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First dog questions and breed selection?
Jul
17
2012
Well this will be my first dog living on my own, no mum to help out now. She was always the dog ‘master’ and i was was the ‘cat master’ but shes keeping the cat so i thought it would be nice for a change.
Im looking for a pretty good guard dog but isn’t too much work. I’m fine with daily walks and the occaisional trip to the park. I don’t want a guard dog that will instinctivly attack, I need one that can give of a good warning bark and if nessercery bite, but will be able to distinguise friend from foe, aka, will not go mental when i have friends over…
My mother has had great sucess with german shepherds in the past, but yeah i have no ideas. I remember her last german shepherd when i was a kid, and that dog was the most well behaved loyal and proctective dog EVER. She hasn’t gotten one since.
Also i want a decent sized dog. Medium-large. But not dane sized.
I would like a medium to long coated dog. The grooming would give me a hobby so to speak, and they look better to me personaly.
SO any suggestions on how to go about choosing a breed and basic dog care. As i said I am like a cat godess so i know about basic pet care, but then again cats aren’t dogs…state the obvious
Best answer:
Answer by Anita
hmm i would consider a staffordshire bull terrior or a pitbull
if you decide to get these breeds espeically a pitbull
you should give them proper training.
Answer by The Dog Shouter (Whisperer?)
Go to www.dogbreedinfo.com to do a little research. A German Shepherd would seem to be a good choice for you. However, if you get a full-blooded GSD, you can eventually run into problems with hip displaysia. So a better choice is a rescue dog who has a lot of GSD in him/her. And to find rescue dogs, your best option is www.petfinder.com.
The best part of a rescue dog – in my opinion – is that most rescue dogs come from “foster homes.” At a foster home, an experienced dog owner houses the dog until it can be adopted. So, since the foster parent is usually a skilled dog owner, you can ask about the dog – does it bark at strangers? is it good with kids? how much attention does it need? That sort of thing. It’s a much safer situation that getting a puppy from a breeder.
Good luck.
Answer by anne b
I don’t know where you live, but I find a great place to start is:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/index.cfm?nav_area=breeds
Here you get basic info on caring for each breed, what the breed traits are, and what they were bred to do, along with all the prevalent health issues of the breed, which is important in selecting a dog to live with you. If the breed traits don’t fit with your lifestyle, both of you will be miserable.
After that, the parent club sites of each breed are even more helpful and detailed. Many of them go into detail of the pros and cons of their breed.
The breed rescue sites are also helpful. Many will tell you if your home is unsuitable for their breed.
For instance:
http://www.acdca.org/
http://acdrescuemi.tripod.com/acdbreed.htm
Then you can Google other sites written by people in the know, for instance:
http://members.cox.net/markabbott/ACDfaq/acdman.html
Lastly, there are many chat groups on the Internet that are for specific breed owners. Yahoo Groups has a ton of them. You could join one of them and read all the daily posts of the trials and tribulations of owners, breeders, and trainers of the selected breed.
The more research you do, the better fit you will get, and the happier you both will be with each other.
Good luck!
Add your own answer in the comments!
Tags: Anita, Breed Selection, Cats, Dog Owner, Foe, Foster Homes, Foster Parent, German Shepherd, German Shepherds, Gsd, Guard Dog, Hip Displaysia, Owner Houses, Pet Care, Petfinder Com, Pitbull, Rescue Dogs, Staffordshire Bull Terrior, Sucess, Walks
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Answer #1
“I don’t want a guard dog that will instinctivly attack, I need one that can give of a good warning bark and if nessercery bite, but will be able to distinguise friend from foe, aka, will not go mental when i have friends over…”
That is not a breed trait, that is TRAINING. Dogs do not know who “friend” or “foe” is. They tend to look at something strange as foe. To them, someone with a wide brim hat when they have never seen one is a “foe”.
A dog should NEVER bite, unless given a command to, or in a specific situation it has been trained to bite in.
“Protection” is an often incorrectly used term. What most people see as protection is actually fear aggression or territorial, not protection. Most pet dogs won’t protect in a real life dangerous situations, regardless of breed. Barking is one thing, protection is another.
The only way to be sure your dog will protect you is to select a dog specifically bred for protection work and hire a trainer who knows what they are doing. That’s going to be more than a few thousand.
German Shepherds require more activity than a daily walk. They are a working breed bred to spend long days trotting. They need a good run everyday.
To the person who said you will are going to run into hip dysplasia with any “fullblooded” GSD, I seriously beg to differ. That is crap.
My oldest is 7 and his hips are fine. There are many many purebred GSD that never experience the disease.
And GSDs are not the only breed prone to the disease and mixes can get it as well. A GSD/Lab mix comes from two breeds that are prone to the disease, and CAN inherit it. Mixing two breeds does not magically make the bad genetics go away.
That is why going to a good breeder who certifies the parents hips is so important.