I am a guy and I admit I love my little dogs. I have 3 of them. All of them are miniature Schnauzers. Hey, they are even all female. No, I am not gay. I am married and have 2 children. I just think they are great dogs.
We got became interested in the breed when we saw my uncle's miniature Schnauzer, Max. My uncle is a truck driver and Max goes along with him over the road. He is a good looking dog and very intelligent. My wife's family had another terrier breed growing up, Airedale's, and she loved them.
We had not been planning on getting our first Schnauzer when we did. We had moved into a new house about 2 years earlier and had to sell two other dogs because we did not have a fenced yard and they were outside dogs. We finally fenced off the yard, but had not decided on getting a dog yet. My wife's grandfather's birthday was coming up and she thought he needed a friend. We decided to get him a Schnauzer and began shopping locally for a pure bred. We found a litter and went to check them out. My wife and kids went while I was at work. She called me and I was able to break away to see what she had found.
My wife had made a selection of a salt and pepper male for her grandfather. But she and the kids had to have the cutest all white one there. She was the runt of the litter, but by far the cutest. We bought them both, brother and sister. We registered the male, but not the female. Because she was white she was not considered breedable. This is becauseall white is not a recognized show coloration for this breed. We did not care. We loved her any way. We held onto the male for about 2 weeks before the birthday. The gift was very welcomed and appreciated. We kept them together as much as possible. We made special trips to grandpa's house for a doggie play date.
About 6 months after we got Snowball we decided to get another pup so that snowball would have a playmate at home. We were also toying with the idea of having another female to breed with grandpa's male. We found another female pup in another state and made the trip to get her. We checked her lineage and know there were no signs of the lineage of the pups we already had. We bought Shadow and had her registered.
Two years later we had our first litter with Shadow. She had 3 beautiful pups. One went to my mother in law and another went to a close family friend. The third one we sold to a family member of a friend who lived out of state. Now we get to see two of the pups all of the time and the kids love it. 2 years later we had a second litter, 3 more pups. One went to my sister in law and the other two were sold locally to one lady who wanted a pair. Unfortunately one was discovered to have a liver shunt. The elderly lady did not want to have to care for a sickly dog. I can not blame her. I gladly bought Star back.
So now I have 3 Schnauzers at home, mother, daughter and aunt. We love them all. They are not show dogs. We do not have any intentions of breeding Shadow again. We will not be breeding any of them. They are just family dogs. Sure they can be a handful, but I can not imagine not having them around.
