Dogs

Stonewall's Dixie Rose

**Click to view**
Dixie Fetch Video
Dixie Roll Over

Dixie was given to me for my 40th birthday. She was 10 weeks old when she came home to me.

I was so excited and thought all puppies jumped around and yipped and yapped and were full of energy. But not my Dixie - she shook and drooled and was very upset.

Dixie was the product of a bad breeding by what is known as a "backyard breeder." Yes, we all get labeled in one way or another. The dogs were kept outdoors in a kennel with food thrown into them and no human contact -- hence, my Dixie.

We already had a 9 year old Shepherd-Husky mix, Shane, and if it wasn't for him showing Dixie how good life was here, I'm not sure how long it would have taken to bring her around.

This is Dixie, January 2005, enjoying the snow.

Dixie was labeled a fear biter, but thank God she never did bite anyone. Socialization is extremely important with all dogs, but especially German Shepherds, and probably other breeds which are protection breeds. They must meet new people all the time, be taken to places where there are a lot of people, and they "must" be trained.

Puppy kindegarten, obedience, agility, etc., are awesome experiences for you and your dog. It will introduce them to other dogs and people and you will learn how to control your dog. I use to think the person walking down the street with the dog on a leash at their side was the norm. Well, it's the norm only with training, because a dog wearing a leash is not natural for them. Agility, well, I was told by our obedience trainer and my vet that agility classes would really boost Dixie's confidence and it sure did. She was more sure of herself, more willing to be around others, it was an amazing experience.

Should you have any questions about any of this, please contact me and remember: I am "not" an expert, I give you this info from my personal experiences, and experiences of other people. I will tell you that Dixie will be 10 years old this April 2008, and I'm shocked how she has changed over the years.

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

 

Chinese Cresteds

There are two distinct varieties of this unusual dog: one is hairless except for its feet, head and tail, and called, not surprisingly, the Hairless; The other is called the Powder Puff. It has a coat of long soft hair. Both come in numerous colors, either solid, mixed or spotted all over. It has a broad skull and a long muzzle. Eyes are dark, and ears are erect. Strangely the two types often come in the same litter.

Sampson

**Click to view**
Sampson - who hates wet, cold grass and leaves!

Sampson - A hairy hairless Chinese Crested. What the heck is that? What, some of these dogs have no hair? Well, I heard all this and told my cousin to go get herself a REAL dog!!! Now (in my home) there are three! Ha! These little dogs are absolutely amazing. They are little clowns and little infants and little kitties all rolled into one. After having big German Shepherd dogs (Shane and Dixie) it was nice to be able to pick up our little Chinese Crested dogs and hug and kiss them and carry them around like babies. Ladies, these dogs sure fulfill that mothering instinct, at least they have for me.

Sampson is from Crest-Care Rescue, a rescue devoted to the Chinese Crested dog. The moment I saw Sampson, I fell in love. He was a shy one but that sure didn’t last! Anyway, I went through the process of adopting him, and here he is! Sampson was 10 pounds when he first came home to us and full of blackheads and pimples. Crest-Care had taken care of getting him to the vets for his skin problems and had him neutered, etc., and his skin problems shortly cleared up. Sampson now weighs about 23 pounds, which is very large for a Chinese Crested.

Let's step back. We brought Sampson into our house with Shane and Dixie. I was sweating bullets thinking "oh no, what have we done, the dogs will kill him." But that was not so. Sampson was 'personality plus.' I think Shane and Dixie were a bit mesmerized by him and couldn't figure out what he was. Sampson was totally against crates so he had the run of the house right away and did fine. The top of the couch was his "safety zone" when Dixie and Shane got a little too curious. It took about one to two weeks before all were happy. Dixie and Sampson became great friends, because by this time, Shane was feeling his age and just wasn't into romping around any longer. I really wanted to bring another German Shepherd into the house one day, but some way, some how, we ended up with 2 more Chinese Cresteds. Please check out my stories and photos on Bonnie and Astro, below.

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

Bonnie

**Click to view Bonnie Video**

Bonnie will be 6 years old this year. She's a darling little blond, hairy hairless, Chinese Crested.
It hit me one day that we were off balance in our home with two large dogs and only "one" small dog. So the hunt was on for a female Crested to become Sampson's girl, as I thought Dixie was getting a bit tired of him and his energy. I couldn't find a female in our area through a rescue, so on to look at the older dogs that breeders may want to rehome.

 

Bonnie was a quiet, withdrawn little girl who lived in a home with many dogs and was shown a couple times and bred once. It was time for her to move on, and to be turned into a princess (okay Dixie's the real princess; we call Bonnie "Mini Me Princess"). She is now a spoiled rotten little mommy’s girl and I’m loving every minute of it.

Thank goodness Bonnie is only 11 pounds because she loves to be in my arms walking around the house; she loves to lay on my chest while watching TV; and she loves to wrap herself around my head when we sleep at night. As you will see above in Bonnie's picture, she has a lot of body hair so she is referred to as a "hairy hairless" (like Sampson). However, this picture was taken the day I picked her up and the owner always kept her shaved and groomed, which a lot of people do. I was surprised that Shane was great with Bonnie, but even now, I think Dixie would like her out of here. But that's just not going to happen! They're all here to stay.

