Cairn Terriers

    • Bronze
    Calli is and has always been very possessive of me.  Whenever I get out of the car and leave her in she acts like a dog possessed with the barking and growling.  People around when that happens thinks she is a vicious dog and nothing could be further from the truth.  It really is kind of funny.  But as she has gotten older it is less intense.  I do think it is normal for them to have some separation anxiety.  But I guarantee you once you get out of sight of these guys they are usually very well behaved.  Just like kids, if you will. 
    • Gold Top Dog
    Yeah, Riley yaps and yelps when I leave him (especially in the car).  I can hear his cries when I am really far away.  Eventually though, he calms down.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Just out of curiosity, if you have a Cairn, why do you have a Glen of Imaal Terrier as your avatar?
    • Bronze
    I know it doesn't exactly look like a cairn but when I was developing my profile I could not find one that looked like her.  She actually looks like Toto on Wizard of Oz.  And pretty much acts like little Toto.  She has a sense of mean people and will bite if she feels threatened in any way or perceives that I am threatened.  But at nearly 10 she has lost many of her teeth and her bite doesn't have the punch it once did.  I have had this dog to the vet to have her teeth cleaned every year of her life and still they fall out.  The vet says it is genetic although I don't remember her mother or grandmother (my sister had them) having this type of problem.  Does Riley have good teeth?
    • Gold Top Dog
    Riley has great teeth.  I brush his teeth every night before I go to bed!  My mom took him to the vet recently, and he said that he has huge teeth, almost the size of a Labrador's!  That's not just him, it's the breed in general.
     
    Your dog is brindle?
    • Bronze
    Yep, real brindle.  She was quite brown when born but developed the darker gray overcoat as she grew.  She looks just like Toto on Wizard of Oz.  I will try to get a picture up of her this weekend.  She is smaller than most cairns because of a odd anomoly at her birth.  She was born with a twin in the same sack.  The twin died right after birth but my girl lived but was always the runt.  She just hit 14 pounds a few years ago.  She was always short though.  She now weighs 14 because she is a piglet and eats all the cat food in addition to hers. 
     
    What color is Riley?  What color was he when he was a puppy and how has he developed?
     
    I agree with the teeth being kind of large for a dog the size cairns are but I always thought it was because mine ended up being tiny for a cairn.  Interesting fact though.
    • Gold Top Dog
    Riley is wheaten, similar to my avatar.  His tail is wheaten near his body, brindle in the middle, and black at the end.  It's pretty cool to look at.  No matter what I do to stop it, it spikes up like a pine tree!
    • Gold Top Dog
    His brother Willie, owned by my grandma is overwight and larger than Riley, so I'm not sure if Riley is small or regular.  He was 16 pounds the last time I weighed him.  I did not have him as a puppy so I am not sure what color he was (my aunt gave him to me when he was two).  I saw pictures of him though, and he was darker.
    • Bronze
    Sounds like a beauty.  My sister had the wheaten that came out of the litter before my Calli.  She was a beauty.  All cairns are born with only their undercoat and it is usually a different color than the top coat.  That is the way it was with mine but my sister's wheaten has both coats the same color.  They develop the top coat during their first two years.  Or at least that is my understanding and ;pretty much what happened with Calli.  I would love to see a picture of Riley.  I will try to get one on of Calli this weekend.