Pastimes
Sister Sara is hands down the best dog I've ever owned. She is very easily trained and wants to please you all the time. Potty training took less than a week and any new command also takes her about that long to master. She has medium energy, so she loves to play, but gets tired after about 45 minutes. She loves to cuddle (she has no clue she's a big dog) and sleeps most of the day (18 hours a day). She loves to go on car rides, the park, the beach, hiking, stores that allow animals, and she travels with us when we go on vacation. We travel quite a bit, the longest car ride she's been so far has been twelve hours and she did great. She is great with all types of animals (fish, dogs, cats, reptiles), except birds and rabbits. She has the prey instinct with those two types, so she chases them at the park and grandma has to put her bird up when we visit because she does fixate on it. She loves the whole family, but she does have a person (me) and follows me everywhere. She is great with all ages of children, but particularly likes 3-5 year olds the most and will run and play alongside my nieces and nephews like she's one of the kids. She hardly ever barks, except when new people come in the house. It's quite a loud, freak you out kind of bark, but will stop once she knows the people are allowed to be there. The noises she makes in general to get your attention sound like talking (think Scooby Doo noises) and it's quite entertaining. Every time she knows I am leaving, she will get in front of me and bow and make a talking noise like she's asking to come with. If I tell her yes, she'll go get her leash, if I say no, she runs to her bed and sighs as she lays down.
There are a couple things to note that I guess are "negative". She does have severe separation anxiety, so if you plan to be away for long periods of time this is not the dog for you. I started working away from home five days a week for about six hours a day a few months ago, and it took a lot of training to get her comfortable with this. That is about her limit though and she isn't happy with this arrangement but isn't destructive. She's never chewed up any furniture, clothes, shoes, anything, but we give her bones to chew and mental stimulation games when we leave. When we are on vacation and can't take her somewhere, we crate her and she sleeps the whole time. The other "negative" is shedding. She has both types of coats (long and curly, short and dense, I know it seems impossible but she does) and she sheds a lot. (All the time, not seasonally) She gets groomed monthly, but when you shave a double coated animal, you have to be aware you are taking insulating properties away from them. We live in Vegas, so it doesn't get that cold, but she still needs a sweater on in the morning/night in the winter when I take her out because she does get cold. Grooming does help tremendously with the shedding though.
The last "negative" is her size and her tail. We have a very large house and all of our decor is away and out of reach of her very powerful waggling tail, but she does not do well in small areas. We brought her over to a friend's apartment once and that lasted five minutes. (She didn't break anything, but I was worried because her tail is seriously a weapon) I'm sure you could make it work in an apartment, but you would need to take them out several times a day to their get energy out. She's gotten the zoomies a few times when we couldn't make it to the park, and I cannot imagine how destructive that would be in a small, confined space.
Overall, she is an amazing dog and I'd suggest this breed to most people.
2 years, 10 months ago