Category Archives: Dog Breeds

All about dog breeds.

Why a french bulldog for me?

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I’m often told  that I must have the most well groomed dog around and the answer is yes cause I picked a breed that has very minimal grooming needs.  I knew that after 40 hours a week grooming the last thing I want is to groom on my personal time which is why I chose a Frenchie.

A happy-go-lucky attitude and clowning behavior.

Like many other companion dog breeds they require close contact with humans.

They have fairly minimal exercise needs, but do require at least daily walks.

Their calm nature makes them excellent choices for apartment dwellers, as does their usually sensible attitude towards barking.

No hair to comb

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Grooming Truth for a Tibetian Terrier

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This breed of dog is a smart family dog with a very high maintenance hair not fur. Just like people hair, its has to be combed daily from root to tip. Can you imagine what your hair would look like it you only combed the tips once a month–avoiding the roots?

Here is a pelt of Tibetan hair matted fused together at the roots with nice straight stands on the right side in photo where, owner was brushing without metal comb. The hair should never come off in one piece. It’s a haven for fleas, fungus, ticks and hotspots.

It seems to be a secret to prospective new owners not knowing what they are getting themselves into for the next 12-16yrs. Monthly I get stories from new clients in frustration not being told the TRUTH of coat care by their breeder. Unfortunately despite the benefits of low dander and low allergy does come at the cost of the the home grooming involved to keep your Tibetan’s hair unmatted over ½ inch long. Some say that the adult coat is easier than puppy coat to keep up but its lots of work regardless.

Here is the TRUTH:

Fine tooth metal comb, root to tip daily to three times a week depending if your dog mats in a day or a in couple of days. Using a brush alone will NOT keep mats away especially if using the wrong type of brush.

Most harnesses, clothing, flat collars, choke chains, burs, and outdoor activity will cause matting if hair is not dealt with daily.

Food and water need to be combed out of beard daily to prevent a sour mildew smell around the face area.

Grooming every 4-6 weeks will not avoid matting. Only daily home coat care will prevent this.

Common areas that I educate about matting are:

Armpits

Ears flaps inside and out

Jaws

Beard

Throat

Chest

Flanks

Inside all legs

Base of tail

Backs of legs

Ribs

Undercarriage

I wanted to blog the truth of this type of hair and know that if you are having problems with this that there is a solution that involves LOTS of daily care and detail along with the right tools. This coat care is also needed for ANY low shedding/low allergy type dog with over 1/2 inch of hair.

Labradoodle “inventor” regrets decision

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Man who ‘invented’ the labradoodle regrets decision to breed world’s first designer dog

BY Rosemary Black
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Original article found on NYDailynews.com

Wednesday, May 5th 2010, 1:57 PM

Labradoodles, a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle, have become a popular 'designer' breed for pet owners.

Kazmierski/Getty
Labradoodles, a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle, have become a popular ‘designer’ breed for pet owners.

The creator of the popular labradoodle wonders if he was barking up the wrong tree when he came up with the idea for the world’s first designer dog.

The 81-year-old Australian man says he’s not sure he made the right decision to cross a poodle with a Labrador retriever back in the late 1980s. Since then, designer mixed-breed dogs have proliferated, giving pet owners the choice among groodles, snoodles and spoodles, among others.

”Today I am internationally credited as the first person to breed the labradoodle,” 81-year-old Australian resident Wally Conran told The Australian. “But I wonder, in my retirement, whether we bred a designer dog – or a disaster.”

While working for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia in the early 1980s, Conran was contacted by a vision-impaired woman in Hawaii. She needed an allergy-free guide dog since her husband had allergies to dogs. Though no breed is completely hypoallergenic, Conran decided to try crossing a poodle with a lab. Once he found a trainable poodle with a good temperament, he mated it to the lab and three puppies were born. The vision-impaired woman’s husband learned that just one puppy was allergy free.

The new crossbred dog was a good fit for allergy sufferers who were vision-impaired, but the world’s first designer dog didn’t really catch on until Conran came up with a great marketing idea.

