Best dog for the family?

[testdepth]

As a family dog that is also a natural home and family protector the Cane Corso Italian Mastiff is hard to beat. The name means Guardian. Completely trustworthy around my entire family from my 10 yr old on up. They are loving family dogs. I have owned other breeds of dogs but the Corso tops the list easily. The Corso is the athlete of the Mastiff family.

 

[Bear44]

As a family dog that is also a natural home and family protector the Cane Corso Italian Mastiff is hard to beat. The name means Guardian. Completely trustworthy around my entire family from my 10 yr old on up. They are loving family dogs. I have owned other breeds of dogs but the Corso tops the list easily. The Corso is the athlete of the Mastiff family.

Umm, how many of them have you owned? In my experience they are about 30%/70%. 30% good family dogs. 70% not so much. Of course I do need to keep in mind that I get to see bad ones more often than the average dog owner, but still....

 

[crippen]

Umm, how many of them have you owned?

Give me your thoughts on this one Bear. This is a breed I have considered but only because a couple of my customers have them and those two particular dogs are great, but that's extent of my experience with them.

 

[Bear44]

Give me your thoughts on this one Bear. This is a breed I have considered but only because a couple of my customers have them and those two particular dogs are great, but that's extent of my experience with them.

I always qualify my statements about a specific breed by first saying that you can find any personality in any breed. However, there are tendencies that specific breeds are more likely to exhibit than others. Such as, a Lab is more likely to want to retrieve and enjoy water than a Shi Tzu.

What I have seen as a frequent behavioral patter in many Cane Corsos is that they can be serious hard asses that are overly aggressive. To control that they need a very skilled and dominant handler. This is about 68% of them. If a family is set on getting a Cane Corso I would highly recommend they get a dog that is at least 9 months old so they can evaluate them for any negative characteristics that may be developing in them. About 30% of them are just big loveable dogs with maybe a little bit of an edge and about 2% are pure bad news that are dangerous no matter what you do with them.

 

[AirOpsMgr]

While it doesn't fit the OP's criteria (not long haired), I'd personally choose a Black Mouthed Curr; I'd never even heard of one until we adopted one (ODT member helped us figure out what he was) - awesome dog, very gentle and well behaved ..... Except when he sees another dog on TV, then he goes off!!

 

[8675309]

Cujo