka with a fleece baselayer at all times. If you live anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, I'd say getting a Berner is a questionable decision. We get ours clipped in the summer months, which is apparently pretty uncommon among Bernese owners, but she is SO much happier. Our old house had no air conditioning, so the poor dog would just lay on the concrete floor in the garage all day. Even now I find her out in the garage from time to time despite the fact that the house has AC and is usually 10-15 degrees cooler than the garage. No breaking old habits, I suppose.

A few more photos for posterity. As you can imagine, she is never happier than she is when she's buried in five feet of fresh powder...

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This is Rufus. He is some unknown sort of lab mix that makes him look like a black lab puppy forever...we think he has some Corgi and Basset Hound in him.


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Fostering a greyhound now. The family dogs like her a lot as they see each other almost every weekend. Probably am going to end up adopting this one or another. Such an awesome dog.

I am absolutely astounded by how amazing the breed is. It is still hard for me to always use a leash (used to retrievers who recall train pretty easily) when outside. I go to a huge fenced in baseball field two days a week in addition to the daily walks, I have to say a greyhound running is pretty cool to watch.

Currently have:
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Kate
 
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I don't really have any of my own pets anymore but here are the pets of my life:

Me with my first pet, Ninja, from the dirty streets of Durham. She passed away in October of '09 at 21 years old
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Not sure how I missed it the first time but this picture is adorable! My childhood kitty lived to 21 too. I still regret not taking her out to do shots for her last birthday.
 
Yes. Please clone Rufus. Ship to Raleigh. C/O BSD. thx.

:) Get in line. We've had many requests for cloning, because he's pretty much the coolest dog in history.

I am considering getting a Thunder Shirt for my Boston Terrier. He has separation anxiety and I have heard it works. Anyone have experience with them?

Here's the link to what I'm talking about:
http://www.thundershirt.com/lpc/

Rufus gets very anxious during storms, so we got a Thunder Shirt and it works okay, but not great. I think now he sees it come out and knows that something bad is coming. :confused:
 
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