Miniature schnauzer

Miniature Schnauzer is a small, but sturdy dog ​​with a rough, characteristic beard and coat mustache on the head. We will teach miniature schnauzers what we want, if we show inventiveness and do not get bored while studying. He is a good friend for older children.

Nature

Miniature Schnauzer, despite their small height, is not inferior to the courage and confidence of his larger relatives. He has a great temperament, strong character, is lively, cheerful and spontaneous. It is an excellent family dog, provided it is in the right hands. Strongly attached to the owner and can demonstrate show affection. He needs close contact with his guardian and tolerates loneliness badly, so he should not be isolated.

He is a good friend for older children. However, for a few-year-old child it may not be suitable because, like most small dogs, he does not like rough treatment. He gets along well with other pets at home. Males, however, tend to be feisty about strangers of the same sex, especially if they are larger than them.

However, this is due to the strong territorial instinct of the miniature, rather than to aggression. As a dog characterized by innate vigilance and high perceptiveness, he has the makings of a nice, though sometimes overly zealous and noisy guardian.

Its activity means that despite small growth it does not belong to the bench and needs a daily portion of exercise outdoors. It is undemanding and adapts perfectly to both the house with a garden and to live in a block of flats.

Skills

In the past, these small, rough-haired dogs were used to exterminate rodents in stables and rural homes. They also worked well as guardians of farms, often accompanying larger quadrupeds at work.

Currently, these are mainly family dogs. They will cope well with obedience course, you can also do obedience, agility, flyball or frisbee with them.

Miniature schnauzer. Training and education

Miniature Schnauzer is a very intelligent, smart and independent dog. He learns willingly and quickly, and exercises give him pleasure. However, they must be varied and repeated in short sessions, because long, monotonous training quickly gets boring him. Learning should be based on praise and rewards for good behavior and their absence in the event of disobedience. Physical punishment should be avoided, because such a sensitive pet can cause a lot of damage.

Miniature Schnauzer requires a consistent but warm approach. You can’t treat a puppy dry. A representative of this breed left alone can cause educational problems. The correct socialization of the toddler is important – he must meet different people, other dogs, new situations, visit loud and crowded places (e.g. stations, metro stations).

He should be taught basic commands, including coming on the call. Dog preschools are very useful. Excessive barking, which often occurs in miniatures, can be significantly eliminated by correcting unwanted behavior from the very beginning.

Who is this race for?

Miniature schnauzer is the right companion for a medium active, calm, balanced and consistent owner. Basic knowledge about the upbringing of dogs is also required.

Miniature schnauzer. Advantages and disadvantages

Disadvantages

• sometimes it is excessively noisy
• sometimes stubborn
• needs a lot of movement and activity
• males can be feisty of same-sex dogs
• requires systematic and professional care

Advantages

• strongly attached to the guardian
• intelligent and smart, happy to learn
• can play dog ​​sports
• a good friend for older children
• watchful watchman
• properly cared for does not lose hair
• suitable for a small apartment

Miniature schnauzer. Health

Miniature schnauzer belongs to long-lived breeds and generally enjoys good health. However, some lines may be affected by hereditary eye diseases – progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) and cataract. Sometimes there is a tendency to form stones in the bladder. Skin problems may occur sporadically, most often caused by improper nutrition and poor care.

Schnauzers are resistant to weather conditions, tolerate both low and high temperatures quite well. They don’t like rainy weather though. Usually there is no need to put on clothes in the winter – you can do it freshly after visiting a hairdresser.

Feeding

Miniature schnauzers generally have a good appetite. Like all small dogs, they have a fairly rapid metabolism, so it’s best to give them ready-made dry foods for miniature breeds (special food for schnauzers is also available). This type of nutrition also makes care easier, because you do not need to wash your chin after each meal.

Products with fish (a rich source of unsaturated omega-3 and -6 fatty acids) or lamb work well. You can also prepare food yourself, remembering to add the appropriate mineral and vitamin preparations. The daily dose is better to divide into two meals.

Care

The double-layer schnauzer coat consists of a hard topcoat and a soft, woolly, dense undercoat. A well-structured coat protects your dog against adverse weather conditions, and it’s also easy to keep clean.

For daily care, the best is a metal comb with a double tooth spacing and a powder brush. The dog should be regularly combed once every 2-3 days, paying particular attention to the long beard, bangs and hair on the limbs. If a smug appears, special preparations can be used to facilitate combing. After a walk, remove any dirt from the fur (sticks, turnips, grass seeds).

You should systematically pull out the hairs growing inside the auricle, trim the claws if the dog does not rub them by itself, and remove tartar if necessary. We should remember to get used to all treatments from a puppy, thanks to which the adult dog will be able to bear them calmly.

In addition to routine care, a schnauzer robe requires regular hairdressing such as trimming and cutting. Their frequency depends on the type of hair and the speed of its regrowth (on average once every 3-4 months). If carried out correctly and systematically, the schnauzer does not molt or lose hair at home.

