Breed Stereotypes

Ive felt the same way in our Agilty calss when Charlie does better then some of the purebreds.

Its not really a steroytype but for some reasone verything thinks a fluffy dog is gonna always be sweet and gentle. Everytiem we go somewhere we always get some woman who wants to pat my dog on his head, which charlie is afraid of adults so he usualy skitters away from them.

When I owed my basset mix she looked alot like a Pittie and I acutally had some people ask us to leave public places like Parks and stuff. That has never happened now that I have Charlie. People can be so weird.

With Border Collies, I've heard that they are too energetic and never settle down. And, I don't think I need to say anything for Pits.

My newest breed, Pyrenees, is that they are actually polar bears, LOL.

Hmmm....stereotypes about JRT....they are high energy, high drive, endless amount of attitude large dogs in small dog bodies.....nope thats not my guys AT ALL!! [][8D]

Kidding aside, I think sometimes jacks are given the stereotype that they are aggressive towards other dogs. I would have to say that some jacks are this way, some of my friends' jack are seriously food and toy aggressive. My guys are not this way at all, they have the best temperaments. When I got Dasher from his breeder that was THE most important thing for me. All of Dasher's breeder's dogs have super temperaments. We adopted Zip from the HS but I still checked out his temperament before I made my decision.

All the other stereotypes about JRT are true. [][]

For all the large scenthounds, the stereotype is that they are stupid and lazy. Now, I may have two particularily lazy individuals, but I know for a fact that this is not normal! Scenthounds are not lazy, they are working dogs, and a dog can't work if he's sleepin'. And the stupid thing has been covered every time we talk about "dog intelligence". Scenthounds are not biddable, they are generally not obedience champs, but that does not mean they are stupid. They are independent problem solvers but they are not into slavishly following orders.

Both stereotypes kind of suck as far as people getting them as pets. I've heard a lot of new hound owners complain, "I thought they're lazy but our new hound is insane and won't stop moving!!!" Nope, normal hound behavior, especially when outside. And the stupid thing just sucks times one million because people do not even bother to try to train these dogs, and I'll give you all three guesses why shetlers and pounds are full to bursting with stray hounds.

The stereotype with shelties is that they are barky, and I am actually not interested in dispelling that stereotype. Barking is cited by rescues as the number one reason shelties are abused and/or rehomed. While personally, mine don't bark any more than your average dog, the truth is that some do, and if I go around telling people mine don't bark, well I'm just worried that I would accidentally encourage someone who didn't want a barky dog to get a dog that may not be right for them.

I always heard Dalmatians were high strung; also less often I heard they were obsessed with water, and had very rough coats. Domino is extremely high strung (has a hard time settling down, especially at night and can't stop exploring the house; also always looking to see if somehow magically a big bowl of water has appeared) but his coat is one of the softest coats of any dog I've ever felt (and he's 14!)

Not too many people are familiar with ridgebacks so i'm not sure of any particular stereotypes.
 
I've seen it both ways with GSDs. Some people are afraid of them-think that all of them are mean. Some people love them and think that they are awesome. Most people do think that GSDs make good guard dogs. I'm not so sure. Most sheps i've been around are pretty friendly, even to strangers.

German Shepherd stereotypes...

* overly protective

* aggressive towards humans/quick to bite

* bad family dogs

bad family dogs

I have heard this too. Honestly, i can't think of a better family dog! I know quite a few families that have sheps and they are pretty much the kids' BFF. They are usually sooo gentle with children too.
 
 
 
ETA: i knew we did a thread like this in the past....
[linkhttp://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=220349&mpage=1&key=breed%2Cstereotypes]http://forum.dog.com/asp/tm.asp?m=220349&mpage=1&key=breed%2Cstereotypes[/link]

I have heard this too. Honestly, i can't think of a better family dog! I know quite a few families that have sheps and they are pretty much the kids' BFF. They are usually sooo gentle with children too.

I know!!! This is a reason WHY I chose this breed.  All of the families I've met with purebred, trained GSDs will never get another breed.  I also want my kids to grow up learning to be respectful of animals.

There was a Cesar episode with a large black GSD (like Kaiser) and they showed a clip of their kid sitting on the dog, screaming, and pulling his ears and the dog had this fake smirk on his face like "yeah, I still love him to pieces" and didn't even flinch.

It bothers me a lot when families have a bad experience with one dog and blame it on the breed.  Yes, there are certain breeds less appropriate than others for young children, but these families never look inward and examine what about themselves may have caused the problem.  I know someone whose dog became a fear biter and ended up biting one of her sons pretty bad, so they luckily were able to find a new home rather than PTS.  Now, they have a new dog of another breed and it is also starting to develop fearful and dominant behaviors.  It's not the breed, it's them!

ETA:  Also, I wish families would focus on the good rather than the bad.  For every person that told me GSDs are not good for families, I could find 5 families who highly recommended them.  If you want to go out looking for people's negative experiences, you will certainly find them, but that doesn't mean you can toss out five times as many people who have positive things to share.

Oooh, I can't begin to say how much the stereotyping of afghans, by supposed dog experts as well as people in general, bugs me!!!  The perception of afghans being brain-dead because of their narrow heads and incapble of learning, makes me so mad I can't talk!  I guess that means pretty much all sight hounds except for maybe Irish wolfhounds are beyond learning.
 
All I can say for a fact, is that when I was obedience training my newfoundland, my afghans learned in less than half the time, remembered what they learned and had a lot of fun!  The true part is that sight hounds won't do the same thing endlessly, but then I believe that's true for any really smart dog - they need variety to keep things interesting.

Common stereotypes for Dobermans:
* They will eventually turn on their owners.
* Their brains outgrow their skulls, thus causing them to turn on said owner.
* If you want your Dobe to be protective, you have to keep it isolated from everyone but it's family.
 
Each of these is complete bs, yet people not educated on the breed will argue that all of these myths are true.

People always think Greyhounds are hyper and high strung, that they need a huge yard to run in daily and they also think that ALL of them get saved by rescues off the track.

The truth is that only a small portion of greys get "saved”… the rest are killed anywhere from puppyhood to age 5. They are NOT HYPER nor high strung at all. They are docile, quiet and sleep as much if not more than many house cats. Mine sleep an AVERAGE of 18 hours a day.

I have and have rescued American bulldogs and just talked to a women that had her insurance dropped because of the breed. I will say even though I trust them they still have a very strong pray drive and will not ever let them go loose. I love the breed along with Rotties,Pits and GSDs but I believe people need to know what different breeds are breed for and know the back round of the breed. Better safe then sorry!