Dogs

Stonewall's Dixie Rose

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Dixie Fetch Video
Dixie Roll Over

Dixie was given to me for my 40th birthday. She was 10 weeks old when she came home to me.

I was so excited and thought all puppies jumped around and yipped and yapped and were full of energy. But not my Dixie - she shook and drooled and was very upset.

Dixie was the product of a bad breeding by what is known as a "backyard breeder." Yes, we all get labeled in one way or another. The dogs were kept outdoors in a kennel with food thrown into them and no human contact -- hence, my Dixie.

We already had a 9 year old Shepherd-Husky mix, Shane, and if it wasn't for him showing Dixie how good life was here, I'm not sure how long it would have taken to bring her around.

This is Dixie, January 2005, enjoying the snow.

Dixie was labeled a fear biter, but thank God she never did bite anyone. Socialization is extremely important with all dogs, but especially German Shepherds, and probably other breeds which are protection breeds. They must meet new people all the time, be taken to places where there are a lot of people, and they "must" be trained.

Puppy kindegarten, obedience, agility, etc., are awesome experiences for you and your dog. It will introduce them to other dogs and people and you will learn how to control your dog. I use to think the person walking down the street with the dog on a leash at their side was the norm. Well, it's the norm only with training, because a dog wearing a leash is not natural for them. Agility, well, I was told by our obedience trainer and my vet that agility classes would really boost Dixie's confidence and it sure did. She was more sure of herself, more willing to be around others, it was an amazing experience.

Should you have any questions about any of this, please contact me and remember: I am "not" an expert, I give you this info from my personal experiences, and experiences of other people. I will tell you that Dixie will be 10 years old this April 2008, and I'm shocked how she has changed over the years.

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Chinese Cresteds

There are two distinct varieties of this unusual dog: one is hairless except for its feet, head and tail, and called, not surprisingly, the Hairless; The other is called the Powder Puff. It has a coat of long soft hair. Both come in numerous colors, either solid, mixed or spotted all over. It has a broad skull and a long muzzle. Eyes are dark, and ears are erect. Strangely the two types often come in the same litter.

Sampson

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Sampson - who hates wet, cold grass and leaves!

Sampson - A hairy hairless Chinese Crested. What the heck is that? What, some of these dogs have no hair? Well, I heard all this and told my cousin to go get herself a REAL dog!!! Now (in my home) there are three! Ha! These little dogs are absolutely amazing. They are little clowns and little infants and little kitties all rolled into one. After having big German Shepherd dogs (Shane and Dixie) it was nice to be able to pick up our little Chinese Crested dogs and hug and kiss them and carry them around like babies. Ladies, these dogs sure fulfill that mothering instinct, at least they have for me.

Sampson is from Crest-Care Rescue, a rescue devoted to the Chinese Crested dog. The moment Phil and I saw Sampson, we fell in love. Well, I fell in love and begged Phil for an hour or two for us to adopt him. Next thing I know, Sampson is sound asleep in Phil's arms, belly up and spread eagle and at that point, the the bug had bitten Phil. So we went through the process of adopting him, and here he is! Sampson was 10 pounds when he first came home to us and full of blackheads and pimples. Crest-Care had taken care of getting him to the vets for his skin problems and had him neutered, etc., and his skin problems shortly cleared up. Sampson now weighs about 23 pounds, which is very large for a Chinese Crested.

Let's step back. We brought Sampson into our house with Shane and Dixie. I was sweating bullets thinking "oh no, what have we done, the dogs will kill him." But that was not so. Sampson was 'personality plus.' I think Shane and Dixie were a bit mesmerized by him and couldn't figure out what he was. Sampson was totally against crates so he had the run of the house right away and did fine. The top of the couch was his "safety zone" when Dixie and Shane got a little too curious. It took about one to two weeks before all were happy. Dixie and Sampson became great friends, because by this time, Shane was feeling his age and just wasn't into romping around any longer. I really wanted to bring another German Shepherd into the house one day, but some way, some how, we ended up with 2 more Chinese Cresteds. Please check out my stories and photos on Bonnie and Astro, below.

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Bonnie

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Bonnie will be 4 years old this year. She's a darling little blond, hairy hairless, Chinese Crested.
It hit me one day that we were off balance in our home with two large dogs and only "one" small dog. So the hunt was on for a female Crested to become Sampson's girl, as I thought Dixie was getting a bit tired of him and his energy. I couldn't find a female in our area through a rescue, so on to look at the older dogs that breeders may want to rehome.

 

We found Bonnie about 13 months ago. She was a quiet, withdrawn little girl who lived in a home with many dogs and was shown a couple times and bred once. It was time for her to move on, and to be turned into a princess (okay Dixie's the real princess; we call Bonnie "Mini Me Princess"). So between Phil and I she became totally spoiled. And that she is.

Thank goodness Bonnie is only 11 pounds because she loves to be in my arms walking around the house; she loves to lay on my chest while watching TV; and she loves to wrap herself around my head when we sleep at night. As you will see above in Bonnie's picture, she has a lot of body hair so she is referred to as a "hairy hairless" (like Sampson). However, this picture was taken the day we picked her up and the owner always kept her shaved and groomed, which a lot of people do. I was surprised that Shane was great with Bonnie, but even now, I think Dixie would like her out of here. But that's just not going to happen! They're all here to stay.

