But worth quoting if you don't mine using flawed data to push your agenda....
Posted on 01/10/2014 12:51:52 PM PST by Slings and Arrows
Have you ever been out in public, minding your own business, simply walking your dog, and people start moving to the other side of the street in fear? There are many dog breeds that don't deserve the bad rap society places upon them. Perhaps your dog is one of the breeds or mixed mutts that get a bad rap.
Dogs of certain breeds are not born dangerous by default. This, coupled with breed legislation, media focus on particular breeds, and the sensationalizing of certain incidents of attack have lead to an overall generalizing that ultimately hurts a dog, and may cost him his life.
-snip-
1. Pit Bull: Sadly, this breed has taken on more criticism and warnings than most other breeds in recent years. Often labeled as vicious, untrustworthy, and in possession of locking jaws, the Pit Bull tops our list as receiving a bad rap. According to the American Temperament Test Society, Pit Bulls ranked second in reliability overall. In other words: This original "nanny breed" is not the problem, but the way he is trained may be the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
Lock both of them in the trunk of a car for an hour. When you open it up, guess which one is glad to see you.
Not in Canada...any idea why that might be...?
Probably because that far north most dogs have hair, malamute, eskimo, akita, St Bernard, GS.
exactly...and what does that tell you?
Listen to yourself and think....
‘half the dogs in shelters are “pit bulls” but they only make up 4.4.% of the population.’
...and again dogsbite.org LIES and Clifton is a KOOK
We have a Beagle and he always has to be supervised. They do follow the nose and then a mile down the road they look up and they are lost. Our Alpha dog is a Chihuahua. Not a mean bone in her body but she is stand offish until she gets to know someone. She will eat the UPS guy. :-)
But worth quoting if you don't mine using flawed data to push your agenda....
No clue but these numbers are from the US government center for disease control. Dog bites that require medical attention and K-9 homicides are mandatory report situations here.
Yes, and as with the Bulldog, Bull Terrier and Boston Terrier, they CAN have the poor behavior bred out while keeping the look of the breed. If I knew a PBT was from the show lines and circuit I’d be much more assured of his character. But 1 never knows unless at a show.
Nothing wrong with protection training, per se. It’s just the fact that to stand the training, breeders strive for traits that can go too far. Many dogs that take the training are good, solid dogs. The problem is when they have siblings who are TOO “hard”. They still end up in the gene pool because the breeders think they have good traits or don’t see the bad until too late - puppies long since were produced.
Not shocking the dog likes females, especially when raised by 1. Happened with my sister’s male GS each time. Except they loved our male close family - our dad, my husband, etc.
My own females...well, the current doesn’t count. She loves EVERYone. My most wonderful dog prior, was very much attached to me, female. But I don’t think she showed preference for either amongst strangers. Had a pup who wasn’t around long enough to know. My first ever did not seem to care, either. Maybe females treat everyone with equanimity.
I totally agree. But I’m very biased.
I like a natural outline. No, black/tan isn’t purely natural compared to wolves, but the conformation is natural, even the fur. And I like prick ears, the look of intelligence. Drop ears just don’t look smart.
Oh my. They may share family, but a Mastiff is not a Bullmastiff is not a Presa Canario or certainly not a squat little Pit Bull Terrier.
Obviously. And yet Clifton is dusted off and cited seriously when people want to push the agenda against pits.
I don’t know this guy, but a stopped clock is right twice a day.
My Irish Wolfhound would sit like that, too. This guy lived up to the "Gentle Giant" tag that Wolfhounds have been given - the only thing intimidating about him was his size. Within a minute, even the most intimidated of small children would warm up to the Wolfhound. I have never seen any living thing which radiated good intentions more than this dog did. What a lover. People would always comment on how carefully he moved around children and my frail grandmother. It was so noticeable when compared to his normally rambunctious behavior. I wish I lived where I had enough space to adequately keep an IW.
Standard Poodles are allegedly one of if not the most intelligent breeds.
Poodle fanciers, I have been told (and have one experience proving this) are Sociopaths.
“The main downside I see to GSD’s is that purebred examples don’t live very long.”
Not trying to be too picky here, but if it wasn’t a purebred GSD, it wouldn’t be a GSD. Mixes don’t count as members of the breed, by definition.
Also, your generalization is not necessarily true. Most GSDs live to be in the 10-14 year range. Some bloodlines are more, some are less. If you prefer longevity, you need to look for breeders that select for that in their bloodlines.
What you may be thinking of is dogs that die of cancer, which is becoming more and more the main cause of death in dogs. That can strike at any age, but most I have seen tend to be in the 5-10 year range.
“There is so much bad information on dog breeds, dog temperament, breeding, and the effect of training to successfully accomplish behavioral modification it’s mind boggling.”
Yep. A lot of people are just plain stupid/ignorant when it comes to dogs and training. My wife and I breed GSDs, and my wife also has a dog training/behavior modification business, and it still amazes me what people do to their dogs, either through ignorance, or just plain stupidity.
A lot of people don’t need dog or cats: they aren’t fit to care for them.
We screen prospective clients before we will place a dog with them. If you are a responsible breeder, you have to do that, to ensure that you are not placing a dog in an unsafe or unstable environment; and to be sure that the dog is appropriate for what your clients are looking for. We turn away a lot of prospective clients.
You have no idea how much I want to pull a "Fixed it" to that statement... I am just too lazy to troll around the interwebs on my phone for the actual data on 0bama sons' assault and homicide stats.
You are right in that most of the larger breeds of dogs only live to the 10-14 year range. Just a function of size, mainly.
However, as to your question of “American show GS” dying very young, you are right, to an extent. It goes to what they are bred for (or not bred for). These dogs are bred only to move in a specific manner in the rings, and not to be physically sound overall; nor to have trainability and intelligence; nor to have a work ethic. A lot of breeders don’t follow the European model of passing specific physical tests prior to being considered for breeding (i.e. hip and elbow certification; eye and heart certification, etc.). Additionally, to have long-lived dogs, you have to breed for that trait, and not a lot of breeders do.
So, you end up with physically unsound dogs with no genetics for long life, and with a lot of genetics for medical problems. Not a good combination...
To be fair, you also see this in other breeds, mainly the popular ones (i.e. Labs, Goldens, etc.). Popularity can be a problem.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.