TwistedTayy
Songster
I am partial to German shepherds but still, the best dog I ever had (so far) has been a Briard. Size wise they are similar to GSD, females being smaller. Mine was 65lbs female but males can get up to 80ish. I’ll get into personality later on but I’m a small female 120lbs and when I had her I was late teens/early twenties and she was very easy to train for a (kind of beginner) and despite the large size was very easy to handle. (I had done research and was prepared to wind up with a very large size). They require regular brushing but despite that they don’t shed… their undercoat gets “caught” in the top coat (hence the need for brushing) but doesn’t shed everywhere like most other dogs. We kept our shaved seasonally. They were developed in the French countryside as an all purpose dog suitable for herding, livestock protection, personal protection, and a great family pet… designed to basically go with the flow and adapt to anything the family needed. All dogs can be aggressive with people or dogs without proper socializing. Bear (my girl) was quite protective regarding dogs and people but was very aware of whether I felt threatened or not. She was amazingly in tuned with my body language more than any dog I’ve had since. I remember being at the beach when I was about twenty with a girlfriend (I’m also female) and her dogs and some creepy dude had been eyeing us. I didn’t see him approach but bear did and squared up growling, warning him to stay away. We were meeting friends (that bear had never met, and their dogs) when they arrived she barked as an alert (no growling) when they approached but quickly calmed as I welcomed them into the group.
They are uncommonly used as service dogs and there is one that recently got quite famous because his family taught him to ride a scooter. I think his name is Norman and he’s got lots of videos on YouTube as you can imagine.
They are hard to find but there are still quite a few very good breeders out there. I have considered getting one still. I came to the us from Canada for my masters and left her with my mom who was a new empty nester after my sister left also (she needed bear more than me, but only barely). She just passed away this year at age 16.
EDIT: something that’s important to me is wanting a dog that I don’t have to worry about taking off and wandering. Big reason why I like shepherds (briard, along with their cousin the Beauceron - which have shorter hair but are larger and more suited to protection- are considered “French shepherds” Berger de Brie and Berger de beauce respectively), my GSD (which, in French, is Berger d’allemand for reference) doesn’t like being more than 20ft from me or out of eyesight and bear was the same… but a lot less anxious about it. I think that comes from the LGD type genes of independent thinking and threat assessment. I never had issues with separation anxiety with her as a puppy or adult, my GSD on the other hand lol took about a year to train with that.
GOOGLE IMAGE:
They are uncommonly used as service dogs and there is one that recently got quite famous because his family taught him to ride a scooter. I think his name is Norman and he’s got lots of videos on YouTube as you can imagine.
They are hard to find but there are still quite a few very good breeders out there. I have considered getting one still. I came to the us from Canada for my masters and left her with my mom who was a new empty nester after my sister left also (she needed bear more than me, but only barely). She just passed away this year at age 16.
EDIT: something that’s important to me is wanting a dog that I don’t have to worry about taking off and wandering. Big reason why I like shepherds (briard, along with their cousin the Beauceron - which have shorter hair but are larger and more suited to protection- are considered “French shepherds” Berger de Brie and Berger de beauce respectively), my GSD (which, in French, is Berger d’allemand for reference) doesn’t like being more than 20ft from me or out of eyesight and bear was the same… but a lot less anxious about it. I think that comes from the LGD type genes of independent thinking and threat assessment. I never had issues with separation anxiety with her as a puppy or adult, my GSD on the other hand lol took about a year to train with that.
GOOGLE IMAGE:
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