We have a 6 year old border terrier bitch and we would really love a pug aswell.  Would an adult border be ok with a new addition to the family?  Our BT is really loveable and great with kids etc but the only other dogs we have met have been in the park.  She goes wild when she meets a bitch and wants a good scrap, but when she meets a dog she totally rolls over on her back!
So we were thinking of getting a male pug pup for company.  Would this be ok or is it better to get an older pug?  We have never owned a male dog so it is out of my comfort zone but I just can't see her accepting another female in the house, even if its a pup.

I see no reason why she wouldn't accept a male pug puppy if introduced carefully. Its always better to have opposite sexes.

why not? all i'd say is that if shes bitch aggressive you might need to walk to two of them seperately, you don't want to give the pup ideas.

if you want a pug of good quality look long and hard and do some real research! they are a breed who are being greatly abused by puppy farmers and byb's so make the effort to find a good breeder of quality pups.

you might want to pm gwen, shes one of the experts

Our 3 Adult BT's have accepted Adult Danes, Rotties and various other breeds, as I dog sit, and dog board!

You need to be really careful of pugs' eyes. Don't want to be alarmist but a friend has two one-eyed pugs :-o as a result of letting her sister's Jack Russell loose with them. I don't think it bit them, but flying claws during play caused the damage. Hopefully your six year old Border will be calmer than my friend's sister's Jack.

>if you want a pug of good quality look long and hard and do some real research! they are a breed who are being greatly abused by puppy farmers and byb's so make the effort to find a good breeder of quality pups.

I got a pug from a well known  and highly respected breeder and she had  a hernia, luxating patella, went blind when she was 7, had constant eye infections, couldn't exercise when the sun was out, was constantly at the vets, so it's not just byb's as you call them and puppy farmers it's the well respected breeders too. They are a charming breed, the funniest and kindest of dog but a different cup of tea to a border terrier, They have so many health issues I would never ever have one again.

Liz

I got a pug from a well known  and highly respected breeder and she had  a hernia, luxating patella, went blind when she was 7, had constant eye infections, couldn't exercise when the sun was out, was constantly at the vets, so it's not just byb's as you call them and puppy farmers it's the well respected breeders too. They are a charming breed, the funniest and kindest of dog but a different cup of tea to a border terrier, They have so many health issues I would never ever have one again.

Hernias are, sadly, something that is common even amongst the best of breeders.  Mum pug can have a tendency to pull on the cord rather than chew it like most other breeds, i am told this is what causes it. 

I dont know who the breeder was, but a well bred pug with correct eyes to the standard (which is now calling for smaller ones in fact!!) shouldn't have "constant eye infection".  So im sorry to hear your pug had that.

I have 3 pugs, 2 girls and 1 boy, who live very happily with 6 labradors and a basenji puppy.  The only problems i can imagine is if your BT is a lap dog!  Pugs are incredibly people orientated and they are devoted to "their" person.  The only times i've had problems with mine is with the two female pugs fighting over who gets to sit on my lap!  So you do have to be firm with them then.  They are a stubborn breed.

But as far as finding a breeder, in my opinion, all responsible breeders should be breeding from dogs that have been shown with success (so are of good enough quality, pugs aren't worked so its the only way of proving that!!) and that have at the least been x rayed clear of Hemi-vertebra.  Hip scoring is starting to be encouraged also so im sure a lot more breeders will start doing that as well.  Sadly, a lot of the breathing problems in pugs come from the owners having them overweight.  A healthy, fit pug should be able to be walked in warm (not very hot though!!) weather.  Ours get walked with the labs for miles and they would keep going all day.

The breed does have health issues and breeders are starting to breed dogs that are healthier so if you are very picky and do your research you can find a healthy pug. 

> I got a pug from a well known  and highly respected breeder and she had  a hernia, luxating patella, went blind when she was 7, had constant eye infections, couldn't exercise when the sun was out, was constantly at the vets, so it's not just byb's as you call them and puppy farmers it's the well respected breeders too. They are a charming breed, the funniest and kindest of dog but a different cup of tea to a border terrier, They have so many health issues I would never ever have one again

If the puppy had a hernia & you didn't notice it & the breeder didn't point it out, then the phrase"Caveat emptor"comes to mind. In a short coated breed, hernia are obvious & if the breeder didn't point it out, you could have walked away before buying the puppy. If you had researched the breed in depth, then you would have known to have ensure that the puppies parents had been checked for LP. As for the eye infections are you saying that these were genetic as well ?

I don't really see how your going to know whether your dog will accept a new puppy until you try it. all dogs are different and alot find puppies quite frightening because they bounce around so much.
When i got my third puppy one of my dogs liked it and the other didn't, we had to be very careful for about three weeks and used stair gates between them so they could see each other but not come to any halm. We gradually let them in the same room and there were a few nasty moments but my dog eventually came round.
Make sure you give your dog time away from the puppy and always give your dog chance to get away from the puppy, my dog only got really silly when she couldn't get away when the puppy was trying to make her play.
Walking mine together has been the best thing for making them friends but just be careful your dog doesn't pass on any bad habbits. i also walk the puppy on it's own so you can train it better.
Only you know your dog, so you are the best judge of whether you think this could work.

 

>> <IMG alt="confused" src="/images/confused.gif"/> If the puppy had a hernia & you didn't notice it & the breeder didn't point it out, then the phrase"Caveat emptor"comes to mind. In a short coated breed, hernia are obvious & if the breeder didn't point it out, you could have walked away before buying the puppy. If you had researched the breed in depth, then you would have known to have ensure that the puppies parents had been checked for LP. As for the eye infections are you saying that these were genetic as well <IMG alt="confused" src="/images/confused.gif"/> ?

