Aussies4life

Hello All, I am new to the forum

All my dogs have been rescues except one, which we currently still have. The rest I rehabbed and placed into permanent forever homes. The one we still have we got when he was 10 weeks old and he will be 2 in the spring...hes an australian shepherd. We chose the breed just because it fits our lifestyle (we have horses and ride lots) and we wanted a dog that could keep up and be as excited to go out for a ride as we are. We love this breed because they are extremely smart and very easy to train. Our aussie back talks if we leave him at home for some reason...its like we never hear the end of it..lol..hes quite a talker. They are fantastic dogs for children and also great protectors. We will always have an aussie in our family thats for sure!

xie

I wanted a big dog, couldn't drool, good with people generally, some watch dog instincts but not guardy, definitely a velcro type dog, and good with children. They also had to have a decent life expectancy. Any giant breed's life expectancy is going to be shorter than a smaller dog but I was looking for breeds that I could reasonably expect to make it past 8 or 9.

That lead me to two breeds, the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and the Leonberger, so I have one of each, lol!

My leo is by far one of the easiest dogs I have ever owned. She's smart, fun, and rarely ever puts a paw wrong. Velcro all the way, happily comes and stays by me wherever I am.

My swissy is a bit on the stubborn side, very smart but doesn't necessarily use her intelligence for good, looooooooves her family and good but aloof with strangers unless she gets bad vibe. Definitely more challenging (in a fun way mostly) and I'm more likely to point out her bad points to someone who likes her looks then stress the good ones. They definitely aren't a breed for a first time dog owner.

For some insane reason as much as I adore and love my easy-going leo, my swissy is my heart dog and I hope to get a show quality boy in 2 years or so.

opokki

I picked Natalie because she was part Aussie and I thought they were "pretty". She was also part coonhound and I've always adored hounds. Turns out she is the perfect dog for me.

I picked Sookie because I wanted a dog with similar qualities to Natalie. Natalie seems to be very much like both breeds in her Aussie/Redbone coonhound. I wanted a dog bred to work closely with people, that would likely be good at agility, and that would be enjoyable to pet...an Aussie seemed to fit the bill. I'm so happy with her, I can't wait to add another one to my family sometime in the future.

Elocin87

Charlie was an impulse buy that my dad made when we were in Louisiana visiting family (my dad does this a lot). My family's last dog Minnie was a lab mix we got for free and my grandparents and my cousin both had labs so we were familiar with the breed.
Basically awhile ago my cousin and his wife decided to breed their lab and they had Charlie. He was the last one left in the litter. While we were visiting my cousin brought his dog over and that was it. I thought this was funny since my dad says you should never pay for a dog (he did get Charlie pretty cheap; basically his price covered his puppy shots and food). My cousin is having a baby so I think he has had enough of breeding (he looked really worn out and just laughed when asked if he was breeding again). He loved each and every one of the puppies though and said he was sad to see them all go to new homes. He did a lot of research before he bred and had the parents genetically tested and everything he thought he was supposed to do but he said nothing he read could have prepared him for the amount of work raising puppies was and he had no idea that his dog would have 10 puppies. I think he was well intended but under prepared, but Charlie needed a home and we needed a dog
Charlie's parents both have wonderful personalities too. They are very smart and surprisingly calm so we had an idea of what we were getting into.

I come from a hard core big dog farm family so Charlie fit that description. His mom likes to go fishing/ swimming/ anything rough and although it is far off we (well me ) were looking for a dog to train for water sports and/or agility so Charlie has the drive and energy to do this (still working on fetching the correct item though) and I can't wait until it's warmer and I can train him to fetch from the water!

minpinkiller

I always loved dobermans and still is one of my favorite breeds. However, I am a college student, so I wouldn't be able to "afford" such a big dog and its needs. In addition I live in an apartement so a big dog would not feel comfortable is such a small place. The third reason is that I am not so experienced in order to train a dog like a doberman. Therefore, I chose my Miniature Pinscher, which looks like a dobe (at least in appearence). I love my min pin cause is smart like a devil, he thinks that he is a big dog, despite the fact that he weighs 2.5 kilos, and also I love that energy of his! He just can't help it not provoking me to chase him around the house!

Truckindogmom

Well I have had alot of mutts growing up that showed up at our house and I loved them all. Charlie came to me by way of a friend of mine that I know takes in unwanted dogs and then finds them homes. I mentioned to her I was going to go back to truck driving and was going to be looking for a small to medium size dog to go on the road with me. Then she emailed me a picture of Charlie (Dachshund Mix) and I fell in love with him went to meet him and just knew I had to have him. : )
I have had or currently have and would love to own again some day Rotti, German Shephard, and Toy Poodle, Dachshund. Have not had but love the breed and would love to have one day Doberman, and APBT.

ShihTzuMOMMY

I own 2 shih tzus and I chose them, well because they are just plain adorably cute, love at first sight.

After living with them for quite some time, I'm glad I made that decision. They may require more care than usual but they are LOYAL.

pawsforthought

well i own two Aussies. it's funny because we're definitely big dog people. we were thinking of getting a Bullmastiff, and we nearly adopted a RottieXGSD but that fell through because of an already paid for holiday.

anyway we go to the isle of wight (just off the coast of south England) at least once a year, we love it there. we went there about three years ago, and we went to robin hill and my mum saw a young puppy that she just fell in love with instantly. she asked what he was and the woman said he was an australian shepherd. she also said that although the breed is fairly rare here, she got him from not too far away- from right there on the island

we researched the breed a lot. i looked the breed up in books and on the internet. i did some searching, and managed to find the breeder on the isle of wight. we phoned up and asked about the breed, and she was more than happy to make sure we knew everything about them before we got one.

soon after, the breeder had a litter of puppies. we went to meet the parents and the pups (who were raised in the home with the family - two adults, their daughter and their cat) and we had to have one then. the parents were so dopey and lovely (and beautiful) we chose a beautiful blue merle boy (in my avatar!) and never looked back.

we remained close friends with the breeder, and they had a litter recently. same parents as Monty's (blue merle boy) so they're fully related in that sense. we chose a black tri male NBT and he has been a lovely addition! Monty and his new brother Woody love each other and can't stop playing (which is a bit bad at the moment, due to woody being injured)

GreatDaneMom

i thought i originally wanted a min pin... but they really didnt suit me....

i looked into great danes a lot, also some other large breeds, newfies, saints, grt. pyrs, etc. most had too much hair for me! lol. i also had a one bedroom apartment, so i wanted something that did well in apartments. i ended up on danes. fell in LOVE with the breed. my boyfriend wasnt so keen on it though, he didnt really want a "big dog". then we went to go to and look at a litter of danes. we instantly fell in love with the same one. and now shes my mans baby girl. somehow.... someway.... we ended up getting another one. ok maybe i had something to do with that...

anyway, i probably will ALWAYS own atleast one dane, i really would like to have 4, but at the moment we just dont have that kind of room i would also like to have an english mastiff at some point.... and a pharoh hound.... and a bloodhound.... and a... ok im done...

Tine2105

My parents have owned Shih Tzus for 20 years, and I love them. They are sweet and loyal and friendly and small, which I think are all appropriate for my life style!