Heartbroken

[sarahbe]

Hope you are all doing ok- he is your precious little gift. x

[amandaC]

Thank you. He is growing well and seems a happy chap. Mum is gradually getting less worried about leaving him and even managed breakfast with the other girls this morning which is a huge improvement as she has been very picky about eating recently.

I am getting conflicting advice as to weather to keep him or not. So far my Dad ( experience KC member, gsd breeder / exibitor and trainer), Daisys breeder ( as before but for Cockers) and the stud dog owner ( again Cocker judge, breeder etc) have all said running a dog with a house of bitches leads to howling when girls in heat and is a totally different ball game.

Where as I am totally in love with my little chap, never had an entire dog and a bit sentimental about the whole thing. I can't bear the thought of him having the chop and loosing his beautiful silky cocker coat and personally think he is far to well bred to be a lap dog. I want to show him ( lightly as I have other commitments - kids, horses, husband ) but I am missing doing stuff with the dogs. Plus I think dogs are very handsome


So what do I do? buy in a bitch puppy if I can find a good one but then breeders don't like to sell their good ones as they want to show them themselves or wait until next year to two years by the time Daisy will be 6 or 7 and try again? In my opinion that would be pushing it and a lot to ask from her.

[bluegirl]

I kept a dog and a bitch from one of my litters. Bitch because I had my eye on her and dog because he was picked by the stud dog owner as having potential but it was husband who wanted him. I now have 3 girls and one entire male and they all live together. For me its about what you are prepared to put up with. My male is fine with my girls, and he keeps himself to himself for the most part. Girls are definitely boss. My girls are not in sync with their seasons so its basically every 3 mths we have one in season. Some may have other views on this and I'm not going to get into that but for us it works well. My male stays here with us every time and we have had no accidents or near misses in 4 years now. He is kept separate ( another room) from the girls from about 8 days into their season. He is still quiet and he still has a full appetite until they get to 11 days then for the next 4 he is so focused he very rarely wants to eat in this time and may howl, although he is easily quietened down. Its not the best idea to walk him at this time because his level of concentration is such that he just wants to either follow the scent laid down by them or just get back home. Once he's done about 4 days everything starts to return to normal, girls stop pestering and he becomes less interested. In total he is kept separate for about 6 - 9 days max.

I knew it would be more challenging keeping him, but he is a joy to have and we get much more out of having him than the small amount of disruption caused by the season problems and once the height of the season is passed he doesn't so much as give the girls a second glance. He's also very clean in the house we have no piddling or scent marking no matter where they are in their seasons so all in all for us it works. I did worry about his loss of appetite initially but being as I fast my dogs once a week anyway and longer if they were ill of being fussy eaters and the fact that it's not a significant weight loss it was deemed an acceptable consequence given our circumstances.

[Jane S]

I can't bear the thought of him having the chop and loosing his beautiful silky cocker coat and personally think he is far to well bred to be a lap dog. I want to show him ( lightly as I have other commitments - kids, horses, husband ) but I am missing doing stuff with the dogs. Plus I think dogs are very handsome

I'm not sure the fact he is well bred means you should keep him? There are thousands of lovely well-bred dogs out there all living happy lives as family pets without being shown or bred from Most of our pups (even those with both parents show champions) will go to pet homes and I certainly don't think that's a waste - they often do other activities like agility or rally or are just much loved pets - what could be better than that? Only a small percentage of well bred pups will ever go on to gain show success or be good enough for breeding but that doesn't mean those that don't make it are any less of value to their owners than those that do.

Only you know whether you can put up with the disruption that owning a household of entire dogs and bitches can bring - it works well for Karen (bluegirl) but others find it a complete nightmare when bitches are in season unless you have proper facilities for keeping dog & bitches apart when necessary (and a family that can all be trusted to always keep separating doors, gates etc firmly shut ). Of course you could always neuter your boy and if you want to do an activity with him, try something where his coat doesn't matter like agility. You can certainly still keep a neutered dog's coat looking attractive and smart - it just means you can't hand strip long term.

[jennyspin]

Hi Amanda, it's good news that you, mum and baby boy are doing well. You do what you think is best for you and how you feel. 

[sarahbe]

He may be a gift sent for you- if you fall in love with him keep him. The boys are different- very loving in my experience!