Saturday, May 22, 2010

Smiling Kirra

This is one of the few pictures of my dog smiling. She hates being photographed and usually looks like I have just humiliated her. She is a shar-pei/ lab cross, very strong-headed (least obedient), sweet-tempered, thoroughly elegant dog. She is eleven now, and slowing down, beginning to lose her eyesight and hearing.

I am looking for a new dog, not to replace her, but I need something sharp to alert me of things when I am walking through bear country. I am holding out for a working breed mix, who likes cats, people and other dogs and will be easy to train. I worked with Kirra A LOT and much as I love her, she was very hard to train. "Come" was not in her vocabulary but lots of other words are, like "squirrel", "truck- ride" and" peanut butter".

If money was not an object, I would get a Swedish Vallhound.

2 comments:

Patrice said...

Ah, she's a beautiful girl... and what an interesting combination of breeds.

I once had an Akita/shepherd mutt cross who was all the things you seek in your "guardian" dog. "Ching" lived to be 17 + and was the best dog friend I ever had; gentle with me & the cats, a holy terror with anything she didn't care for.

Autumn Leaves said...

Well, I'd offer you our Bloodhound, but she is more than a handful. At 8 mos. old, she still isn't housebroken and if the two previous males we had are any indication, she won't be for awhile yet. Sigh...She is sweet as can be but so danged playful and full of vinegar that she is alot to handle. The housebreaking issue especially has me ready to let her go. She does love our cats and other dogs, though they aren't so fond of her and her exuberance. Her vocabulary pretty much consists of the words "bye bye" and anything else is at her whim. Oh yes...she knows "eat" too. Sigh...

Your Kirra is beautiful though! I was surprised to see SharPei as part of her breeding. I can see a bit of lab but would have guessed some form of terrier breed as the mix. LOL Shows you what I know!