We are considering a puppy for Darby’s birthday. We were at a friend’s place over the weekend and he had a new pug puppy. Although not considering a pug, Darby was in her glory and with me at home right now it’s a good time to consider a puppy. Anyone here own one? I have a few questions -
[ul]
[li]Can they jog with someone on a short (30 mins -40mins) run?[/li][li]Do you have to crop their ears, I like them flopped over more?[/li][li]Do they enjoy agility or flyball?[/li][li]Are they diggers/chewers (I know all puppies chew, but some have a harder time outgrowing it)? Are they nippy?[/li][li]Any health concerns?[/li][/ul]
They bark a lot which is why I now own a Shiba Inu.
Check out the Schnauzer Club. They have a lot of good info. Good luck. They are fun little doggies.
I have a co-worker who has a mini schnauzer. Shadow is a really cool dog. She hugs. Really. She’ll put her front paws around my neck and rub her face against my cheek. AWWWW… If I ever get another dog, I’m thinking about a mini schnauzer myself.
I have a Miniature Schnauzer. I’ve gone on lots of runs and long long walks and hikes and she’s always (mostly) kept up. Mine has uncropped ears and is unusual in that she holds them up. My parents have Miniature Schnauzers too (including 5 puppies, they recently bred one of theirs) and they have cropped ears. Some vets won’t crop ears because it is unnecessary for their health and of course a rather painful operation.
Mine prefers tug-o-war over flyball. She will fetch sticks though, and gets quite worked up chewing them. She chews her rawhide bones, but not too much else. Doesn’t dig unless I convince her a mouse is hiding somewhere.
They have a wide-range of personalities. Mine is a little high-strung, but generally they won’t bite unless really provoked.
Like most purebreds, they have some health concerns. My parents’ one dog died due to complications from a liver shunt, which they are prone to. Also they get Schnauzer bumps.
Overall, they are great dogs. They do not shed like most dogs and they are big dogs in little dogs’ bodies.
My aunt and uncle have owned several mini-Schnauzers over the years. Mini-Schnauzers are their favorite type of dog.
But speaking for myself, I don’t care for them much. They are affectionate and they love people, but every one I’ve ever been around was insufferably loud whenever someone comes to the house or when they want attention, and attention seems to be something they want a lot and are very demanding of. They have a shrill, piercing bark and absolutely will not shut up until they’re ready to. They also seem to be stubborn and difficult to train; I have yet to see one follow an order.
Now, all this may just be the result of my aunt and uncle’s letting them get that way, but I’ve been around others from time to time – albeit for just a short time – but I’ve seen nothing to change my mind based on their behavior, either.
Again, they are sweet and they do love people, but if you don’t like shrill noises and stubborn, willful, attention-demanding dogs, I doubt that you’ll enjoy having one.
Just sayin’ is all. I could certainly be wrong, but I would strongly suggest you do a little investigation into these aspects of their personalities if these types of things would be troubling to you.
They’re like this, well, some of them are. That’s one of mine, the other is almost all black. (okay, done showing off my dog). I think velveeta nailed all the questions more or less. But all dogs are different. As for diggers, mine arn’t ‘diggers,’ but one of mine will ‘dig’ into the bed. She goes at it with her head down and both front paws digging like mad. Odd how she’ll do it every night for 10 mins even though she doesn’t get anywhere. Also, we got lucky, our dogs seem to know what they can and can’t chew on, they’ll gladly work on a bone (or other chew toy) for hours on end, but they’ve never chewed on a shoe or anything like that. Well almost never, one of our dogs has two fetishes, paper/toilet paper/cardboard type things, she doesn’t chew them so much as rip them into little tiny pieces. Heaven forbid a she get’s a hold of a roll of toilet paper when no one’s paying attention, it looks like a ticker tape parade came through the living room. The other (same dog) fetish is socks, she looooves socks. And dryer sheets, If there’s a cloths basket laying around, you’ll no doubt see her hind legs sticking out the back of it and she’ll emerge a minute later with the dryer sheet.
I think they’re great dogs, our dogs are amaizinly well behaved considering the fac that we’ve never trained them, formal or otherwise. Sure they’ll sit or roll over for a treat, but we’ve had them for two years and they won’t even respond to their names, I can only imgaine how much better they would be if trained.
I grew up with three of them, Petey, Princess, and Pepper. Not sure what was going on there with the alliteration. They were all great dogs, very smart, affectionate and loyal (okay, Petey was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Princess and Pepper were very bright). One of the things that stands out though is that they tended to be very high energy and easily excited – if they got worked up about something, it was quite a while before they could be calmed down. Not nippy exactly, but it was something that had to be focused on in their training. New people or strangers coming into the house was a big issue – this was very exciting and the cause of much barking, even if they were happy to see that person.
Based on my own experience, I’m not sure about the jogging thing – I think it depends on what type of runner the person is. They have good stamina, so they can go for 30 minutes, but they do have little legs. I would say 30 minutes or more would be no problem if the human was more of a moderate jogger, but I think some mini schnauzers would have a harder time keeping up with a faster-paced human run for that length of time. They were especially good on hikes – frisking around up and down over uneven terrain while we were slogging along at a slower pace.
