Bella is a GIRL!!! Tell THAT to people we meet!


  • True, the males do have the "blockier" heads.


  • Yeah, but folks who don't know the breed won't know what the head is supposed to look like in the first place.


  • Ohhh, here's a good one for you guys. I went to the vet and my reg doc was out on a house call so another vet took a look at the baby (Damisi) and said, "Gee, she really has a smooth coat." I was looking at her weird and said, "Um, she has a really good coat." The vet said, "Oh, I was thinking they're a Shiba Inu!" How's that for someone not knowing a breed!!


  • @JazzysMom:

    Yeah, but folks who don't know the breed won't know what the head is supposed to look like in the first place.

    Right, but I can look at a breed I don't know, and usually guess if a dog is an intact (or neutered after maturity) male, or a female. Not always, but blockier, bigger heads is a secondary sex characteristic…not just a breed standard.


  • @nomrbddgs:

    Ohhh, here's a good one for you guys. I went to the vet and my reg doc was out on a house call so another vet took a look at the baby (Damisi) and said, "Gee, she really has a smooth coat." I was looking at her weird and said, "Um, she has a really good coat." The vet said, "Oh, I was thinking they're a Shiba Inu!" How's that for someone not knowing a breed!!

    hee, hee…funny....


  • Oh gosh I get Shiba Inu AAAALLLL the time. I try not to get offended but REALLY my dogs are much cuter 😃 😃

    Ok GUILTY AS CHARGED…I'm a complete idiot when it comes to figuring out sexes...I try to take a glance at the undercarriage but I'm not always right. So I go with the generic "he" 😞

    What's my punishment??!!


  • @jys1011:

    Oh gosh I get Shiba Inu AAAALLLL the time. I try not to get offended but REALLY my dogs are much cuter 😃 😃

    Ok GUILTY AS CHARGED…I'm a complete idiot when it comes to figuring out sexes...I try to take a glance at the undercarriage but I'm not always right. So I go with the generic "he" 😞

    What's my punishment??!!

    Fifty pokes with dagger-like doggy feet in the middle of the night!

    Related story…last night was uncomfortably hot in our bedroom...two dogs was way too many to have under the covers. So as I thrashed around, in my sleep deprived haze, I thought that Tim had gotten up to use the bathroom, so I shoved the dogs towards his space (evil, I know)...but apparently I had dreamt that part, because he growled "ow, don't push them into me!" He gave pity to Querk and let him go under the covers on his other side.

    Strangely, I kept hallucinating (or maybe it WAS real) that I was getting bitten by mosquitos if my legs were out from under the covers....hmmm..probably more than you wanted to know about my sleep deprived self.....

    Oops!


  • ROFL!!! HAAAA!!!! sounds like you had a rough night!! Maybe a bigger bed & a mosquito net is in order LOL 😃 😃 😃

    I can't share the bed with the pooches and a 6'5" GIANT :eek:


  • @jys1011:

    ROFL!!! HAAAA!!!! sounds like you had a rough night!! Maybe a bigger bed & a mosquito net is in order LOL 😃 😃 😃

    I can't share the bed with the pooches and a 6'5" GIANT :eek:

    Sadly, we have the biggest bed commercially available 😉 Before we remodeled it completely filled our bedroom…and yes, we bought the bigger bed because of the dogs :rolleyes:

    And I am amazed (and grateful) that Tim hasn't banished dogs from the bed yet! It is great in the winter...but not so nice in the summer...and with the cost of utilities, I am unwilling to turn on the AC until maybe August this year!

    Now...what to do about the mosquitos..I like the idea of a net...but I see dogs tangled and chewing and chasing a net....figures.....maybe I could keep some bats in my room....shuddering at the thought of dog activity that would bring on!


  • @Quercus:

    Now…what to do about the mosquitos..I like the idea of a net...but I see dogs tangled and chewing and chasing a net....figures.....maybe I could keep some bats in my room....shuddering at the thought of dog activity that would bring on!

    LOL, I'm shuddering at the thought of the bats!!! Uuugh!


  • @Quercus:

    blockier, bigger heads is a secondary sex characteristic…not just a breed standard.

