Posted on 05/05/2026 11:13:32 AM PDT by libstripper
Bringing a dog into your life is a big commitment, especially when it comes to large dog breeds. While they can be loyal, loving companions, they also come with unique challenges that aren’t always obvious at first glance. Size, strength, temperament and health needs all play a major role in whether a big dog is the right fit for your lifestyle. That's why for new or even experienced pet parents, it's important to think beyond a pet's appearances and popularity. Just because a giant dog is well-known or beautiful doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for your home.
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Although they have a great history and have been one of the most popular breeds of dogs over the years, most vets I know would not want to own a German Shepherd. This is a large dog breeds to avoid for a few reasons. One of those has to do with their behavior, with the most common trait being aggression, which is usually caused by them not being socialized at an early age.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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Hmpf. I have a Cavalier. I sleep in a cage because I fear she will rip my neck off in my sleep. She’s a viscous dog.
Is it a true statement that German Shepherds are rarely found in shelters?
I know people who volunteer at shelters, and of course, there’s lots of pitbulls (from the ghetto) and then a lot of small dogs
But they say they never see German Shepherds.
I love Labs but I would never have one as a house pet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They are wonderful dogs, but they can and will eat anything, including gloves, socks, and other assorted things. I have many unsavory stories about what our Lab ingested over the years. He never chewed on furniture, but don’t leave a shoe lying around.
They also have a thick coat of fur and they shed a blizzard of fur.
The primary Superpower that Labs display is the ability to sweep clean a coffee table with valuables on it with a mighty swipe of its muscular tail.
That and find smelly things to roll in.
I almost forgot the supernatural begging ability.
And oh yeah, the impossibility of keeping them from leaping into a body of water!
I once bought my sister-in-law a beautiful pair of (expensive!) paddock boots. Their Sheltie pretty much ate them up; but their Lab was one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever known.
My dad wanted a German Shepherd his whole life, and about five years before he passed on, he finally got one which he named “Kessie”.
My dad spoiled that dog to no end, and my mother was so stern with it that the dog would poop on command in a sandy area my mother had set up for just that purpose. I walked in one day, and my dad had left her on the porch where he was watching television to go get something to eat. When I walked in, her entire snout was buried in my dad’s coffee cup just lapping the strong coffee out! I was dumbfounded, and my dad walked in while the dog was in mid-slurp, and she didn’t even pause....my dad (an old Navy guy who lived on coffee and cigarettes) grinned at me and said “That’s my girl!” Poor Kessie, she didn’t live long after my dad died. She just pined away for him.
I have a story about one German Shepherd that I encountered when I lived in Japan as a kid. My dad was stationed at the big Navy base in Yokosuka, and we lived in a large building that used to be a parachute hanger. There were six or eight units, each one was huge. My friend, David Vasquez, lived five units over. His dad was an accomplished plastic surgeon, and with all the wounded being flown in from Vietnam, he was a busy man.
They had an enormous German Shepherd named, appropriately enough, “Sigfried”. He was a massive dog, and I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say he was the biggest German Shepherd I have ever seen, even to this day. His family would tie his leash to the window of the family station wagon and drive around the neighborhood as the dog trotted beside the car.
That dog scared the crap out of me.
He attacked and bit my brother when my brother chased my friend’s older brother into the yard (presumably to engage in fisticuffs) The dog leaped at him and my brother had his forearm up in time, and the dog gave him a good bite in it, but was called off immediately by the kid my brother was chasing. He must have been a well trained dog. Those were the days when, if a dog bit a kid, the first impulse was not to put the dog down, but to ask what the kid had been doing to get bit, which is likely what my parents did.
When I used to walk over to visit my friend, I had to walk past the dog, which they kept chained in the front yard, and the sidewalk and front door were well within the radius of the chain. That dog would just lay there, erect, head and ears up, completely motionless, watching me with an unblinking stare as I walked by it. You better believe I stared right back, not taking my eyes off of him for even a second. He never ran at me, but that didn’t make me feel any safer.
Anyway, one morning Dr. Vasquez was out running with the dog, and his route was probably several miles long. It took him right past all the huge drydocks that the Japanese navy had built leading up to WWII, and that the US Navy used to perform repairs on their ships.
There was one drydock that was large enough to fit our biggest aircraft carriers in. Interesting story, It was the dry dock where the IJN Shinano was built in WWII, the first real super carrier. She was built on the hull of a Yamato class battleship and had a displacement of 72,000 tons, nearly the size of the later Forrestal class carriers. She was sunk by the USS Archerfish, and after the war ended, the Archerfish was one of the first vessels getting some repairs in that very same drydock. As she sat there, the very same workers who had built the Shinano eyed her with open hostility. The captain of the Archerfish, seeing that this might not be a good thing, decided to take the bull by the horns, and invited the Japanese shipworkers to take a tour of the boat. It broke the ice perfectly.
Back to 1968, that was the very same drydock that Dr. Vasquez was jogging by with this huge German Shepherd at the end of the leash, though the drydock was empty and drained.
For no reason, the dog suddenly bolted and took off, causing Dr. Vasquez to fall and be dragged helplessly behind the dog because his wrist was completely entangled in the leash. As the dog ran directly at the huge drydock he was able to free his wrist before the dog leaped into the gaping man-made canyon.
Amazingly, the dog appeared to survive the long fall with no visible injury. The next day, in the Stars and Stripes, the paper on the front page in Yokosuka, Japan was of this huge drydock with a speck of a German Shepherd all alone, standing at the bottom. Just amazing.
