ladyabbies
Posted : 10/8/2007 8:41:21 AM
I have a 1 year, 8 month old Pointer. His name is Tucker. He's my first GSHP and we got him because of a friend's dog that we really liked and also because we have a springer and the breeds seemed pretty similar, and therefor, we hoped they would get a long well. And they do.
I love him to bits, he's a fantastic dog. He loves to play catch, whether it's a frisbee, ball, stick and so on and he could do so for hours. We have a smallish back yard so if we can't make it over to the dog park, it's still fairly easy for me to tire him out with a catch in the backyard.
The only downside to the experience of owning a GSHP was the potty training. And after we got him I started to hear that that was an issue with the breed. But it literally took us up to about 1 year to get him completely trained. It was almost like he didn't ask to go pee until he actually had to absolutely pee...and what I mean by that is that he knew to go to the door and knew he was supposed to get outside, but if we were upstairs and he started signalling he had to go...by the time we let him downstairs and made it their ourselves...he would be peeing in front of the door.
It was a bit frustrating and we worked on beating him to the door and just letting him out constantly, but we finally are at the point of being potty trained and all has been well since. Do any other of you GSHP owners have similar potty training stories?
But all in all, he's been a delight and he's such a good dog. Great temperment, smart and so on.
Anyway, it's great to meet other GSHP owners...it's a breed that's not overly common in my area at this point though I've met a couple others at the dog park.
~Erin
http://www.ladyabbies.com