'there are easier breeds:' which ones?

[motmot]

On the Labrador retriever thread, quite a few posters have expressed their scepticism about labs being ideal family dogs, due to their high exercise needs, strength etc. Someone said there are easier breeds out there to choose from.

Which ones? What breeds do you think are 'easier,' especially for novice owners? Certainly not my dog (German Wirehaired Pointer), they have a strong desire to hunt and need pretty firm consistent handling and an abundance of exercise (I will not be getting another!)

Obviously all dogs need training and work and there are going to be exceptions within high-maintenance breeds, but can you generalise do you think?

My poodle cross Lhasa is a fantastic puppy. She is 6 months old now and she is just naturally well behaved. Very clever and she has never really been a biter. Everyone says I have trained her well; she is just naturally easy and has been since the day we brought her home.

My Bulldog is great too. She is very immature still but they often take a while to grow up. She is however the friendliest thing ever. She is amazing with children and other dogs. She sulks if she walks past a person and doesn't get a fuss! She is a biter still, bites anything she can get hold off and for a bulldog she has a hell of a lot of energy.

The hardest dog I have ever had is a JRT. I would never, ever have one again. Not unless I had a farm or something.

I also have a chihuahua but he is disabled and has no ability to learn.

Terriers are supposed to be not a dog for a novice owner but all the English bull terriers I have had have been very laidback and easygoing; sweet natured and very, very people-centric. They have a rep for being untrainable but my last one could wee and poo on command, walked beautifully to heel. Also very good in the car, travelling about and meeting people.

I have had staffies too and although they are very er... lively puppies as adults very biddable and seet-natured, too. My current mutt is a staffy-JRT cross and I wouldn't recommend that particular combination to a novice dog-owner. ;o)

I agree re looking at what the breed was originally bred to do. I also think that an "easy dog" will often tie in with owners who have done full research and chosen a breed which suits their family and lifestyle.

We have a 6 month old working cocker. I know some people say they are bred to work and so don't necessarily make good pets. But we wanted a dog to fit in with an outdoor lifestyle and we live somewhere rural so he gets off lead walks in varied terrain every day. DH and I also have a working pattern where one of us is always around, so he's rarely left for very long and he gets tons of time with us for mental training as well as for exercise. He is absolutely brilliant, learning well and the sweetest natured dog I could imagine. He's settled at home, lovely with our children and he's never been a bitey puppy, he's just so gentle.

So I'd say he's been "easy" but if you tried to keep him in a city environment with nowhere to run off-lead and without the right kind of mental stimulation, I could imagine he'd be a nightmare. I think that's why show cockers have a reputation for being mad, cause in reality their needs are not all that different to their working cocker cousins, but people often mistake them as medium sized dogs who don't need much exercise and wonder why they end up a bit stir crazy.

at the staffy JRT cross, that must be fun!!!! I have two JRTs and find them much harder work than our rotties. My DP said he wouldn't have another terrier but I like them and would have one again. They are pretty dense though and have nigh on zero recall and get in other dogs faces sometimes so it gets them into trouble.

Joffrey, i think you probably find your dogs easy due to having lots of experience, ive had dogs all my life and worked with dogs so for it its second nature however, ive seen friends struggle with their first dogs when they ahve taken on too much or the wrong breed. For me, without sounding twee, dog's are just another branch of the family tree and are always just "there" so i don't really see the excess work and responsibility they bring sometimes.

Interesting to hear of all the crosses that have been 'easy'- this thread is making me slightly dog broody!

We are on our 4th JRT and love her. She's v sweet natured, a bit dim and a total fruit loop with v poor recall until she was about three, still not 100% reliable. We live on a farm, she's rarely on her own for more than a couple of hours, has several walks a day, and does lots of farming and gardening. I would say she's an 'easy' dog just as Beagle's cocker is, as her needs are met. I also think that people become v loyal to and partisan about their favoured breeds, and accept their foibles, whilst being dismissive of other breeds. We can't warm to labs - flatulent, food obsessed, protracted adolescence and slobbery. Our lab owning best friends think JRTs are yappy, willful and hard to train. Deciding on a dog is a bit like religion, or choosing your child rearing philosophy . . .

I've had labs, great dane, Collie, mongrol and used to scoff at poncy dogs not being real dogs
I have a mini poodle now (kids are allergic to animal hair)
What a revelation. I will have a poncy dog forever, she is so easy and mess free

I think for labs/retrievers/spaniels etc there's a real difference between working & show lines. My working line retriever needs a lot of exercise for example - show retrievers tend to amble while he zooms.

I reckon mini schnauzers might be an easy breed - the ones I've met seem to be pretty laid back & small enough to be easier to manage.

