I got ill a few years back (won't go into details), but couldn't do much and needed an excuse to MAKE me get out the house every day, but needed a dog small and calm enough that if I needed to miss a day or two it would be fine.

I then decided I wanted a small terrier cross to have walking stamina and a good character about them, but not mental energy, hence I got the dog I did

Will be a big dog for me next though!

I grew up with collie and lab crosses, but met my first staffie when I started working in boarding kennels. I moved to rescue a couple of years later, working at a city kennels that took in ALL the council strays and rehabilitated and rehomed rather than putting the dogs to sleep... As you can imagine I very quickly got acquainted with the breed. I love them for their happy faces, their silliness and their love of people. I've worked with a lot of "problem" staffies and the vast majority have been truly wonderful dogs, under the fear and lack of proper training.

I love EBTs just because I do. I had a dogs of the world book as a child (still do, it was my favourite book! ) and I always came back to the picture of the EBT.

We have Emmie because I'm a sucker for an oldie. I met her on my interview for the rescue I work for now.. Went home, told my OH about her and we agreed that if I got the job she would be ours. I got the job

If I am honest, it was my OH that wanted a working springer or cocker - I either wanted another cat or an Alsation (my closest dog while growing up was an Alsation cross). Anyway, Mark got his way, which was fine with me and we got Poppy. When we went to pick her, Mark was insistant that the dog that would be ours would pick us - and she did, only 2 and a half weeks old and she decided we were hers. We visited her every weekend (down in Penzance) until she was 8 weeks old and then we brought her home. Our lives have never been the same since (our sofa has never been cream coloured since either!). Thing is, she is made for us, she is mad, far too intelligent for our liking and just fits into our lives, she likes camping, loves the beach, loves doing lots of busy stuff.... and that's what we do! She made us fall in love with spaniels and now we have two two of them - and they are becoming as thick as thieves but we wouldn't have them any other way - as mad as they drive us!!

Kids were insisting I get another dog for 2 yrs after I lost old Charlie Girl. I was insistent 'no I am not going thro' the heartbreak again'. They'd say 'mum you are just not YOU without a dog'!

I got Bella when I did something I've never done and always advised others not to do - buy a dog from a petshop.

April last year and my daughter had been into the centre and told me she'd seen a petshop opened behind the ancient church. I was surprised as it is all banks, post office and pavement cafes there. So when we went out we walked that way for me to see it.

There were these two min pin puppies in a cage about 2ft square - the bigger one was really bullying the smaller one (she had sore bits on her ears and looked REALLY timid).

I went in. Daughter took her out of the cage and asked him how much they were. He did say 'you better off with the bigger one'. We BOTH knew we wanted the runt.

So I bought her. I bought her to get her out of that shop. When we got her home she seemed delighted but had diarrohea. The following morning she was almost collapsed, could not stand, was in a very bad way and we were rubbing her hard in a towel to keep her breathing on the way to the vet.

Vet took one look and said 'I know this dog - her brother was in here - these pups are very sick' and told me they came from a puppy farm (which made me feel even worse). She phoned the pet shop bloke there and then and said he would be picking up the bill. I was just concerned that the dog would survive. She stayed there for 4 nights and she did not seem to be much better at all.

I was calling them (could hear her crying) and popping in and getting frantic. In the end I said 'if there's nothing you are doing that I cannot do for her myself - I would like to take her home and care for her - I can be with her 24hrs a day.

Vet agreed saying that she hadn't really slept since being there and was getting more and more distressed - in fact I had her on my lap at this stage and she dozed off and vet said that's the first time she's seen her resting.

As I left with her, a lady in the waiting room stopped me and said her dog had been in the cage with mine too! She said she wanted to buy mine but he told her he couldn't sell it because it was 'too ill' and it was going back to the farm! He sold it to me within hours of that apparently.

I returned to give him a piece of my mind and he said he would not now pay any vet bills as they were too high, but would happily give me all my money back because he would just return the dog to the farm and get his money back. NO WAY - they'd just wring her neck. I didn't want him to pay anyway - would like to have been able to kill him.

I got her home and immediately researched to find the BEST vet in the area. I took her to him (she could only stand on 3 legs at this time - the other one just trembling in the air and was throwing up and had constant diarrohea.)

New vet was marvellous. Told me there were only about 3 causes of diarrohea this bad - two he would tell me about and the other not scare me unless it came to it. He could not promise that she would recover and said not to tell him the name of the last vet or he would have to do something about it (they are like that here - good vets are few and far between).

He told me what to feed her and gave me a tube of stuff to keep her nourished and rehydrating powders. One month later and she was unrecognisable. I honestly thought she would always have a delicate constitution but she eats anything and everything now without any ill effect.

