lamiaceae wrote:
I commented about your situation with the senior vandal already. I would like to comment / discuss your dogs. And of course mine. I was not familiar with the Coton de Tulear breed by name but have certainly seen them in dog shows. I am sure that virtually all dog owners if they truly care for their pet(s) feel their breed in the cutest and smartest of breeds. Pretty much like cameras, automobiles, favorite music, etc., only with dogs or cats and a few other domestic pets it is more like love as you would another person. And dog owners certainly have their preferences or a multitude of reasons. I had a cousin who breed, raised, and showed pedigree Rottweilers. I actually only found out about this a few years ago and sadly just before my cousin died prematurely. We lived in very different parts of the country L.A., CA vs Buffalo, NY. so we only got to see one another a very few times in our lives. She seemed to be one of my nicer relatives and we at one time I know we did share a like for the same type of music. Many of the relatives on that side of my family were not very nice. I'll let that rest.
Anyway, partly due to the Peanuts Cartoon character Snoopy, my wife was obsessed with Beagles. We are not particularly fond of tiny dogs, but they all need homes and should be treated with love and respect. A friend has a Corgi that was ill and my friend could not afford the medical bills, so a charity was set up for them and I contributed $50. The dog seems to be doing well now. Point being, Corgis would not be my dog of choice. I know Queen Elizabeth II and Jerry Brown keep Corgi dogs. My wife and I have really become obsessed with medium to large Scent and Sight Hounds. We first had three hound mixes, and currently have two good sized Hounds. We have a female American Foxhound (see my avatar), and a male hound whose breed(s) is not clear. He could be a Artois Hound, Treeing Walker Coonhound, Hamilton Hound, or a mixed hound of one or more of these and another breed of hound. He looks essentially like a giant 70 lb. Beagle. Large hounds, especially Foxhounds are extremely affectionate when kept as house pets. Pack dogs seem rather different in many temperaments. All pet American Foxhound owners seem to feel this way and claim their AFH it possibly too smart. Hound intelligence is somewhat different from that of other Groups or Breeds of dogs. They are not easily trained to do tricks or even obey commands. You have to really work with them as they are very independently minded, stubborn, and willful. They can get into unbelievable trouble around a home. Some Foxhounds and Coonhounds have been known to scale 7 foot tall fences! The first day we had our AFH I could tell she was intelligent. She would look at things and seemed to be thinking of how to do things and get things she wanted. She seems to be reasoning out plans. In our yard she thinks she is a beaver or engineer, she moves piles of bricks, concrete blocks, and wood around to look for Lizards and Mice. Not mine yet, but AFH have been know to move furniture around to climb over walls or get on shelving. She can easily jump on to our tables and counter tops. She opens food containers. Our boy is much less agile and is too bulky to climb and jump like our girl. But he is very food driven and between them have made many messes in out house and yard. He once got into a 36 pack of beer cans and bit into puncturing about 24 of them, leaving leaking cans all over our back yard. We had no idea what he was doing until he came into the house drunk. He was listing and falling over all over the living room. It took a while to get him to just rest and sleep it off. Hounds are so known for wanting to hunt and escape in some cases that many rescue organization are so picky that they will not adopt to anyone with a doggie door or even an un-fenced ranch! Having no perimeter fence or wall could be a problem with any dog. But I'm not sure how rural people handle it as I live in a city. Luckily our two seem to mutually care for us that I don't think they would try to run off from our yard. Our girl has gotten out or loose a few times and just comes to our front door. It sounds like I am giving all the reasons not to have a hound. Yes, you have to watch them, but Foxhounds seem to be the most affectionate dogs that could exist. They almost love you to death!
I commented about your situation with the senior v... (
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We have the Coton de Tulear dogs for a very specific reason. My wife loves dogs and she is allergic to dogs. As you well know, most dogs she'd both hair and skin, dander. This is what my wife is allergic to. I've been around dogs most of my life. I guess you could say I'm a dog person. We live in a townhouse with a small yard and our previous two dogs were Maltese. My wife has a thing for cute small white dogs that don't shed slot. After out last Maltese passed away, my wife missed having a dog and actually became a little, or more than a little, depressed. I decided to do some research and I discovered the Coton de Tulear breed.
They originated from the same breed as the Maltese and Bischon Frise and Havanese, the Bischon Tenerife. Those dogs were popular companion and rat thatcher dogs on 16th century merchant vessels. As the story goes, a merchant ship ran aground in a storm on the south west coast of Madagascar and the dogs from the vessel mated with local island dogs. The local residents of the island, the Merina, carefully bread the friendly little white dogs and at one point, the Merina royal family took control of the breed and only members of the royal family, and apparently there were a lot of them, could own and breed the dogs.
Madagascar became a French colony and that is when the dogs got their present name, Coton de Tulear, because of their cottony soft mostly white hair and their numerous presence in the city of Toliara. The french version being Coton de Tulear.
The dogs became popular with the well to do in France, but we're virtually unheard of outside France and Madagascar.
Sometime in the 1970's a Dr. Robert Russell introduced the dogs to the USA. It wasn't until 2015 that the AKC recognized the breed.
There is an organization in the USA called the ACC or American Coton Club and they are trying to control the breed in the USA. Most Coton breeders are ACC members and I sought far and wide to find a reputable breeder that wasn't a ACC member. Apparently these ACC members have very strict rules about who may own one of their dogs and about visitation rights. It's almost like you don't buy a dog from them, you rent the dog and they can drop by to visit the dog whenever they want. That's definitely not for me. Once I pay the breeder, the dogs are mine to do with as I see fit, and my dogs are treated a whole lot better than millions of American citizens are.
These dogs are little bundles of unconditional love and live to please their humans. Our children are all grown with their own children so these dogs are now our children. We take them practically everywhere we go. One reason we bought our Chevy Equinox is, we keep the rear seats folded down and the dogs, although tethered, have reign over the back of the vehicle.
There are lots of breeds of happy cute dogs but given our circumstances, the Coton de Tulear is the perfect breed. They have their good and bad points but the good certainly outweighs the bad. Bad points; they are hard to house train, but easy to train to use pee pee pads. They have separation anxiety. They don't like to be separated from each other, unless they choose to, and they don't like being separated from their humans, although they eventually get use to it. It's best to have them in pairs, one dog bonds to the other and their humans and become a pack or unit. They should be groomed regularly and are far better off having a puppy cut vs letting their hair grow long. They can be real clingy at times. Everytime I sit in my big comfy chair I almost immediately have two dogs on my lap. They expect to go for rides in the car every time we go out; not always possible. I've had several dogs over the years, the largest was a St. Bernard names Heidi. I'll probably never have another breed other than the Coton de Tulear, they're just about perfect for my wife and myself.