Survival Dogs?

I have an older Irish Wolfhound who is a great protector of the family, she is 130 lbs of nobody is coming into the yard or house unless my wife or I invite them. She lets us know when someone is several houses down the road from us, but giant breeds can have health issues and don't live long. The Beagle/English Setter mix would just roll over and want you to rub her belly.

Just going through my list of dogs over the years. Beagle, Poodle, Chow, Irish Setter, Doberman, Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, English Setter, Weimaraner, Beagle/English Setter mix and the Wolfhound. (There is a bird / hunting dog trend)

If I were going to go back and pick any of the breeds that I've had it would be the Weimaraner. I had a pair of them, they would work well together to be protective. One would come from the front of strangers and the other would circle around behind them. There was no sneaking up on the house. they can operate on their own, not too big, not too small and do well with the family but weary of strangers. They will hunt with you or on their own and take care of themselves if needed. (They wreaked havoc on opossums and racoons at the bird feeders) One of ours was a rescue dog that had been dumped by someone. It took them the better part of 2 weeks to finally catch her while she was running on her own in the country.

Just my two cents from a long life with many different breeds, but I'm sure there will be 100 different opinions. Asking about dogs is almost like going down road of what's the best gun question.

I grew up with a Weimaraner from the time I was about 6 months old. He was a great dog for many reasons. He could hunt all day long, come home and protect the house and family and do it all over again the next day. Matt was loving, fun loving and actually had a wicked sense of humor. He really enjoyed "smiling" at service techs when they came to the door.

On the negative side, they can be hard headed and stubborn. Once they get the clue about what you want, they can become obsessive about it. When ours was sent out for field dog training, he really loved the go factor. In order to try to slow him down the trainer had him dragging tractor tires. When that didn't work, the trainer tried sections of phone pole. That was didn't work either, so the trainer got the "bright idea" to tie the dog off to his saddle, thinking if the dog started to go, the horse would slow him down by standing still. Talk about an epic fail! Matt (the dog) hit the end of the rope and kept going. The girth on the saddle broke, the trainer went flying one way and the horse took off another. Matt just kept going looking for birds, dragging the saddle behind him.

They can become a one person dog to the point they'll attack other family members if they don't like what's going on with "their person". My father was attacked several times by the dog when he crossed the line "disciplining" (read beating the heck out of me) me.

Health issues are a concern as well. They're prone to torsion if you're not extremely careful about how much and how often you feed them, as well as how fast they eat. Torsion is when the stomach rolls, cutting off the in and out flow. Gas builds up, it's extremely painful and if you don't get the dog into surgery within an hour of the stomach flipping, the dog will die.

Great Pyrenees are very smart and good at guarding their flock. But they eat a LOT!

Oakleaf said:

Yes, Great Pyrenees don't eat as much or perform as much physical activity as you would think. If there's a varmint after the chickens or goats, back when I had goats, they would run it off or kill it, depending on what it was, and then go lie down in the shade.

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We have 5 Great Pyrenees in our goat pastures. They are not pets. With that many it seems like a lot to keep them fed. Our border collie is a lot less

I'm prolly gonna get laughed off this post, but poodles are pretty good all around dogs. Full size of course. The will hunt, the will protect and keep em cut and they're easy to maintain.