What are your plans for a job or career?

A high school diploma and nothing else is going to severly limit your choices--and your ability to do the things you say you want to do.

Owning dogs and training them isn't cheap. As you've already seen, classes and clubs cost real money--and those are dog "luxuries." Vet care, meds, food, etc. Are also expensive, even more for big dogs.

I'd simply encourage you to think about some kind of career path while you're making plans. Since you have an aptitude for dogs, have you considered a training school, or vet tech training or?

The choices you make now will have a lifetime impact on your earning potential. I'm not saying everybody needs a college degree. But the kind of service industry job most high school grads can look forward to will lead to a grinding treadmill of paycheck to paycheck existence--with little left over for any kind of extracurricular passion, whether it's dogs, travel, or you name it.

At 17, I know it's hard to envision your future self at age 30 or 40--with bills, insurance premiums, taxes, rent or mortgage...or even children to raise.

But along with thinking about this dog, I'd challenge you to think about the whole picture of what kind of life you want to have as an adult--does it include training classes and travel to dog trials? If so, figure out how to get there, because you can do anything you want--you just have to have a realistic plan. Working at Wendy's is not going to allow you that.

Thanks everyone for the info. I heard you are suposed to give supplements to Raw fed dogs anyways. I will do some more research on it.

I don't know much about titles ....

 Quote: Caitlin Beaumont

Thanks everyone for the info. I heard you are suposed to give supplements to Raw fed dogs anyways. I will do some more research on it.

Raw or not, virtually every dog's diet needs the addition of long-chain Omega 3s (from marine sources), and Vitamin E is needed to replenish the body's store, which is depleted in processing/protecting the PUFAs in the fish oil.

You will find excellent and detailed explanations and instructions here for adding fish oil and natural E to the daily diet. (See "advanced search," upper right of your screen; expand the date range to 3 or 4 years.)

 Quote: Caitlin Beaumont

I don't know much about titles ....

You will want to learn, then.



You don't want to pass over what Will is saying with "I have heard" ...

QUOTE (Will): "Here is my first question - are those dogs from the "working lines" titled in any venue? If you could provide links to those that are, I'd love to take a look at them!"

This is the response you will get from experienced dog people when you say
"Actually there are alot of good breeders in the USA, Working and show."



What are you basing the "good breeder" description on if it's not health testing, temperament, and titles?

I know that Will (and others) will be interested in seeing links to "alot of good breeders in the USA, Working and show."

I'm interested!

And again, confrontation and/or dismissing are not in any way the goal here. I think you're doing well to be asking questions and sticking around for opinions from folks with long experience.

Well, I'm a little late to the party, but welcome to the forum, Caitlin, and I'm going to add my two or three cents here.

I greatly admire the thought and research you are putting into your plans for owning that special dog in your future, but I have to agree with Tracy that you are being very unrealistic if you expect to accomplish all you want on a minimum wage job.

I'm older but not so old that I don't remember what it's like to be young and full of dreams for the future. But to make those dreams come true, you need to be the best person you can be, a strong, independent, self-reliant and educated young woman. I completely understand your desire to get that dog as soon as you possibly can, but a few years spent now to secure your future, education and career-wise, will ensure that you will be able to be as involved as you wish to be in the dog world in the future decades of your life.

Nowadays, all a minimum wage job will do for you is buy you enough gas to drive back and forth for work. There will be nothing left over for big dogs and the expenses that go along with taking good care of them, and certainly not enough to buy a home on a nice piece of property in Idaho.

I wish your plans for yourself were as well thought out and half as ambitious as the plans you have for your dog.

Owning and training dogs is an expensive lifestyle. I don't think you are being realistic about what life will be like on $9 an hour once your parents aren't there as a safety net. One trip to the vet will cost more than you will make in a week. What will you do in a medical emergency?

I know you didn't come here for this kind of advice. I can't help you with your original question. But I think you've got bigger things to figure out first before you take on the enormous responsibility and expense you are proposing as a young person with no dog experience, let alone experience with a difficult large rare breed...and no plans for ensuring you can be a responsible owner. Sorry. A 17-year-old wouldn't go on a car forum and ask about a Lamborgini when they don't even have a drivers license or a job and expect to be taken seriously.