Very interesting, thank you I was thinking of getting another boy to be honest - my previous dog was a boy and I am more used to them plus I love large dogs.... Hmmm... something else to now think about.......
If you love large dogs then please do you research re sammy breeders...I had a LARGE Sammy..everything being bred nowadays is so much smaller!
If you want some experience with GSDs, get yourself on the BIGGSD forum and find their next local group walk - they do several around the Surrey area if you can get down to Epsom, Guildford area etc. and they often need an extra pair of hands to walk the rescue dogs they take along. Lovely to see the GSDs all playing together You could always look into fostering - a chance to get hands on experience and to see how Dexter gets on, without a permanent commitment.
i think out of those two id have a hard choice picking!!! i love GSDS but sammys too sorry im not much help if i had to be pushed to choose, id go for the GSD a big long haired boy
I agree to an extent, however I own both collies and shepherds and although both breeds are focused on me (making training very easy ;-) ) they also really love to have a good hooli around together and adore playing with each other.
I meant to add that my GSD bitch used to adore playing with Travis the Samoyed - and both were equally as playful.
Wow that sounds fab - thanks so much I will definitely be doing that!!! I would love to help walk the rescue dogs!!!
I would go for a GSD... I use to groom a sammy at the groomers I use to help out and and he was a pain in the butt.... Oh and murder to groom lol My GSD doesn't do the screech and she is very quiet.. She will only bark a few times if someone comes to the door.... she does like to sigh though lol She loves to be with her people and only goes a certain distance in front on walks before waiting/ looking back... I wouldn't say she was a clingy dog, in the house you could easily forget she is there, she is that quiet.... She is very playful and would play in water and with a ball all day long if allowed. She likes to play with other dogs and can be a bossy biatch at times.... She loves the boys, especially dark males.... I wouldn't get a white dog.... my mums westies are bad enough... with regards to keeping them clean.... Zara has taught them well... they love bogs, water and muddy puddles too lol
I would go for the Sammy...Only draw back for me, is apparently they are mucky ******s, takes ages to house train. Having said that I would loooove one!
I wouldn't worry about colours, my shep always looks clean, I never bath him, I don't agree with bathing dogs often. Yesterday he played in a pond up the fields, the water was brown but he fluffed up as he dried and was sparkling lol! So many people make comments about him being big and white 'how do you keep him clean' etc and lots comment on how clean he always looks. His coat seems very self-cleaning and he isn't a smelly dog at all, just moults a lot, he was just fidgeting on the couch and there is a cloud of hair falling to the carpet! The only thing with light colours is that muck shows up more, if the dog is black it doesn't make it cleaner you just can't see it so much. Zephyr is gobby with strangers (he is nervous aggressive) and barks initially when people come to house but other than that he is a quiet dog. He likes to be with us obv but he is totally fine to be alone, I was careful with this from day one. He doesn't follow me round the house much these day as he is too lazy to get off the sofa! My friends shep has never really been given boundaries or taught 'stay' and if he is in the car and can see his owner he will be whining loudly and wanting to get to him. He went everywhere with his owner as a pup which didn't help so never learnt to cope with being left.
I would go for a sammy, For me, GSDs just seem to... I don't know. Not "it", if you know what I mean. But thats just my personal preferance. Also, it would be nice to rescue a sammy because i bet hardly anybody knows about sammy rescue whereas lots of people probably know about gsd rescue, because GSDs are BIGGG in the doggy population scales! But I would spend time with some of both the breeds and then see what i though