Someone e-mailed me with these questions and I quickly wrote her back with the following. (I will address these questions in greater lenght and detail at some later time, but for those of you thinking of getting a westie and who would like some of the unsolicited insights of a westie owner, please read this for now. Sorry for all the typos. This is truly a rough draft. Thanks for your understanding.)

First of all, Daisy is just under two years old, and we live in an apartment.

1. Do westies tear up your furniture when you not home?? do you allow your westie to be home alone?

Daisy doesn't tear up anything. However, she did have a slight problem when she was younger. She enjoyed tearing up paper that was lying around. And on rare occasions, she bite the ends of our window blinds. I attribute this behavior to her teething stage. All dogs go through this stage and can't help but to chew on things to releave the pain in their teeth. I made sure I left nothing around for her to chew on except lots of toys, well 5 different types of toys to be exact. But after her seventh month, her problem stopped.

We leave her at home alone, and she causes no trouble. Of course, I still leave toys for her to play with.

2. Are they dogs that you feel can live in an apartment...or do they bark alot?

Hmm...this is a tough one to answer. Most terriers are barkers, so I've heard. This was our biggest concern. Fortunately, Daisy does not bark very often. She tends to growl at people passing by, but the noise is very minimal and is not loud enought to bother the neighbors. She also whines when she sees other dogs outside, again, which is hardly a bother.

Hindsight tells me that I didn't socialize her very well when she was younger. Now I understand this is a very important part of training a dog. Because she wasn't socialized, she tends to be cautious of older men. She tends to be cautious before appoaching. And at night, she gets defensive and will growl and may bark once or twice. But when it's a women or child, she runs up to them and hops around like they were her masters. That's why we think she's crazy.

We getting her out with other dogs nowadays, and she seems to be getting better.

3. Did you get your westie when he was a baby?

We got her when she was about 3 months old. She was still very tiny.

4. How much do westies go for? I dont want a show dog, just a home pet.

Unfortunately for us, we paid $500 at a pet shop. She was on sale for half off the $1000 orignal price because she was getting too old for the store. We weren't very good or insightful shoppers. If we had to do it over again, we would have tried to find a breeder. This is the best bet. Puppies can range from $250-$500. Buying from the pet store is really a bad choice for many many reasons. I'm sure you've heard of puppy mills. We didn't know it at the time of purchase, but Daisy had kennel cough. This is a illness that spreads from dog to dog in the pet store. We were quite scare. We might have overreacted, but it was our first puppy. Also, it was hard for us to crate train Daisy. I don't know if you know about crate training, but I will quickly explain anyways. Crate training helps house break your puppy. Typically puppies will not defacate near they resting and feeding area, so if you leave your puppy in their crate they will wait until you let her out. However, the pet store hardly takes the dogs out for walks and allows them to defacate in their cage. So the puppy learns that it is OK to defacate near their sleeping and feeding area, which makes your crate training worthless and frustrating.

I'm sorry I'm writing so much. I'm hoping to pass on my errors and help someone do it right from the start. If you know all this already, I apoligize. Otherwise, I hope it helps.

5. where did you buy your westie from, a petstore, or a breeder?

Ahh...I guess I already answered this one.

Some problems associated with Westies: we've read somewhere that westies tend to have skin problems. I can't remember the entire details, but we never had much problems with Daisy. There was a time when Daisy was younger, when she developed small scabs on her back. We read somewhere that westies were allergic to wheat flour. So we immediately changed her diet and the scab problem which lasted for 3 months, cleared up. The only problem is finding dog food and treats that have no wheat flour. Almost everything (95%) is made with wheat flour. But we found two brand that were made up of rice flour: Nutros Lamb and Rice, and Neura's Meats. But nowadays, we have been feeding her snacks that contain wheat flour and she doesn't seem to be affected.

We love Daisy. We really can't live without her. She's very intelligent and playful. I really can't say enough about her. She's just great. She tends to be very needy and follows you around the house no matter what you're doing. If I lay on the sofa to watch TV, she cuddles by my legs and rests her head on my feet. She does a dozen tricks and loves to fetch. Another crazy thing about her is that she goes nuts over a basketball. We don't understand. A tennis ball she'll fetch and play with, but a basketball, she will go crazy. She pushes it around and around like a little maniac. And if another dog comes by, she defends the ball and growls. You have to see it to understand. She sleeps in our bed and keeps us warm and comfy. And sometimes she hogs the blankets. She greets you at the door and jumps on her hind legs to say, "hello." If you give her some leverage on the back of her head, she will mountain climb your legs, up your chest and onto your shoulders. And as you can see, she loves to pose for the camera.

I hope this little insight helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Oh...I just though of another thing. You don't really see many Westies around. In fact, I have only seen one other westie ever since we got Daisy. So, another good thing about have a westie is that they are unique. You see golden retrievers everywhere. You don't want to be another one of those retriever owners, do you?

