What was the best dog you've had?

[Hoodoo]

Our current two guys (brother and sister) are amazing. Half Blue Heeler and the other half Dobie and Lab. The girl looks like a Heeler and the brother like a Doberman (don't know where the Lab went). A perfect combination of smarts and love!

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Schnauzers.... period... We have had minis, giants, and now a standard. (Yes, there are 3 separate breeds).
We have had mutts and other purebreds, they have all been great, but the schnauzers always come up on top.

 

[jaxs]

I’ve had 5



I’ve had 5 Australian shepherds over the past 35 years (2 at present). I’m biased because I think that on the 8th day God created AS. But seriously, these dogs are the smartest I’ve seen along with border collies. They are very easy to train and they seldom roam far from their family. They make excellent family dogs. I’ve had 4 full sized dogs and 1 miniature AS. They all have the same characteristics and personality. I’ve never seen a vicious one either, and they aren’t annoying barkers. They only bark when protecting their property from deer, coyotes or other intruders. But buy one from a reputable breeder and know that they aren’t cheap. Some poor breeders have created health problems by not using good genetic principles for breeding these dogs.

I agree with that but I disagree with this. They aren't poor breeders,they are *$!@*&% greedy scumbags operating puppy mills. IMO the pratice is immoral and sinful and should be a crime. Not many shots to the gut hurt a family more than losing their dog,not to mention misery and finacial burdon in the months leading up to finality. People that support puppy mills are morons for buying into it. I've asked countless people what they see in AKC registered animals that aren't found in unpapered animals. The 90% of their answers are what make's them morons. The main if not the only reason the 2 herd dogs stand out from the rest when viewed through critical eyes is simply because they only recently became popular as pets. Give people enough time and they will ruin Australians also. A most humble man I had the pleasure of knowing,played a large role with introducing USA to Australian herding dogs. David Hartwig and Skidboot were a match made in heaven.
I honestly can't pick a favorite animal but I've owned more English Pointers than other pointing breeds combined and I've found Shiz-Tzus to be as good of lap warmers as the next breed.

 

[Doofy]

Our Beagle "Bailey" passed away last July and we both swore "No More Pets, Ever". The death of a beloved pet is just to sad and heart-breaking.

Then, we saw this little guy and fell in love again. Sweet face and disposition to match. Mom is a Bernese Mountain Dog/Malemute mix and Dad is Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix. "Dozer" is 27 pounds at 10 weeks and is extremely smart and sociable.

 

[PILOON]

Ours was an Airdale!
-He let my son hang onto his ears as the toddler learned to walk and actually pull him back from falling, that must have hurt!
-Then he once wanted to go out for a run but when I refused to open the door he grabbed the knob, twisted it open and left with a WOOF
-When on a leash he got tangled around a newly planted shrub and barked to be untangled.
When I delayed he took thing in hand, chewed shrub off and proudly paraded back and forth showing off!

Then we had a Retriever that would sweep the coffee table clean of snacks drinks etc with her tail.
I walked her around that table in both directions once each way all while directing her tail by hand.
She sure learned fast as she never again swept the table!

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

It was a foot long chili dog at the 1964 worlds fair...!

Funny.... Yea, I got a foot long chili dog thier too! never had to train it.

 

[Citydude]

Daisy May. She was my bud.

 

[Boss 302]

I have had quite a few wonderful best friends but, I'll talk about the best coon dog that I ever walked behind. His registered name was Kansas Dancers Rock, I competition hunted him along the east coast, and we won just about every event we entered and most of the time he was high scoring dog. We qualified for the world hunt, he went from having no title to Grand Nite Champion in record time. Him and I walked many miles through the woods and we both enjoyed every bit of it, whenever he treed, he always had the coon. He passed at the early age of nine and I think about him all the time and I can still hear him treeing. Hopefully there is coon hunting in heaven, and I will see him again someday. Rest in peace my dear friend.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Got a border collie when I was young, that was trained to herd sheep. She would take verbal commands as well as motion commands. Smartess dog I ever had. I remember giving her a command one time and she just yawned and sat down, then started barking. Gave her the command again and she got up took a couple steps in the direction of the command, yawned and sat down and barked some more. I knew from watching the other dogs that this was a sign that she didn't like the command I had given her. So I walked over to see if there was something I was unaware of and there were 4 coyotes in the direction I was asking her to herd the sheep. The coyotes were on the run away from me. Dogs name was Max, short for Maxine. I cried the day I had to put her down.

 

[NoTrespassing]

I've had 2 very memorable dogs. The first was a 10 lb. mutt named ZZ. I had her for 18 years from 20 to 38. She was very smart, very trainable and very obedient.
The 2nd was Echo my Border Collie. I've had a lot of dogs but none came close to having the intelligence of that dog. Echo knew people's names, would take items by name to people by name. It's hard to explain how smart she was and most non Border Collie owners don't believe me. Echo knew the name of each room in the house, the names of at least 30 toys and would follow commands related to them. For instance, I'd put a pile of toys on the floor and tell Echo "put bone in bedroom, put dolly in living room, get tennis ball from laundry room" and she'd do it. She could learn names of objects and people in minutes and remember them basically for life. She was from working stock and I've heard there's quite a difference between working stock and AKC show dogs. Someday I'll have another but I'm worried I won't find another like her.

Kevin