Anyone Else Own A Miniature Schnauzer? (1 Viewer)

[Tino]

My wife loves dogs so we recently purchased a Mini Schnauzer. I have never had pets before so I was a bit apprehensive as to whether I could bond with him.

Needless to say I have fallen in love with our Stewart. Dogs are amazing animals.

Just wondering if anyone else here owns one and has tips to share. Foods to feed him, how to stop him from biting my wife all the time , etc..

Thanks.

 

[Bill Kane]

I sincerely hope you will find some positive encouragement for raising a Miniature Schnauzer. My experience was otherwise, but I do not respond to dis the breed, since every home and owner is different.

I suspect raising a Schnauzer takes more effort in socializing than raising a human child, who for the most part is left to mature into a family member according to nature.

Schnauzers seem to be overly protective. Already, it appears you are its dominant master, while the wife is an interloper. Somehow, this needs to be trained out of the dog's nature.

Our Schnauzer was AKA registered. At the appropriate time, I took the dog to obedience class, where, eventually, he flunked. Owner-Driver error I'd say :frowning:

Some time later, after one more egregious repetition of going after and nipping/biting the child of a visiting guest, my wife sucked it up and had the dog put away. This was a long time ago, and as I recall, the other big factor was we were expecting our first baby in the house.

This was difficult, of course, but the dog no way was a cuddly type and was yippy to the max. I take responsibility for its lack of training, altho I dont know if there could've been a night-and-day different outcome.

Be vigilant over the pup's early behavior and seek outside professional help in raising this breed before it's set in its ways.

 

[DonnyD]

I owned a Mini Schnauz in the 80's and through part of the 90's and I have to say, he was the most special dog I've ever owned. Smart, very quick, and a real clown at times. The interaction we had with our " Rueski" was a lot of fun and he bonded well with all of us, from a teen ager to a baby as well as us older folks. A Mini is typically protective but slow to bite, but will nip at times.

We fed our Mini Science Diet to minimize stool and body odor. I learned to trim Rueski myself and he was usually well mannered as long as I took my time and didn't nick him. If you do, they'll never forget it.

Having grown up with many different dogs from time to time, I found the mini we had to be the brightest and smartest by far and he quickly mastered anything we taught him. After moving to the country, he was let out a little more and wandered onto a highway and a car hit him. That was one sad day and I still miss him. I haven't had another dog since.

Good luck with your Mini and with a little patience, you'll find him/her to be a great and loyal companion.

 

[JasonS]

My wife and I have a miniature Schnauzer named Zoey. She's usually a pretty good dog, aside from the yipping. She's fun to play with, and she's good around our 16 month old daughter. Besides the yipping and chewing on toys or other things we leave out occassionally, is that she sleeps on my side of the bed.

 

[Robert McDonald]

We had to put our mini down a little over a year ago (he was just shy of his 16th birthday). Stetson was born in July, 1986, my daughter in August, 1986, and we picked him up September, 1986. When he was about 2 we had our son, so essentially there was an infant around in his formative years.

It is important to train him/her early, and to involve everybody. I was the main trainer of ours and, to me, he was great. However, I was the only one in the family who could pick him up without him biting (and the girls at the vet's office also had a hard time); I think it was in part that I was the only one who went through the training with him and he recognized only me as his master. Having said that, although neither my 2 kids nor wife could pick him up he would play with them with no problem whatsoever. He was smart, playful and caring.

Now, having said that, I have a good friend who has a mini who is just a terror; but, they acknowledge they never took the time to train their's (2 income family-no kids).

About 3 months after we had to put him down for health reasons we picked up a Sheltie. He is great, but, man, can he bark!

 

[Randy_Sh]

Parents have a mini-Heidi. She just turned 6...

She's a great dog, a bit protective of the folks. She was easy to train, and does listen well. She isn't to yippy.

Biggest thing is she hates the car and really doesn't like other dogs. My dog (50lb lab mix) and her don't mix. I think that they would be fine if let be, but Heidi always start to bark at my dog and it bothers my folks.

She sleeps in her crate in my folks room...heads up to bed whenever she is tired...

Aunts and cousins have also had mini's and always had good success with them...

 

[ScottMac]

My wife and I have an all-black Mini-Schnauzer named Maxx. He is a great dog, we have had him for just over a year and bought him from a reputable breeder and he is registered.

Maxx is very loyal, fun-loving and clown-like, and he definitely has his own personality.

He is very protective of both myself and my wife, will protect his home with his life, but once he gets to know strangers is fine. He is very wary of strangers, but mostly out of fear than agressiveness.

We feed Maxx all natural food, Natural Balance, he also loves cheese, chicken, toast and for a treat hamburger.

We have learned to groom him with clippers and have become quite good at it with practice, you especially have to keep his eyes clear as he does get the "eye goop"

 

[MickeS]

double post

 

[MickeS]

Nothing to add exept that once in court where every potential jury member had to list the stickers they had on their cars, one of them said she had only one sticker. It read "It's not easy to be humble when you have a Miniature Schnauzer". This caused a lot of laughter.