From: scarcell@cs-acad-lan.Lakeheadu.Ca (Lorraine Scarcello)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re:samoyeds
Date: 21 Jan 1993 15:18:46 GMT
Organization: Lakehead University

Well I am glad to hear that someone else out there is the proud owner of a 
samoyed.  I was beginning to think I was the only one.  My boyfriend and I 
have a 6.5 month old female samoyed named Jasper.  We got her when she was 7 
weeks old and she has brought us nothing but joy and happiness since the day 
we brought her home.  We even had to travel 11 hours by car to get her 
because no one around here breeds them anymore.  Actually its kind of nice 
having a not so popular breed because she is so beautiful that when we are 
out for walks she turns people's heads, even people in cars.

We have been fortunate, so far, and not had too many problems with her.  We 
crate trained her from the beginning and that seemed to work great.  We no 
longer crate her at night but we do crate her during the day when we are at 
work or when we are out together.  She does tend to dig and she also likes 
to nip or bite a bit, but not in an aggressive manner.  She is very friendly 
with everyone.  There have only been about two people that she has kind of 
barked at.  Other than that she rarely barks which is kind of nice.  In 
other words she only barks when she has reason to.  However, she does not 
let us know verbally anyway, when she needs out.  She just sort of sits in 
front of you or trys to get your attention by pawing you.  Then we ask if 
she wants "outside" and she heads for the door.

We just started obedience training two weeks ago and she seems to be 
progressing at a normal rate.  We had her sitting, lying down and rolling 
over by the time she was twelve weeks old or so.  The roll over took a lot 
longer.  The obedience trainer said she has a very good disposition.  She 
said that she had encountered a sammy that was so aggressive and unfriendly 
that she recommended that they put it down.  Another friend told me they had 
one as a child that protective of the family that no one could come near the 
house.  Jasper has not shown any of these characteristics.  In fact I can't 
beleive how well behaved she is, especially with all of the bad publicity I 
have seen and heard regarding this breed.

I can't beleive some of the destruction stories people have to tell about 
there dogs in general.  I guess I have been very fortunate so far because 
Jasper has destroyed absolutely nothing but then we keep her under constant 
supervision and she is crated when one of us cannot be there to supervise 
her.  We do make every effort to include her in all of our activities 
because I get the feeling that she does not like being left alone.  Leaving 
her while we are at work is bad enough, so we take her with us wherever we 
can.  This has really helped in socializing her with other people as well as 
other dogs.  However, she does tend to show a bit dominance with other dogs 
and sticks up for herself very well.

Again, I can't say enough about how wonderful she is and I am glad someone 
else out there thinks that samoyeds are as wonderful as I do.  I too would 
also like to hear more samoyed stories.  Lets keep in touch.




Lorraine
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs