The Dog Search Continues

Still following in Gawdessness's footsteps, Brian and I continued to do research on dog breeds. We read the descriptions and talked about dogs we know. Your Pure Breed Puppy is an excellent site if you want to know not just what people who like the breed say, but what common issues exist in a breed. My take on the Australian Cattle Dog review is that he is correct. Our Cattle Dog does not have the major faults described, but if anyone asked me what the down-side of the breed was, I would give about the same information. You have to not let the site scare you off though. As the site author tries to remind people all the time, it is NOT that all dogs of this breed will have these faults, but it is the case that these are the things you should look for as you meet and consider particular dogs.

Brian has decided that his favorite breed is the Shih Tzu, or perhaps Lhasa Apso.

So now the search is on. We are taking it slow, but we have a direction. I am watching the listings for the shelters, and the newspaper. I also wrote to the AKC Shih Tzu Club and asked for a list of breeders so I can start contacting them. We are still hoping to find a young male dog. It may take us a while, or no time at all. We will see. If we get all the way to the summer without finding a young, adult male with the right temperament, I will consider a puppy. Since we are a family of educators, we are home during the summer, which would be much better for a pup.

A colleague of a my husband is trying to re-home/sell an 8-month, female Lhasa Apso. It's the wrong breed, wrong age, and wrong sex but I am considering asking if it can spend the weekend with us just so that I can see if the Cattle Dog would tolerate a female, if it were young, and to let Brian see what it is like to take care of a teething puppy. Who knows, maybe it would turn out to be the right dog. It is supposed to be a well-mannered puppy. The issues have to do with unexpected changes in the owner's life, not the with the behavior of the puppy. (I did just say that I wouldn't consider a puppy until the summer, didn't I?)

I find that this process can be as emotionally draining as considering new foster kids. I don't suppose that should be surprising, a pet can be nearly as much of presence in your life as a child, and it is necessary to make a long-term commitment to them.

The whole process is also a good illustration of my character faults. I am getting too wrapped up in this, and too willing to believe or at least hope, as Brian does, that the right dog will take away all of his loneliness. I am letting myself get distracted from things I should be doing.

And another wrinkle this has brought up:

Andrew is afraid that if Brian gets a dog, Andrew's cat will run away. His cat already lives exclusively in the "garden level" part of the house (i.e. the finished basement where the boys have their bedrooms). So we considered whether we should move Brian to the bedroom next to ours, which would mean that his room would become the room of the next kid.

Living the sur-real life that I do, I checked in with the family developer at our agency to see if they have any objections to my doing that. Would it be okay with them if the new kid's bedroom in on the same floor as a 17-year-old boy's and no parents? Given our demographic (i.e. we won't be taking any heterosexual girls), she said okay.

Don't tell Brian though. If he doesn't get a dog, we would rather he stay downstairs, especially while it is just the two of us. Hubby moves to sleep in that room sometimes. He claims that I snore.