    I know, this is exactly why it seems so obvious to me that Bella is a GIRL (even w/out an undercarriage check)! LOL!!! 😃 😃


  • I have tried pretty pink collars on Zahra and people still get it wrong. Drives me crazy! LOL!


  • This is TOTALLY of-topic, sorry, but I just had to say this after ChaseandZahrasmom's comment:

    When my oldest daughter was about 6 mos old, I was standing at a travel agency desk when an elderly man came in and starting chatting about the baby. Bear in mind, my daughter was dressed in a little yellow dress and bonnet.

    Old Man: Is this your first baby? Me : Yes. Old Man : Is it a boy? Me: No, it's a girl. Old Man: Should have been a boy.
    Me: uh, well, she's a girl.

    What a weird thing to say. 20 yrs later and I still don't know if he meant that because she was the first, or because I had an ugly little girl. LOL


  • @JazzysMom:

    This is TOTALLY of-topic, sorry, but I just had to say this after ChaseandZahrasmom's comment:

    When my oldest daughter was about 6 mos old, I was standing at a travel agency desk when an elderly man came in and starting chatting about the baby. Bear in mind, my daughter was dressed in a little yellow dress and bonnet.

    Old Man: Is this your first baby? Me : Yes. Old Man : Is it a boy? Me: No, it's a girl. Old Man: Should have been a boy.
    Me: uh, well, she's a girl.

    What a weird thing to say. 20 yrs later and I still don't know if he meant that because she was the first, or because I had an ugly little girl. LOL

    That *is weird! I have had a couple people tell me that Ethan is so pretty he should have been a girl….again, like you said, hard to know if that is a compliment or not 😉


  • Actually- I do the same thing someone else mentioned….for some reason I think of all dogs as masculine, and cats as feminine. Maybe cause our first dog was a boy and first cat was a girl (when I was growing up). Of course, our second dog was a girl and second cat was a boy.

    Now I have Jack....who is aaaaaallll little boy. like 2 year old little boy.


  • Okay- I tend to look before I say things– Or I say, "Oh, cute dog! What's its name?" That's safe. 🙂

    But less we forget that "he" is universal.

    Lucky for me, Miles is a huge big man Basenji. And Lexi is a dainty little (Lexi, hold your ears, darlin) "runt". 😉 They're at the opposite ends of the size spectrum. That in combination with their gender specific collars makes it easier for people to tell who is what.


  • Maybe you should try dressing Bella in one of these gowns: 🙂 ggg


  • For some reason I do it too. I have Tosca, so all dogs are girls to me, weird huh? Oh but the worst is this…I don't have kids yet so when I scold or call someone its always Tosca..."Come on Tosca" etc.
    Well, we do have toddler nieces and nephews, and when they come I am absolutely horrible and call them Tosca as well! Like if I want Rylee to follow me I will accidently say, "come on Tosca" Luckily my brothers and sisters-in-law don't take offense to me accidently calling their child a dog's name, lol 🙂


  • @Jylly18:

    For some reason I do it too. I have Tosca, so all dogs are girls to me, weird huh? Oh but the worst is this…I don't have kids yet so when I scold or call someone its always Tosca..."Come on Tosca" etc.
    Well, we do have toddler nieces and nephews, and when they come I am absolutely horrible and call them Tosca as well! Like if I want Rylee to follow me I will accidently say, "come on Tosca" Luckily my brothers and sisters-in-law don't take offense to me accidently calling their child a dog's name, lol 🙂

    When my 85yo father calls my dog Ruby to come over for some love, he always says, "come Kimmy (my name 😃 😃 😃 :rolleyes:)". Cracks the whole family up. The best part is she goes over to him when he calls her my name, but rarely answers to her real name when I call her 😃 😃 :D.


  • Here's another misconception/unobservant thing that people do … almost universally when strangers or new neighbors see my basenji, they immediately think its a puppy. I'm not talking about little kids who call all dogs puppies, but grown ups. I think its because here in Minnesota the big breeds (labs, retrievers, etc.) are far and away the more common. So unless its a poodlething all other breeds are "puppies".

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