“I decided to stop mentioning the word crossbreed and introduced the term ‘labradoodle’ instead to describe my new allergy-free guide-dog pups,” he wrote.

The name caught on and interest in the labradoodle soared, but he began to worry about “backyard breeders producing supposedly allergy-free dogs for profit,” Conran wrote. He felt that he had opened up a Pandora’s box.

“Were breeders bothering to check their sires and bitches for hereditary faults, or were they simply caught up in delivering to hungry customers the next status symbol?” he wrote.

And, Conran added, “It’s not something I’m proud of. I wish I could turn the clock back.”

No such thing as”teacup” dogs

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The word teacup is something that makes me immediately think scam and heartache to those who are not familiar.  Very small dogs sold under the term “teacup” are usually sold to people that have no idea that the term is made up and a great marketing strategy which can bring in $$$. If a breeder says they specialize in “teacups” RUN, RUN, RUN !  “TEACUP” puppies are in reality premature puppies SOMETIMES purposely being separated early from mom earlier than 8 weeks  to promote stunted growth which can be very dangerous with improper development but bring in $$$ from uninformed owners.

The word “Teacup” has been used to merely describe the size of a puppy, meaning it is very small and will probably be under the standard size which is 4 to 7 pounds.  Their bones are VERY fragile and can be broken by jumping off of a couch, falling off of a bed, being stepped on or worse.

Some of the problems that may be encountered are both genetic and congenital in these pups.

The risk of open fontanels (soft spot from the cranial bone not forming), portosystemic shunts (PSS- abnormal vessel that allows blood to bypass the liver. As a result the blood is not cleansed by one of the bodies filters: the liver.), hypoglycemia, cardiac problems, collapsing trachea, luxating patellas, Leggs Calves Perthes disease, seizures, hydroencephaly, blindness and digestive problems can be increased.

Problems such as respiratory problems can remain or worsen throughout their lives. These pups are so fragile that they do not live more than a few years. There is no such thing as a “tea cup” Yorkshire Terrier, Maltese, Poodle, or ANY other breed for that matter.  They simply do not exist. “Tea-cup” is just a marketing ploy given by unethical and unscrupulous breeders to drive up the price of their puppies!

Do your homework and if you are looking for a toy breed, don’t fall for the scam of “teacup” anything. Toy breeds each have their own guidelines and reputable clubs that work hard to educate and preserve.  Unfortunately I know more horror stories than good ones in regards to people buying online without any physical meeting.

Check with AKC.org to see what is appropriate for the dog of your choice.

Oodles of Doodles

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Doodles of every kind are becoming more popular since 1980’s.  Just recently the “inventor” publicly regrets what he started with this combination.

They are being sold with the idea that they are hypoallergenic which I have yet to find.  No dog is 100% non-allergenic, but some dogs are basically “low-allergy.”  Though they shed little to no hair and less dander than typical dogs, all dogs will shed some dander – even hairless dogs.  Its great marketing and if you study coats, you have to smile.  The coat is  high maintenance that maybe won’t shed on your couch but will empty the wallet and your time of up keep on a daily basis.   They have a good personality and are sweet dogs.

Groomers all over the country dread them but not for the breed itself but from the lack of proper coat up keep done at home with pleas of “Don’t make him look like a poodle” even though he is part poodle.

Thick, curly type coat. Mats up very easily

They come in every size and different coat textures  and colors but one thing is united, 98% of them have mats that come into the salon.  The idea that they don’t shed isn’t entirely true but it definitely sells on a marketing standpoint.  Dogs that shed will do so on our clothes, upholstery, furniture.  Hairy dogs that “don’t” shed,  get matted.  The hair is dead and gets trapped into the live hair instead of falling onto your belongings and starts its process of matting up, only taking 48-72 hours to do so.  Combing from root to tip, head to tail will prevent this every other day.

Another helpful tip is a rolled leather collar to help prevent matting around the neck area versus a traditional flat collar.  Doodles are great dogs for the right people and you will definitely be seeing them more so in the future.