prairiefire
New Member
Hello everyone,
My name is Ang.
I came looking for a forum to learn more and ask questions about Tibetan Mastiffs. I first read about them in Bruce Fogle's dog encyclopedia. That was followed by several more encyclopedia type books. The first time I saw a moving TM was in the ridiculous movie "Man's Best Friend" which I found by accident on TV. The movie was beyond laughable but I have to commend the dog's trainer.
It didn't think much more about them for a few years. I liked them but my own personality was still developing (I was a teenager) and I was more interested in German Shepherds and Rottweilers. I have an affinity for working dogs and I still am interested in them, especially Rotts. Rottweilers led me back to TMs, following Rottweiler history back to its beginning with the Roman legions as a cattle drover descended from their mastiffs. Of course, when you follow them back that far there are references to the dogs the Romans appropriated from their various conquests.
The more I read about TMs the more I fell in love with them until this summer I met my first TM in person, Everestnorth's Miss Kawasi, at the local dog show. She didn't do any winning (while I was there) and was the only TM entered but she was a sweetheart (in her own TM way).
Currently I don't have the living accomodations or money to take care of another dog, nevermind a giant breed so I am substituting puppy breath for learning about my chosen breeds. In 5 years I hope to have my own place and be finacially stable enough to add a puppy. In the meantime I read. I've got Cunliffe/Elsworthy's book on TMs, I am waiting on "The Venerable Tibetan Mastiff" to arrive from Chapters. This in addition to nearly a dozen Rottweiler books. It will have to tide me over.
When the time comes I am going to be looking for a companion that will be coming camping/hiking with me as well as dabbling in the obedience and conformation rings. Rally-O and Agility are not out of the question but I'm not looking for a national competitor. As long as its fun and we get to do it together we'll try it.
For now, I work nights at an alarm monitoring company and live in my parents basement for nominal rent. Keeping me company is my 10 year old unregistered Shih Tzu, Shania T. I've had her since she was four months old and she is a sweet, tiny tyrant. She has perfected the vacant expression, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Can I have my cookie now?" She is a sweet, mostly quiet, little spitfire that charms everyone she meets, though she lacks a lot of formal obedience training. At least she has some manners. She's only slowed down a bit and that I'm attributing to the glaucoma in her right eye. It's controlled for now but we will likely face loosing her eye in the next year or so.
My Miss Lucky, a Border Collie X GSD X Aust. Cattle Dog, was my first dog. She was my heart dog but she had her issues. She was very shy with adults, both due to temperament and socialization. She was never introduced to enough adults to be completely comfortable around them and she didn't recover well from startlment (nerve issues that I've seen in almost all the BC X ACDs I've met). She was bomb proof with children though, largely due to being around them all the time (I was 12 when we got her and she was with us kids constantly). She made up for her issues by being incredibly intelligent. She had the upper cabinents and the the how to get to the top of the refidgerator down by the time she was six months old. Anything I tried to train her to do she could. Obedience, playground agility, sledding, packing, skijoring on rollerblades, she could do it. Our only hold ups were the skijoring, after spending so much time teaching and reinforcing not to pull on the leash she had some trouble figuring it out that she could not. Sadly, I lost her in November 2006, due to a injury at home. She was a month shy of 11 years old and healthy until almost the very end. Diagnosed with hypothyroidism a on Oct 2006. Arthritis when she was 9 but managed on glucosamine/chondritin and MSM until Oct 2006.
Wow, this intro turned out longer than I planned.
So, hello again.
My name is Ang.
I came looking for a forum to learn more and ask questions about Tibetan Mastiffs. I first read about them in Bruce Fogle's dog encyclopedia. That was followed by several more encyclopedia type books. The first time I saw a moving TM was in the ridiculous movie "Man's Best Friend" which I found by accident on TV. The movie was beyond laughable but I have to commend the dog's trainer.
It didn't think much more about them for a few years. I liked them but my own personality was still developing (I was a teenager) and I was more interested in German Shepherds and Rottweilers. I have an affinity for working dogs and I still am interested in them, especially Rotts. Rottweilers led me back to TMs, following Rottweiler history back to its beginning with the Roman legions as a cattle drover descended from their mastiffs. Of course, when you follow them back that far there are references to the dogs the Romans appropriated from their various conquests.
The more I read about TMs the more I fell in love with them until this summer I met my first TM in person, Everestnorth's Miss Kawasi, at the local dog show. She didn't do any winning (while I was there) and was the only TM entered but she was a sweetheart (in her own TM way).
Currently I don't have the living accomodations or money to take care of another dog, nevermind a giant breed so I am substituting puppy breath for learning about my chosen breeds. In 5 years I hope to have my own place and be finacially stable enough to add a puppy. In the meantime I read. I've got Cunliffe/Elsworthy's book on TMs, I am waiting on "The Venerable Tibetan Mastiff" to arrive from Chapters. This in addition to nearly a dozen Rottweiler books. It will have to tide me over.
When the time comes I am going to be looking for a companion that will be coming camping/hiking with me as well as dabbling in the obedience and conformation rings. Rally-O and Agility are not out of the question but I'm not looking for a national competitor. As long as its fun and we get to do it together we'll try it.
For now, I work nights at an alarm monitoring company and live in my parents basement for nominal rent. Keeping me company is my 10 year old unregistered Shih Tzu, Shania T. I've had her since she was four months old and she is a sweet, tiny tyrant. She has perfected the vacant expression, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Can I have my cookie now?" She is a sweet, mostly quiet, little spitfire that charms everyone she meets, though she lacks a lot of formal obedience training. At least she has some manners. She's only slowed down a bit and that I'm attributing to the glaucoma in her right eye. It's controlled for now but we will likely face loosing her eye in the next year or so.
My Miss Lucky, a Border Collie X GSD X Aust. Cattle Dog, was my first dog. She was my heart dog but she had her issues. She was very shy with adults, both due to temperament and socialization. She was never introduced to enough adults to be completely comfortable around them and she didn't recover well from startlment (nerve issues that I've seen in almost all the BC X ACDs I've met). She was bomb proof with children though, largely due to being around them all the time (I was 12 when we got her and she was with us kids constantly). She made up for her issues by being incredibly intelligent. She had the upper cabinents and the the how to get to the top of the refidgerator down by the time she was six months old. Anything I tried to train her to do she could. Obedience, playground agility, sledding, packing, skijoring on rollerblades, she could do it. Our only hold ups were the skijoring, after spending so much time teaching and reinforcing not to pull on the leash she had some trouble figuring it out that she could not. Sadly, I lost her in November 2006, due to a injury at home. She was a month shy of 11 years old and healthy until almost the very end. Diagnosed with hypothyroidism a on Oct 2006. Arthritis when she was 9 but managed on glucosamine/chondritin and MSM until Oct 2006.
Wow, this intro turned out longer than I planned.
So, hello again.
