Breed Stereotypes

if you take the GSD stereo type and add the Dobie stereo type then you have the American Bulldog... and i say its BullS*** ...
well... sorta. its a stereo type for a reason.. but they make WONDERFUL family dogs if they are allowed to be part of the family 24/7. They can be aggressive towards strangers and will sometimes second guess your opinion on a lot of things, including of said stranger ... its sort of like "Are you kidding?? this guy is scum! you wouldnt know, you're just a puny human and cant help being inferior.. but its OK. I will PROTECT you!"
my dogs are actually borderline chauvinistic.. if my husband isnt home they wont let a stranger get near me.
and the stubborn "hard to train" stereotype.... is kinda true. they are stubborn but NOT hard to train. you just have to find the right lure. Every dog has his price after all. Kaydee loves praise, Ben will work for smoked turkey.. dark meat only thank you. My cousin's dog, Bo.... what ever ya got. pats, praise, treats... he's good for any of it.
with my dogs, the prey drive only comes out if they see me doing something and struggling with it.... Kaydee caught one of the ducks FOR me.... she chomped him pretty good, but he lived. she also helped track down escaped chickens.. she was muzzled for that and did very good at tracking them. even held them in her paws so we could collect them to put back in the pen... the duck incident happened recently. while it was loose she could have cared less. it waddled all over the yard and around her. but as soon as she saw me trying to catch it in the net she was like lightening (despite being lame at the time - which is why i didnt expect her to even bother.. lack of mobility.. why else would she ignore it while it was loose?) but she surprised me.

despite the prey drive, and stranger aggression(only on our property if they perceive a threat while out walking) all of these are endearing qualities .. to me. []
if you want an American Bulldog, and have never owned one or anything like them i highly recommend months of research and talking to LONGTIME owners/breeders. and then question the reason why you want such a dog. "because its cute" is not a good reason.

Twice, when I've told friends that I plan on a Rhodesian Ridgeback as my next dog, I've been told they're dangerous and aggressive.  *roll eyes*  One of them was even a former vet tech!  Yep those ridgebacks are man-eaters!

my sisters and i lived with a couple of RRs when we were little. they belonged to our dad. they were amazing dogs! i would love to have one for my own family in the distant future, but i'm afraid of that over breeding may have damaged them too much.. i hope i'm wrong though.
all of this just proves that it depends where you get your info... my grandmother HATES dobies, but LOVES rotties....
i have had mixed emotions towards Kaydee when i take her out in public.. mostly good reactions and some nervous ones.. but never had any full blown "killer dog" reactions... i loved it when the little old couple came up to us in a parking lot to admire our two bulldogs. the old man noticed first then drug his wife out of her side of the car so she would see them too lol they both oohed and aaahed at them.. even though Kaydee and Bo had their faces mashed against the glass of the window and were both barking like a couple of chumps [8|] No they wouldnt have hurt them, but they're protective. the old couple were just impressed to say the least.... but if it had been someone like my step mom they would have kept about fifty feet distance between themselves and the dogs.. its her own belief that dobies, rotts, bulldogs and anything like them are vicious and will eventually turn on their owners.

With the papillons, we just get the usual little fluffy dog/anklebiter stereotype.  Yep, all little dogs are not treated as dogs, we carry them in purses, and they yap and bite all the time.  Don't you know all little dogs are spoiled brats and the owners don't train them? 

Siberian Huskies
 
Independent thinkers, hard to train.
 
Not good guard dogs.
 
Don't walk them off-leash.
 
They like to jump on people.
 
Well, the last one is true, to an extent. The drive to run like the wind is what they were bred for. So, giving them a chance to run off at 30 mph or faster is actually a treat.
 
They are a bit independent, which is why you must train them with motivation.
 
True, if you throw a Husky a steak, he will sit and eat it while the criminals clean out your house, sometimes. Other times, though he won't bite to chase off a criminal, the circling and alert barking will throw off most people. That is, something that looks like a wolf that is circling, howling and barking in a huge, deep voice may require some criminals to re-think their desire to ransack your house.
 
But how many movies did I see where someone who wanted to gain unlawful entry to a place threw a steak at the Dobes or Rotties and they happily ate, too, while the person had their walk of the place?
 
Jumping, yes, that's how they greet each other.
 

ORIGINAL: RidgebackGermansShep
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.

 
Rio is a Shepherd mix, but I get a lot of people who don't know Shepherds that well that think he's a purebred. Only had one person who didn't know him who knew he was a mix. Anyway, I get this too, but I'd rather people think he's mean and leave me alone when I'm walking him than come up to me and bug me, especially around the area I currently live and some of the men who live here. But he's also huge(105 pounds at 1, and not fat) so that's  detterent in itself. I get mostly kids who want to pet him and he's fine with it. '
 
But they do make good guard dogs in one sense, their barking can keep people out. [] Honestly I have no idea what Rio would do if someone broke into our house, probably run and hide.
 
As for my other breed, Australian Shepherd, I don't know if you could call it a stereotype, but a lot of people seem to think the black tri's, what Dizzy is, are actually Border Collies. I used to work at a boarding kennel and 2 of the people(who were married) had 2 Aussies, a black tri and blue merle. The guy told me he had Simon, the black tri, at Petsmart with him one day and a woman asked him if Simon was a Border and he said no he's an Australian Shepherd. And she asked him if he was sure. Never mind that most Aussies are stockier than Border's and they're missing their tails. [8|]
 
Shiva

ORIGINAL: Aery

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

 
Hey, psst, you want my mom's Pyr? I'll be glad to send him to you. Just kidding, my mom would kill me if I got rid of him. But on the side of fact, he's a very bad dog because she doesn't treat him like a dog so he's become very ill mannered. Right now he's taken to attacking my Shepherd mix for no reason! I used to like Pyrs until him, but I think the Pyrs I met in the past belonged to people who actually treated them like a dog, not like a human being.