6. Did you take her to any type of dog training classes?

No, we did not. I just spent a lot of time at the local library, reading books on training (crate training, basic commands (sit, down, heel, stay). The two important things I learned is to be consistant and patient. Soon after we got Daisy, we were watching our local public network. They were having a fund raiser, as they often do, and were showing a program on dogs. The program was called "Woof: It's a dog's life by Matthew Margolis." He is also known as Uncle Matty. We only got to see a portion of it, but it was quite amazing. We decided to buy the 5 video tape collection (it 6+ hours long - it's basically 13 episodes of his show plus an extra video). It was very insightful. He teaches so many things. He teaches you how to choose a puppy (there are several test that you can perform). He teaches and shows how loving and caring you need to be to your dog. The video shows real people with real problems telling Uncle Matty that their dogs refuses to learn. Matty caringly tells them that the fault lies with the owner. You have to teach the owner first in order to teach the dog. He then takes the dog from the owner and within minutes the dog is obeying Uncle Matty's commands. It's really amazing to see him do it time and time again with different owners and funny to see the owner's reaction. There is even one scene where an owner has a problem with his dog being to mean to other people. The dog is big and scary and was barking at Matty. But moments later he takes total control over the dog. Matty even ask the owner to call the dog. Matty commands the dog to stay, while the owner happily says, "come, come, come." What does the dog do? The dog stays. Amazing. He has a website at www.unclematty.com. Check it out.

Now, the video is kind of expensive. $59 or so the last time I checked. I think you can get it cheaper at amazon.com or buy.com. Nevertheless, it's still expensive. But we enjoyed it. We just set aside an entire Saturday dedicated to watch the tapes. It was fun and entertaining. He also sells individual tapes, but I haven't veiwed them, but I'm sure they're just as good.

(NOTE: Over the years, we have thought about Uncle Matty's method of training. Although we used his methods and everything worked, we personally believe this was not the best method of training. We will be trying different methods of teaching for our future dogs. However, the decision is yours to make.)

However, these tapes are not the end all of training. There are a few holes in the tapes. Sometimes, he is not detailed enough. I really suggest reading a supplemental book (I forgot what I read, but I remember reading a few. They tend to have different theories.) Sometimes the tapes are repetitive, but consitent repetition is a key to training.

Some things I learn from books, which Matty does not really talk about:

Teach the dog the basics. Sit, stay, down, heel, NO, etc., are essential.

Remember to Reward and Praise. (this is totally Uncle Matty talking)

Establish yourself as the alpha dog (the head of the pack). Some examples: Before you open the door to let her outside, tell her to sit and stay. Open the door and exit first. Then give her an "OK" command which allows her to leave her stay position. This shows her that you are the leader and she must depend on you. Another example is always eat first. After you are finished, then you can feed her. Again, the alpha leads. Why be the Alpha? It's to stay in control of your dog. Westies tend to be very intelligent and will control you if you don't control them first. I've studied and noticed Daisy. It's funny how she knows how far she can go.

Chewing problems. I forgot to mention this before, but most dogs also continue their chewing problems especially if they are not active enough. They get really bored and begin acting destructively. As I said, westies are highly intelligent and it's important to keep them active. We play ball in the house at least once a day for about 20 minutes. That's the minimum.

Learn to say "NO." I read somewhere that you should say "NO" in a low tone, almost mimicking a growl. Don't be quick. Don't repeat. Just one long NOOOO. Just like a growl. You have to understand that a puppy learns from it's mother. When the mother does not like what her puppy is doing, the mother gives a low toned growl. And this is what you are mimicking. Doesn't this make sense? If the puppy continues to misbehave or is hyper, turn it on it's back and using one hand on it's chest, hold her there and say NOOOO. Wait until she stops moving around, then let her go. Repeat the step if necessary. She will eventually understand that you're in control. the book went on to say that a mother dog will, as a last resort, nip the puppy in the face. You can also mimick this by making a biting noise by her face.

Socialize your dog with people and other dogs. Go outside or have people come over.

Be Patient, Be Loving, Be Caring. And she will do the same and more for you.

I probably forgot something, but I'm tired. Hehe.

7. I noticed that under her mouth its very white! how do you keep it like that? (most westies are kinda off white under their mouth.

I think we got lucky with Daisy. This was one of our concern in buying a white dog. Typically the eyes and mouth area stains. But Daisy rarely tears, and maintains a rather clear appearance. We wash her every two weeks with an oatmeal based shampoo. The oatmeal based shampoo is recommended to sooth itching, so we bought and used it during her scabing problem. We liked the smell and thought it probably feels good to Daisy, so we keep using it ever since. We also bought Tear Clear but have rarely used it.

8. I am in the process of moving...did you have to pay a pet fee to let her live their too?

We had to put an extra $300 deposit, but that was all.

9. Do you know of any good books on Westies?

We bought a westie book from the same the time we bought Daisy. It's a nice book, but really isn't all that insightful. It goes through history and some common ailments, but I suggest you save your money and just go the public library. What ever you save here can go to the video.