For the record - dog prejudice

i dont think i have any specific breed predjudice [ have owned a poodle, husky cross & currently a bedlington - all rescues ] - but have to admit that i am wary of dogs i dont know [ particulalry the larger breeds] who come barrelling across a park towards me with no clear indication that the owner is in charge of them, brutally, the larger breeds have the physicality to knock me to the ground & until i am sure that an individual dog is pleasant & well trained, i prefer to act on the side of caution & stay away.
Having a friend who received the most horrific facial disfugurement from a large dog attack has made me wary of the larger breeds, that does not mean that i am not happy to meeet & greet one under its owners' supervision, but if push comes to shove i am more likely to survive an attack from an agressive small breed dog than one from a breed type that weighs more than i do.
 
While I'm with you Polarskye, but as with all things in life there are certain looks and characteristic's (sp) in dogs I don't like or want to share my life with. It wouldn't be doing if we all liked the same thing but I certainly wouldn't say I hate any breed or type of dog.

I personally have not time for most pedigree dogs at all, I like my dog to be different and original...lucky for me as I've got 6 mutts (well 1 JRT but apparently they are not a breed as such anyway). I do like the loving fun happy side of a staffy but that's only come around because it so happens 3 of the dogs that ended up with me have staffie in them, I wouldn't have gone to the rescue home specifically looking for a staffie, I would now having lived with the breed but at the time I didn't care really what dog I had. That said all 3 of my crosses have similar traits but by no means are the same dogs...long long way off that actually!

I've been lucky having fostered for many years I've had most breeds and cross breeds living with me and I certainly know which types suit my lifestyle and fit in with my pack. You couldn't pay me to have labradors, spaniels or collies, now't wrong with them but they are just not for me. BUT who knows next foster might be one of them and I might fall in love with them..never say never! I was a 'yuck hate yappy small dogs' person once...now I the proud owner of a JRT who is a constant delight and the nicest rat to have around!
 
I love pretty much all dogs but I do have one 'dog prejudice'. I am wary of 'lassie dogs' (sorry I know they are a type of collie but I can't remember the proper name). There was a woman who owned one in out village when I was a child and it was HORRIBLE, really really nasty dog and I have been wary of them ever since. Silly I suppose to judge a breed by one example but I can't help a little nervousness of them even if I know intellectually that it is silly. I have a lot of sympathy for people who are scared of dogs though.

Personally I love staffies, I think they are the cutest critters and would love to get a rescue one day especially seeing as they are so difficult to home usually.
 
PS, all breeds have differences, indeed every dog is different, even subtly, I was reared with GSDs, I've met hundreds and I've yet to find a breed to compare to them, we all have preferences in all walks of life :)
 
PolarSkye said:
This thread is very interesting, but I guess I'm a tad mystified by all the positive breed prejudices, e.g., "I would really like a Rottie/Staffie/GSD/Dobe." Surely one of the central points of this thread is that there's too much unjustified prejudice associated with particular breeds and that (and this is the subtext - implied rather than explicitly stated) dogs are more than the sum of their breed characteristics . . . if that's the case, why all the breed fervour? Dogs are dogs, surely? If there are nice (for example) GSDs as well as dodgy ones depending on breeding and temperament - and nice (again, as an example) collies as well as dodgy ones - then surely we're really describing nice dogs and dodgy dogs?

I would agree with you in a lot of ways but each of the above breeds has characteristics generally specific to that.As do all breeds tbh, yes there are always 'untypical' examples of breeds but apart from them they are pretty much what it says on the tin.

I love rotties and would hope never to be without (at least) one but if you have them you must take into account that their natural impulses/tendencies and train correctly to end up with well mannered, socialised dogs. The problems tend to be when the above breeds become popular as a status symbol and their natural instincts are encouraged in an anti social way. As that happens the attributes that are chosen for breeding are not the ones that would be picked by anyone with more than one braincell - and there we go - a breed has a bad rep.

What a responsible owner would look for in a Staffie (just an example as they are the bad dogs du jour) is the complete opposite to what the toerag who wants to look 'ard wants in his dog. They also have a complete expectation that it will be bl00dy hard work to bring a pup up to the age of twoish so they carry on with the training (while redecorating the house, learning to live with a garden that resembles the surface of the moon, thinking that maybe they won't embarrass you too much in public, you get the drift :D) and use the breed traits in a positive rather than negative manner. The TR won't train their pup to be anything but unpleasant to be around and TBH, it's not just them. There are a lot of dogs who are untrained and while not malicious as such they do cause a lot of bad feeling in public areas - and that isn't breed specific.
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