For doglovers, check out dogster.com, it is the Myspace site for dogs. Lots of canine friends and pictures there...
My favourite dog has to be the Jack Russell.
http://www.jack-russell-terriers-puppies.com/pictures-images-gallery/jack-russell-terriers-puppies-19.jpg
I had a crabby old bitch of a girl for 14 years, and I loved her dearly; even when she bit me for taking the trash that she had worked so hard to steal from the can.
She developed diabetes at 6, was blind by 10, and started going downhill at 13 and a half. But up until the very end, she was a sweet, loving sack of fur who was no happier than when she was sitting next to you (on the couch or int he woods) chewing a bone.
I gave her twice-daily insulin shots from age 6 on (along with my step-dad, my other step-dad, and my real dad - thanks guys!), and after she went blind, the two of us developed a pretty complex set of verbal commands so that we could still go hiking together. She knew "climb up (onto)", "climb up-up(onto something tall)", "up over (climb over)", "under", "up-up over(climb over something tall)", "step down", "step down-down", "stairs down", "stairs up", "watch (something directly ahead to avoid)", and a bunch of wistles and grunts for approval, disaproval, come, go, heal, lie down, play, stop, and some I'm forgetting.
I still miss her, the foul-tempered pain in the ass. <3
Remember that "dog" is a position. Your dog has a job to do. It may be watching your children and keeping prowlers out of the yard, or it may be just to provide a dose of sanity when you get home from work or to teach your whole family the importance of unconditional love.And after three years, I still cannot move on and have another dog.
I work in DC and have a second home here, where giant 50-pound coyotes have migrated down from Canada after hybridizing with wolves and are starting to control the scourge of the Northeast: deer. My wife and most of the dogs are home in the redwood forest in northwestern California, where we have bears, cougars and elk, but no wolves or coyotes.I thought you lived near DC?
Working dogs, what an unusual concept to a Lhasa enthusiast.It's Norwegian Elkhounds for me. Had a beautiful Samoyed but couldn't keep him cuz he made my other elkie too depressed by pushing him aside for more attention.
Their "people skills" are legendary. If your Lhasa tells you not to let somebody in the house, don't let them in the house. Even (or perhaps especially) if it's your mother, you'll be glad you took their counsel. They were indeed bred to be watchdogs so they have unusually sensitive hearing. Their "work" is to sit on the sofa all day and warn you when somebody is approaching on a bicycle two miles away. As for the intelligence, well Wiki is not perfect. Most of them have the IQ of a crowbar. Combine that with eyesight so bad that there is really no point in trimming their bangs, an energy level that makes them perfect apartment dogs, and a downright feline aloofness, and you've got a combination motion-detector and bed-warmer. We advertise them as "dogs for cat people." (Also non-allergenic.)Lhasa Apsos: "keen intelligence, acute hearing, and instincts for identifying friends from strangers (Wiki)."