How old were you when you got your first dog to look after yourself? I was 41 and waited 33 years for the right time, location etc.Nieghbours see no problem with 9 or 10 year olds having charge of dogs, and where I grew up dogs were brought in as soon as a baby stood up so they could grow up together.

I was 18 and newly married. My parents both worked so we never had one. I had a GSD cross. She turned on me when my son was born. Wouldn't let me near him. NOW I know why, but then I didn't and we rehomed her. She went to live with a gardener and was outside with him all day, except when she was visiting the old people in the home he worked at!

We waited a few years and got a collie cross who had to be pts due to behaviour problems and I said 'no more dogs'. 2 years late hubby came home with a 10week old ESS which was trained to the gun. She died aged 13. 3rd time lucky?

Edited to add: hubby trained her to the gun, she wasn't trained at 1o weeks :D

i was about 12 when i had a dog to call my own she's now 3 and i love her to bits i did all her training cleaned up after her fed her walked her groomed payed for her vet bills vacinations etc and generally loved and cared for her and entered her in exemption/comanion dogs shows run her round a few agility corses
shes a lurcher and the best 1st dog i could of wished for
i now have 3 more little angels

When i was younger all i ever wanted was a dog,i used to dream about it all the time.However i was never allowed to have one at home despite constantly leaving little notes around the house and in my mums powder compact,lol,(used to say "mum,please please please get dad to pick me up from school and take me to kennels to get a dog)lol,sounds silly now but boy did i REALLY mean it!!Can remember my dad bringing a friend home oneday and he had a pup in his arms(little heinz 57 they said)and i remember being convinced it was for me only to be sorely dissapointed when told they had brought it to show me!!Suppose they meant well knowing how much i loved them but obviously didnt realise the extent to which i wanted a dog!!had rabbits, goldfish and even a couple of chickens (at different times) lol,but never a dog and oh how i'd dream of it constantly looking at books of different breeds and cross breeds(always leaning towards the gsd though lol) and feeling so excited at the thought of being picked up from school and taken to a kennel to chose my ideal dog!!Never happend but made do with walking other peoples dogs,there was Sam the beautiful red setter which me and my friend used to walk until his owner (dog groomer) got another called riley and then we walked one each, and there was lovely Timmy (my favourite)the springer spaniel who i regularly walked along with my friend who walked his neighbour Benji a cross boxer/scruffy terrier thing,lol,those were the days and thats how we spent every holiday every spare minute,might sound sad to some but we loved it!!When i married and moved into a flat had my first child and became a housewife we felt it best to wait until we moved into a house,hence not being long before we moved here(to our house)which is quite large,well large enough for cleo(rottweiler,hubbys choice, had to compromise you see love her to bits though and wouldnt be without rottie now) when we first got her and oh.................not forgetting the other three(another rottie and two gsds),lol.Could never be without a dog now,not ever,and it was definately worth the wait,love 'em to bits,all of 'em!!

Hiya
I had always wanted a dog and on my 16th birthday my mum took me to the rescue centre. I too couldn't have aksed for a better first dog, she's perfect in every way (apart from the degenerative disc disease and spondylosis). But we've done so much together, she's taken me places I would never have been and met people I would never have met before. I will never forget our day on 'Today With Des & Mel' and the 5 star hotel they paid for us to stay at - food was gorgeous! Cas came 6 months later to keep Diz company and have always said thank goodness I didn't have Cas first otherwise I would have given up training and dogs as she was and is a nightmare to train - who said collies were easy? Then my 3rd has come along a year early because of Dizzy's early retirement.
Gina

I was 34, she was an afghan hound, Ali, aged about 12. she belonged to a friend whose active lifestyle made it difficult for the old girl to keep up, so she was spending long periods at home alone. I looked after her for a "week" to let my friend take a holiday. she stayed the rest of her life with me. until then i never thought i could keep a dog, because i worked. but i knew that i could give her better than she had already. she taught me that a dog can have a happy life with a working owner. Im so glad I had her.....now she is at the raibow bridge and Delilah, also an afghan, is lying at my feet, in Ali's old spot......:)

I was 13 when my mum let me have a dog that was truely mine. We had always kept dogs, I grew up with Dachsunds and Labs, and 1 maltese somewhere along the way. Gizmo was the most perfect springer spaniel in the world, she went everywhere with me, and she was my best friend. When I met my husband, he had to meet Gizmo, and when we moved in together I came with Gizmo or I didn't move at all. I still have her, she is 13 and is still sooo precious to me, even though she is crazy and driving me nuts in her old age.

We had our first dog when I was 33,had two young boys,aged 10 &11,they wanted the dog not me.I didn't want the mess,the feeding,the training the wet paws,the chewing,the whole hassle of it all.
BUT I gave in to the little black bundle that slept in my slipper at age 5weeks,it was me she turned to for food and walks,although everyone did their share,it was my lap she sat on or my feet she curled up under.
We grew an inseparable bond between us and I wouldn't have been without her once she entered our home!
Sadly she died in August aged 14yrs.no pain just tired out.I miss her terribly,but she gave us all so much love and would have loved the puppy we soon hope to get,I'll never replace her,but this new addition will add new dimensions to our lives and we shall learn even more,go to many more places that we never got around to with our last dog,more holidays on the beach,long walks in the sand,autumn leaves,so much more.Don't leave it too late to get that first dog.

I got my first dog when I was 10, he's 4 and a half now and he's taught me such a lot about dogs, I had to feed, groom, train him all myself. Before getting him we got the family spaniel who's now 9, and after my dad taking him to agility, I begged and begged to have a Border Collie for 3 years before he relented.
My sister got her Border Collie when she was 10, and within 9 months she had lost interest - not a problem though as then I took over her training :)
Char123

My earliest memory of a dog was when I was about 6 yo, our maid(it's not unusual to have maids in Brazil!) used to bring puppies and we took care of them for about 3 months and she took them back. One day she brought us a monkey! Anyway, I used to get really upset about the puppies, and when I was about 8 my mum bought us a poodle, she took it to School and I was sooo happy. We had him for a few years until we had to move from the North to the South and left him behind. From then on I had so many cats and dogs I lost count, but NOT ONE grew old with us. My mum never let me keep them for longer then about 3-4 years and I still think about many of them and wonder what happened. The animals were not treated as part of the family at all.
Val xxxx

Hi Lorelei
I was 37, and waited until I had given up full time work to go part time. I also wanted to wait until the kids were old enough - they're 12 and 10. I had wanted a dog as a child, but Mum and Dad always refused because they both worked (although I have sneaking suspicion it was more to do with the fact that my Mum is a very Neat and Tidy person!). This line of thinking stayed with me, and I didn't consider having a dog when I worked full time. Now I wish I'd done it sooner. Can't believe what I've been missing out on! ;)
Tracy

hi

i had my first dog when i was 13 he was a collie x lab black with a white chest and white paws my mums friend gave him to me when he was 6 months old he was so laid back he even let the rabbit jump all over him and when i got my 2 pups he just loved them ..... i had to have him pts 7 years ago at the age of 16 because he had a tumor

I my first dog when i was 20 george my staffie who is 3 now i got him when i was still living at home took me 3yrs to get him (parents didnt want another dog) I have left home now my mum missed george so much she is now getting a dog a whippet!

I too was 18 and just wed! Alothough i had dogs with my parents they were never just mine.
We argued for a few weeks over Akita or Golen Retriever. I got my Akita bitch. I wouln't change breeds for anything, its Akitas every time for me. I had a lot to learn, they are a very complex breed. I'm still learning! lol.