Jetshroom

Thanks guys, I'll check out those threads. @FHRP That's exactly it isn't it. That dog looks so happy. @Rallyvalley I don't have the dog yet, won't for some time. (9-12 months probably) If the most commonly bred are show lines then that's probably what it'll be.

There's been some discussion about this on another thread and it's something I've noticed a bit in my research. A lot of breeders of purebreads have some sort of contract of sale where you can only show the dog under the breeder's name, you can't breed the dog unless through them, they get the rights to the litter etc. Now I've noticed this in breeds where there's very few breeders, they all seem to have dogs that are related. For example, among 8 breeders, 7 use the same stud dog from the 8th breeder. But if all of these conditions of sale exist, how does one start up as a breeder? It seems to me that these conditions are fairly limiting in terms of growing the breed. I'm not a breeder, just curious.

@GeckoTree Local to me it's just a fine. @Whippetsmum I know rollerblades are classed as pedestrian. I believe skateboards are also. That said, it may differ depending on state and shire.

Are you referring to bull breeds? Bull breeds are very seldom aggressive towards human unless they try to lick them to death I'm not familiar with the dog. Just the bragging about how tough, manly and aggressive it is. They have to chain it up when guests are around. I'm just going by the description I was given, though they believe it's got Staffy in it. (I'd not trust their diagnosis, they thought that one dog they had was a pure bread Bull Arab. It wasn't.)

Some great stories there. A lot of people growing up with a certain breed. It's odd, I grew up with Kelpies and I'd only ever get one if I wanted a cattle dog. That said, also had a Shitsu and a lot of contact with a Jack X Corgi so I'm dead set against small and toy dogs. OH has grown up with a Rottweiler (who was freaking huge btw, one of the largest dogs I've seen), the Jack x Corgi and had something that had bloodhound and Rodesian Ridgeback in it (I think.) and for some reason, she's against any dog that's higher than her knee. About 12 months ago I was seriously just considering going out and buying a Berner pup so that she'd fall in love with it and thus eliminate all conditions on size. As for choosing the breed, the key factor for us was a dog that wasn't going to play favorites. We have a cat and she's a daddy's girl and it bugs OH no end. Other factor was it needed to be somewhat child durable. Still researching but it's looking like an English Setter for us.

My attitude to byb is mixed. I see no problem with farmers who have a few good working dogs breeding a litter every 5-7 years to maintain their line of good working dogs. Usually they've got a network of other farmers who are about ready to start training up their next working dog anyway though so it's not done for profit. Then there's the other side of the coin which is my brother in law. Decided because he loves his bitch, (A kelpie x x x) and he and his mates think staffies are manly, that he should breed her with a staffy x and have kelpie x staffies and sell them for profit. Bitch almost died and the litter did. The second I heard he was going to try breeding her I said WTF. Terrible idea. But that family is just one of those groups of people. You just can't talk them out of stupid ideas.

Personally, I'd never rehome a dog of mine that bit me or my family. Mainly because I'm confident enough with dogs that I'd be aware that there's a reason the dog had taken a bite. At the same time though, I've never allowed any dogs I've owned to become generally aggressive. On a related note I'm pretty much waiting to hear from some inlaws of mine. Their dog will take a bite out of one of them some day, almost inevitible. It's a fighting dog cross, they encourage aggressiveness and they've got kids.

I'm a big believer in training and playing with your dog to perform their breed function. In my experience a Kelpie's never happier than when it's running after a herd, Huskies love to run and run. To that end, I'd like to know what sort of activites I could do with an English Setter. (I'm not a hunter.)

Police often have to ignore some law breakers as they're on patrol to catch some other law. I remember one Policeman lamenting that he was unable to fine the dozens of teens on bikes without helmets because he was out to catch speeding motorists. On topic, it's been a law in our shire since about 1993 but I didn't know it had become a federal law.

To clarify, I was just wondering how you guys came to your decisions, our decision's pretty much been made. English Setter due to size. @mumof4girls: An Airedale was another option but my fiance dismissed them out of hand (every time) because she's insane and thinks they're ugly. @persephone: Yeah, I went through that forum. It helped make the decision.

I've been researching what breeds would be best for my family and the information I'm finding has led me to two options. Bernese Mountain Dog and English Setter. This was based off looks, personality, activity levels, space etc. Just wondering what processes others used to determine what breed to get.