# My Dalmatian enjoys the company of pigs and swimming



## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

Took my male Dal for a hike at the high school I graduated from (it's an agricultural school). Had a nice hike, said hello to his pig friends, and retrieved some sticks in the pond. All in all, a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

posing on the soccer field









serious face









PIGGIES! He loves these pigs so much, I wonder what he would think if he understood that the pork meat and tails he eats come from his friends? LOL


















Some videos:




 
cooling down after the hike with some stick retrieving in the pond


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

forgot about his video of him climbing up the steep dirt mountain caused by the construction going on at the school. He ends up chasing the rocks that where sliding down haha


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Beautiful dog!! One of my favorite breeds


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

I love dalmatians, he's absolutely gorgeous :wub:


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

I love your Dalmatians! They seem exemplary, and are a big influence on me if ever I were to consider the breed. Awesome dogs!


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## Gharrissc (May 19, 2012)

Great looking dogs. Looks very agile on that mountain!


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

wildo said:


> I love your Dalmatians! They seem exemplary, and are a big influence on me if ever I were to consider the breed. Awesome dogs!


 
Thank you!! What a compliment! Honestly, my guys are your average AKC show line Dalmatians. Friendly, outgoing, easily trained, protective, athletic, smart. It's when you get a Dalmatian from a "pet" breeder that you usually run into temperament problems. Everyone seems to think that Dals are not what they are, which is a WORKING breed. They are bred and designed to guard a horse-drawn carriage for up to 50miles a day. Guarding instincts and high exercise needs can really turn sour if you get a dog from the wrong place and you are not prepared to properly care for the breed.


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## Nikitta (Nov 10, 2011)

Is it true you have to run a dalmatian at least 5 miles a day? Gorgeous dog BTW


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

Nikitta said:


> Is it true you have to run a dalmatian at least 5 miles a day? Gorgeous dog BTW


 
On average, I'd say no. My male is on the high end of the scale when it comes to exuberance and excitability, but he doesn't act up if he doesn't get a lot of exercise. They CAN and WILL happily run 5 miles a day, if you want. I bike with my male, a couple times a week somewhere between 6-12 miles. But I've gone weeks without heavy exercise like that, and he's just fine. But I also pay alot of attention to him, I don't have kids, just work. They do not do well if you don't put aside time to give them attention. That's were a lot of issues will come from. They are very owner-oriented, very much shadow dogs.


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

ShatteringGlass said:


> Thank you!! What a compliment! Honestly, my guys are your average AKC show line Dalmatians. Friendly, outgoing, easily trained, protective, athletic, smart. It's when you get a Dalmatian from a "pet" breeder that you usually run into temperament problems. Everyone seems to think that Dals are not what they are, which is a WORKING breed. They are bred and designed to guard a horse-drawn carriage for up to 50miles a day. Guarding instincts and high exercise needs can really turn sour if you get a dog from the wrong place and you are not prepared to properly care for the breed.


Right- and everything you mentioned there: the trainability, the protectiveness, the athleticism, the smarts, the guarding ability, the endurance, all that stuff was news to me before you informed us. I think the breed actually sounds really neat and your info really helped explain a LOT of behavior I've seen in my brother's lab/dal mix that was always really shocking. For example- my brother's dog is easily more intimidating than pretty much any GSD I've ever seen when it comes to guarding the house. That dog at the front door while someone is knocking on it... Well- they probably need a change of pants. And he could go and go and go. I remember when he was younger, he would go forever- nonstop running. And all that was in a mix breed...


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Years ago I was driving down the street delivering pizza's the day after xmas and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and it was a baby dalmatian trying to get in the garbage can, she was hungry. She started to run away, so I got down on the ground and she came running into my arms. Imagine my son's face when I walked in with a three month old dalmatian No one claimed her, actually the fire department found there's about the same time..so I think someone dumped both of them She was a beautiful dog, full of energy. I had to walk her about a mile a day to satisfy the exercise part. I would not mind owning another one. They are beautiful dogs, but I do think they also require a strong owner and a job to do!!


