Posts tagged "terrier"

From 1988 to 1994, Canadian sketch group the Kids in the Hall created some of the most original and groundbreaking comedy ever broadcast on television. Over five seasons and hundreds of sketches, the five-man troupe examined, satirized and subverted all aspects of modern life including, as you might expect, the culture of pets and pet ownership. (Why else would we be talking about a team of comedians here on Paw Nation, dinkus?)

Here are five classic pet-themed KITH sketches.

[Contains some mildly NSFW language.]




1. Can I Keep Him?



A businessman is a big responsibility. You have to fetch his coffee, screen his calls, and change his paper every day.


2. I'm a Cat



There are three things he doesn't like: crazy cars, crazy kids, and birds.


3. Tiggy



Tiggy attempts to justify her existence by performing a trick.


4. Terrier



If your dog isn't a terrier, it's just not good enough. This song explains why.


5. The Night I Connected With My Dog



There they were, locked in a stare, frozen in time.

One of the first rules of dog adoption is to choose a breed that fits your personality and lifestyle, i.e. don't adopt an active sporting breed if you live in a tiny apartment and hate to go for walks. Based on this advice, we hope the household in this video contains two people of very disparate types, one calm and relaxed, one super energetic!

Don't get us wrong; we love the big dog/little dog dynamic. This is just like a real-life version of those old Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier 'Looney Tunes' cartoons. "Hey, Spike! Whatta ya wanna do today, Spike?! Huh, Spike?! Whatta ya wanna do today, Spike?!"

Name: Bob

Location: Mansfield, Texas

Age: 7

Breed: Rat terrier

Favorite Toy: His cat, Boraccio

Favorite Treat: Lemon cookies (He doesn't get them unless his owner drops one.)

Likes: Car rides, walks, sitting in his owner's chair watching TV

Dislikes: Anyone walking on his street, the postman, UPS and FedEx drivers, etc.

Weird Quirk: Bob was a rescue with an unknown past. He has a few scars and runs a little bit sideways.

Fun Fact: Bob is so excited to see his owners when they get home, he jumps until they catch him in the air or pick him up. He is a lovable little guy who loves to cuddle

If you'd like to submit your pet for a chance to be featured as Paw Nation's Cute Pet of the Day, upload your favorite pet photos to our Flickr pool!

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Name: Leia

Location: This photo was taken on a recent trip to Scotland, but Leia lives in a small town in the Pennine hills in Yorkshire , England, UK.

Age: 12

Breed: Wheaton terrier

Favorite Toy: An old, chewed-up cricket ball

Favorite Treat: Dried pig ears

Likes: Long, muddy walks; boating; camping; lounging about on her owner's bed.

Dislikes: Long car journeys

Weird Quirk: She likes to nip people's feet when she first meets them.

Fun Fact: When her owner was bringing Leia home on the train as a puppy, she sat in a shoe box on her owner's lap. A group of women started cooing at Leia and then proceded to tell off other passengers for smoking "because there was a puppy on the train." (It was still legal to smoke on trains back then.)

If you'd like to submit your pet for a chance to be featured as Paw Nation's Cute Pet of the Day, upload your favorite pet photos to our Flickr pool!

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They're remaking "The Wizard of Oz" and being super strict about casting, especially for the role of Toto. It's a family flick but that story has got some intense stuff in it! There's witches and evil monkeys and a scary dark forest. They need a Cairn terrier who can handle that stuff. A brave Cairn terrier. A Cairn terrier with no fear. Toto hopefuls are therefore presented with a series of objects and obstacles, escalating in scariness from not-at-all scary to terrifying--scientifically proven to demonstrate a lack of fear. Any Cairn terrier who can make it through the entire gauntlet will proceed to the next stage of the audition process. The first object is a feather. We don't think this pooch is getting a callback.

Name: Pirata (aka Pietje)

Location: Zoetermeer, Holland

Age: 20 months

Dog Breed: Mixed

Favorite Toys: Bottle and ball.

Favorite Treat: Almost everything.

Likes: Walking, getting petted, attention, his owner's food, playing and children.

Dislikes: Men wearing dark glasses and caps.

Fun Fact: Pietie can dance, bow, sing, roll, give a high five, stay, sit down, come -- but not all the time.

Weird Quirk: Makes a strange sort of barking sound that is kind of like howling.

Congratulations to our submitter, Rebbel68. If you'd like to submit your pet, upload your favorite pet photos to our Flickr pool!

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Name: Skye Terrier

Personality: "A skye terrier has stamina, strength and courage," says Karen G. J'Anthony, president of the Skye Terrier Club of America. "They are good-tempered, loyal and sensitive to the needs of their owners. However, although they are sensitive, they do have a mind of their own." According to the American Kennel Club, "The skye terrier is an elegant dog and fiercely loyal to those he knows and loves."

Grooming: A skye terrier's grooming needs change from puppyhood to adulthood, says J'Anthony. "The adult skye carries a double coat comprised of a harsh, outer coat, with a softer, wooly-textured undercoat," J'Anthony explains. "Weekly grooming using a pin brush and comb, beginning at the skin and working out towards the topcoat, will keep the coat in an unmatted condition." The AKC notes that "trimming is necessary to keep the hair from dragging along the ground."

As for younger skyes, "they may need more frequent grooming, as the puppy coat tends to be softer." Grooming how-to is mostly the same between younger and older skyes; the main difference, says J'Anthony, is that for younger dogs, "extra care needs to be spent ensuring that matting does not occur on the inside of the legs and behind the ears."

The extra work involved in grooming a skye puppy comes with benefits. "When started young, skyes look forward to grooming and bonding time with their owners," says J'Anthony. Overall, she recommends that a skye owner dedicate one to two hours per week to grooming.

