Standard Poodles. All the brains and playfulness of a poodle, without the whining yap yap yap. Smart, too. Mine opens doors, turns on the TV with the remote, and is still trying to read the newspaper with me.
He likes TV. Especially soccer and nature shows about bears. And I’m entirely sure he can see what’s on the screen, because he reacts to it. For example, a few Westminsters back, he’s watching, barking for the occasional dog, and then the standard poodle pops up. And he charges the TV, and tries to climb inside it, barking eagerly.
Turns out (Winner for that year) was his uncle… same sire and dam as his father.
Poodles are darn good at figuring things out, too. He’s taught himself all sorts of tricks. Useful ones, too, like “Find X”. Fastest way to find another family member short of the cell phone. Inside, outside, neighbor’s house, he’s there.
Also figured out a neat way to catch squirrels. See, we have a deck. Under the deck is a garden, with a mesh screen so the deer don’t eat it. In front of the deck is a bird feeder. What he does is feint and bark at the squirrel, till it drops straight down, into the garden, then catch it as it legs it for the hills… into the screen.
He usually just smacks it with a paw a few times, though.
Best dog I ever had was a Rottweiler. You have to have the right personality and I really enjoyed it.
He was intimidating just by size and appearance but wouldn’t hurt anyone, unless you started it. Was great with the kids too. He was smart, active, absolutely beautiful dog. The one dog I could roughhouse with and not hurt him.
Spot the Wonderpup is a Dalmatian/German Shorthaired Pointer mix, so I’ve very partial to those two breeds. I generally like any mutt better than any purebreed. I just think they’re generally so much cuter.
But my favorite single breed is the Portuguese Water Dog. Porties are perfect.
I also love Greyhounds. I can’t get a rescued Greyhound, since our lifestyle is incompatible with the traits of a Greyhound. But I’m always trying to talk other people into getting one. People are surprised to learn that they can be excellent apartment dogs!
I generally like humongous dogs. The bigger the better!
And if you want to hear another story about a very intelligent Weimeraner: A friend’s family always put Wormy in their basement when they were out of the house. They could never figure out why the basement door was always cracked slightly open when they came back. It turns out that Wormy would open the door to the basement and hang out on the couch upstairs. When he heard them driving up to the house, he would get off the couch, fluff the couch cushions, and shut himself back in the basement! But he couldn’t close the door all the way behind him.
Two words - cat flap.
But I was talking about the cleanliness of the aminal it’self, not it’s surroundings. Many dogs don’t clean themselves as cats do. And even the ones that do don’t seem to do it is well
Anyone like the non-AKC breeds? I have nothing against the AKC, I love the retrievers, the herding breeds and the working dogs, just wondering if anyone have a favourite rare breed?
I already mentioned the Nova Scotial Duck Tolling Retriever. It’s accepted by the Canadian Kennel Club, but I don’t know about the AKC.
Border Collie groups have fought vehemently to keep Border Collies out of conformance competitions, and on that basis have resisted recognition in the AKC. To hard core Border Collie people, the only think that the dog should be judged on is herding ability. Everything else is irrelevant. There are a lot of dog breeds that have been seriously damaged by conformance - the German Shepherd Dog, the Golden Retriever, and the Doberman Pincsher come to mind. The Bulldog can have serious breathing problems due to excessive trait breeding for conformance.