re: Tell me about your dog "breed" & why their great.

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Not protective at all,loves everybody.

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Thats the best thing about hounds. They are about as close to zero bite risk as you can get.

Ive had a lot of them. My favorite was an English coonhound. Excellent coon dog and a good pet to boot. You need a lot of room though, like hundreds of acres lots of room, for a fully grown coon dog to be able to stretch his legs.

My boy is a Dutch Shepherd. Very uncommon breed in general, but especially here in the states. Cousin to the Malinois.

This boy is smart, strong, loyal beyond any dog I've ever had. He's my service dog but we also did a little with SAR in Colorado and he thrived there with that. I haven't found much he doesn't do. He will run for hours, and when I go inside he'll cuddle right up next to me till I'm ready to move. Dutchies tend to pick a person and will stick to that individual like glue. I got him at 14 weeks and he's been with me for nearly 4 years now.
They have a decent life span, 12-15ish years. You can look up the breed, they are some amazing dogs.

Amazing guard dog as well in the sense he will alert you but once I acknowledge him he goes silent. Very trainable dogs. Extremely high energy. Prey drive is off the charts.

He loves my kids and the family, and he doesn't react to our other dogs but that is his training.

We have three dogs.

Two miniature Schnauzers and a Havanese-Maltese-Poodle mix.

Positives:

No shedding
Small
Loving

Negatives:

They act like they're being murdered when someone comes over

I have a 7 year old Catahoula female. She’s balck and tan so most people think she’s a Doberman or something similar. She’s an awesome dog. I got her from an old coworker in Folsom. Her mom was a hog dog and her dad a show dog. She’s purty. She is pretty much my shadow. I’m lucky to have a job she can go with me to. She runs a few miles a day and does laps in a pond chasing dragon flies most days. She’s a damn good deer tracker. She also hates squirrels and has caught many. She could’ve been a good treeing dog if I’d had the time and place when she was a pup. She’s great with kids and super protective. She hasn’t bit anyone but has scared many. She thinks my truck is hers. Other than my wife and kids no one else can open the door. I opened the carport door to head to work this morning and an Amazon driver was setting a package down on the door mat. Probably the closest she has come to biting. I was trying to stop her and he was trying to kick her. He fell backwards over some tricycles and bikes and I got her back inside. Guess I’m hanging up some beware of dog signs later today.

Also she is the most hardheaded and loyal dog I’ve ever had. She knows right from wrong but still does wrong occasionally. Definitely takes firm guidance.

I appreciate all the responses. I'm going to end up with a pac before this is over with. Sorry I can't respond to everyone extremely busy with work but checking in periodically. Y'all are straight up it's really amazing to how dogs touch our lives. It's awesome to hear about different breeds being I've been a Pitbull guy since I was 16.

My first Pitbull hated the water at first then pulled a Lasie and alerted me to 4 little girls drowning in the Sabine River "Burr Ferry" 1984ish. We saved all 4 because of that dog. I kept that bloodline through several litters over 2.5 decades. Every dog I've owned came from my backyard in Vernon Parish including my Pit/Plot/Cur mix. Reason for my limited experience with other breeds. I appreciate Y'all and your experiences. Thank you please keep them coming.

She doesn’t shed bad at all.My first choice would have been a Lab but no way my wife wasn’t going to allow a Lab in the house because of the way they shed.

From what I read Black and Tan coonhounds make nice pets also.
Bloodhounds are nice dogs with good disposition but they drool.
Another dog I really like are Great Danes but they have a short life span,kinda heart breaking that they usually die 7-8.

I love hounds. Have had plenty of them, all hunting dogs first and foremost.

I had a UKC bloodhound gyp who was awesome. She wasnt any good at blood tracking because she vastly preferred to chase live deer than dead ones, so I gave her to a guy who lived on King Ranch. She ended up living a good life of killing hogs and sleeping on the couch in the big house.

Bloodhounds from working bloodlines are awesome, but they are an extreme example of being a slave to their noses. Mine was a great pet but if she decided she smelled something interesting, you weren't pulling her off it.

Lab guy, personally, despite all the shedding. It's worth it as my wife and I were both raised with labs, and we've raised our kids with them. Don't hunt them for shite, but we do spend a lot of time on the water.. and they're a blast to be with on the water.

Our yellow boy is 13 years old, and we just picked up a black puppy two weeks ago that's now 10 weeks old. Both males. My youngest son is about to go off to college and he begged us to get the puppy before he left, so he could have a hand in raising him. We originally intended to wait until the old man had passed away, but I'm glad we went ahead and pulled the trigger. Our son has been really good with him, and the puppy is already one of the "shop dogs" at the fly shop my son works at and does amazing at the shop.

Shedding is the main downside to a lab. They're smart, fun, and really adaptable to most situations. You do have to watch their food intake if they're not super active to keep them from getting overweight and they can become annoyingly food-obsessed. But damn, I love the breed.

Other breeds we considered:

1) Heeler. We are around a lot of heelers and frequently dog sit a heeler for some friends of ours in Santa Fe when they leave town. They're a quirky breed, but they're absolutely fantastic if you want a dog to go everywhere with you. They love nothing better than loading up in a truck and hangin gat a jobsite all day and riding around with their master. They've got a ton of personality, but they can sometimes be neurotic. I usually find that pretty funny and charming, but some people (our friend's wife who we dog sit for) find it to be annoying. They do tend to really bond with 1 member of the family over others. They're athletic and high energy but also know how to chill out and lay around with their owner. They are also bad shedders, though.

2) Wire-Haired Griffon: one of our friends who lives in Idaho has had a few of them that he hunts upland game with. They're a super cool looking dog, and they're not as insane with the need to run and work as some GSPs can be. They don't tend to range as far from you as a GSP either if you're outdoors, as they're bred to hunt up close. They also have good personalities, and I know quite a few folks who have them who don't hunt. Their coat can be a pain in the arse if you're in the woods with a lot of burrs and such, though.

3) Wheaten Terrier: We also considered one of these, as our friend with the Griffon had one as well. Great personality, great looking dogs. Also a good size that they can get on the couch or bed without taking up too much room, if you're into that. The terrier aspect can be problematic outside, though. My friend ended up rehoming his to someone who wanted a wheaten badly because he spends a ton of time hunting and fishing with the dog as a companion. The Wheaten would wander off constantly and get lost, and he'd end up spending the day trying to track it down instead of hunting or fishing.

Have two goldens, an 11.5 year old (M), and a 1 year old (F)

Older one has had a tremendous duck hunting career that started at 8 months and went through this past season while being phenomenal at home for my kids and their friends.

The young female is dynamite at home, TBD in the field but showing early promise, training well underway and has made just 1 hunt so far.

If you have little kids in play at home, don't forget to consider how the dog(s) might do with visiting kids, neighbors, etc. I was really surprised to see how many little kids that visit are afraid of dogs, thankfully mine did a good job in hopefully teaching them to be cautious but not terrified.

Blue Heelers, especially after they get out of the psychotic raptor a-hole stage.