We had one for most of my childhood. Smart, wonderful temperment, beautiful animals, what more could you ask for?
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Big enough to have and not sit on by accident, they are eager to please, love to fetch and play, usually love water, and are great with families and kids.
Smart as a whip too, usually, although they spaz a bit when younger. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I would agree. Labs and retrievers are the most friendly dogs there are. Plus, they're incredibly smart and incredibly loyal. Nothing can beat them.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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Tough one. I've always loved labs, because they are just the best. Fun loving, sweet tempered, quick to learn. However, now that I own Australian Shepherds, I'm beginning to love them too, they have many of the same wonderful traits the labs do. They're also gorgeous - very beautiful dogs and the no-tail thing is a plus. It means less stuff swept off the coffee table by a happy puppy. However, they have the drawback of requiring more grooming than a lab. So, it's still a toss-up I suppose.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Greyhounds - sweet, gentle, loving, beautiful dogs that don't smell and shed very little
English Pointers - spastic! smart, loyal, obedient, gorgeous, versatile (you can train them to do anything, and they have a strong drive to please their owner)
German Shepherd Dogs - smart, independent, goofy dogs
Pit Bulls/AmStaffs - the best breed of all, IMHO. Extremely loyal and loving, tons of personality, versatile, very smart, and undeserving of their bad reputation.
Dobermans - my favorite breed of dog. I grew up with these dogs and they are lovely. They are everything that a dog should be. Also one of the smartest breeds I have ever known.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Well i grew up with Airedale terriers, but don't really like the hugeness (our current female weighs 85 pounds on a light day).
So currently my dog is a Sheltie, who I love, but theres so much grooming, he's not quite silly enough, but a great size and easy to take care of (if you remember to feed him, he forgets to tell you)
The breed I'm looking at for after college when I actually have a house is Welsh Terriers, basically Airedales, but little, also wire haired fox terriers aren't bad.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I also like the Great Pyrenees. Our current dog is an Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees cross. So he's got the fluffy white fur of a pyrenees but it isn't as thick, and he has a gray mask on his face. He also has a leaner build than a pyrenees.
This is the calmest dog I've ever met. Even as a tiny puppy he didn't jump on people or try to rough-house. He has plenty of energy, he just doesn't use it in obnoxious ways. He is very good for my husband, who gets nervous around hyperactive dogs due to bad experiences when he was a kid.
The two biggest downsides are the slobber and the size. I can fit Phantom into my car (a '96 Camry), but it's a tight squeeze. But other than transportation woes, I like big dogs.
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Shelties. My mom's friend had two that I just adored. After that would pomeranians. I'm a sucker for lapdogs.
I'd say Border Collies because that's what I've had all my life, and I love them, but they're too big for me personally. But my mom's oldest BC, Breanne, is my favorite dog ever.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I never had my own doggie, but I am a home care nurse, and I go into lots of houses with dogs. Hands down, I prefer big dogs. They are so much more laid back than the little yappy dogs. If there is a little yappy dog in the house, then the whole time I am there, the dog is yap yap yapping, and jumping around like to pitch a fit. This starts from when I pull up to the driveway, and is capable of varying only between the the extremes of "overexcited" at the calmest to "fever pitch of frenzy" at the most agitated. I, for the life of me, can never figure out what the big deal is.
A big dog will come over to be introduced, and then go and lay down for some meditation time, or whatever it is that big dogs do when they are laying on their big dog beanbag sofas.
I will ask if a dog is vicious. I refuse to go into a house where vicious dogs run free. They need to be locked away or chained up when I'm around.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Well, my dog is a rough collie/german shep mix and he's the best dog... all the best features of both breeds with the not so great feature mitigated (i.e. excessive collie barking).
Speaking of newfoundlands, am I the only one who pictured Padfoot in the Harry Potter books as a newfie?
Posts: 239 | Registered: May 2004
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Havanese. I would love to have a Havanese. They're smart, small, and adorable. Reputed to have great personalities. Clownish.
I really love our Shih tzu/Poodle cross. She's only 9 lbs, but she's practically the perfect dog for our family. She likes to rough house with my big dog loving husband. She is gentle but doesn't put up with any crap from our kids, and nothing makes her happier than to lay in your lap or do tricks for treats, which she learns quickly. She was hard to housetrain, though. And she's acquired a really bad habit of drinking unattended lattes.
addited, though she's small, she's not yappy at all. She only barks when she has a good reason. But she was trained specifically for that. I used a can with pennies in it. Everytime she barked unnecessarily, I shook it. Worked great.
I've never had a dog before this one, but my husband had a lot of Boxers when he was a kid, and they're just great dogs. Very intelligent, huge personality, super athletic, very affectionate 50-pound lap dogs... and with the short coat and grooming habits they're pretty clean, too!
I do also like that, while she's the sweetest, friendliest dog you'll ever meet, she's rather unusual-looking and maybe a bit unsettling, and her warning growl when someone's at the door is very comforting when I'm home alone at night. I doubt she'd ever actually try to protect us, she'd probably just lick an intruder to death, but she'd make enough of a show of it first that the intruder would probably give up long before he had a chance to figure that out. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I like herding and hunting dogs. I almost got a Corgi puppy from AJ, and I loved the English Setter I lived with last year. Border Collies and Austrailian Cattle dogs make me happy, cause I like to have a dog that can run around with me on the farm. I think Irish setters are gorgeous, too.
