re: Want a dog, need suggestions

Yeah, I guess I should have stated I didn't want a dog from a working line.

If someone has a suggestion for a larger breed dog, short hair, good temperament, intelligent, etc. I'm open to suggestions

I ended up with an American staff a few years back through a death. He was a good dog but the neighborhood threw fits about me having a "pit" in the neighborhood. I had friend who's pit had died and he adopted Clint.

Just read about the BMC

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This working dog should not be trusted with non-canine pets.

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No good

Don't get me wrong, that's a great looking dog and if I was single, younger or my son was older, it would be on my list.

Like I said, the staf we had was great around my kids and my cat. And the neighbors close to me knew him and had no problem with their kids coming over and playing with him. He had a bad rep because of his looks. And he his ears weren't cropped or anything.

Sorry, yeah I was.

You're the heeler guy....

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You're the heeler guy....

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Yeah.

Look, I'll just say this one more thing... over the years, I have had or been close with hounds (beagles mostly), bird dogs (brittany), lap dogs of various breeds, labradors and goldens and herding dogs (Aussie sheps and heelers, and german sheps). Some of these were mine, some my brother's, some my father's, my mother's, etc.

Labradors and Goldens are solid family dogs. Very trainable and of average intelligence. Goldens shed like a mother frick though. And I've seen some incredibly cool and some incredibly nuts labs and goldens. Its a bit of a crap shoot on what you'll get if you don't do some solid research before purchasing.

The hounds were dumb. Good dogs, but really not smart, and not particularly easy to train. Noisy as hell.

I found the German Shepards to be a little scary around visiting children. Definitely hated cats.

The Aussie Sheps were very jumpy around any strangers, and very nippy with kids.

The lap dogs were useless mostly.

But the Heelers (and this is probably true for some other herding breeds)...
I'd say they are easily as trainable as a retriever, shed less, smaller (which I wanted this go around), faster, better temperment around other dogs in general, quieter, and by far... the smartest.

That's my last plug.. but its based on my own heeler, my father's two (one of which saved his arse more than once in the pig pen from an angry sow), and my uncle's true cow dog.

Good luck in your search for a new addition to your family.

I had a lab mix when I was a little kid and she was a great dog. Her only fault was the shedding.

Sounds like you already have your mind made up.

Last time I'm gonna say it. You won't be happy with a hound as a pet. Hounds have one thing on their mind all the time and it isn't you. I grew up surrounded by hounds and one thing none of them could be was a pet.

If you do get a hound, best of luck. They are great dogs and are damn good at what they're bred to do.

Down, I came in here open to suggestions. I appreciate all the info and I read your post aloud to my wife especially.

I got lucky with a shelter dog. Didn't even know what he was. Just knew he was a good looking dog like one I had when I was a kid and we clicked instantly. Turned out he was a BMC and he's the best dog I ever had. He does fine with pets. He does fine with everyone, but if he picks up any kind of weird level of energy coming off of you toward something he flips a switch in his head and goes protection mode. He's fine as long as you're fine, but if he senses you don't know that guy or they come up out of the blue and you aren't around to OK them, they will know instantly he's not letting them come in. He hasn't bitten anyone and I don't think would unless they were trying to hurt me or my wife and kids but I've got no doubt that if someone aggressive came in and he didn't have the "OK" on them from the family they'd be fricked.

And he'll kill and eat anything that comes in the yard that's wild. But leaves the neighbor cats alone other than just chasing them off.

I've had tons of hounds as both working dogs and pets and I'll probably never have another one. I'm BMC for life now.