I have had Sidney for eight years now. He is the best dog I have ever owned. That distinction used to belong to a female collie I had name Jezebel, Jezzie for short. In fact she probably is still the best dog because she was in my life at a different time. She helped raise my son. She kept an eye on him and when he was a toddler I could safely leave him out in the yard because no one was getting past Jezzie to him.
Anyway, Sid and I have gone through a lot of stuff and he has turned into a wonderful, smart, fun dog. I have accidentally taught him all kinds of neat tricks. He gets my husband's slippers for him, he gets specific toys when asked, he will bring me something I have dropped as long as I point it out to him. He knows where to go by looking at where I'm pointing. He will sit on the front porch with my having no fear that he will leave it. I can leave him in the car with bags of groceries and no problems. I can leave things on the floor and as long as I show it to him and say 'no', he won't touch it.
He was a great help to me when I had my hip replaced as there were limitations on my movements. I could send him to get things for me. The only thing he won't pick up is something made of metal. If he is holding something or even if you want to send him for something the command we use is "Ta". That's a word my parents and Nanny used for thanks.
So, anyway, I have been wanting another dog for quite a while. I wanted Sid to have a companion to play with and also as he is now eight, I wanted to have another dog learn from him and to be there when the inevitable time comes for him. (I hope it never does; its going to destroy me.)
As I did when buying Sidney I did a lot of research on which breed I wanted etc. I have always loved poodles, used to breed and show Rough Collies, and have owned several different breeds over the years. I didn't get a collie because of the hair issue. I don't mind the grooming but I am not sure I want it all over my clothes again. Its been nice not having that problem. I came very close to getting a Sheltie, but the breeder I wanted to buy one from just didn't have them available at the time and was not all that encouraging to me anyway. So I started to think another Shih Tzu. Went to the dog shows, looked around, checked them out and found a breeder who has a male she will be breeding to that is distantly related to Sid. Sid has such a wonderful temperament that another one like (?) him would be terrific.
When are you expecting to breed her, I asked in the beginning of April, 2010.
"They're (2 females) due next month, meaning May 2010."
I did the calculations and figured that that would get me a puppy around Canadian Thanksgiving which is when I got Sid and was such a good time of the year to get housebreaking done. So I gave her a hefty deposit. Well, May came and went. Then June, July, August and still no sign of the females coming in heat. This now would mean that if they came into heat the first day of September I would not have a puppy until New Years. Not good, although I agreed to wait.
I wasn't that happy about the timing though so I started to check out other kennels and breeds. Again, I remembered how much I have wanted a poodle, and looked at the Dogs In Canada breeder site and found one not far from here.
I contacted her, she had pups that were due 'anytime now' and that had a grandmother I really, really liked. The mother didn't do that much for me, but the grandmother sold me. She didn't want a deposit and I would pay when I picked up the puppy. Plus, the breeder and I are very similar in personality and clicked right off the bat. So, we would wait and see if there was female and make the decision from there.
Well, I call the Shih Tzu breeder up and say that since the dogs are still not bred, it is now going to be a bad time of the year for me. Long and short of it is that I don't get my deposit back, because she already has a pup reserved for me.
What?????
How can that be? She knows I want a female. What if there are no females born? What if the females end up not pregnant? What if they all die at birth? And did she make a cut off point of how many people can leave a deposit due to expected size of said litters?
Anyway, I have left it for now. I proceeded with buying the miniature poodle pup as I got an email two weeks after I met the breeder that the litter was born. Emma was here!!!
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