Re: [PyrNet-L] contest 2nd cut

["Lara & Jimmy Spears" <k9parent@earthlink.net>]

Oh sure!  You just wanted to see just how insane these dogs have made us,
don't you????<g>

>1. When did the potato chip factor happen to you?
>(when did you acquire your second Pyr or more?)  and
>in case this does not apply for various reasons

More like how did the potato chip factor happen?!<g>  When I think back, I
often wonder how<g>.  La Neige was a cute (they all are, right?!), but
hellish puppy in her own way - can you say major bugger?!  She ate holes in
our comforter, ate her crate mat (first pyr, can you tell???  Gave her a
crate mat?!), sunk her teeth into the carpet and yanked it up and down!(You
have to picture this!LOL!), bit us (of course), and the best thing she would
do......get a wild look in her eyes, wrap her legs around my waist in the
show ring and obedience class (flunked puppy class twice!) and WOULD NOT let
go!  REALLY embarassing!   But being a first time Pyr owner and not being
quite aware of the power of a Pyr, she saw "sucker" written all over my
forehead! <g>   But she was too cute and somehow I still thought she was
neatest dog in the world.   As Neige grew up and calmed down I grew with
knowledge about how to handle a Pyr and we finally became a great team.  I
learned to read her for the 'wild look in her eyes' that came before she
would jump up and she learned that I was no longer going to let her get away
with this anymore!  Alright, now that I have babbled too much! We decided to
go to a national when Neige was almost 2 (I think), at this point.....we
were ready to have picket signs saying "we want a puppy"!   We did not quite
understand at that time - but people would ask how many dogs we had and when
we answered "one Pyr and one Newf" - we got this odd look and was asked "you
only have ONE pyr?"!   If you want the potato chip factor to kick into
overdrive....go to a national! <g>  We went, watched, learned, drooled, and
decided which line we wanted.   I guess it was about 6 months later and we
went to pick up our next Pyr, Storm, who actually ended up being my first ch
ampion (Neige finished shortly after).    Well, we went on from there.  See,
when you show, you end up with too many dogs!<g>  You finish one, it needs
to grow up to special (or hates showing in Storm's case), so you need
another one....and another one and another one (yes, it is an illness)!
The next chips that contributed to the bag of chips (between my parents &
I - no, they don't all live with me - but I co-own all but 1 at my parents
house<g>!) were Stormie, Traveler, Thumper, Indy, and Magic!

>
>2. Just how far will you go to make your Pyr happy?
>I.E. Taking him/her for a walk at 2 am because they
>like to see the stars, sleep on only 2 inches on the
>edge of the bed because they like to spread out, etc.

Well, where I was getting in trouble with Neige was letting her get their
way with things.....now I just don't LET them figure out they are getting
their way!   The key to my kids, is teach them they can only 'get away' with
things when I tell you you can!    But, I value my sleep too much to be
going for midnight walks (although I do sleep with the comforter over only
1/2 of me because they lay down and pull them off of me!).  Now, they are
spoiled rotten and do pretty much run my life.   We have scaled up the size
of our vehicles so that everybody can go with us (yep - have a big, ugly,
white cargo van now with a rubber mat!), we are planning on moving (why I
have to wait for my Pyr baby:( ) so that the dogs will have more land and of
course so I can get another Pyr!    Then of course when we are not gone on
the weekends - we try to make sure that the dogs get as much 'out' time as
possible.   I will go to the store, while Jimmy stays and does chores, etc.
Yep, they do have us wrapped around their fingers.   We don't want to even
go into what we do to get these dogs to eat!    Oh yeah!  my favorite thing
to hear from my husband when we actually do something for ourselves and go
out to eat dinner......."I hope the dogs are alright"!!!!!    See the dogs
also dictated who I could marry  -  he had to love dogs and more importantly
my Pyrs!     Oh yeah - this is my topper when it comes to sacrificing for my
dogs.....we scheduled our wedding around the National and the first week of
our honey moon....yep, you guessed it - at the national! (we did have a
'normal' honey moon the following week<g>).

It is an illness and a pleasure to be owned by Pyrs! So, you have been
warned!  <BG>

Lara Spears
Fayetteville, GA