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Golden Retriever (passed away from cancer at 12.5yrs old)
Bernese Mountain Dog (passed away from cancer at 8yrs old)
Chesapeake Bay Retriever (3yrs old)
Labradoodle (2yrs old)
Bernese Mountain Dog (1.5yrs old)
I still have the last three, got another Bernese as there is nothing better in the world!
I grew up with dachshunds - great little dogs but they bark a lot and are GREAT diggers - so I'd really want an impenetrable fence. In our current neighborhood, only farm fences are allowed - so no dachshund for me!
We currently have an Australian Shepherd and an Australian Cattle dog - both are GREAT dogs, but a little too big, considering the cattle dog thinks he's a lap dog. For temperament I'd have either one again. For shedding, I'd go with NEITHER. Ugh - the amount of dog hair I have to keep up with is terrible.
My husband has said he wants our next dog to be a corgi - but I've warned him that if he thinks the shedding we put up with now is bad, just WAIT 'til we get a corgi. But he doesn't care - he's deadest on having a corgi in our future.
One Poodle
One Newfoundland
Three German Shepherds
Four Basset Hounds
One Coonhound
One Feist
Poodle was too yappy
German Shepherds needed a lot of space
The Newfoundland was a digger
The Basset hounds were pure comedic genius
The Coonie is a gem
The Feist is high-strung & jealous but extremely smart and does lots of tricks
I've lost count. I was raised on a farm. Taking dogs in that needed help is in my gene pool.
I will say we never took anything less than 50 lbs. dad wanted dogs that bark big
I have been rescuing dogs my entire life. Breeds didn't matter, they needed homes and always managed to fit in.
That said, I have had three registered Rottweiler's; one was a rescue. They own my soul but I lost all three of them to some form of cancer. They were from different blood lines and different parts of the country. I can't go thru that again, unless someone just flat out dumps one in my lap.
1. Schipperke: Adopted as an adult. No, I would not have another. Too hyper and hard to housebreak.
2. Border Collie/Norwegian Elkhound: Yes, one of my smartest, cleanest and obedient dogs.
3. American Eskimo: No, again, too hyper and was very hard to housebreak. Wanted to please but not smart enough to work it out.
4. English Shepherd: Yes. The most intelligent, cleanest, loyal, protective and beautiful dog I ever owned!
5. Chow/Shepherd: Yes. A little stubborn but clean and obedient. Now, 11 years old.
6. Yellow Lab: Adopted as an adult. No. She has many good points, clean, obedient but has a mind of her own which doesn't work for me. Does not learn quickly although she really tries.
I have two pit mixes now-anything but aggressive to people, and not to dogs either although they have some leash reactivity we've had to work on. I am not sure why the blanket comment about aggression has gone unchallenged. But the skin and digestive issues are definitely well known, among the extensive number of pit owners I know, or have seen comments from on the web. Food sensitivities are very, very common among them. I adore them, but I'm getting to an age where any future pits, or other larger high energy dogs, would have to be seniors (which mine are now anyway).
My other mutts were a chow mix-aloof to strangers but not aggressive-who was a dear girl I would absolutely go for again in a minute. And her size and energy level would still be manageable for me in the future.
My other mutts, well, they were real mutts. Both had some GSD, but nothing of the German Shepherd temperament. They were both big softies. Their size and energy level would be too much for me now, but if I were younger I'd love more like them. You really can't recreate those mutts though, no matter what the base breeds.
One Poodle
One Newfoundland
Three German Shepherds Four Basset Hounds
One Coonhound
One Feist
Poodle was too yappy
German Shepherds needed a lot of space
The Newfoundland was a digger The Basset hounds were pure comedic genius
The Coonie is a gem
The Feist is high-strung & jealous but extremely smart and does lots of tricks
I would have any Hound again.
With respect to the gloriously stubborn and comedic bassets, I just have to smile. What a funny dog. I loved mine very much and someday when I retired, perhaps I will get two bassets again. In the meantime, as I have been contemplating getting a dog, I think a much more active dog would be my choice. I think a lab is in my future as I need a dog to hike with and swim with.
Cooper the Golden from YouTube was my inspiration.
7. German shorthaired pointer- We have two of them now. I will more than likely always have GSP's in my house. They are everything their breed description proclaims. Faithful and energetic, fun, easily trained, great with kids and they are great bird dogs for upland and waterfowl. When I moved to Montana I took up bird hunting and have become addicted to it, and these guys are my partners. I've never had so much fun working with dogs in my life.
Love this thread. I'll get to the GSP in just a minute.
First dog I remember - collie type. Not a show dog. As, even then, the show dog collies were beginning to be stupid. That has gotten worse. Closest to a rough collie or AKC collie. Good dog, passed @ 12-14 yrs, I forget. I would not touch an AKC show-bred collie today for all the tea in China. Worthless dogs. They have spoiled everything good about the dog in favor of "looks".
Cairn terriers. Amazing critters. Some TRULY have ratting in their blood. We had an adult male who had never seen rats. But, on seeing rats? Prime mission was seek and destroy. Boom . . . boom . . . boom. Others who had to do that a couple of times, and then they understood their mission in life. Lovely little dogs, but many in the breed are nowhere near the quality and personality of what we had.
Scottish deerhound. Love to run! Have another? Meh, I don't think so - but maybe.
Dobey. A rescue - a friend of a friend was abusing him. I took him off his hands. Good dog. Training was a bit difficult, but I was young and perhaps I did not know as much about training as I thought then. Eventually rehomed - and he was loved and honored.
