Category: Owning A Spinone
In this section you will be able to read articles about owning a spinone.
Think very carefully before deciding to breed from your bitch or use your dog at stud. It’s not all plain sailing and there are so many things you need to consider. We are planning to write a series of articles that will explain the process and pitfalls. Until then the best advice we can give is to consult with your dog’s breeder or, if not available, another experienced breeder. Most dogs are sold with a Kennel Club endorsement that only the breeder is able to lift once they are satisfied that you have completed the necessary health tests, that your dog/bitch is a good enough specimen to breed from and that your choice of mate is suitable and compatible with your dog.
Your breeder should be able to advise you on grooming your Spinone. Coats vary enormously, an easy coat may require nothing more than a regular brush through whilst a coat that is soft and woolly will be very difficult and time consuming to look after. Most fall in between these two extremes and have a coat that needs to be ‘hand-stripped’, literally meaning pulling the dead hair out with your fingers. This is a fairly easy procedure when their coat is ready to come out. Start doing this when there are very young, nothing will come out then but they get used to the feeling of it.
Feeding Matters – more!
You are what you eat – so the saying goes – and this is as true for your dog as it is for you. We are well educated today about the benefits of a ‘good’ as opposed to ‘bad’ diet for our daily and long term health and well-being; evidence abounds about the many illnesses that are caused, and/or irritated, by an improper diet or food imbalance. It is no different for your Spinone! An incorrect diet may, at best, cause minimal, short term problems or, at worst, have longer term and more serious consequences. A healthy diet keeps the whole body working in harmony.
Feeding Matters
Diet – according to the Collins English Dictionary – means 1. food that a person or animal regularly eats; and 2. specific allowance of food to control weight or for health reasons. One of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions is ‘feed on special food as medical regimen or punishment’!
By Linda Cooper (Megwellin).
I have now been feeding my Spinoni the B.A.R.F. diet for more than 10 years. Basically nothing has changed in 10 years except that I’m no longer considered weird or hippy (well in some things) and you can now buy every thing you need already packaged in neat little bags should you not want to do it from scratch.
Why register? Or Rather Why You Must Register
I read with growing concern about litters of Spinone not being registered and as a responsible breeder who has spent the last 25 years trying to improve the breed, both in health of mind and body, this both maddens and saddens me.
You may ask why this happens as surely anyone who is proud of what they produce must want to legitimise them both for their own good standing in the Spinone community as a responsible breeder and for the good of the breed records especially where health and genetic issues are concerned.
One afternoon in the summer ………………..
Mum goes out, she tells us she won’t be long and to be good. Usually we are and just sleep until she comes back. But today we wanted to play so looked around the room to see what we could find.
The builders have been here a while and leave their stuff stacked neatly in the corner. Nothing of interest here – just some empty buckets, a ladder, an empty mug on the windowsill.
Boring !!
Then we spotted a paper sack – like the ones our dog food comes in – but it didn’t smell like dog food. Better have a look though just in case.
INGREDIENTS
1 pack minced beef (defrosting in the sink)
1 Dishcloth
1 5 litre box of red wine
not forgetting
1 Spinone puppy
METHOD
Leave minced beef to defrost in the sink.
Leave puppy with access to kitchen and go out.
Puppy tries to get the beef out of the sink, knocking the dishcloth into the sink in the process. Dishcloth should block the sink fully. Then turn the cold tap on full.
Ingredients
2 or 3 feather cushions
2 Spinoni (called Hudson and Buca but any 2 will do)
Method
Take the feather cushions, wrap them in a bag and put them well out of reach of the Spinoni.