Trimming involves removing (plucking) dead coat hair and part of the undercoat. Special trimmers (left and right handed) or rubber finger caps are used for this (you can also pluck the hair with your bare fingers). The trimmer should be blunt – a sharp one will cut and destroy the hair, instead of removing it. Trimming hair must be properly sprouted, only then it comes out easily and the treatment does not cause pain to the animal. Hair is plucked on the upper part of the neck, on the back, on the sides of the torso and partly on the limbs.

Haircut instead of trimming will cause that the quality and color of the coat will deteriorate significantly, it will become soft with a tendency to wave.

We bathe Schnauzer in a shampoo for rough-haired dogs. Then we put a conditioner on the chin and limbs, which after a few minutes rinse. Wipe the dog with a towel and dry it with a dryer, combing the coat with a brush.

Preparing a representative of this breed for the exhibition requires experience, so it’s better to entrust this task to a specialist. 8-12 weeks before the show, the coat should be well-trimmed on the upper part of the head, neck, back and sides of the torso.

Then cut the hair under the neck, ears, cheeks, under the tail and partly the inside of the thighs. With ordinary scissors and thinning scissors, the fur on the forechest, on the hind and hind legs (giving them the shape of pistils), above the eyebrows, around the earlobes, on the tail, and eyebrows are formed. Hair under the abdomen is cut so that it forms a slightly sloping line from the weakness to the elbows.

Approximately one week before the exhibition, an additional corrective haircut is performed. Hair is also cut between the pads and the feet are rounded.

Miniature Schnauzer is displayed on a thin ring matched to the color. In the ring, the dog should give the impression of being smart and interested in the surroundings.

Accessories

We bring schnauzer in leather or material collar and on an ordinary or automatic leash. Necklace chains should not be worn to white dogs, because they can stain the coat.

It is worth giving water in special bowls with an overlay and a small hole in the middle – when drinking, the dog will not soak the entire beard and less splash.

A miniature dog will be taken by balls of the right size, cotton cords, plush and rubber mascots or natural teethers (smoked ears, pressed skin bones, masseurs). It is also worth getting used to the cage, which will be useful during travel and at the exhibition.

Miniature schnauzer. History

The ancestors of all three varieties of schnauzer were rural dogs inhabiting the south of today’s Germany and Switzerland for hundreds of years. Their images can be found in the paintings of Dutch painters from the 16th and 17th centuries. These quadrupeds were connected by a similar body structure, but they differed in height and type of coat.

Some had short, smooth-fitting hair, others were thick and hairy, or long and soft. They were commonly used to protect stagecoaches, guarding horses in stables, exterminating rodents and guarding. With time, they began to be called grooms pinschers, and then simply pinschers.

Modern schnauzer history began in Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. Initially, the breeding was rather random and reflected the individual tastes of the owners. In 1836, Dr. Ludwik Reichenbach divided pinschers into short-haired and rough-haired.

The name “schnauzer” for rough-haired pinschers was probably used for the first time in 1842 by Jeremias Gotthelf (his real name was Albert Bitzius, he was a Swiss pastor and writer). He was the author of novels and stories describing the life of the nineteenth-century village. In German, “die Schnauze” means muzzle or beard and perhaps refers to the characteristic breed head that dominates the appearance of these dogs.

An important moment in the development of schnauzers was 1895, when Josef Berta founded the Pinscher Schnauzer Verband breeders association in Cologne (in 1921 it was renamed the Pinscher Schnauzer Club, which brought together all three varieties of schnauzer).

Miniature Schnauzer comes directly from small, rough-haired rural dogs. Initially, schnauzers and affenpinscher (monkey pinschers) were considered to be one breed and performed together at exhibitions. This happened until, in 1899, at the Frankfurt exhibition, Josef Berta noticed a yellow-black miniature schnauzer named Jocco Fulda Liliput. This dog had no direct effect on the breeding, but contributed to the separation of the two breeds a year later.

Chemnitz-Plauen kennel founded at the beginning of the 20th century in Saxony by Ernest Stackes was of the greatest importance for the development of miniature schnauzers.

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Miniature Schnauzer – Group II FCI, Section 1.2, Model No. 183

• Country of origin: Germany
• Size: height 30-35 cm at the withers
• Coat: The coat is rough, hard and dense, it cannot be raised or wavy; on the muzzle, it creates a hard, long beard, and bushy eyebrows above the eyes; soft and thick undercoat
• Color: uniformly black; pepper and salt – all shades of gray from dark iron to light gray are acceptable, a dark mask is required; black and silver – ground coat and undercoat black, white markings above the eyes, at the bottom of the neck, on the cheeks, forechest, limbs and under the tail; white – the whole body should cover uniformly white hair (nose, lips, eyelid edges and claws must be black)
• Maturity: a year-1.5 years
• Lifespan: 14-15 years
• Weather resistance: high

Interesting facts

However, there are still animals that can give you a headache with their noisiness. Many people choose this breed, considering it a small, trouble-free dog ideally suited to live in a block of flats. It is true, but the future owner, in order to avoid the constant complaints of neighbors, will have to devote considerable time to teaching the mentee not to make noise for any reason. And this any reason can even be the rustle of paper, which fell two floors above.