Lab or lab mix. A rescue. Wandering the neighborhood, in some degree of starvation. After a few days we paid attention, and coaxed him in. He had pellet/BB wounds, and was in anorexic level deprivation/skinniness. Not life-threatening - yet. Good dog. Smart, calm, friendly, people-oriented. Eventually re-homed in the country, and he became the next owner's best buddy. I'm not surprised. He is one of the few dogs I wish I could have kept when I didn't.
Collie mix. Good dog. Basic pet.
Ellie. What was Ellie? High energy. HIGH ENERGY. Mix. Rescue. Loved her, but impossible. I did not run her enough. She escaped. Repeatedly. Obedience was not good. Beautiful dog - black and white with speckles. Maybe BC mix, maybe anything, nobody knows. I tried for 3-4 years with her, but had to take her back to rescue agency. Next owner had same problems. She was sweet, and loving - but needed more than we could give her. I did not have enough understanding of high-need dogs at that time, and I can not judge her now, because what I remember is not clear enough.
Then there was a Brittany. Purebred. Had some aggression issues - previous owner wanted an agility dog. She was not good enough. She loved to swim. Take her to the beach and she would rather swim along the shoreline than run.
And she did some "mothering", when a small, black, leggy, "thing" of a dog started coming around our house. Technically, the neighbors had adopted the dog. She kept coming to us. So we said, "Hey, if your dog won't stay home, we'll keep her". She was one smart dog. And a good and loving dog as well. We called her "C". She could climb fencing to run, and did when she was young. So I made the fences higher. She was about 70 lbs of leggy rough fur, with a deep, "wind-hound" chest. When she was about 4 or 5, I happened to meet the lady who claimed to own her dam. Who lived about 3 blocks from me, but in a city urban situation, where a block is forever. Supposedly, "C" had a chow dad, and her dam was a collie mix, with maybe 1/8 GSD, but mostly mix, and no real breed. One of the best and smartest dogs I've ever owned. Always wished I could have spent more time with her on training, but life is life.
Then we got a hound. A big-bodied, short-legged, sniffing and eating machine, with a smiling face that people could not help but love at first sight. Picked because she was calm under pressure, she was calm all her life. Did she get the short legs from a basset, or a beagle background? Nobody knows. Coloration was like cross of beagle and blue-tick hound. She usually weighed in around 70 lbs. Big for such a short dog, and she could run like the wind itself, in spite of those short legs. This dog had VIGOR! She had GRIT! And I use the capital letters intentionally! In her youth, she was a fenced yard escape artists. She loved to eat avocadoes in the orchard next door. I used to say she was a "5-mile" dog - needing a 5-mile radius territory before she headed home. We don't really know, but it was a bigger territory than most dogs. She also loved to bark. She was a great, and loved dog. But, because her needs were so different from ours, we would not look again at a similar hound.
The hound and the black thing lived together for many years. When the black thing passed away, we didn't get another dog for some time. When we did, it was another rescue.
This rescue was as white as "C" was black. A youngster, labeled a lab mix. I was very soon to realize that the "mix", in fact, most of the dog, was GSP. When we got him, at 4 mos, he was nordic blond white. All over. Red/pink nose. PALE. Within a few short months, spots started to darken. And, in a short time, we had an obvious GSP pattern of light and dark - except it was in tones of white and very light tan. He might have been part lab, but I was confident he was part GSP. What provided the ultra-blond coloring, who knows? This one became my buddy. I would have another lab, or another GSP, because of this one. Ours was not the brightest bulb, but that was him, not the breeding. He was my shadow and my companion. I could write a chapter here on this one and what we went through.
The hound got old. 14. The youngster was only 7. But at the same time the hound was preparing to cross over, the youngster was having health issues. It was entirely unexpected, but he passed a mere few weeks after the hound.
And, so now we have 2 English shepherd "mixes". Smarter than those who went before! No doubt! Adult dogs on adoption, tho, and some issues. Working with it. Good dogs. ATM, I'm thinking this could be my fav breed. Talk to me in a year.
A slight sheltie mix, mostly sheltie when I was a kid. We lost her when I was seventeen. She's the first Taffy.
We got a cocker puppy. She was a fun dog but discovered the cocker 'foot' problem. She lived to 13.
My ex and I got Gumby. He was a small terrier mix. My son's first word was his name. He died in my son's arms and lived til 18.
Husband (different than ex) brought his dog, a poodle mix, into the family. She was Daisy.
We got a full breed sheltie, also named Taffy after the first. She dissapeared, having gotten out a door that didn't close, at ten. Still miss her since we didn't get to properly say goodbye.
Got a sheltie mix, son named her Fluffy, from the shelter. Sweetest dog I ever had. She died at we figure 17.
Husband had a St. Bernard he had to rehome when he couldn't walk him and I wasn't able to either.
Woodstock was a lost puppy, a black lab. He mysteriously died a few months later. Miss him too.
Just me, adopted my first beagle. Cleo had LOTS of treats from her former mom. Her belly skirted the ground. She died at 16/17 after moving with me and my cat, also a rescue.
Current menagerie, another beagle, adopted from a lady who's bigger dogs scared her. Pammy is about 12. My first Oklahoma dog.
Gumby came as a puppy. He grew to a very tall shepard mix who looks like one. His my own first big dog and taught me not to be scared of them.
Pokey (gotta have one with a gumby) was rescued in front of Walmart where she was dumped. She was about six weeks old. She's a maninoius mix, very smart but the mix was small so she is too.
And some cats. They don't quite know the difference between themselves and the other critters. They sleep curled up with the dogs.
If I have the chance for another dog, I want another sheltie. I love/still love all of them, but shelties are smart and fiesty and loyal.
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