Help me find dog breeds

[SpotTheCat]

Think about a Chow Chow.

They are all purpose dogs, protective of their family and home, don't bark a lot but do so when necessary, are clean, love to live outside in all weathers, not overly friendly to strangers unless you tell them it's OK, and can be taught to herd. They have great stamina and can hike for miles but don't need a lot of exercise or constant mental stimulation. Happy to just chill out and sleep all day until they need to be on alert. In my case when parcels get delivered!

But like any breed, it's the training that is KEY to how your dog turns out. Genes play a tiny part. You have to put a LOT of work in to get the dog you want.

Thank you! I love chow chows Unfortunately I don’t think my mother does but I will keep them in mind!

 

[ShrekDawg]

A mutt.. your best bet, best behaved and best loyalty.. and less health issues. Breeds are all inbred.. to a fault, many faults..

Mutts are not always healthier. They can have just as many if not more health issues. You could get the worst of both breeds instead of the best or you could get a total Heinz 57 mutt that has a lot of issues. You could also get lucky and get a super healthy one but not always.

I love mutts. My brother and SIL have 3, I have my own, neighbors have one. Love them all. Mutts are fantastic. So this is nothing against them. But they are NOT always healthier and definitely not better behaved.

They CAN be but that’s not a guarantee or a fact.

There’s lots of untrained, horribly behaved mutts in shelters. Purebreds too. There’s also well trained dogs. Both purebred and mutt. ANY dog can be well behaved. It’s a matter of TRAINING and how much time someone puts in. Not the actual dog. And a well bred purebred will be very well behaved if the effort is put in to train them. If not, maybe not but the temperament will be there.

Every mutt that I know has their issues along with their fantastic qualities. We still love them and would get more but it doesn’t do them any good to market them as these perfect dogs when they’re not. What if somebody went out and got one expecting perfection and then it had health and behavior problems and they returned it? It’s better to be honest about ALL potential issues upfront.

 

[writerskramp]

Mutts are not always healthier. They can have just as many if not more health issues. You could get the worst of both breeds instead of the best or you could get a total Heinz 57 mutt that has a lot of issues. You could also get lucky and get a super healthy one but not always.

I love mutts. My brother and SIL have 3, I have my own, neighbors have one. Love them all. Mutts are fantastic. So this is nothing against them. But they are NOT always healthier and definitely not better behaved.

They CAN be but that’s not a guarantee or a fact.

There’s lots of untrained, horribly behaved mutts in shelters. Purebreds too. There’s also well trained dogs. Both purebred and mutt. ANY dog can be well behaved. It’s a matter of TRAINING and how much time someone puts in. Not the actual dog. And a well bred purebred will be very well behaved if the effort is put in to train them. If not, maybe not but the temperament will be there.

Every mutt that I know has their issues along with their fantastic qualities. We still love them and would get more but it doesn’t do them any good to market them as these perfect dogs when they’re not. What if somebody went out and got one expecting perfection and then it had health and behavior problems and they returned it? It’s better to be honest about ALL potential issues upfront.

Well, I have been lucky than, and I am not Irish as far as I know.. Had well over a dozen.. Some shot by neighbors, some hit by cars.. two or three plus I put down for various reason... pure bred pain in the keister to wayfaring female.. to car strike.. Mutts serve me well, as the one inherited form a former roommate at $350. So the dog wouldn't be tortured to death nor starved, and a stray escapee from the park across the street. They are fine ladies and rarely give me paws.. No health issues, except one overeats.. cut her back. My son has a purebred Shepard Police Dog.. bad hips that are breed into them.. My Weimaraner was dumb as a stump.. again adopted from a lets be friends hotel. It's the inbreeding.

 

[Critter721]

Mutts are not always healthier. They can have just as many if not more health issues. You could get the worst of both breeds instead of the best or you could get a total Heinz 57 mutt that has a lot of issues. You could also get lucky and get a super healthy one but not always.

I love mutts. My brother and SIL have 3, I have my own, neighbors have one. Love them all. Mutts are fantastic. So this is nothing against them. But they are NOT always healthier and definitely not better behaved.

They CAN be but that’s not a guarantee or a fact.

There’s lots of untrained, horribly behaved mutts in shelters. Purebreds too. There’s also well trained dogs. Both purebred and mutt. ANY dog can be well behaved. It’s a matter of TRAINING and how much time someone puts in. Not the actual dog. And a well bred purebred will be very well behaved if the effort is put in to train them. If not, maybe not but the temperament will be there.

Every mutt that I know has their issues along with their fantastic qualities. We still love them and would get more but it doesn’t do them any good to market them as these perfect dogs when they’re not. What if somebody went out and got one expecting perfection and then it had health and behavior problems and they returned it? It’s better to be honest about ALL potential issues upfront.

Well said!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Well, I have been lucky than, and I am not Irish as far as I know.. Had well over a dozen.. Some shot by neighbors, some hit by cars.. two or three plus I put down for various reason... pure bred pain in the keister to wayfaring female.. to car strike.. Mutts serve me well, as the one inherited form a former roommate at $350. So the dog wouldn't be tortured to death nor starved, and a stray escapee from the park across the street. They are fine ladies and rarely give me paws.. No health issues, except one overeats.. cut her back. My son has a purebred Shepard Police Dog.. bad hips that are breed into them.. My Weimaraner was dumb as a stump.. again adopted from a lets be friends hotel. It's the inbreeding.

