You know what is super frustrating?

I get incredibly frustrated with some of the all breed websites out there. I come across a lot that will go out and say shelties are incredibly high energy and you MUST exercise them and then turn around and say 'papillons need 5 minutes of exercise a day'. I literally saw one that said 5 minutes a day. What the ****. A lot say 'up to 30 minutes a day'.

Well there is the main problem right there. You exercise your papillon 5 minutes a day and then are shocked when it acts out in frustration? Mine have as much energy as my shelties did. Mia has more energy. So saying shelties need all this exercise but papillons don't is... ridiculous. It's shocking that when you do stuff with your dogs they tend to behave better. I mean, who would've thought?

I took mine to a store the other day and a lady was asking about them. I heard the store owner telling the lady that paps didn't ever shed. I see that one a lot. Trust me, they do shed. I even told the lady at the store that they do shed and she didn't believe me. Too bad I wasn't wearing black, it's pretty obvious they shed when I am wearing a black shirt.

Most people I meet have good impressions of the breed though. I think the most common question I get is 'aren't those supposed to be smart dogs?' Of course that one is a double edged sword too.

Ain't that the truth!! Every time I take my girl out about town there's always someone who bothers to chase us down to admire Barbie and then proceeds to tell us about how all of the Afghans that they used to own were the worst dim witted creatures on earth and they don't understand why anyone would ever want to own one.

Oh my god, Laurelin, I SO know what you mean. I was at an AKC training club, and a woman came up to me to tell me how she had a Pembroke once and it was the worst dog EVER. She went on and on about the dog (who sounded like a fairly normal corgi that was undertrained and unmanaged, sadly), he bit the mailman, he didn't let strange dog into the yard, blah blah blah. "Oh but he was great with us, loved our kids, and so good at learning tricks."

THEN, same evening, a lady with a very cute brindle Cardigan bitch came up to me and basically acted like, "Hey, we both want to hang ourselves, right?" with a wink. The implied, "Oh, aren't these dogs awful?" was just ridiculous! Of course, she was dragged hers around on a choke chain and making no effort to motivate her at all, so I'm not sure what she expected. I just ended up saying, "Well, you can't train these guys like a Golden and expect them to work for you." UGH

Backup is like this. He has learned some off switch stuff but last night he paced and panted all night until I screamed down. He downed until I fell asleep but I woke up again to him pacing and panting. No reason at all, just bored. It's not an uncommon Malinois behavior either. <shrug>

I brought Zoie to a new vet a few months ago and the vet said Oh, she's so nice, she must have gotten her 'good' genes from whatever isn't ACD in her. I said ah, well, I have a purebred ACD and he is pretty great too... She said "Oh, I had an ACD, he was SUCH a jerk!". I hear this a lot when I tell people I have an ACD...people throw at me how horrible their friend's ACD was or so and so's ACD attacked someone. Whatever. I'm also the person that sits in the waiting room or walks through a store with a relaxed, quiet, non-reactive dog while other people's dogs flip out and they struggle to pay the cashier because the dog is thrashing around on the end of the leash. My dog is far from a jerk.