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Breed advice please

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martinc

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Hi,
We're thinking of a dog for the family and hope you can offer some advice.

  • I work from home most of the time, so it wouldn't be alone
  • Couple of kids in the house (7 and 3) and another couple every other weekend (9 and 5)
  • Live on the edge of a small village, fields behind etc
  • Keen to have a dog that also is good security (burglar deterrent!)
  • We're keener on larger dogs (above knee high being a good rule of thumb)
  • Not afraid of exercise
  • My preference would be dogs of the husky/alsatian type
  • My OH would prefer not too much shedding or drooling!
  • Mainly looking for a great addition to the family
  • Would prefer if could tolerate a cat in the house too - thinking of getting both? Good idea? Get them together when both young?

Any thoughts and advice much appreciated and particularly pros/cons of certain breeds.

TIA!
 
Haven't had much experience with them but I had heard that labradoodles are great pets and I do believe they have low shedding too. Another great first family pet is a Labrador they are really friendly but I have heard they can be a bit naughty but they are really intelligent dogs, hence why they are used as guide dogs. When I was younger we had an Old English Sheepdog and he was amazing and so well behaved. They are really long haired dogs and they need a lot of grooming but we solved that by having him shaved :3
 
Rhodesian ridgebacks are good with kids, don't shed or smell, energetic outside, but chilled in the home, and they are great guard dogs. Not sure about compatibility with cats, though.
 
As a Beagle I would agree with the Labradoodle comment. My friend is a doodle. They are very well natured and they shed very little being cross poodle. They are also good guard dogs and easy to train. PS They love their food. another possible alternative is a Giant schnauzer if you want a really big dog but again they are good tempered and don't shed.
 
If you've got an issue with shedding then that's an issue for German Shepherd, Belgian Shepherd and other similar breeds. GSDs only moult once a year, but unfortunately it lasts about 360 days ;) There are ways around this, like a monthly going over with a Furminator, but even then you'll buy a very good vacuum cleaner if you've got a GSD.

Everything else on your list makes me think that GSD is exactly what you're looking for, however. As far as being good for security goes, GSDs have a bark that could wake the dead even when they're happy, and your children will be perfectly safe from bullies if the bullies meet you out and about with your dog a few times ;)

If you have fields around the back of your house the only situation in which I'd recommend a husky is if you can make your garden into a prison camp- they're incredibly good at escaping, they have a huge prey drive and when they get out without a lead most of them run and run for miles a day, so most of them spend their entire lives never getting to exercise without a lead outside of their own garden. That means that if they walk 10 miles a day then so do you. At least with a GSD most of them have very good recall and are likely to be good at retrieving, playing frisbee or playing other games to give them a safe way of letting off steam off lead.

If you're going to consider a gun dog then you need to understand that they usually have a lot more energy than GSD, mastiff and bull breed types, and border collies have similar high energy, so although you're up for lots of exercise, there's exercise and then there's a LOT of exercise, after which the dog comes home, has a drink and then bounces up and down waiting to go out again. I'm sure that springer spaniel owners will be nodding in agreement at this point.

If you do like to exercise and you are looking for small animal compatibility I think that rules out all but the most unusual sighthound. I do know sighthounds that live with cats, but they are very much the exception to the rule. They're also complete couch potatoes apart from a quick walk twice a day and a 5 minute blast around the garden at 90 mph a few times a week, so if your vision includes family hikes then the chances are that it won't be with a sighthound.

My GSD has reared somewhere between 50 and 100 kittens (we've lost count now) and lives happily with 4 cats who live here permanently, and a whole host of them who have boarded here over the years. She absolutely adores children and in the grand scheme of things will look after children, even children she doesn't know, ahead of me. That can be an issue if the child who has squealed (and who therefore needs to be checked, out and nuzzled a bit) is terrified of being approached by a GSD with her best mothering behaviour, but being a clever dog, she asks permission before approaching anybody and has good manners.

As well as talking breed, I think you do need to bear in mind the cost aspect of having a bigger dog, well before you get to the cost of acquisition of the dog. Everything (and I do mean everything) at least doubles in cost when you have a giant breed, which is most breeds bigger than a GSD. They also generally have a much shorter life than smaller dogs, so if you were to have a St Bernard for instance (which you won't, because of the drool thing, but just as an example) they spend the first 3 years of their life being considered puppies, with you taking care of their growing bones and joints, but their average lifespan is only 8-9 years, with very few of them surviving into double figures. Joint and bone issues are sufficiently common that you need insurance unless you have really deep pockets (thousands for a cruciate ligament repair, for instance) but the insurance can run to £100 a month really easily too.

Lifespan generally increases as you go down the sizes to smaller dogs, but some breeds are a lot healthier than others and most breeds have both breed specific congenital issues and general risks from being large breed. For instance, there's a disease called CDRM which over 90% of cases are reported in GSDs or other relative breeds and they're very prone to anal furunculosis and epilepsy, but they're also prone to hip and joint issues in the same way as other large breeds.

If you're going to get a large breed dog and you're not going to adopt a rescue then PLEASE buy responsibly and only get from a breeder where you can see the health reports, hip scores and temperament assessments of both parents, and where you can meet mum with the litter, and hopefully get to meet dad (although dad is likely to live with another breeder). A cross breed may be healthier than a purebred, but in the same way that they may inherit less of the breed-specific health problems, they may also inherit the breed-specific health problems from BOTH constituent breeds, so the hip scores and health reports are just as important.

I hope you find the right breed and the right dog for you :)
 
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