I’m not saying that purebreds don’t have their own problems or even that they’re not I bred because a lot of them are and there have been a lot of ruined breeds BUT there’s also tons of different breeders and lines of dog and there’s better quality ones.

I bet the hunting line Weims might be better and there’s a million different German Shepherd lines out there (at least 5, probably more like 8) and a million different breeders within those so there are ones with better hips. Although bad hips do seem to be pretty common in the breed overall but better ones exist. Just like mutts with health and even behavior problems exist.

One of my brother’s dogs was an anxious wreck when they brought him home and terrified of everything. He’s gotten a lot better and more confident but he still doesn’t like certain strangers (only some), has started a leash reactivity thing with certain dogs, and he’s allergic to chicken and gets horrible itchy ears if he gets it. One of their other ones has horrible hips and just overall structure and he’s very skittish/jumpy with noises. The other one has had a lot of weird injuries/accidents which isn’t related to her being a mutt or anything but still.

She’s also smart as a whip though so she does have good traits too and the anxious one is very very sweet and obedient. But they do have issues. One of my friend’s dogs I swear has like dog PTSD or something. Actually maybe two of my friend’s dogs (different friends). One purebred, one is a mutt. The purebred one is an anxious, timid, nervous wreck. So purebreds can for sure have issues too.

Our free Lab that we had when I was a kid was the best dog! He came from the paper at 18 months old. Free with all his stuff. He was amazing and he had him till he was like at least another 10 years after that.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Well said!

Thanks!

 

[maroongrad]

They sound amazing!! I’ve heard with ES the temperaments can vary a lot and that some of them are softer or whatever? Idk if that’s true or not though. Heard some have higher or lower energy too or are better with kids or whatever. Not sure if it’s the same for Scotch.

When the ES registry was started in the 50s, there wasn't one for Scotch collies, and MANY MANY scotch collies were registered as ES. Over the last couple decades there has been a push to re-establish the scotch with the milder, super-obedient, more laid-back attitude. Physically there is a TON of overlap. ES seem to have more domed heads, OTSC tend to have more pricked ears and a ruff. Plenty of ES can be cross-registered as scotch because they have so much scotch in them, and sometimes a scotch would do better registered as an ES!
There's a ton of info online that puts it much better than I do If we breed our boy, I'll be looking for a farmdog collie-type that has the traits I need (generally a mixed aussie/working rough/border/heeler/english shepherd/etc. type combo) or find a dog from a couple ES kennels in Iowa that have enough scotch in them to have pups that will be very "soft" in temperament but retain all the handy-dandy-multi-purpose functionality of the original base collie!

 

[FarmerGirl1010]

You should get a Great Pyrenees dog. I have two now and are amazing. They are guard dog. They will chase away birds, predators, and people. He doesn’t attack predators. He only barks and chases. He has saved my chickens various times. They will bark at anyone they don’t know. He will bark at ANYONE who comes up our driveway except us. He always bark at the delivery people and sometimes, they are scared. The delivery people are always scared to put the package at the front porch. The dogs never run off with packages either. He wouldn’t hurt anyone. They are nice around cats, small animals, and big animals. They are big friendly giants. They are nice around kids. They don’t need to be groomed very often. They are beautiful and a great family dog. They are somewhat smart. When I need to put him up, I try to keep him in my fenced in pool area or garage. He knows that your trying to lock him up. A treat will fix that. He also knows what my car looks like and can recognize many people. He’s not jumpy or hyper and somewhat easy to train. He knows sit and go get it. When I yell go get it, he immediately looks around. Then, he chases whatever your pointing at. He lives outside, with plenty of land. He sleeps on my porch with another Great Pyrenees. When the weather is bad, he usually goes to sleep in the garage or front porch. We trained him to stay only on our property. I know you don’t have it listed, but it’s a great breed to consider!

 

[ShrekDawg]

When the ES registry was started in the 50s, there wasn't one for Scotch collies, and MANY MANY scotch collies were registered as ES. Over the last couple decades there has been a push to re-establish the scotch with the milder, super-obedient, more laid-back attitude. Physically there is a TON of overlap. ES seem to have more domed heads, OTSC tend to have more pricked ears and a ruff. Plenty of ES can be cross-registered as scotch because they have so much scotch in them, and sometimes a scotch would do better registered as an ES!
There's a ton of info online that puts it much better than I do If we breed our boy, I'll be looking for a farmdog collie-type that has the traits I need (generally a mixed aussie/working rough/border/heeler/english shepherd/etc. type combo) or find a dog from a couple ES kennels in Iowa that have enough scotch in them to have pups that will be very "soft" in temperament but retain all the handy-dandy-multi-purpose functionality of the original base collie!

Thanks for all the info!!! Very interesting!! I’ve read about the breeds separately and on some FB groups and whatever but hadn’t heard about the overlap before! Interesting.

 

[Rise722]

The sweetest and most gentle breed is the Golden Retriever. They love everybody and cats...also chickens can crawl all over them...they will not bite.