smudgedj said:
How about an Akita, my sister has 3; been great with her kids.
The girlfriends brother has one of them brazilian filas, filo..eermm off to google....ok seems it's a Fila Brasileiro. Nice dog but it scares the crap out of me. Sit's there staring at you, too scared to move at first, got used to it now and it 'seems' to like me. Can't bring myself to trust it though!
Recently got an Akita from a friend who just hasn't got the time to look after him and he's a big softy. The little 'un mithers him to death and lies on him, straddles him and he puts up with hours of storys and jibber jabber. He takes food off you as gentle as he possibly could and is such a lovely animal. He follows us around the house and is scared to death of missing something. When the kids are in bed he goes upstairs and checks on them, making sure they are all ok. If the door bell goes he'll run to the door and bark unless the kids get up to see who's there and then he'll stand next to them.
Then there was last week. Whilst he was being walked, a lab cross came bounding up towards him and the three girls who are 10, 7 and 3 - he went for it. I have no doubt at all that the poor thing meant no harm at all and was just being friendly but Yoshi wasn't taking any chances. He launched himself at it and dragged the g/f off her feet - he was on a lead whereas the other one wasn't. He was on his way to doing some serious damage to the other dog by the time the g/f got back on her feet and managed to restrain him.
The other dogs owners weren't happy and the usual it should be muzzled, it needs to be put down nonsense came out. They forget that they had ignored the 'keep your dog under control signs' and say that our dog was in the wrong. It really upset the girls seeing him behave like that but that's his instinct kicking in.
Having had my Husky attacked by an English Bull Terrier and the idiot that had let it off the lead completely unable to stop it trying to rip my leashed dogs throat out, I am not prepared to muzzle my dogs ever again. If I hadn't had a foot long maglite torch to twat the terrier on the head with I have no doubt it would have killed my dog. Had mine been muzzled and unable to fight back I don't think he would have survived the attack as he managed to get hold of the other dog and fend it off a while.
As far as Dobermans go - they are great. Had one twenty years ago and she was everyting you'd want from a protection/guard dog. Friendly with people you obviously knew , wary of cold callers etc. She would lie on the floor whilst the kids pulled her ears and stuck their fingers up her nose, but if the door bell went or someone knocked on the door or window, she'd jump up and stand in front of them and growl and bark until she was happy everything was safe. The only problem we found was that she didn't like being left on her own and the neighbours complained that she howled as soon as we went out and left her alone. She wasn't fooled by the tv or radio either ;-)
Do your research and when you have a few ideas post them and see what people have to say.
For me it'd be GSD, Akita or Doberman and no way on earth would I go for an English Bull Terrier - bad experience with my dog and a friend had jealousy problems when his grandson came to visit and the dog had to play second fiddle. To see a powerful dog like that growling at a one year old is just not something you'd want to even contemplate.
Google that Fila Brasileiro again and have a look at its traits - you're lucky not to have been ripped to bits!!