Ha, Shiva, your mom's pyr sounds a lot like my mom's toy poodle. Thank goodness she's no bigger than she is or we'd be in a lot of trouble! Big dogs don't scare me so much, but I'd be hesitant to get too close to a strange poodle just because of my experience with mom's...
 
When people find out I have an Aussie, a lot of times they don't have any idea what that is & try to tell me that I'm probably talking about a blue heeler. ("Are you sure that's what it's called? I bet you're confused....") If they know what an Australian Shepherd is, they accuse the breed of being naturally hyper, nippy, mean, too smart for their own good, etc. The local Avon lady actually told me that Bandit might turn on us someday because they're all so viscious. Apparently she was bitten pretty badly by one a few years ago & that makes all of them evil. Bandit lets Mom's toy poodle boss him around & lets me take rawhide bone stubs out of his mouth with no hesitation. That's a killer in the making there.

Funny how some people think just because one dog of a certain breed bit them that all dogs of that breed are dangerous.
 
Luckily I don't get the Aussies are dangerous thing, and I've never had anyone try to tell me I'm confused and must be talking about a cattle dog. For God's sake! They don't even look alike! I can understand the Border Collie/Aussie confusion, but not Aussie/Blue heeler! Don't you wish you could carry a picture and breed book with you just to show everyone that the Aussie is actually a breed and you're not stupid and know what you're talking about?
 
Shiva
 

Haha, yeah, apparently if you have a "blue" dog, he can only be a blue heeler. I mean, it's the only one with the color in the nickname, so other breeds can't come in that color, right? Or my personal favorite: "Australian Shepherd? I bet that cost a lot! How'd they ship him all the way to this country?" Duh. People never cease to amaze me...

lmao!! when i was a kid i was guilty of being that dumb!!
my bus driver got a new dog... looked like a collie with a bobbed tail.. i asked if she was a collie.. where was her tail? (the dog was a solid red with some lighter markings, and had one blue eye, plus a white ruff, white paws, and a blaze) the bus driver said she was an Australian shepherd.... sooooooooooooooooooooooo... my stupid little fifth grader brain took that to mean she was part dingo and german shepherd!!!!  [:-]
yeah i was a dog fanatatic then, but only for certain breeds. i had two dog books, and i always skipped around and bypassed the fluffy collie breeds. in my mind if it looked like a collie then it was a collie.. my interest was mainly in boxers, dobermans, RRs, Scottish deerhounds and Irish Wolfhounds. didnt care or care to know about the rest... but thankfully i am not that way anymore lol

Twice, when I've told friends that I plan on a Rhodesian Ridgeback as my next dog, I've been told they're dangerous and aggressive.

wow! that is so weird! EVERYONE around here just loves Wyatt. I feel like ridgebacks are not really common around here, but there are quite a few. Are there a lot where you are?

ORIGINAL: RidgebackGermansShep

Twice, when I've told friends that I plan on a Rhodesian Ridgeback as my next dog, I've been told they're dangerous and aggressive.

wow! that is so weird! EVERYONE around here just loves Wyatt. I feel like ridgebacks are not really common around here, but there are quite a few. Are there a lot where you are?

 
The Ridgeback's aren't that common around here. I've worked at 2 different boarding kennels and out of all the dogs that came in we only ever had one Ridgeback. He was a nice dog, but ill behaved with anyone but his male owner. He was huge and he liked to pull so getting him to the outside run and back to his was an adventure. Then when his female owner picked him up, she got to have fun. Nothing against the dog, but crappy ownership as I'm sure the woman treated the dog differently and that's why he only behaved when her husband  had him and therefore he thought he only needed to behave with the husband.
 
I'd consider one in the future.................. way future. Thanks to my mom I've got my 2 dogs to retrain once I get out of here, which I'm still trying to do.
 
Shiva

Ridgebacks are decently common, but not so common that everyone has met one in the flesh.  Just common enough that people know the name and that they "hunt lions" and are fierce.  What floored me was the former vet tech, who swore RR's are on a list of dogs who bite most frequently.  They aren't, but how many people are going to believe her when she tells them the same nonsense?  The idea that RRs are mean stems from rumor and not experience. 

Every RR I've met in town (and when I see one, I always go and talk to the owner) has been an absolute sweetheart.  That perfect combination of reserved but friendly.  The one exception being the 6 month old puppy, who was not reserved at all! 

I worry about the sterotype because I'd hate hate HATE to see them become the next mass-produced, poorly bred, and ill-treated "tough dog." 

I worry about the sterotype because I'd hate hate HATE to see them become the next mass-produced, poorly bred, and ill-treated "tough dog."

 
I hope not! We've had like, 5 ridgebacks and the whole time i've owned them i've never heard of anyone being attacked/bitten by one, but they are on some breed ban lists and some insurance companies wont cover you if you have them. Maybe i've just never paid enough attention!
 
I guess one good thing is that RRs are still pretty expensive, whereas you can go out and find a random BYB pit for $100. I don't think too many irresponsible people will wanna pay 2k for a dog...but they are getting more popular.