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## lorihd (Nov 30, 2011)

gorgeous boy, love his head and body, my friend had a dalmation that was a retired show dog (he was gorgeous too), do you show him?


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> gorgeous boy, love his head and body, my friend had a dalmation that was a retired show dog (he was gorgeous too), do you show him?


 
Thanks! I showed him in UKC recently and finished his championship in 2 weekends. Unfortunately, he cannot be shown in AKC conformation because he has patches which are only a fault in the UKC standard, but are a DQ in the AKC standard. That's okay though, because our main venue is performance, I just did the UKC stuff for fun.

My female is a retired AKC champion, I got her when she was 6 years old and finished with the breed ring.


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## wildo (Jul 27, 2006)

ShatteringGlass said:


> Unfortunately, he cannot be shown in AKC conformation *because he has patches* which are only a fault in the UKC standard


What does it mean for him to have patches?


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

wildo said:


> Right- and everything you mentioned there: the trainability, the protectiveness, the athleticism, the smarts, the guarding ability, the endurance, all that stuff was news to me before you informed us. I think the breed actually sounds really neat and your info really helped explain a LOT of behavior I've seen in my brother's lab/dal mix that was always really shocking. For example- my brother's dog is easily more intimidating than pretty much any GSD I've ever seen when it comes to guarding the house. That dog at the front door while someone is knocking on it... Well- they probably need a change of pants. And he could go and go and go. I remember when he was younger, he would go forever- nonstop running. And all that was in a mix breed...


Well I'm glad I've been helpful. Unfortunately, it is very common for people to have absolutely no clue as to what the breed truly is. For some reason people think they are supposed to be Labs in cute spotted coats, and if the dog shows ANY kind of aggression, then the Dal has a bad temperament. In Europe, it's very common for the breeders to do protection type testing of their dogs.


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

wildo said:


> What does it mean for him to have patches?


 
It's kinda hard to explain if you aren't familiar with the breed. Patches are a solid mass of color with a sharp edge, spots intersecting are not patches. Here's a page on patches:
This page explains why we have patches in the breed, and shows a variety of patched Dalmatians.

Shane is patched on both his ears. Dalmatians are born without spots, but if they are patched, they are visible at birth.

Here is Shane as a pup, you can see the dark patches on his ears and how they differ from his spots. 

















as he got older, his spots spread closer with the patch, so one ear is pretty much all black, but there is still some white hairs in the black because that one ear is patched and spotted.









and now they look like this:


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## Toffifay (Feb 10, 2007)

Great Thread! It's nice to see your Dals again, I've always, always loved the Dalmations! I didn't know that in Europe it is common to see breeders do protection training or testing with their dogs, very cool! Thank you for the great pcis and videos...


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Gorgeous!!!!!


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## faithshen (Apr 27, 2012)

I'm so impressed to your trainers, those dogs are showing their full agility and they are brave also keep it up guys


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## lorihd (Nov 30, 2011)

he is stunning! my friends dog was the watch dog on her farm. we would take the horses out and he would run behind, he watched the house, the sheep, the goats etc. great, great dog, he died suddenly one day and is missed terribly, he was only 7yrs old  so nice to see you working him, that is what this breed was meant to do, they need a job


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Shane. :wub:​


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## ShatteringGlass (Jun 1, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> he is stunning! my friends dog was the watch dog on her farm. we would take the horses out and he would run behind, he watched the house, the sheep, the goats etc. great, great dog, he died suddenly one day and is missed terribly, he was only 7yrs old  so nice to see you working him, that is what this breed was meant to do, they need a job


 
they are great watch dogs for people and animals! I have done some work with horses with him and he just runs along with the horse naturally, didn't even need any training, he just KNEW what to do.

Since I don't have horses or farm animals of my own, he takes to protecting my sister's cat like nobodies business. My sister takes her cat outside on a harness and Shane gets VERY upset if he is not out there to protect him, he cries and paces and carries on until you let him out with the cat. Another thing that sets him off is when my sister gets out the cat stroller, then he really goes crazy! But it's so funny, he hocks along with the carriage like he would with a horse or my bike LOL


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