My Cavachon is a lazy mop on legs. Eat, eat, flop and sleep. And repeat.

lem, she is only 5 months so it's early days but most of what we see is 'staffy-ness'. I guess the two breeds have a lot of common ancestors, though? But she is very, very intelligent and quick to pick up verbal commands/cues - far moreso than any staffy we have had. And so I think this might be her JRT ness.

English Bulls were never bred for fighting as people think, but bred quite late (1850s) as a show dog. So they are very 'easy' I think being essentially companion dogs but also clowns and they love people.

I think novice dog owners should avoid any type of 'working' dog. That's probably a decent rule of thumb. There are some bijou executive newbuilds in our village we could never walk our bull terriers past, as one house had a collie that clearly wasn't a farm dog, and it was permanently shut in the front garden, gong mental at anything that moved past. On the other hand, my neighbours have a collie that has never been worked but they walk her maybe 6 times a day, play with her, etc - she is constantly stimulated intellectually, so not bored or aggressive and a total joy. They are experienced dog owners though. Other neighbours have a neglected black lab - skinny thing so probably working lines - and it is aggressive, bored and deeply unpleasant. They never play with it, never walk it and we have never once heard them interact with it in anything other than shouting. They have two toddlers and clearly not the time, inclination or lifestyle for a working dog.

What about beagles?? We have a westie at the moment, but he is very very old now I love our boy, but he has a laid back temperament unusual in a westie. I would really like that casual attitude in our next dog if poss!

I have a spaniel/poodle cross and she is very easy - definitely the best dog either my husband or I have ever had (daschund, belgian shepherd, irish setter, american cocker, and pekinese between us). Lively, but not too. Obedient, calm tempered, barks on occasion - but not excessively. She has the best of the cocker and poodle in her, but I know other cockapoos who have the worst of the 2, and they definitely are not easy.

Beagles very, VERY hard work but lovely if well managed. Potential disaster if not

I don't think there is such a thing as an 'easy' dog.

I think that basically, a dog is a dog, although certain breeds may have certain traits that need to acknowledged and managed carefully to avoid causing an issue such as a high prey drive in a greyhound or inappropriate herding in a collie or aloofness/suspiciousness in a guarding breed.

There seems to be a widespread opinion that show bred dogs make better pets but personally, I would go for a working bred absolutely every time.
I think (and this is purely my personal opinion) that they generally tend to be more balanced dogs and their biddability and desire to work makes them easier to train.
They don't need hours of mental stimulation or agility, flyball, tracking etc a day either.
In fact, I think over stimulation can actually be detrimental and may contribute to the opinion that show breds are better pets.

Perhaps not an easy dog but there are some breeds that really do need more exercise and stimulation than others and some that fit in with different types of families better.

we've got a working lab and it's our first family dog. he's been incredible thus far but I'm pretty sure it's far more breeding than just us.

something the breeder said early on was that you need to match mental with physical exercise. so we play hiding games with him most days which he looooves. and also 'hiding' his ball when out tires him out as much as running around for ages.

we have also found that a good play with another dog is far better than repeated ball throwing.

think I'm just trying to say that as a novice, I've been surprised that variety is as important for a dog than just taking them on epic long walks. which you can't anyway with lab pups for a while.

Beagles are very hard work, very stubborn, totally food driven,easily bored and need lots of stimulation. They will chew anything, shoes, tv remotes, ... they are scent hounds and need loads of recall work. You are lucky if you get one you can let off the lead.

Ours is six now, can go for walks off lead but I still never completely trust her. She is adorable and if I could I'd have a whole pack of beagles. But they are not for the faint hearted. Of course saying that, nor is any dog, they are a huge commitment.

Oh yes, and our beagle ate my glasses last week, bringing the total number of pairs of my glasses she has eaten to three.

Eaten glasses

I hope there were no injuries!

We've always had a terrier. Read Greyfriar's Bobby too often when I was little.
The first year is really hard work but if you are consistent, they learn (not to chew everything, bark at everything, jump on everything, fight with other dogs....)
We have a Cairn.

DS has a beagle - every time she comes to stay without fail he eats my slippers wherever I hide them ...

What about ridgebacks?

The only injury was to my bank balance. She chews the legs off but doesn't swallow anything. I have become obsessive about keeping them out of her reach but left them on the kitchen table and she pounced like the stealth ninja that she is.

Mytholmtoyd have seen that before - all true!

Certainly not flatcoat retrievers [exhausted emoticon]

Stealth ninja is a good description for a beagle LoveVintage - a completely remorseless stealth ninja who after the deed is done accepts no rebuke just expects you to recline so he can lie on you to fall asleep. The shameless insouciance is gob-smacking - good job they are so gentle and cute!

Now see here, hmc I have always had flatties and I find them beautiful, gentle and, compared to a beagle, extremely obedient and biddable. They have a joy for life and human and canine contact that not many other types of dogs can match IMHO

They just have a high cancer rate and often die early