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

Astro is a hairless Chinese Crested. As you can see from his pictures, he has absolutely no body hair except for the top of his head, a little at the tip of his tail and a few hairs on his feet. This totally freaked me out when he came to live with me. I was afraid to touch him. Ha! But in time, I got use to it and he was happy because he loves to be pet (rubbed I guess you’d call it on a hairless dog LOL).

 

 

He is quiet and lovey and snuggly indoors. Although, he does love prancing around with a toy smashed up to his face and making grunting sounds into it; and wants to kill any toy that talks. Then he gets outside with his ball, and man, the sky could be falling down and he'd never notice as long as his ball was in plain view. The only time he stops chasing the ball is when I grab it with my feet and then the boy doesn't even look at me, he kinda does this dance, this dance that says, "come on, come on, gimme, gimme, gimme, hurry, mommy, hurry, gimme the ball, puhhhhhhhhllllllllleeeeeeeezzzzzzzz!" He is most definitely entertaining and very loved!

 

Astro is a rescue. We've only had him in our home for 3 months but you'd never know it. He fit right in, but that's his great temperament that allowed that. He and Samps bang heads occasionally and it's not a pretty sight, but it's a "guy" thing, you know?! Don't you worry, Astro is here to stay. They all just get so jealous of each other and protective – I just have to give them an occasional reminder of who is in (that would be me!).

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

 

TyChee

**Click to view**
Ty Chee is here!

Ty Chee Video 2

Ghost.. or Ty Chee?

Well, someone once said (actually, someone says it once a week) "Chinese Cresteds are like potato chips, you can't have just one." They weren't kidding! So here we are on Chinese Crested #4. This darling boy just came to live with us 3 years ago and will be 6 in October.

 

 

Ty wasn't in the best of shape or the worst. He does have an infection in his left eye from having dry eye. Our Astro has the same problem. A lot of vets refer to this as "a past injury to the eye" because they actually have no clue what the problem is and usually see an ulcerated eye and assume it was injured. I'm lucky enough to have great vets who were smart enough to send us to an eye specialist. So if anyone has a dog with a goopy eye or an eye they can barely hold open or scratch at it a lot, please get them to an eye specialist. We weren't in the market for another dog, but I fell in love with this little face and since I knew about his eye problem, I knew our home would be a good home for him since we already have experience with this.

 

Ty use to be skittish around Dixie, but that’s improved. He also use to hate baths, but he doesn’t mind them at all now, he knows that is our quality time together. His skin is in great shape and he has the softest skin in the house. He’s like a different dog since he first came to us. He loves toys, he loves to destroy toys – he loves to chase Valentino and he likes to hang inside with me when everyone else is outside ‘cause he knows he gets my 100% attention.

 

 

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

 

Tiki

Tiki "Push-ups" Video

Tiki "Dance" for dinner

Tiki turned 10 years old this year. She is a female hairy hairless Chinese Crested. I met Tiki at PetSmart while Crest-Care was there one Saturday taking pictures of pets with Santa. I had our picture taken together and when I left her that day I told her "you just wait and see baby girl, I'll be your mommy one day." And that's where it all begins.

 

 

 

I adopted her from Crest-Care just a couple days before Christmas. Tiki was abused earlier in life as she was chained up most of the time. Ugh, can you imagine, an 11 pound dog being chained. Well, neither can I, and I can't imagine what other horrible things were done to her. Hearing that she was an older girl and that she had been abused, and that she also had dry eye, did it for me.

 

 

This girl has turned into such a love. She sleeps under the covers up against me most of the night but she gets hot and I awake in the morning to have her head on the pillow beside mine. She was so skittish when she first came to live with us. She still ducks if you put your hand out to pet the top of her head but then quickly realizes it’s a loving gesture. She’s putting up a good fight with Bonnie in trying to be #1 girl. (Don’t worry, that’s not gonna happen.)

 

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

 

Creasy Bear

Creasy Bear turns 6 years old this November. He is a hairy hairless Chinese Crested and is the latest addition to our family. I had absolutely no intentions of adopting another dog, but the bug bit again. I read about him on a Chinese Crested forum on the Internet which I am a member and I found out the shelter he was in was only 30 minutes from our home. I couldn't let him stay in the shelter and he was just so cute, so the paperwork began.

 

Creasy Bear's original name was Uncle Cletus. It didn't even take a full day for him to answer to the name Creasy Bear. I LOVE the movie "Man On Fire" (the remake with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning). Denzel's nickname in the movie was Creasy Bear and I liked his character so much I said that would be the name of my next Crested. And it sure fits this guy. Creasy's original owner was an elderly woman who became ill and then passed away and Creasy was turned into the shelter the day after Christmas 2 years ago. As you can see in the photos, Creasy is extremely skinny and needs fattening up and his skin isn't in great shape - breakouts and blackheads - but these appear to be the only health issues we need to work on.

Creasy was only in the shelter a week when I started the adoption process and it killed me leaving him there, but the shelter was great to him, great to me, and it was a quick turn around. He is really an easygoing guy and you can tell he lived with a woman because he sure has attached himself to me. Everyone is getting along, but there's been some growls between the boys. Creasy let it slide the first 2 days, but by day 3 he let everyone know they couldn't push him around. So he growled back a couple times, backed off a couple times and now things have fallen into place. He’s our biggest (fatest LOL) Crested but he’s just may be the biggest baby. No wait, that’s Sampson. Ha!

~Return to Home~
~Return to Top of Page~

HOME    DOGS     CATS     IN MEMORY     FAMILY PHOTOS    LINKS