Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Dog for my daughter

My daughter turned 6 in February and I am wanting to get a dog to be her running buddy around our 55 acres. (She has no siblings) I have been seriously considering a pair of Dobermans but I do not know if there may be better choices (I realize that training is going to be the key, no matter the breed). All of my dogs in the past have been mutts, with the exception of one Weimaraner. The Weimaraner is the best natured dog I have ever had, but he was not protective. The mutts I have owned have been hit and miss in behavior and attitude. Keeping in mind that I am cognitive that training is going to make the ultimate difference, what dog breed would you all recommend to fend off snakes, other dogs, or other threats as she explores around?

Labrador. Black,chocolate or yellow or golden retriever. Extremely, loyal, protective, but if you get one with a hunting lineage, they maybe less of a pet. JMO) Do not get a herding dog like blue heeler, border collie,etc.They need a job . I would stay away from the more common watch dogs like dobermans, pit bulls, rottweiler. The thing is, you don't want a dog that is so protective or aggressive that it will harm someone else. (Bad guys excluded of course.)

Remember in 7-8 years,your daughter will discover boys and you will be left with the dog (same thing happens with horses).

The bigger the dog, the shorter the life span.

I am all for adopting a dog from a rescue or a shelter, but most of them come with baggage that you won't know about until you have one awhile.
Some of my best dogs have been mutts

German Shepard

Full size Australian Shepherd. Teach the puppy that it's job is to never leave your daughter's side. We have a large female Aussie that never lets the 5 and 7 year old grandchildren out of her sight. Loves to play with them, and if they're in the pool or sandbox, she lays down about 10 feet away and never stops watching them.

Aussies are more affectionate, and less OCD about herding than Border Collies, or Heelers.

Jake's Molly was an Austrian Shepard, she loved young folks.

Evnin wabby, I was never a fan of pits or cross bred pits, with whatever. We got a pit mix, rescue, not my idea!!! Grand kids two older one new, 3 or 4 yrs I think, the newest one not the dog. Anyway the first time the whole clan comes for the weekend with their two muts I'm on high alert. Everyone comes with the usual fan fare, hugs, hi, etc. I'm watching our dog ready to end its life if need be. The first thing this dog (Joy joy) does is blocks the other two dogs from getting anywhere near the baby'. If the baby went to another room Joy would follow, she was fine with all the grown ups but those two dogs could not even get near her. She's ok now that she knows the other dogs but for awhile there I was definetly worried. Of coarse another dog can be totally different out of the same litter. We had a big Rotmonster years ago, & he was very protective but would always look to us for guidance. I think if you want something specific in a dog it's a roll of the dice.....so good luck & let us know how it turned out. GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Oh, get a rural dog, not a city dog!!!!!! Sorry. 👣🐾👣🐾🇨🇦

Several years ago a friend had a doberman that he raised from a pup in the house with his wife and 2 kids. One night they were watching tv and the kids were lying on the floor, between the couch and tv, coloring in coloring books. The now grown dog, walked thru the living room, and without any provocation, bit the young girl in the head. Took about 10 stitches to sew up the wound.

is he a 'now dead dog'?.....

In the vet office yesterday, a poster raised a reward from 500, to 1000 dollars for a lost dog.

It'd been over four weeks.

Of subject, but:

Pets are a big business now. Veterinarians, around here, now charge as much as a human doctor. There is even pet health insurance.

My vet of 30 years retired, and I had to find a new one.One wanted me to fill out a three page application before they would accept me and wanted my credit card on file with my signature so they could be assured payment.

I did find one. Two teeth floats on mules was $456. Our lab cross got gored by a deer last fall. The trip to the Pet ER at 5 AM was $1000+

The days of those good old country of yesterday are gone.

Dog was locked in the pen until morning and buried before noon.

Controversial, for sure............ But our Rotts have been WONDERFUL with our kids. Playful for them...........yet careful of not knocking them down........and I assure anyone, you DO NOT wanna screw with one of the dogs' kids. It's nice to be able to take your eye off the kids and KNOW the babysitters are ALWAYS on duty and watching.

They're also very hard on the local coons, skunks, possums and groundhogs.

This one, on a lead, would drag me or the wife around the neighborhood...........

But our niece, about 3, and weighing all of half what the dog weighed, took him by the leash and he followed her wherever she went, all day long, she wore his butt out..

When she was younger she sat in a highchair feeding him pancakes, a fist-full of cakes and syrup, her whole hand in his mouth and he gently sucked it out of her fingers....

He was laying by the couch under her feet, she slid off the couch and he jump up snarling and growling all around her face, never touched her, he went off and layed down...... 'what did you do????'

'...I think I stood on his penis, she said....'

Try to take a small child from this one and you're going to be hurt.... NONE better IMHO...

I find it amazing how the "guard breeds" will rough-house and play with the adults. Yet walk on broken glass around the kiddos.

Our last Rott was a considerably more muscular dog than the two in my pic above. Think black angus with teeth. LOL !! If I or the Mrs. took a mountain bike on back the lane to the woods, he'd be trying to grab the pedals or your shoe or pantleg (as a fun game for him) and be a nuisance in general. When one of our two young kids took the same exact bike ride, he'd run the road bank beside them........well out of the way of interfering in ANY WAY. It was amazing to see. He was LITERALLY the third kid.

My vote is for a lab. And I'd be inclined to look for a hunting lineage but pick the cull of the group that isn't high energy and is calm. This is what I had for my first 14 years of marriage. That dog raised my girls and looked after all of the neighbors' kids too. We live on a dead end road and all the neighbors have 3- 20 acre parcels. That dog watched the whole street and all the neighbors loved him. He was exceptionally smart and loyal and you could tell his 3 bark types that alerted you to what was up. The alert bark told you he found something or someone, but it wasn't a concern. The concern bark told you something/someone arrived and you need to come check it out. The third bark type told you to come running with your firearm.

I'm also a fan of the rottweilers, but only if they've been conditioned around other people and animals. That's probably the case with many breeds, but rotts especially.

I have a black mouth cur now and he's a pretty loyal fellow too. He has the different barks too, with the big old hound dog bark, Barooooo-rooo-rooo-rooo being the standard "someone just pulled up" bark.

My daughter's dog is a black mouth cur. We didn't pick it for hunting or any specific reason other than a dog for her. It's a medium size dog, great nature around people, tough on possums/coons/armadillos/snakes. Very unique in some of the things it does, especially sleeping in rocking chairs and bench on the front porch. None of our other dogs do this but she always tries to find an elevated place to sleep. She'll also "talk" to us when we pet her, looking us in the eye and talking to us softly.....it really makes me like her. She's good around our livestock and guineas/chickens. I'm sure there's lots of variation in BM cur's and I don't have much experience with them, but this one is a very good fit for a "buddy" for a kid. Calm but still energetic enough to want to go with a kid.

Although most breeds have some better attributes/temperaments than others.I have found that lack of training is the big culprit. People think after they teach sit,down, and come that is all they need. Proper leash training, heel are a few more.The last three dogs we have owned and own one now, we had a trainer come out and work with us and the dog 3-4 times and then continued the lessons until we felt comfortable that the dog was safe in any situation.
Buying a pup,giving it to the kid and saying have at it usually does not work out

Golden Retriever or Lab of your choice of color

Prob the most faithful of any breed

You won't make any new friends with a Rot or Pitbull

That would be my first choice, if I was buying one for a daughter to protect her. Second choice would be a Doberman.

Unless the daughter hunts. Then, of course, it would be a Lab.