Seven random facts about our Min Pins
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Min Pin dogs | 11 comments
Berry and Basil (world renowned American gardening Min Pins) wrote a post on Sarah’s great blog Gardendogs and I have been inspired to answer from the perspective of our three UK Min Pins: Dr. Quito, The Contessa and The Lady Midnight Amber (Inca).
- We love yapping and scaring the postman. We can hear his van driving up the road and can bark for a good five minutes before he hits us on the head with the mail through the letterbox on the front door. We also enjoy yapping at the bank manager next door when he is scratching about in his garden and gets too near our fence. This makes our mistress very angry and red and she roars with a much bigger bark than ours.
- We are sun worshippers and, like Basil and Berry, we like a tan on our tummies. The best days in the summer are sunny ones. We don’t like rain. We are small enough to take cover under the rhubarb leaves if we get caught in an unexpected shower.
- Bred as ratters, we are efficient killing machines, particularly when we hunt together. Our mistress loves us to catch moles, mice and rats but we were flummoxed when she was not pleased when we killed the baby ducklings that pottered into the garden this summer. We enjoy visiting the chicken run every morning and baying at the hens and guinea fowl from behind the wire. The chickens ignore our taunts but the guinea fowl have started shrieking when we thunder past. This sounds quite alarming coming from a creature with such a small head. Thank goodness they are contained in the run.
- We feel the cold so like to sleep in furry igloos with lots of blankets. If we can creep upstairs into the human dog basket we sleep well under the duvet at the mistress’s feet. We would prefer to sleep there every night but have altruistically sacrificed this comfort as we have our security duties to consider.
- We are great guard dogs although we are a bit short sighted. Sometimes we do not notice that our mistress has gone into the garden and we think that she is a stranger when she walks back to our cottage. It is a perfect excuse to let rip and have a jolly good bark.
- We are curious (some would say nosey beings). We examine every box and bag that is brought into the cottage. Our mistress calls it the customs inspection. We like to examine what is happening in the garden too. Sometimes we creep upstairs and guard our territory from the comfort of a sunny windowsill.
- We are independent. We are fond of our human pets and sadly feel that we have spoilt them by giving them a bit too much freedom. OK, they have to go out to work to earn the money for our food and private medical care but we are not the centre of their world. As they are the centre of ours.
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Hi Sarah, Berry and Basil,
You are spot on. Min Pins are enormous dogs in small dog bodies. Sometimes I have to be quite firm with my Min Pin companions.
They need to be kept busy. In fact they are the busiest dogs that I have ever come across. They seem to have endless projects on the go. At the end of a long day they love to snuggle up with us on the sofa and enjoy a massage!
We enjoyed reading about your excitng lives! Min Pins are a fiesty breed. Some can get along with kids, and some can be pretty quick to nip! The little girls in the neighborhood know to ask which Min Pin I’m walking…if it is Berry they give him pets and pats…if it is Basil they keep thier distance! The Min Pins need to be kept busy, if they are left to their own they will find lots of trouble; once they are worn out they are great lap dogs. They are a very big dog in a little dog’s body 🙂
Sarah, Berry & Basil
Hi Celia,
My sister was a bystander or rather buysiiter when one of her pugs was attacked by a hound, under the table when she was saying away. In the scramble of jaws she was bitten hard on the legby the hound. It hurt enormously and two years on she still has the scar.
A labrador dog is a big dog and could do lasting damage. All the labs that I have met have been OK (black and blonde) apart from one black one which I am wary of and I never turn my back.
Of course you are wary. In your shoes I would be too and as I work in so many houses with dogs I am very careful with them.
I wouldn’t want to be without a dog but choose a puppy very carefully.
Hi Amanda,
Labradors like spaniels are essentially working dogs. If you shoot and they have loads to occupy them they are fine. And most are fine if they are not worked but there are a few that get bored if they don’t have enough to occupy them and then they turn nasty. Spaniels need loads of exercise at least 1.5 hours of hard running a day. I know someone who bought a pair of cocker spaniels for her daughters (early teens) and had to give them away as they needed too much exercise. They cost £400 each and it was hard to find a new home for them even when they were given away free.
