Hi I recently took the family to the gundog show in malvern - we're hoping to get a dog sometime, and wanted to get an idea of scale - difficult to appreciate from breed info and pictures. Spinones are a breed that we all like, but after being barged aside by a spin the size of a small carthorse, my wife is somewhat concerned that the rest of us won't fit in the house! The dog in question was substantially larger than most of the others; my OH thinks that the dogs were being shown by age category which explains why many of the others were smaller, and that this one was fully grown - is this likely? I know that the breed standard allows for a difference in height of around 12 cms between the min. height for a bitch and the max height for a dog - are there lines that are known for being heavier/leaner/tall/short etc, or does this come as luck of the draw? Ideally I'd like a leaner, lighter running companion who could cope with 30-40 miles per week running. Any thoughts welcome - thanks
It does vary quite a a lot in Spins, my friends dog is very large - larger than most, but still within the breed standard. If you're looking for a running companion, bare in mind that with these dogs being classed as a large breed and being very slow to mature (many aren't even mature at 3 years old) it wouldn't be advisable to do any long distance running until the dog is at least 2 years old. Running long distances before the dog is fully mature could do terrible damage to the joints in later life. The best way to gauge how large a dog will be is to look at it's parents, that said it isn't a guarantee. The breeder of my friends Spin kept a pup back from the litter, we regularly meet up at shows and the difference in size between the two dogs is quite marked even thought they're litter mates. Drizzle (the Spin in question) is 21 months old and when standing on his back legs can easily place his paws on my shoulders and stare me right in the face when standing on his back legs. I'm 5' 6" btw. They're undoubtedly a lovely breed, but definitely not one for the faint hearted!
Yep, agree with that , fabulous breed, but lots of hard work, with coat an all, not sure they would be the ideal running companion. Maybe a more athletic breed .
I love Spins - if you get one and it gets too big, I could take if off your hands...... But for running? Hmm. They are more likely to be heading across fields in search of game than sticking to the footpath! But you could always take up gundog stuff instead of running. It`d probably be better for your knees anyway.
I absolutely LOVE the look of Spinones, but the couple of them that live around here are HUGE and cream crackers. I just had a browse of the Spinone breed club website and as a breed they are prone to Hip Dysplasia, OCD and bloat. So, if you had a dog as a pup, you would be waiting at least 2 years before you could take the dog running. Even then you would have to build the dog up very slowly to condition it AND you would have to pay extra attention to feeding times for bloat prevention. Perhaps not the most suitable breed for long distance running.
Two of my three sisters own Spinoni. One has four (and has owned and shown the breed for many years) and the other has just the one. They are lovely dogs with fab temperaments, but they are very large dogs, they seem to moult almost constantly and they can slobber for Italy. If you are at all house proud I would say look elsewhere :-D I would also agree that they aren't really the best running companions, as they are a large and heavy breed. Gundog work would be more suitable. I will dig out a photo or two of my sisters dogs.
The Spinone at work is about 25/26 inches. She's lovely, such a nice, happy character! I'm quite fond of them after meeting her
