Actually this breed is barkish lah... My friend's friend has one and it is debarked under Australian law coz the dog is too noisy and barkish.... so if you can stand barks here and there, train it to be less yappy the should be ok.

Yah, train when young. Now my dog knows how to stop barking after I scold it Shut Up hahahah...

I got 4 dogs... the one in my avatar will shut up when see newspaper... lol, my dad trained him to understand rolled up newspaper....

My smaller dog, the CKCS is with the shut up command hahah... took me some time too.

Well, once you like a dog, you will like it no matter what.... do read up online, got many dog guide websites. Or go to MPH and get a book on training.... I got a few books and it helps a lot.

Hahah... can't be helped lah... she LOVES visitors... especially the people she recognises lah hehehe.... But then after you carry her and layan her she will quiet down wan.

You live landed property or condo? Coz I still think let dogs do their business on grass is the easiest to train... I tried newspaper and it worked also but I see better results when they do on grass.

You will need say 10 pieces of paper thickness if not at home.... but if you are around, then half of that lah. A dog won't reuse the same newspaper if wet or soiled, so best you give large space of newspaper.

Fetch the morning paper? LOL.... dunno, never train that before coz we go out to buy paper hehehe....

It is the wat it is groomed. Thier fur don't need as much grooming as a shih tzu but they still need to go for grooming once in 2 months to have a good upkeep of fur.

Lion Cut is just a hair cut. All Westies looks the same when not groomed.

The original look is the Westie wearing the Clan Campbell tartan. Brody is a puppy, he has not grown his full coat yet.

The one in Caser dog food is lion cut fur.... all dogs will look nice with grooming. My friend's friend's Westie looks like the Westie wearing the Clan Campbell tartan, that is how a pure Westie should look like loh. Lion cut is where the body fur is striped off to make it short, then the head fur is retained to give the Lion look.



A Westie in ungroomed fur


Natural look


Lion Cut

Yah loh, this is true... show quality the fur thicker and the body looks compact. Muzzle also not so long I think...

West Highland White Terrier Breed Standard
Terrier Group

General Appearance
The West Highland White Terrier is a small, game, well-balanced hardy looking terrier, exhibiting good showmanship, possessed with no small amount of self-esteem, strongly built, deep in chest and back ribs, with a straight back and powerful hindquarters on muscular legs, and exhibiting in marked degree a great combination of strength and activity. The coat is about two inches long, white in color, hard, with plenty of soft undercoat. The dog should be neatly presented, the longer coat on the back and sides, trimmed to blend into the shorter neck and shoulder coat. Considerable hair is left around the head to act as a frame for the face to yield a typical Westie expression.

Size, Proportion, Substance

The ideal size is eleven inches at the withers for dogs and ten inches for b****es. A slight deviation is acceptable. The Westie is a compact dog, with good balance and substance. The body between the withers and the root of the tail is slightly shorter than the height at the withers. Short-coupled and well boned. Faults--Over or under height limits. Fine boned.

Head
Shaped to present a round appearance from the front. Should be in proportion to the body.

Expression--Piercing, inquisitive, pert. Eyes--Widely set apart, medium in size, almond shaped, dark brown in color, deep set, sharp and intelligent. Looking from under heavy eyebrows, they give a piercing look. Eye rims are black. Faults--Small, full or light colored eyes. Ears--Small, carried tightly erect, set wide apart, on the top outer edge of the skull. They terminate in a sharp point, and must never be cropped. The hair on the ears is trimmed short and is smooth and velvety, free of fringe at the tips. Black skin pigmentation is preferred. Faults--Round-pointed, broad, large, ears set closely together, not held tightly erect, or placed too low on the side of the head.

Skull--Broad, slightly longer than the muzzle. not flat on top but slightly domed between the ears. It gradually tapers to the eyes. There is a defined stop, eyebrows are heavy. Faults--Long or narrow skull. Muzzle--Blunt, slightly shorter than the skull, powerful and gradually tapering to the nose, which is large and black. The jaws are level and powerful. Lip pigment is black. Faults--Muzzle longer than skull. Nose color other than black. Bite--The teeth are large for the size of the dog. There must be six incisor teeth between the canines of both lower and upper jaws. An occasional missing premolar is acceptable. A tight scissors bite with upper incisors slightly overlapping the lower incisors or level mouth is equally acceptable. Faults--Teeth defective or misaligned. Any incisors missing or several premolars missing. Teeth overshot or undershot.