Dog Breed: Norwich Terrier

Personality: "One can sum up the Norwich terrier personality as human-centric, gregarious and curious," says Magda Omansky, who sits on the board of directors of the Norwich Terrier Club of America and is a breeder in Murray Hill, N.J. at Dig-n-Pop Norwich Terriers. On its website, the American Kennel Club describes this dog in more integrity-driven terms, saying it "has good substance and is an eager worker" and is "fearless and loyal." Above everything else, these little terriers love the company of people. "A Norwich greets everyone as a long lost friend," Omansky says, "and the more attention he can draw out in return, the better."

Grooming: "The seemingly easy, wash-and-go appearance of the Norwich terrier is deceiving," Omansky warns. "The coat requires stripping by experienced terrier groomers." Simply shearing or cutting the coat, she says, will remove the pigmented tips of a Nowich terrier's fur, so you might inadvertently wind up changing the color of your dog! (But you can take care of brushing at home, says the AKC, and doing so will help maintain a high-quality coat.) A Norwich terrier's coat, properly maintained by an experienced terrier groomer, has the added benefit of "not requiring frequent bathing," Omansky says.

Common Health Issues: Although it is a hardy breed with relatively few health problems, Norwich terriers are prone to upper airway syndrome (UAS), an anatomical obstruction in the airway that most often involves an elongated soft palate and everted laryngeal saccules. The severity of this condition, Omansky says, "varies from very mild, where the dog might be reluctant to exercise in hot weather, to severe, where the dog's quality of life is seriously compromised." A surgical correction is usually very successful, but limiting the dog's exposure to hot temperatures and keeping it fit and in good weight might be all that is needed to keep this condition in check, Omansky says.

Name: Cairn Terrier

Personality: Just like Toto from The Wizard of Oz -- perhaps the most famous cairn terrier of all time -- these pups' "courage, tenacity and intelligence" are hallmark characteristics of a "sensible, confident little dog, independent but friendly with everyone he meets," says the Cairn Terrier Club of America. The Dog Breed Info Center says the breed is "alert, animated, hardy... loyal, curious, cheerful, lovable and friendly."

Grooming: The cairn terrier boasts a "weather-proof coat," says the Cairn Terrier Club of America, and a low-shedding one at that. Yet the coat "actually takes quite a bit of maintenance," claims the Dog Breed Info Center, "and a neglected coat soon becomes a sorry, matted mess." Brush several times a week, "being gentle with the soft undercoat," and bathe monthly, "brushing the coat while it dries."

Common Health Issues: Dog Breed Info Center notes that cairn terriers are "often allergic to fleas," and that they are prone to weight gain. Other sites list a host of possible problems, although as cairn terriers usually live into their teenage years, not many of these prove fatal: cataracts, hypothyroidism, luxating patella, Von Willebrand Disease, etc.

Training Tips: "This breed can be taught to do tricks," says Dog Breed Info Center, but first the cairn-terrier owner must establish that he or she will not appear meek or passive in the face of this "willful" pooch. The American Kennel Club agrees. "Cairns love their families, but may try to test their owners' limits, so obedience training is necessary." The AKC also notes that the breed's instincts to dig and to chase smaller animals are so ingrained that you may never be able to train that out of them.

Name: Australian Terrier

Personality: Originally bred as a ratter (meaning, to thwart rats out of small hiding places), the Australian terrier has a feisty, cheeky, and sometimes aggressive temperament. But as it was also bred for companionship, and the terrier tends to be warm, loving, and people-friendly even towards those who are not in its home family. Like many terriers, its small stature belies its big courage and personality.

Grooming: With its stiff-haired, low-shedding coat, the Australian terrier requires little more than a weekly brushing. (Its underside hairs are softer, however, and should be treated gently.) Frequent bathing will actually harm the dog's coat, so don't clean it any more than once a month. To keep the fur out of their terriers' eyes, many owners will trim the "eyebrows" as needed with a blunt pair of scissors.

There are 27 terrier breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club. Most terriers are small-to-medium in stature, but others, like the Airedale Terrier, can grow up to 70 pounds.

Terriers, no matter their size, require more room than one may think. Originally bred in England for hunting vermin and other small animals, terrier breeds have developed a reputation for being incredibly energetic and feisty. If not trained and handled at a young age, terriers can become intolerant of other animals, including other dogs. However, terriers are also known to be loyal toward their masters and can make entertaining and endearing pets.

Popular terrier breeds include the American Pit Bull, Scottish, Jack Russell, Cesky, West Highland White (Westie), Airedale, Staffordshire, Yorkshire (Yorkie), and the Boston Terrier.

Plus check out our top picks for the smartest dogs and our guide on how to choose a dog!

Who are you calling shorty?

Dogs like dachshunds, basset hounds and corgis are famous for their stumpy little legs. Now researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland have figured out where the low-slung dogs get their stubby stems from, reports National Geographic News.

The researchers discovered that 19 short-legged dog breeds all share a single genetic mutation, which suggests that most short-legged dogs descended from a single stunted ancestor. It's possible that the gene could have arisen as many as 30,000 years ago, long before humans started breeding dogs for physical traits.

The researchers say the study, published in the journal Science, is proof that one little change to a gene can have a big impact. "There may just be a small number of major genetic changes that create all the different shapes and sizes of dogs," study co-author Heidi Parker said.

The short-legged gene is found in breeds from Shih Tzus and Scottish Terriers to Basset Hounds and Pekingese. For a (short) look at these squat pups, check out our gallery of stubby-legged dogs. Just remember, they're not short -- they're vertically challenged!

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