Same here. I'm 67, and I've been bitten hard twice in my life, and it was German Shepherds both times. Still love em though - very smart and usually sweet - until they're not....
My all time favorite dog is the American Shepard - sometimes called a mini Australian Shepard
same personality, just a bit smaller
I’ve owned 3 GSDs. The first 2 were in N.Z.- both friendly teddy bears. The 3rd was from E. German blood lines, and despite being taken to the local university as a puppy to socialize several times a week, he was fiercely protective, and could “smell” bad intent. He could be fine watching kids walk past, then suddenly one would trigger him. I had to totally stop walking him after puppyhood. I even worked with a pro trainer who had no problems, but when the dog was with me, no one was getting near me. He was wonderful security though with my husband flying overseas and gone extensively, leaving me alone with a child. I knew I’d have time to get the safety off my gun.
RE: hip dysplasia- my 2nd developed a bad limp. Our N.Z. vet told us to give him Green Lipped Mussel (proven to rebuild cartilage in dogs). Within a week the limp was gone. It’s fantastic for age related arthritis. My husband said he’d start to notice it when he stopped taking it. I take it daily and think it led to avoiding ACL surgery and allowing me to be able to dance at 67 despite a bad knee injuring from skydiving. The study in dogs was done in N.Z., and few heard about it for years in the U.S. as a breakthrough, which I blame Big Pharma for- mussels are a food that can’t be patented so no money for them.
The dog I wouldn’t own- a Mastiff, or any brachycephalic dog. I just reunited a foster with it’s family after a year of no sleep at night due to the loud snoring. It took a massive toll on life. There was no where in the house it couldn’t be heard. A year of cat naps it no way to live.
I’ve had black labs since childhood. My current one is purebred and close-stock to the St. Johns waterdog. She has the chest medallion, white between the paws, top of paws and at the tip of her tail. Smart as all.
When she figured I could understand her she wouldn’t shut up for 3 days. I had to ignore her to get her to stop yapping. Head up or bark means “Yes”. Head turned to the side means “No”. Lots of human expressions and eye gestures so easy to read.
Great dogs to have as companions.
Only dogs I ever had were large. 60+ lbs is good. Anything below knee high is as useless as a cat.... they’re dog wannabes with annoying yips and barks.
With the exception of pitbulls there’s nothing wrong with most large dogs. The problems are with the handlers.
Yes I hate cats, they shxt in a box in your house, lick their azzes and walk all over the countertops and tables.
The last 2 big dogs I had one lasted 17 years and ther other 12 years. Never went to the vets which is a death sentence in my book. They were mostly house dogs, stayed off the furniture and beds and on the floor or their bed where they belonged, behaved well, never left the property and never on a leash. They were very protective and were treated very well.
Energy including a tongue that is like being slapped with a wet sponge. I have a keen dislike for them.
Belgian Malinois are now the number one choice for police dogs ... extremely intelligent animals ... really cool to watch them perform on police shows ...
I dunno. I love shepherds.
My favorite mix of dog is GSD and black lab. Used to be able to find them at shelters all the time.
My current canine Auxiliary Dog (thanks PJ O’Rourke) #2 was supposed to be 50 or 60 pound lab mix. His parentage was sketchy but at 11 weeks he was not overly large.
He went from eating wallboard to being served the finest homemade stew and frozen chicken thighs, and he grew.
By 8 months he was topping 100 pounds. My vet said he was the strongest dog he ever met. Jones (the dog) was not cooperative in any way and refused training. But gosh was he sweet.
He did get housebroke in very short order and he did learn STOP.
I sent away for a DNA kit for him. That labeled him as Pyrenees, Bernese, Golden, Staffie, Boxer, and a little bit unknown.
5 dog trainers ghosted us. The last one said
Jones is not motivated by anything, to do anything Jones does not want to do.
He’s 8 or 9 now, still sweet, still untrainable. Listens when he thinks it’s a good idea. Hubs “walks” him. Or Jones drags hubs around the neighborhood.
Jones wrecked the knees of hubs and my #1 dog, Penny.
I’d still give him to a farm if I found one but I do love him to bits.
My Toby is a pure knucklehead, but I make sure to pay attention to his movements and behavior when I play with him.
The German was from East German bloodlines. He was the most intelligent, most obedient dog I've ever owned.
The Belgian was one of the sweetest dogs I've ever owned. He had a strong drive to please, and was a little needy when it came to getting attention, but as gentle as the lambs he was bred to protect.
The Dutch Shepherd was an outright psychopath.
Unlike pit bulls, I think german shepherds are actually trainable so if raised nice, they don’t turn. Never know with a pit no matter how nice you start.
For some unfathomable reason, white shepherds don’t fit the mold. They’re not trainable in the sense of being turned into bomb sniffers, but they are more docile. I have a relative with one who can be pushed around on their tile floor by anyone when it doesn’t feel like getting up. Contractors doing work on their place get a kick out of moving it out of the way.
Another relative had a shepherd great-dane mix. Looked shepherd but giant. Very friendly. My relative had it on their front porch figuring it’d bark when I showed up and I had never met it. I called out to it as soon as it barked and just walked right up to it and it propped itself on my shoulders and licked my face.
Our never barks, is a total snuggle bunny, and loves all animals including bunnies. They are also the most stinking cute puppies too!
Is that the same as the Bernese Mountain Dog? I met a lady who bred those, and two of her dogs. They were very sweet.
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