Neck, Topline, Body
Neck--Muscular and well set on sloping shoulders. The length of neck should be in proportion to the remainder of the dog. Faults--Neck too long or too short. Topline--Flat and level, both standing and moving. Faults--High rear, any deviation from above. Body--Compact and of good substance. Ribs deep and well arched in the upper half of rib, extending at least to the elbows, and presenting a flattish side appearance. Back ribs of considerable depth, and distance from last rib to upper thigh as short as compatible with free movement of the body. Chest very deep and extending to the elbows, with breadth in proportion to the size of the dog. Loin short, broad and strong. Faults--Back weak, either too long or too short. Barrel ribs, ribs above elbows. Tail--Relatively short, with good substance, and shaped like a carrot. When standing erect it is never extended above the top of the skull. It is covered with hard hair without feather, as straight as possible, carried gaily but not curled over the back. The tail is set on high enough so that the spine does not slope down to it. The tail is never docked. Faults--Set too low, long, thin, carried at half-mast, or curled over back.

Forequarters
Angulation, Shoulders--Shoulder blades are well laid back and well knit at the backbone. The shoulder blade should attach to an upper arm of moderate length, and sufficient angle to allow for definite body overhang. Faults--Steep or loaded shoulders. Upper arm too short or too straight. Legs--Forelegs are muscular and well boned. relatively short, but with sufficient length to set the dog up so as not to be too close to the ground. The legs are reasonably straight, and thickly covered with short hard hair. They are set in under the shoulder blades with definite body overhang before them. Height from elbow to withers and elbow to ground should be approximately the same. Faults--Out at elbows. Light bone, fiddle-front. Feet--Forefeet are larger than the hind ones, are round, proportionate in size, strong, thickly padded; they may properly be turned out slightly. Dewclaws may be removed. Black pigmentation is most desirable on pads of all feet and nails, although nails may lose coloration in older dogs.

Hindquarters
Angulation--Thighs are very muscular, well angulated, not set wide apart, with hock well bent, short, and parallel when viewed from the rear. Legs--Rear legs are muscular and relatively short and sinewy. Faults-- Weak hocks, long hocks, lack of angulation. Cowhocks. Feet--Hind feet are smaller than front feet, and are thickly padded. Dewclaws may be removed.

Coat
Very important and seldom seen to perfection. Must be double-coated. The head is shaped by plucking the hair, to present the round appearance. The outer coat consists of straight hard white hair, about two inches long, with shorter coat on neck and shoulders, properly blended and trimmed to blend shorter areas into furnishings, which are longer on stomach and legs. The ideal coat is hard, straight and white, but a hard straight coat which may have some wheaten tipping is preferable to a white fluffy or soft coat. Furnishings may be somewhat softer and longer but should never give the appearance of fluff. Faults--Soft coat. Any silkiness or tendency to curl. Any open or single coat, or one which is too short.

Color
The color is white, as defined by the breed's name. Faults--Any coat color other than white. Heavy wheaten color.

Gait
Free, straight and easy all around. It is a distinctive gait, not stilted, but powerful, with reach and drive. In front the leg is freely extended forward by the shoulder. When seen from the front the legs do not move square, but tend to move toward the center of gravity. The hind movement is free, strong and fairly close. The hocks are freely flexed and drawn close under the body, so that when moving off the foot the body is thrown or pushed forward with some force. Overall ability to move is usually best evaluated from the side, and topline remains level. Faults--Lack of reach in front, and/or drive behind. Stiff, stilted or too wide movement.

Temperament
Alert, gay, courageous and self-reliant, but friendly. Faults--Excess timidity or excess pugnacity.

Taken from http://www.akc.org/breeds/west_highland_wh...rrier/index.cfm

Hahah... best to call.

I once almost bought a MS.... well, at first the breeder said so much good things about himself... but after chatting with the breeder, realise not a true homebreeder. I mean, if you are a dog breeder, you will only concentrate on 1 breed rite? Well, it was shocking to know the breeder breeds poodles, MS, shih tzus and also buys dogs from puppymills and sells them as his own dogs.... and this breeder is from MKA also... summore the breeder boasted about how beautiful and high quality his MS was and it was imported from a very popular champion line but when I googled, champion line also is other breed in taiwan but same kennel lah. Summore boasted that his dogs are far far better than the show dogs in MKA dog shows...... but when see pic, looks like normal MS to me hahahah....And when asked for parent dogs pictures he say don't have. So how to trust?

Why I stated that? Just be careful, even with MKA breeders, do question them and best if to view the dogs personally. Get comfortable and talk all you want about the breed. If the breeder breeds more than 2 or 3 types of breeds, then better not get coz he or she would be more commercialize than breeding on qualities of a dog. If you call and seems the breeder has no knowledge, means it could be the person is selling for someone else... well, these things happen lah here. Once I got a number from MKA, go there to see the dog, realise it is Puppy Mill. Yups, puppy mills do get MKA dogs and their numbers are listed in MKA directory. MKA doesn't know bout this coz they can't track every breeder in Malaysia... so best we do reseach on our own first.

This post has been edited by crazymouse_yyh: Jul 14 2006, 02:50 AM