I am looking back in the past trying to figure out what I have missed that caused us to end up where we currently are. I wish I have started this blog 3 years ago when all those little details were still clear in my memory, but unfortunately they are long gone.
Brandy was a very happy puppy. We have plenty of dogs in the neighborhood and she was happy to play with any of them. Before we got her I did some reading about the breed and although I have read that the terriers are independent thinkers and tend to be dog aggressive I never fully understood what it means until she was about 18 months old. So at the beginning I was a bit cautious about letting her play with other dogs but seeing how well they get alone I stopped worrying about all that stuff. This all changed one day.
Also from my research I found out that obedience training is strongly recommended for this breed. I really did want to get this right so I started looking for a dog class. The problem is that although I did plenty of reading about the breed, I hardly did any reading about dog training and had very little idea what the well trained dog really means. That and also money consideration made me looking for dog classes at pet stores. Just before I signed up for the session the breeder suggested to me to buy an e-collar and pointed me to the set of articles that describes how to use it. And so I did. Everything was going pretty well. First we worked on the recall and she did have a great recall, she would turn in midair when I call her, even if rabbits or deer were right under her nose. We worked on sit, down and hill commands and I thought we had all we needed, as I wasn't going to do compete in obedience trials. Thinking about it now, I'd say we could have been OK if I just had another spaniel, but as I found out terriers are quite a different story.
Showing posts with label Kerry Blue Terrier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kerry Blue Terrier. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
Introduction
There is an old Russian cartoon about a "Blue Puppy". If you were to ask my parents they would tell you that when I was about one year old, the only story I would want to hear over and over is the "Blue Puppy".
My dad is a hunter. When I was about 7 years old we got our first dog - "Russian Spaniel". It's a mid size working breed. I always loved dogs, at a very early age I new names of most of dog breeds. I remember there was a book in our house about breeds of hunting dogs and among them there was a picture of a Kerry Blue Terrier. Right then I was intrigued by the word "blue" in the name of the breed. When my parents got divorced my dad took our dog with him and for a few years we didn't have a dog in the house.
When I turned 18 my mom and I started talking about getting another dog. We discussed few breeds and she wasn't very excited about Kerry blues. One day I came home and found a cutest American cocker spaniel puppy, later when we came to USA I took that dog with me. Soon after I moved to the US I got married, my husband had terrible allergies to my cocker so unfortunately she had to stay with my mom and grand parents and couldn't come to leave with us.
My husband loves dogs and other animals ( although he would deny it) very much and it was very hard for us not being able to own a dog. When we finally bought our house we tried fish and parakeets but it could not come even close to owning a dog. One day we were at a party where the host had a Shih-Tzu. Of course we started talking about dogs and allergies and the owner mentioned that she thinks that Shih-tzus are hypoallergenic. My husband was quick to add that he doesn't think he is having an allergic reaction to the dogs in their house. I wasn't about to own a Shih-tzu, I wanted a bigger dog that I can take jogging, hiking and other places and not the dog that I will have to carry around, so I started my research on "hypoallergenic" dogs and people with allergies owning some of those dogs.
On the list of "hypoallergenic" breeds was a Kerry Blue Terrier. But of course my husband was not as excited as I was about the breed. He wanted a GSD or a pit-bull or something along those lines. After a lot of work I managed to convince him to give Kerries a shot. The next thing on my list was finding a dog. I wanted to be super cautious about bringing the dog home. I wanted to make sure that my husband would be able to live with it and we will not be facing two unpleasant options
a) return the dog
b) let my husband suffer for ever.
So I contacted Kerry Blue foundation. My hope was that maybe I could foster a dog. And do something like foster to adopt. Unfortunately they did not have any foster dogs available and I was hesitant adopting a dog without a trial. The thing about me is that I can be very indecisive. I would do my research and thinking to the point that I cannot make a decision anymore, but if decision is made I am not willing to wait much longer before putting the plan in action.
This was no different, I wasn't willing to wait a year or so for a foster dog to become available, so I looked elsewhere. Luckily for me I found what I was looking for. A breeder in PA had a dog available. Originally she kept the pup for herself, but decided that she had too many dogs already and was willing to place it. When I explained my situation to her, luckily for us, she agreed to let me keep the dog for a week, before we would make a decision to buy her. And this is how PennTerra`s Sky Reflection aka Mudpie aka Brandy came to our house. And here I was an owner of 7 months old "blue puppy".
My dad is a hunter. When I was about 7 years old we got our first dog - "Russian Spaniel". It's a mid size working breed. I always loved dogs, at a very early age I new names of most of dog breeds. I remember there was a book in our house about breeds of hunting dogs and among them there was a picture of a Kerry Blue Terrier. Right then I was intrigued by the word "blue" in the name of the breed. When my parents got divorced my dad took our dog with him and for a few years we didn't have a dog in the house.
When I turned 18 my mom and I started talking about getting another dog. We discussed few breeds and she wasn't very excited about Kerry blues. One day I came home and found a cutest American cocker spaniel puppy, later when we came to USA I took that dog with me. Soon after I moved to the US I got married, my husband had terrible allergies to my cocker so unfortunately she had to stay with my mom and grand parents and couldn't come to leave with us.
My husband loves dogs and other animals ( although he would deny it) very much and it was very hard for us not being able to own a dog. When we finally bought our house we tried fish and parakeets but it could not come even close to owning a dog. One day we were at a party where the host had a Shih-Tzu. Of course we started talking about dogs and allergies and the owner mentioned that she thinks that Shih-tzus are hypoallergenic. My husband was quick to add that he doesn't think he is having an allergic reaction to the dogs in their house. I wasn't about to own a Shih-tzu, I wanted a bigger dog that I can take jogging, hiking and other places and not the dog that I will have to carry around, so I started my research on "hypoallergenic" dogs and people with allergies owning some of those dogs.
On the list of "hypoallergenic" breeds was a Kerry Blue Terrier. But of course my husband was not as excited as I was about the breed. He wanted a GSD or a pit-bull or something along those lines. After a lot of work I managed to convince him to give Kerries a shot. The next thing on my list was finding a dog. I wanted to be super cautious about bringing the dog home. I wanted to make sure that my husband would be able to live with it and we will not be facing two unpleasant options
a) return the dog
b) let my husband suffer for ever.
So I contacted Kerry Blue foundation. My hope was that maybe I could foster a dog. And do something like foster to adopt. Unfortunately they did not have any foster dogs available and I was hesitant adopting a dog without a trial. The thing about me is that I can be very indecisive. I would do my research and thinking to the point that I cannot make a decision anymore, but if decision is made I am not willing to wait much longer before putting the plan in action.
This was no different, I wasn't willing to wait a year or so for a foster dog to become available, so I looked elsewhere. Luckily for me I found what I was looking for. A breeder in PA had a dog available. Originally she kept the pup for herself, but decided that she had too many dogs already and was willing to place it. When I explained my situation to her, luckily for us, she agreed to let me keep the dog for a week, before we would make a decision to buy her. And this is how PennTerra`s Sky Reflection aka Mudpie aka Brandy came to our house. And here I was an owner of 7 months old "blue puppy".
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