Westies (een kleine soort hond)

My speech is about the west highland white terrier.

*First of all I’m gonna tell you what a WHWT is. *Then I am gonna tell you the history of the WHWT. *After that I will tell you something about the care of the WHWT. *And then I gonna tell you something about the WHWT as a pet.

*The WHWT or westie is a little dog. He is about 10 till 11 inches without the head that is about 28 cm. and his weight is about 15 till 22 pound that is 7,5 till 11 kg. He is family of the cairnterriers, which are breed for the first time in Scotland. The dogs have a nice character: They are happy, are good pupils, are easy to raise but they are very tolerant to you and to other dogs.

*The history of the WHWT.

As I already said, the WHWT are family of the cairnterriers and became breed for the first time in Scotland, later in 1855 they came to land. Normally the cairnterriers got red-colored-puppies but sometimes they got white-colored-puppies. The owners thought that these puppies were weak and useless, so they killed them. But that killing stop when a hunter accidentally shoot his dog, because he thought that it was a fox. Sir Edward Donald Malcalm had the idea to breed those white-colored-puppies, because he thought that they were maybe practical for the hunt so that the hunters shoot on the wild animals instead of their dogs. He began to breed and discovered that the white dogs weren’t weak at all. The most of them were pretty strong. The hunters only wanted the strongest dogs to breed so here’s what they did: They put the dog with a badger in a tun and it was the intention that the dog killed the badger within 10 minutes. When the dog killed the badger within 10 minutes he were used to breed. When the dog didn’t kill the badger within 10 minutes or when the dog was too much wounded the owner killed the dog. Later the white dogs were called the WHWT. *The care of the WHWT.

The coat of the WHWT consists of 2 plies: the soft undercoat and the hard uppercoat. The uppercoat must be pluck 2 or 3 times a year. This will happen by hand. It doesn’t hurt because the biggest part of the coat contains dead hair. Only this dead hair will be pluck out. You must also brush your WHWT every day.

The nails must be keeping short. Normally when you live in the city this is no problem because you walk with your dog on the footpath and streets. But when you live on the farm, you must cut the nails of the dog with a special scissors. The ears must be cleaned once a month with cottonsticks.

When you are in the woods you must watch out for: Ticks fleas and tapeworms. Ticks
Ticks are family of the spidery and occur all over the world. In our region are 2 species important: The ordinary dogtick and the brown dogtick. The tick spends the biggest part of his life in the nature: woods and grasslands. He lives of blood from wild animals, pets and even humans. When he is in a bush and a prey pass, he lets himself fall down and put his head into the skin of the prey. Now he is stick fast. You can get him out only when you pull him out with a turning move.

Fleas
The most famous parasite is the flea. He propagates very and very fast. The flea needs blood to survive. Not only pets but also human can be the victim of the flea. We can get them from dogs. You can get the fleas away by brushing your animal twice a day, use special anti-flea shampoo and spray with anti-flea spray.

Tape-worms
Animals and humans can get tapeworms. Humans get them from eating raw meat. Animals can get them from eating mice, rabbits and even from getting bit by a flea. We call the tapeworms betwixt host. The most pets have roundworms. These are family of the tapeworms. The dogs can have these roundworms by their birth or immediately after the birth. By an infection the dog can stay behind with the growth. Adult animals can have the following symptoms when they have roundworms: They vomit
They cough
And they have diarree.

*The WHWT as a pet.

The WHWT love to be outside, because he is very active. When you have a WHWT you don’t need a bigger dog, because he think he is one. He likes to hunt on the birds, the cat next door, a rock and even on the sunshade. But don’t think he is very watchful. He loves everyone even the neighborhood burglar.

When you don’t want to lose your dog, you can decide that you want to give him a tattoo. For a tattoo you must go to breeder, because he is the one who gives the dog a tattoo. The tattoo exists out of 3 marks and 3 letter. Every tattoo has his own number. When your dog has got the tattoo, he will have green ears for 3 weeks.

You can also decide that you want to give your dog a Back Home chip. The back home chip is a chip in a little tube. Every chip has his own number. The back home chip is 13 mm long and 2 mm thick. The back home chip will be put into the skin of your dog between the shoulder blades. When you’ve lost your dog and someone found him he can take the dog to the vet, because the vet has a special machine which can read the number of the chip and then he know who that dog is and who the owners are.

When you want to be sure that your dog doesn’t get lost you can better give him a tattoo and a chip.

Overweight.

Overweight is a serious problem by animals. There are a few symptoms of overweight: You can’t feel the ribs of the dog
The dogs haven’t got a waist anymore
They have problems with walk
They are lazy
They are short breathing
They have a bad temper
And the dogs sleep a lot.

There are a few factors, which could influence the overweight: *Too much eats. when they eat too much they can’t lose the too much of calories. *Medical condition. from some medicines they can get overweight. *Sterilize. when the females are sterilized they could get overweight because their metabolism is changed. *Age. when they are older they are less active and so they can’t lose the too much of calories. *Breed. some breeds have an aptitude for overweight. *Not enough exercise. When pets haven’t got enough exercise they can’t lose the too much of calories.

This was My speech.