I didn't notice it, but i would have expected the breeder to point it out to me as I would to a potential buyer, people who come to look at puppies don't really look for things like that, they would expect to be told by the breeder. "Caveat emptor" seems a very cavalier attitude to take when selling pups.
I bought her 14 years ago and I don't think health tests like the ones people mentioned were available then, but I'm glad that people are becoming more aware of the health problems that this breed and others have and that eyes are hopefully going to become more normal sized and noses longer. I diligently applied 2 different kinds of eye drops for the last 7 years of her life, 2 or 3 times a day, so it was the shape, protrusion genetic fault  that caused the infections, not her care.

I have sadly had to have her PTS on the 11th January wagging her tail right up until the end. They are the most delightful, charming and humorous breed, but I hated the way she suffered through mankinds breeding strategies and I am glad that steps are being taken to improve the situation.

Liz

> I didn't notice it, but i would have expected the breeder to point it out to me as I would to a potential buyer, people who come to look at puppies don't really look for things like that, they would expect to be told by the breeder. "Caveat emptor" seems a very cavalier attitude to take when selling pups.
> I bought her 14 years ago and I don't think health tests like the ones people mentioned were available then

But she was a smooth coated breed & the hernia would have been obvious & yes LP should have been checked for in the parents even 20 years ago. I bought my first GSD in 1958 & researched the breed before I went to the best breeder of the day(not the top winning breeder whose dogs I wouldn't touch with a barge pole).

If a buyer doesn't research the breed before buying a puppy or dog then & now Caveat emptor applies. I would expect to have a close look at the puppy before paying for him & to check for hernias etc & also to check that the parents had all the available health checks & also take the puppy to the vet for a health check within 24 hours.

> she had&nbsp; a hernia, luxating patella, went blind when she was 7, had constant eye infections, couldn't exercise when the sun was out, was constantly at the vets

did any of these issues present in any of the other members of your dogs line? and are any of them things you can health test for in pugs? if the answers are no then thats unfortunately the way of biology-sometimes things just happen. if yes then frankly i wouldnt have gotten that dog.

going to a good breeder means you get the opportunity to asses the pup you buys full family history for generations, you get the assurance that the best possible effort has been made to prevent ill health occurring, with a byb or puppyfarmer you don;t have this.

at the end of the day theres no health test for ill luck.

i said >>so make the effort to find a good breeder of quality pups

and you suggested that buying from a good breeder could still cause problems because of the (very sad) problems your pug had (i'm sorry for your loss), but then you said

> but i would have expected the breeder to point it out to me

that does not fall under my heading of a good breeder. successful maybe, but successful is not good- i have it on good authority that David Beckham is not that great a footballer but he's very successful, and more pertinantly to us perhaps certain tv editors are certainly successful but i would not consider them to be good at it...

by good breeder i ment a diligent, caring person out for the best for their breed, their dogs and their buyers.

> hernia

Whether or not you should have seen the hernia, I really do think that a decent breeder would have mentioned it to you, even if it was a small one that wouldn't be likely to give trouble. And they certainly should have told you if it was one that needed a repair, and probably given a price adjustment in that case. I couldn't really say about the other problems; unfortunately these things can happen even with the best will in the world. All you can ask is that people will have the appropriate health tests for their breed, but even then, dogs are living creatures and sometimes things can go wrong.

 

>that does not fall under my heading of a good breeder. successful maybe, but successful is not good- i have it on good authority that David Beckham is not that great a footballer but he's very successful, and more pertinantly to us perhaps certain tv editors are certainly successful but i would not consider them to be good at it...

Doesn't conscience and morality come into it?

> Doesn't conscience and morality come into it?

It does with responsible and ethical breeders - when researching any breeder in any breed there are many things of greater importance than the number of names in red on a pedigree or rosettes on a wall, trophies in a cabinet etc.

In my home you would find no obvious evidence that I've shown very successfully - I don't go in for dust collectors LOL - but you would be given thorough details of everything about my dogs and their backgrounds, get to meet them all and assess for yourself the breed's suitability for your lifestyle, have open and honest info on any puppy available and be shown the health certificates and show records (again, with certificates) of the dam and copies of those of the sire.

Ebay sells rosettes and paraphenalia from Crufts no less - and unfortunately the public can be duped into many things with the mention of show successes, whether real or invented.

I'm very sorry for you and your much loved pug that things worked out so badly - yet another caring owner has been mistakenly made to believe that show breeders are corrupt and uncaring :(   For the majority of us nothing could be further from the truth but as with anything in life, there are bad apples that need to be rooted out so that someone such as yourself doesn't suffer this type of heartache and neither do any dogs.

Teri

conscience and morality are included in my definition of good

Hi, just caught the back end of this thread but wanted to say about my bitch. She is 2 and a half, and when we first got her, at 15 months she was quite aggressive to other dogs when she was on the lead. always pulling to have a sniff at other dogs, and then almost snapping at them if they got to close. Luckily for us, she goes to stay with my inlaws during the day when we are at work, there she has to mix with other dogs as they have a Springer and she goes to stables where there is a Great Dane, Collie and Jack Russel. Since then, and since being off the lead, she has been great.

Recently, my sister inlaw bought a jack russel x beagle bitch puppy and my dog was great with here from the start. Playing, but also telling off when being too much. She's very patient and a calming influence on the pup.

I think trusting her to meet the other dogs, and being off the lead in a 'aggression is a big no no' environment has helped her to be a really lovely dog, especially with pups.