be honest - pros and cons of your dog's breed?

[tinymeteor]

Just for curiosity's sake, really. My theory is that picking a breed is all about working out which bad habits you can live with.

Our is a beagle. Pros: gorgeous to look at, no grooming required, amazing with kids, no issues with other dogs, very cuddly. Surprisingly, no real problems with recall and he doesn't bark, contrary to breed reputation.

Cons: steals stuff, all the bloody time. Obedience is temporary and only for food rewards. Will immediately break the rules once your back is turned.

What about yours?

Border Collie x (but is all collie tbh)

Pro: Intelligence

Cons Intelligence

Ungoogleable. So sorry to hear about your dog.
Noitsnoteat. Gorgeous pic. I have seriously considered a toller.
I may be off my head but I really want an Irish wolfhound.

We don't live in the UK, but we have two Caucasian Ovcharkas and a Fila Brasiliero

Caucasian Ovcharka
Pros:
Loyal beyond belief, they risk themselves without a second of hesitation to protect you
Very cuddly with long soft thick fur
Very intelligent and excellent at gauging emotions
Absolutely outstanding with toddler DS
Very calm, sensible dogs even when young
Not food motivated at all
Extremely, obsessively protective of their family including other non human family members
They are happiest when lounging around with their family
They have excellent judgement of threats vs non threats and are very capable of making assessments of situations

Cons:
They are a big responsibility to train and manage, they can be catastrophic in the wrong hands
They have to be impeccably trained as at 15, 17 and 18 stone respectively they are strong dogs.
They hate everyone and everything not part of their family, although can be taught to tolerate others with cold suspicion
The shedding, never seen anything like it!

Fila Brasiliero
Same pros and cons as our Caucasians except she doesn't shed much.

I adore our dogs, they've saved my life several times.

I had to google Caucasian Ovcharka and Fila Brasileiro - holy cow that is a lot of dog

Hats off to you!

Thanks, they're all rescue dogs but we have experience with the breeds. We own a ranch though so have the perfect set up for three huge hearth rug velcro dogs!

Two rescued English Springers. Working type

Pros. Lovely size good company. Love playing . Loyal. Brill bed warmers.
So easy to train once they trust you. One took 18 months to house train.
Beautiful
Cuddly

Cons. Nothing tires them. Thieving b@&&£rs Eat anything while settling mobile phones. Glasses. Blood sugar checker.

Love water the dirtier the better.
Mud magnets

However both where mentally and physically abused and have deep issues so are forgiven

I'm reading this thread with interest as thinking of getting a dog again. Possibly a collie. The caucasian orchards look fantastic!
Our old dog was a gsd/collie cross.
Pros
Daft as a brush
Really placId
Good on long walks
Affectionate
Loved everyone
Independent minded

Cons
Terrible food thief
Stubborn
Independent minded
The shedding. I could have stuffed duvets with his fur.

wire haired fox terrier

Cons
She is mental

Pros
She is mental!

Tri-colour sheltie

Pros:
-extremely bright- quick to train
-Very pretty
-Clean
-Although a mini collie- doesn't need quite so much exercise
loyal
-Extremely good fierce sounding house dog but will shut up when told.
-cuddly- can sit on your lap without squashing you!
-Great with kids

• doesn't need as much grooming as you might think.

Cons:
-Can be a bit skittish
Sometimes mistakes humans for sheep and will attempt to"round" them up!
-Moults twice a year (has a double coat so lots of fluffy tumble weed to be found in random corners around the house!)
-Will sit for hours not touching food given to her until she is told she can have it BUT would happily jump up on the table and scoff your entire dinner when your back is turned!

Florriesma there are some collie/GSD puppies on the Many Tears website - just saying

Greyhound. Funny, chilled, smart, loving, gentle, intuitive, graceful, beautiful. His cons are just him, not the breed, nervy of children and nervy of noises. Nervy around other dogs but he wasn't, he was super friendly. Two unprovoked attacks in one year have made him frightened of other dogs.

No longer have dogs but grew up with Irish wolfhounds and have had a rescue GSD

wolfhounds
Pros

Very gentle dogs - no aggression with people/ other dogs ( sheep - another matter)
Ours didn't bark or growl much - mostly yawned
Sleep most of the day - they are dash and crash dogs ( one longish walk was enough with access to outside.
Can pet them without leaning down ( ours used to go to visit care homes)
No shedding
Oddly, didn't need as much space as people think after puppy stage- i found my GSD took up more space as he was constantly moving around the house
people do look at them/ you

Cons
Their tails can clear coffee tables
Good training is a must - 13 stone jumping up isn't funny
Useless guard dogs although many people won't try just in case
People do look at them to the point where ours got flummoxed by the cyclists who didn't slow down and look at her
Farts can be overpowering
Can steal food very easily
Huge poos
Couldn't take them near sheep despite loads of training

GSD ( rescue - he was a failed guard dog in Africa)

Pros
Lovely character as a pet - a genuinely nice dog
Hysterically funny with the cat ( they had a love hate relationship)
Although a complete scardy cat/ chicken - no one else knew that and he did keep people away/ made me feel safe
Looked stunning after a bath

Cons

Shedding - I had fur floating everywhere
Ate everything possible and constantly broke into the bins
Had serious attachment issues - couldn't go anywhere without him
Hated being bathed so the garden and me got soaked as well
Was terrified of everything - black men especially which was somewhat challenging where I lived

Would love a dog but work full time so completely unfair on dog. Keep dreaming though.