Labs are just too attention seeking for me, they have no personality except love me love me love me.
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I am in love with Border Collies. I want one in the worst way. I can't wait to own a very intelligent dog that will allow me to teach it many things and to be my very best dog friend Plus, I think they are beautiful and I just love their attitudes.
I also like Australian Shepherds and I am starting to come around to Shelties. Then again, mutts are great!
Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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That said, the breed that absolutely fascinates me is the border collie. I have one, and as I've said in other places, she's smart enough to do things like fake a limp for sympathy and pull tricks that implicate her fellow pup.
He is a Great Pyrenees, though without that breed's typical stoicism. He is a 100-lb. lapdog.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Standard poodles. They are biggish, they don't yap or shed, they're smart and playful and charming dogs, anxious to please but with minds of their own. I adore my Nora-dog.
You gotta be careful with them though. Our oldest is so smart, its scary. She knows how to suck up, be bossy, get out of her crate, etc. I love her to death cause she's practically a person.
Our two brown BCs...well, they're special. Our male is a lazy, love bunny. For a breed bred to work, he loves nothing more than sleeping on someone's lap. Our brown girl is still a puppy, but she's the most disobedient puppy ever. She's great at agility and following commands, but she never comes when called. Drives me up the wall! And's she talkative. Our eldest "roos," the boy NEVER barks, and our baby girl just runs around whining even when she's perfectly content.
Somehow we ended up with two BCs with very non-BC personalities. We're breeding our baby girl in another year or two, so no doubt my mom will be adding a blue or tri-colored puppy to her collection.
They're definently for people who want active dogs. My roommate's boyfriend had one and it wasn't trained to work so it drove everyone crazy. Ours are flyball grand champions, go to agility trials, and have a herding title or two (we don't live on a farm, so flyball is the priority).
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Smart, affectionate, cuddly, gentle with the baby, unique, beautiful, elegant (until he moves and proves what an utter goofball he is), protective
Posts: 17 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I took care of my friend's husky's this summer. I had sooo much fun watching the 13 of them. She moved 7 of the 20 to different houses so I wouldn't have too much to work with. Now she is up to 22 or 23..I'm not quite sure. Hehe. Posts: 306 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Own one and you will fall in love. In my opinion a "hound dog" or "hush puppy" as they're sometimes called is without a doubt one of the most adorable creatures on the planet, and the cutest of all dogs.
I own a bassett named Dudley Do Right, just Dudley for short- he is dopey, wrinkly, and absolutely beautiful! Plus they have a hilarious personality (I do feel bad for having uncontrolled laughter when he trips on his ears and falls over!)
Posts: 44 | Registered: Jan 2005
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They're protective, love small children, playful, strong, and beautiful. My first dog was a German Shepherd and now I don't want anything but a German Shepherd. Posts: 378 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I own two and they have proven to be the perfect breed for apartments. They love to snuggle up with you when you're reading and get along with just about everyone (with the exception of very young children).
Note: I noticed a lot of you chose Border Collies: watch out! They are smarter, faster and more clever than the human raising it.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Glenn Arnold: The only purebred I ever owned was a Husky. She was dumb as a post. Loveable as hell, but really dumb.
Not to impugn the intelligence of the breed, but...
Hee! When I was taking my dog to obedience classes for 4H, there was a Husky there whose registered name was Doofus Rufus McGee - his owners explained that "Doofus" was the only name he answered to, and it certainly fit him very well.
My personal favorite breeds are:
Australian Shepherds - SO smart! And so cute!! I had a mix, so she had the long feathered tail of other shepherd types, but really Aussie markings.
Dobermans - Also really smart. But I only like red ones, and I don't like the cropped ear look - sentimental reasons, as we had a red Doberman with natural ears when I was little.
Pit Bulls - So much sweeter than most people give them credit for. And really smart. (Is there a theme developing here? I don't really like dumb dogs, I guess.) I like Boxers too for the same reasons.
I also love big, hairy, working dogs, i.e. Bernese Mountain Dogs, Newfoundlands, etc, or just plain big dogs, like Great Danes and Mastiffs. (Except for the drool factor.) But I don't have much personal contact with these breeds, so all I know is what I've read about them, and they all sound awesome.
Posts: 952 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Daschunds! Loving, intelligent, and absolutely adorable. I'm not a big dog person- too much slobber. But I don't like tiny dogs either. Full-sized doxens are just perfect. Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Shar Pei - intelligent, loveable, playful, loyal, dedicated (they become quite attached to the family), active, sometimes goofy, medium sized (usually 55 - 65 lbs), bark little except to let you know something is up, and very, very sweet. The only downside is that their lifespan is shorter than most - 8-10 years usually - although I have heard tell of a few who lived to be much older.
Posts: 142 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Beagles, mainly because that's what I grew up with. Plus you can't beat that odd sounding bark and the sort of weird expressions beagles can give you.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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