Her leg got better too - they could not say what caused that but thought it might have been as a result of one of the many rehydrating injections she'd had - one might have hit a nerve.

The worst of all of it was I could not tell my kids. They were thousands of miles away and would have been frantic - them thinking their mum's got a nice new dog. So, they were calling every day saying 'how's the pup?' and I was saying 'she's fine' and hoping to god she would be.

My vet now says she is the best example of the breed he has ever seen for her temperament. And it's hard to believe she had such a bad start for the first couple of months of her life.

I still would never advise anyone to buy from a petshop. But if I hadn't done so on the spur of the moment - I wouldn't have my darling Bella now. And she'd be a goner.

I can't remember where I got my copy from, I thought I bought it but I can't find it anywhere. I remember the end was rather sad, so often the case in these animal books! Great to meet someone else who has read the book!


No, I don't think so. Sounds as if he wrote quite a few about dogs though

Yes, Dodie Smith, writer of 101 Dalmatians; I think tha was the sequel! Great book!

I read so many dog books they were coming out of my ears (sounds as if we were the same!). Also read as many horse books as I could get my hands on and also just general animal books. Two prized books are "Icebound Summer" and "One Day on Beetle Rock" from a US friend of my mother's - not dog or horse so getting off topic, but about wild creatures in the Arctic and America.

I have kept pretty much ALL my children's animal books

Wys
x

Yes Willow is beautiful and sounds like a absolutely lovely dog. Wanna swap I know a couple of people have had lovely dogs of this cross. I know Cain's problems are not all down to his breeds, I just feel like he's got the worst aspects of both. I feel that both GSDs and Akitas have that sort of temperament that when they are good, they are great, and when they are bad, well..... I just think that good breeding is so important in both breeds and I'm not sure that anyone deliberately creating this cross (along with many crosses) is probably not focusing on temperament and therefore I wouldn't be keen to see this cross get popular

But Willow looks beautiful and I meet the sweetest 9 month old GSD x Akita in the street a few months back and I went an accosted the poor owner shouting "I've got one of those!" but I wouldn't own another.

Out of interest, would you deliberately seek out another GSD x Akita because Willow is so lovely (given that you can't guarantee that they'd be as sweet?)? Do you disagree with me and think that actually there's no problem with the cross in general and I'm basing my opinion on one "dud" dog ? Or do you just think that you are lucky with Willow? Obviously so muchore determines a dogs character than breed, such as life experiences, but I'm just curious what you think

I grew up with collies and golden retrievers but when I married we lived on an island in the middle of the Thames. I needed a small dog that I could pick up and put in a boat, one who didn't like water so therefore wouldn't take himself off swimming etc etc and ended up getting my last dog, a little Lhasa Apso who I had for 15 years. I then got my Tibetan Terriers as I loved the long haired 'shaggy' look (like the Lhasa), but wanted a dog with longer legs who enjoyed longer walks My boys are gorgeous, fab temperaments, loving, great with other dogs in spite of being as mad as a box of frogs !!!

I went to see a litter of pups which is fatal and Zac chose me. I a dog with short hair and ended up with a Tibetan! I did research the breed and it said they could be obstinate. I think Zac read the same research.

After research they seemed like the best fit! I like their energy levels as they suit our lifestyle, I like their size, personality, etc... but also the fact that they didn't evoke an allergic reaction in my husband...

Thank you for your comments on Willow

She hasn't always been this way though. She was six months old when we rescued her and had never been out of a 12 foot square garden that she shared with her mother, father and two siblings. She was underweight, undersocialised and scared of her own shadow. She had never been on a lead, stood on grass, been in a house, car, caravan etc.

She took a little bit of hard work to bring round but her big heart was always evident and after about a year we had got over the worst. She hasn't, however, ever shown any signs of aggression to anything even when bitten by another dog which I think made her rehab easier.

Re the cross - no I don't think that they should be deliberately crossed (anymore than I think GSDs or Akitas should be bred by people who don't know what they are doing) but I don't suppose that people will stop breeding just cos I don't agree with it

I wouldn't purposely seek out a 'breeder' of this cross to get another but if one came up in rescue when I was looking for another dog then I would be hard pressed to say no if it would fit in with whatever other dogs I had at home at the time.

Have I been lucky with Willow - I guess yes to some degree but I would like to think that having experience of owning both GSDs and an Akita for many years put me in good stead for having the cross.

I think the main problem is that the two breeds have such different drives and buttons that you need to establish early on which way they swing before you can really get the training right. After years of owning GSDs I was surprised just how different Akitas are (again I was blessed with a good 'un who was bombproof around dogs, people, children, bikes, joggers etc and was never on a lead when out walking for all of her nearly 15 years) and how they need a different training approach to GSDs.