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Astro is a hairless Chinese Crested. As you can see from his pictures, he has absolutely no body hair except for the top of his head, a little at the tip of his tail and a few hairs on his feet.
Astro was born in June 7 3/4 years ago, and that would explain the dual personality - you know, being born in June makes him a Gemini, the sign of the twins. Although both his personalities are wonderful - they are different. Ha!

 

 

He is quiet and lovey and snuggly indoors. Although, he does love prancing around with a toy smashed up to his face and making grunting sounds into it; and wants to kill any toy that talks. Then he gets outside with his ball, and man, the sky could be falling down and he'd never notice as long as his ball was in plain view. The only time he stops chasing the ball is when I grab it with my feet and then the boy doesn't even look at me, he kinda does this dance, this dance that says, "come on, come on, gimme, gimme, gimme, hurry, mommy, hurry, gimme the ball, puhhhhhhhhllllllllleeeeeeeezzzzzzzz!" He is most definitely entertaining and very loved!

 

Astro is a rescue. We've only had him in our home for 3 months but you'd never know it. He fit right in, but that's his great temperament that allowed that. He and Samps bang heads occasionally and it's not a pretty sight, but it's a "guy" thing, you know?! Don't you worry, Astro is here to stay. They all just get so jealous of each other and protective of Phil and myself - they just need an occasional reminder of who is in charge (and that would be Alpha Mommy and Alpha Daddy!).

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TyChee

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Ty Chee is here!

Ty Chee Video 2

Ghost.. or Ty Chee?

Well, someone once said (actually, someone says it once a week) "Chinese Cresteds are like potato chips, you can't have just one." They weren't kidding! So here we are on Chinese Crested #4. This darling boy just came to live with us - he turned 3 years old on October 3, 2005.

 

 

Ty wasn't in the best of shape or the worst. He does have an infection in his left eye from having dry eye. Our Astro has the same problem. A lot of vets refer to this as "a past injury to the eye" because they actually have no clue what the problem is and usually see an ulcerated eye and assume it was injured. I'm lucky enough to have great vets who were smart enough to send us to an eye specialist. So if anyone has a dog with a goopy eye or an eye they can barely hold open or scratch at it a lot, please get them to an eye specialist. We weren't in the market for another dog, but I fell in love with this little face and since I knew about his eye problem, I knew our home would be a good home for him since we already have experience with this.

 

Ty is a little skittish around Dixie (but if I was a 12 pound dog, I probably would be too Ha!), and he's latched onto his mommy pretty quickly. He HATES baths, but his skin isn't in great shape so in his 1st week with us he's had 2 baths. He's a slippery little thing too. He sure has opened up in just a couple days - I'm so proud of my other CCs for accepting him so quickly. He seems to really like Sampson and will do that cute little play bow then run in circles and take off and come back and sniff around Sampson trying to get him to play. I give it another week and there will be no stopping them. Check out the family photos pages for photos of Ty and our other furkids!

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Tiki

Tiki "Push-ups" Video

Tiki "Dance" for dinner

Tiki is about 8 years old and is a female hairy hairless Chinese Crested. I met Tiki at PetSmart while Crest-Care was there one Saturday taking pictures of pets with Santa. I had our picture taken together and when I left her that day I told her "you just wait and see baby girl, I'll be your mommy one day." And that's where it all begins.

 

 

 

We adopted her from Crest-Care just a couple days before Christmas. Tiki was abused earlier in life as she was chained up most of the time. Ugh, can you imagine, an 11 pound dog being chained. Well, neither can I, and I can't imagine what other horrible things were done to her. Hearing that she was an older girl and that she had been abused, and that she also had dry eye, did it for me. As you can see daddy's fallen in love with her, and she looks pretty thrilled with him too.

 

 

She's only been with us for 5 days now so we're all still feeling each other out. She jumps around on the couch with the other little ones when I walk in the door, just begging for kisses, but she still won't allow a full out "grab and kiss." But she's getting there. She loves to be held, loves to be kissed (gently) and I'm realizing a one-handed pet/rub is acceptable but 2 hands freak her out. Whatever makes her happy is what she will get. And the one thing that worried me the most was my little angel Bonnie getting jealous, but they're doing just great together.

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Creasy Bear

Creasy Bear turned 4 years old on November 1, 2006. He is a hairy hairless Chinese Crested and is the latest addition to our family. We had absolutely no intentions of adopting another dog, but the bug bit us again. I read about him on a Chinese Crested forum on the Internet which I am a member and I found out the shelter he was in was only 30 minutes from our home. We couldn't let him stay in the shelter and he was just so cute, so the paperwork began.

Creasy Bear's original name was Uncle Cletus. It didn't even take a full day for him to answer to the name Creasy Bear. Phil and I LOVE the movie "Man On Fire" (the remake with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning). Denzel's nickname in the movie was Creasy Bear and we liked his character so much we said that would be the name of our next Crested. And it sure fits this guy. Creasy's original owner was an elderly woman who became ill and then passed away and Creasy was turned into the shelter the day after Christmas. As you can see in the photos, Creasy is extremely skinny and needs fattening up and his skin isn't in great shape - breakouts and blackheads - but these appear to be the only health issues we need to work on.

Creasy was only in the shelter a week when we started the adoption process and it killed me leaving him there, but the shelter was great to him, great to me, and it was a quick turn around. He is really an easygoing guy and you can tell he lived with a woman because he sure has attached himself to me. Everyone is getting along, but there's been some growls between the boys. Creasy let it slide the first 2 days, but by day 3 he let everyone know they couldn't push him around. So he growled back a couple times, backed off a couple times and now things seem to be falling into place, just as smoothly as he fell into our hearts.

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