Mongrel terrier type dog. Part Jack Russell, part Norfolk terrier (we think)

Pros

Loving, loyal, gorgeous
Good guard dog (yapper)
Likes a snooze during the day
Clever
Loves cuddles
Isn't always on the hunt for grub like some breeds

Cons

Sheds a bit
Always on red alert to bark at a leaf that has the temerity to drop in her garden.

And a bit clingy. Mopes a bit if we go away for a couple of days.

Terrier X here (possibly with westie, possibly jack Russell no-ones sure!)

Pros

So affectionate. Loves nothing more than cuddling up to us. Spends every night pressed up against my back.
Always up for a walk or a play at the drop of a hat.
So much fun to train (with the promise of treats of course!)
Goes bananas when one of us comes home. Nothing better after a shitty day at work than seeing her happy little face.
So friendly with people, though this could be seen as a con. Probably not a lot of help in the event of me being mugged.

Cons

Barks at everything. Fireworks, postman, window cleaner, birds flying past, next door going into their garden (though I think this has a lot to do with the previous neighbours having two dogs)
Doesn't like being left or being alone, cue massive amounts of guilt when I go out.

All in all the pros massively outweigh the cons!

Bull terriers. Have had standard English, mini bull and staffies. And am third generation of my family to have bull terriers although my grandad and dad only had the English BTs.

Pros

They're clowns. Like to make you laugh. Do ridiculous things.

Sit on the sofa like humans sometimes, with a paw on the arm-rest and back against back of chair.

Affectionate. They definitely are people dogs - prefer humans to other animals although mine have been fine with cats and bunnies.

Intelligent. But nature does throw you the odd curve-ball with a thicko. My favourite ever dog was the stupidest BT I have ever known.

Great with kids. I gre up dressing up y huge English BT in tutus and carting her round the garden in a wheelbarrow. Totally fine with it.

Cons

English and mini bulls - show-stopping looks. I used to find it hard walking my mini in town because we were stopped by people wanting to talk and admire her, or ask questions every few metres... Not such a problem with a bog standard staffy. You get all the advantages of a bull terrier without that downside.

Not a fan of other dogs. Although some of them are fine. My current staffy/JRT cross is fine with other dogs - a bit scared of them if anything.

They don't live to be 80.

grew my

Doh!

I have a Weimaraner and Weimaraner x viszla.

Pros:
Affectionate, enthusiastic, energetic and highly trainable. Also very unusual looking and I think beautiful.

Cons:
All cons are the flip side of their pros.
Being the centre of two large dogs' universe can be a little wearing at times. I never do anything alone. Likewise, their enthusiasm and energy takes some getting used too as they are not calm dogs and get overexcited at absolutely everything. They learn bad habits as fast as good, so you have to be so on the ball with their training or they walk all over you. And those pale eyes staring at me all the time is unnerving.

Would never be without the furry maniacs!

Here she is

Awww, look at that smile! Gorjus.

Pug

Pros: he loves EVERYONE. People, kids, other dogs...he is just a big ball of love. And so damn cute that everyone loves him back. A huge clown, makes us laugh all the time. Definitely a lapdog, nothing better than cuddling up to him when you are feeling a bit blue.

Cons: The farts. The stubbornness. The bulgy eyes that get ulcers quite often.

I'd just like to second what Dieu said up-thread that you do need to be wary of breed generalisations.

Along with my Affenpinschers I have a Mini Schnauzer. She was my first dog and I did my homework and went for a breed that is supposed to be pretty easy going and a good dog for a novice.

What I actually got was the seriously terrier end of the spectrum. Independent, confident, high prey drive, bright as a button, digging, chewing escape artist, always looking for adventure and definitely the noisiest dog on the planet.

She's 9 now, still mad as a box of frogs and showing no signs of growing up. Of course we love her but she wasn't what I was hoping for/expected from the breed!

Here are my 3, 1 faulty Mini Schnauzer and my 2 Affens.

Whippet

Pros:
She doesn't bark and yap all the time
She is calm in the house
She is lazy and snoozes all day and can take or leave a walk if the weather is awful.
She was a breeze to house train
Shes snuggly warm at night
She didn't damage anything in the house.

Cons:
She is a thief and can reach everything
Sometimes when she is out her drive takes over and recall goes out of the window
She demands to be on the furniture

Oh and another Dalmatian con:

The whippy tail. By Christ it hurts. OldGirl never stops wagging, even when she's sad she's just doing slightly slower wags. When she's happy she leaves bruises on your legs, and knocks over everything that she has her back to. I no longer have pots or ornaments. No point