Breed choice (what are NIs like as pets) General Chat

I have had four of these lovely dogs. One I lost due to ill health ( not hereditary), at a young age RIP my dear friend xxxx.

Three have been NIS Reg and One TIDA. Ref character, all have been quite different, though all are good with people, children and with my cats and Swans (grown up with regular sightings).

The only epileptic dog I have seen for rehoming on the NIS forum was Sachas sister. I do not know what happened to this dog and if she found a home.

As far as I see it the breeder of this dog should have taken responsibility and taken her back. Typically she didn't.

I like to know where you can rehome a dog that has NO problems....he or she can just move in with your family and other pets and be perfect...no training, no socialization required. Most of my friends and families take in rescued/shelter dogs...and, IMO, it is not for the novice owner. The only exceptions are the ones that have been at a home rescue for a while, receiving help for their "problems" by an experienced owner....but, like most rescues, the NI groups probably post their dogs in need of homes as soon as they get them so that if the right person comes along they have a home, rather than waiting for the rehomer to "fix" all those problems before getting the word out.

love my dogs, wouldn't change any of them

they are not for novice owners, best suited to owners that have had large, lively breeds. They need company and are best kept with another dog.

I am not joining in with the bitching about factions or breeders on here, just to say that the breed has a high COI of inbreeding. There have been dogs with health problems (that I have met at shows and seen with my own eyes) that are now sadly at the bridge having been pts at a young age.

See now this is where I have a problem. On one hand NI breeders are accused of churning out litter after litter without any regard for health and then suddenly 3 dogs become representative of the whole 'breed'.

I opened a thread several months ago asking people about the health of their NI's the results of which were as follows:

50 NIS registered NI's - 1 who had an infantile heart murmur, 1 with undescended testicle, 1 high hip score and 1 uneven above average hip score (25), 1 pup waiting for testicle to drop, 1 with seasonal tummy rash

9 TIDA registered NI - 1 cryptorchid, 1 idiopathic epilepsy carrier.

2 BIDC registered BI - No health issues to date

1 TUA registered Utonagan - Idiopathic epilepsy sufferer.

3 TIDA/NIS registered NI’s – 1 with epilepsy, a blood clotting disorder, retained testicle, grass allergy and 1 with HD to right hip and retained testicle

5 Not stated or not registered (1 NI x, 2 Ute, 2 NI) - No health issues to date

Total of 71 dogs


Now I was told that I couldn't use this as evidence of very few health issues because it was not representative of the breed as a whole. However, now we are to believe that all NI's are at deaths door based on 3 examples.

Talk about moving the goalposts to suit your own agenda!!

sorry which 3?

I have met more than 3 myself, not all NI owners post on dogsey

Sorry I know what I'm on about so assume everyone else does lol. I was refering to the 3 mentioned in the above post

What people need to remember is that these are the dogs we KNOW of, how many more dont we? these diseases these dogs are suffering from are inherited and dont pop up without their being a genetic passing. The dogs I quoted were all requiring homes, one epileptic, on has Hip dysplasia, two animals with life threatening illnesses, need ing homes in a breed very small genetically. Plus those on the other forum which nobody has disputed and coupled with owner testimony on a couple too, it doesnt bode very well at all.

But its the same with all breeds look at the state of labradoodles

I agree the breeder should of taken her back, however Luz should of done the same when Brodies daughter needed a new home, she didnt though, I assume you feel the same resentment towards her too.

I have worked with training a few of these type of dogs, be it NI/UTE, I have met dogs that are not submissive,

all the dogs I have trained had a very high prey drive,

I would say all had a nice temprament with people/kids, some are a bit stand offish though,

I wouldnt say they are a dog for novice owners,

I wouldnt own one either, I would be more tempted to go for a breed where I knew what I could expect, yes all breeds have some variation, but with most breeds you have a rough idea what to expect.

Personaly I find the large guarding breeds more able to learn/more trainable than the NI types,

I believe that anybody that breeds should take responsibility for the pups for the pups whole life and take them back if necessesary, health problems or not.

The resentment I feel towards SC is due to the fact that she knew there was epilepsy before she bred that and further litters. That she did not take the dog back only makes it worse.

Not getting into the health issues with Labrador/Poodle crosses but just wanted to point out that Labradoodles are not a "Breed" they are a crossbreed with a fancy name and a lot are bred with no health checks being done just as a lot the the NI's have been.

To say it is the same with ALL breeds is a very sweeping statement

When ALL breeds started out they had issues i doubt they had all this grief though

Oh just to add Shila is not submissive and Isis is

You're probably right Jem, but I expect most successful "breeds" had dedicated breeders who bred from animals that were health tested and didnt hide things, cover things up, lie and deceive people either.

There are thousands of N.I out there,imo the thousands out wiegh the small amount constantly brought up on here who have had assumed health problems xx

BUT Isis is a cross isnt she.. so presumably has more husky in her

Yeah she's 1/4 husky are husky's submissive?

Have to say My NI perfect in all ways but have probably been lucky, only big issue we have with Kato is his stomach very easily upset and diarhea kicks in.

Just off to bed but thought I'd say I've enjoyed reading through the thread guys. A couple of recent posts caught my eye...

I agree. There's a percentage of any breed that has problems so it does seem unfair that the NI is highlighted a lot.

Deception goes on with all breeds. NIs are popular and there's so much variety so it allows such practice.

I only 'know' (met) a few NIs (Inki's dogs included which have been fab) but I accept that other similar 'pedigree' breeds may be more 'predictable' in terms of what you're going to get.



Great read anyway.