Meeting Rare Breeds!

[Suki Wingy]

I don't quite know what constitutes a rare breed, but my uncle has a Eurasier and I've met Czech shepherds, neapolitan mastiffs, manchester terriers, catahoula leopard dogs, and groomed a few havanese. Not including dogs at dog shows.

[Kater]

In vet school I've met a few breeds for the first time including a PBGV, pharaoh hound and a puli.

[wolf_Q]

How about made up breeds? The other day somebody had an "irish sheephound" I once had a guy yell at me because I didn't know the breed standard cut for an "alaskan terrier." I wish I could remember the others....I've had quite a few people insist their dog breed is real and I haven't been able to find one thing in any rare breed books or the internet. And I'm not counting "shorkies" and "cavapoos" all those designer breeds we see all the time. I like to say, so you have a shih tzu, yorkie mix? People never like it when I point out that their dog is a mix.

We groom several bernese mountain dogs, I've seen a couple greater swiss mountain dogs, used to groom a leonberger, have groomed an anatolian shepherd, black russian terriers, irish wolfhound, havanese, coton de teleur, nova scotia duck tollers, skye terriers, I didn't really consider them super rare but since a few have mentioned it I've groomed bloodhounds and great pyrenees too. I've actually seen quite a few great pyrenees probably because there's quite a bit of sheep herding I see them often in the mountains with the sheep. I've never groomed one but I've seen a few entlebuchers and a borzoi. We had a belgian groenendael in a few weeks ago that's the first I've seen I have met a couple belgian tervurens. She was a beautiful dog I thought of wolfsoul. I know there's other rare breeds I've seen at dog events but that's all I can think of right now.

[Karen]

People certainly are peculiar! You should tell them, "Well, you know the 'Alaskan Terrier' is a rare breed, why don't you have a picture for reference for new groomers?" ... like every groomer in the world is going to be trained in every possible breed - and know the standards therefore? Not! Or tell him, "Well, the standard varies from region to region, what look do you prefer ..."