The best thing to do is to walk where dog owners walk and ask dog owners about their dogs. If you asked me I’d say that children love Min Pins but Min Pins generally don’t like children. Pugs love children and are pretty steady albeit lacking in the brain department. If Min Pins didn’t exist I think I would go for a crossbreed. They are stronger, cheaper to insure (we insure 2 of our Min Pins at a combined rate of £50 a month). Crossbreeds are generally steadier than most pedigree breeds. More often than not they are loyal and good companions.
We had a poodle when I was little. I remember my brother lifting her up by her ears. She didn’t snap whilst he was doing this but he was dicing with death and probably, when she had had time to think about the experience she would bite the next child who tickled her ears. Like you say it’s a minefield.
Oh my goodness! As we’ve been doing a lot of talking about dogs recently I’ve been really shocked to hear a few stories now of black labs turning nasty. Labs are supposed to be the ultimate family dog. My family have had a few over the years, always yellows though. My youngest was given a little nip by a jack russell and he’s now very wary of smaller dogs. Do you know anything about cocker spaniels? I know there’s something called spanielrage to be wary of now but I’ve been told that it’s only in the solid colours. Maybe we should wait a bit longer. What a minefield!
Hi Fiona – I was brought up to be fearless of any animal (mice, rats, geese, cattle, goats, spiders, etc I’m fine about). I was in my 20s when my neighbour’s uncontrolled and badly trained black lab launched itself over the fence and sank its teeth into my shoulder! The physical scars have just about faded – my confidence with dogs is still to mend.
Hi Mike,
Great idea. Perhaps the bank manager has already done this as the dogs used to be far more wound up by movement on his side of the fence!
Meanwhile we will try this deterrent. After dark.
Hi Pat,
Danny is the same about me having cats. I know that he’d fall in love with a kitten but he is sure that all a cat would do is kill wildlife. Min Pins are the Marines of the dog world and kill anything that doesn’t say boo. Cats are amateurs.
Hi Amanda,
Your mother in law sounds like a great woman. Direct the men to control the vermin.
All this is fine in the winter but I don’t want my bower to smell high during the summer (the bower is located on the fence in question).
Hi Celia,
Poor you being attacked by a dog. If you were a child a Labrador would seem a monstrous size and very frightening.
Most dogs like me. This is lucky as loads of my clients have dogs and I have to let myself into their houses when they are out at work. Eyeball a dog through a letterbox until he/she looks away and you have a fighting chance.
Min Pins are great dogs for non doggie people. They are not boundy all over you dogs. They are more like cats, independent, intelligent and complete. You are just a part of their lives. If they come to you for a cuddle, it is a treat. If something goes wrong they are on your lap in a flash. Having had Min Pins for the last 24 years, I wouldn’t consider another breed. Although we do love my mother’s miniature daschund, Daisy Beetle, who has retired from Cambridge city life and now lives at the cottage with us and is a joy. I can understand how Hockney fell in love with his dashunds.
However, Min Pins are the ultimate choice for us. Even though Danny used to be a big dog man.
I think your min pins have won me over (I’m not a doggy person – maybe because I was attacked by a neighbours dog once and I now freeze when I see a black labrador running towards me!)
These three have such adorable faces – they remind me of David Hockney’s paintings of Stanley and Boodgie – two very contented dachshunds! (Apologies if comparing them to dachshunds is upsetting for the min pins) And after reading their Seven Random Facts I feel I now know them quite well.
Ah lovely, was my first thought and then I read Mike’s comments and now I’m just laughing. My mother in law wanted all the men in the family to pee in the garden to ward off foxes as they kept leaving the most revolting smelling presents behind every time they visited!
Ummmm not sure now what to say after Mike’s comment. 🙂
But they sure are cuties!!!! I wish Hubby would give in and let me have a little dog. I will keep working at him… he is bound to wear down one day.
One thing that frequently helps in the fence/neighbour situation is to pour a little of your own urine at key spots along the fence. Since that’s how dogs naturally mark their own territory, it makes much more sense to them than our arbitrary notions of boundary. Refresh after rain, of course. 🙂