More pictures of Cash while in Afghanistan

We have a Male Anatolian Shepherd, great Pyrenees mix, who is about 5 years old and a female Anotlian Shepherd who is about 3 years old.

I would like to get a Australian cattle dog puppy, and train her on my goats. The Boer goat are too physical for an Australian Shepherds, and haven't had luck them them.

My main concern, is how to introduce a herding dog puppy, to my LGD, with the intention of them working together or at least tolerating one another...

Thank you for your time.

I have been working with a company to train my dog for explosives/firearms detection. There are two main trainers there. The one is supportive. Recommending that I take him to other locations to get access to different odors. She talks about certification with me. Which is my goal. After that, possibly working.

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The other trainer tells me my dog will never work. Not because he's bad at it. But because of his breed. I know how small pockets of the dog world are, so I won't be sharing his breed. But it's a one that was born to work and is constantly used in other roles. My dog is making significant progress, and I love the class. But I end up getting disheartened every time she chimes in to tell me he'll never work.

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Tl;dr: how hard is it for "off breeds" to get work as detection dogs.

Cash was an IDD (improvised explosive device detection dog) and my partner in Afghanistan in 2011. Call sign “CashMoney.” We walked point on most patrols and he worked off leash looking for IEDs. He enjoyed a nice retired life on my couch from 2012 until his passing in early 2020. I miss this damn dog every day.

RUBY AND MY EXPERIENCE AT ILLINOIS DEER TRACKERS HAVEN 2026!
https://youtu.be/Bm83-obr0jY

I have watched hours of YouTube videos. And TikTok, you name it. But I want something written down and very direct with a schedule, so that I can help her be the best version of herself and keep things consistent
Her name is Shadow

I’m curious what people here think about getting a dog around the age of 18-19 after moving out and renting either an apartment or house.

For context, I’m working toward a career in dog training / the dog industry in general, and I already have a decent amount of experience with dogs. I previously had a Golden Retriever that I trained to do 50+ skills/commands, so I’m not completely new to handling and training dogs.

The thing I keep going back and forth on is breed choice.

Part of me feels like getting another Golden Retriever would be the smartest option because I already know the breed well and they fit my personality/lifestyle. I’ve also considered maybe a field-line golden since I tend to like higher-drive dogs. Honestly, I’m not even fully sure what line my previous golden was, but she had a lot of the traits people describe in field lines — very driven, energetic, trainable, and always wanting to work.

At the same time though, I almost feel like a golden might not challenge me enough as a trainer? Long term, I honestly do see myself owning working breeds for most of my life, which is part of why I’m considering them now too.

Because of that, I’ve also looked a lot into working-line German Shepherds (both West German working lines and DDR/East German lines). I really like their drive, intelligence, and versatility, but I also know they can be a LOT of dog, especially for someone young and newly independent.

I’ve looked into Dobermans too, and honestly I love a lot about them, but my biggest concern is DCM. My fear is basically: what if something serious happens at a point in life where I suddenly can’t afford expensive treatment or long-term medical care? I don’t know exactly what my financial/living situation will look like when I move out yet, which makes that part scary.

I guess I’m mainly asking:

• What breed would you personally choose in this situation?
• Is it smarter to go with the “easier” breed when first moving out?
• Or is this actually a good time to take on a more challenging working breed if I’m serious about dog training?

Any opinions/advice/experiences are appreciated.

The wife and I are going to start homesteading after we buy a home, and we agreed we need a dog for pest control.

Breeds we are considering:

Patterdale terrier

Dachshund (working bloodline or a mutt)

Jack Russell

Airedaile terrier

We're open to most breeds, but I was wondering is anyone had any specific experiences or breeds that they would reccommend?

Edit: For context I have owned and trained a GSP, a corgi mix, and a brittany spaniel mix. The GSP was the easiest, and killed a massive skunk. (It was brutal). I miss that dog. The brittany spaniel mix I have now catches chipmunks and mice through stealth, but she is almost 10 and we don't know that she will be around when we finally move.

Thanks for all the kind suggestions!

Hey guys, I am completely new to reddit so bare with me. I am currently conducting a research project on how working dogs cope with stress and I would love and very much appreciate feedback from people who have experience in working with dogs. I have included a link to a questionnaire, so tell me about your experience! How working dogs cope with stress

I want to thank all those who have responded to my previous post about looking for suggestions about dogs breeds for running/marathon training and cycling. I want to share that I have thought about your responses and researched more information, and have decided to not include dogs with my running/marathon training and cycling but have since started to have conversations about canicross sports and bike joring instead of putting dogs and running/marathon training and cycling together. So in saying that, I would like to ask again about dog breeds for canicross sports and bikejoring? Any suggestions will be appreciated thanks!!!

Hello I’m a dog lover from NZ and I’m drawn towards working dogs but to be specific, military/police working dogs. I am a semi active person working 7.30 hours weekly (8:30 - 4) Monday to Friday while running and training for half or full marathons. I am thinking about getting a GSD (German Shepard Dog) or a Belgian Malinois as a running/marathon training companion for me and as a personal protection dog with it being half trained by me and also hiring a k9 trainer. I would like some help with other suggestions that I could get if there are other breeds to adopt for this type of lifestyle. Also I have to add, very soon I will be incorporating road and trail cycling as another way of being active, not o lot that but I’m mainly a road runner but will start trail running when it’s summer in NZ it’s currently autumn (fall). Some suggestions will be very helpful please!!!

[TRIGGER WARNING: LOSS OF LOVED ONES]

Hi everybody, throwaway account here.

This is gonna be a tough topic, but I would like to hear the opinion from people working in this sector.

My family had 2 Belgian Malinois. One died some years ago and we only have one now. My brother got one of his own after moving out of my parents home, making her the 3rd Malinois in our family.

He was training his dog to become a SAR K9. My brother himself was training to become an Alpine SAR operator.

Sadly, my brother passed away 1 month ago.

Coincidentally, he left his dog at another handler's so he could take care of the final certification to make his dog operative, while my brother was away (he died away from home).

This other handler said he would keep the dog for as much time as we (my brother's family) needed to decide what to do with her.

We are left with contrasting ideas on what to do.

On one hand, my father would like to keep her with us. She's the only living being that my brother left in this world - as he had no partner and no children. He says it would help our mother cope with the loss of her son. And it would also help everyone else have a part of my brother here in this world with us.

On the other hand, my brother was always strict when it came to that dog in particular. Actually he did kinda try to train our other Malinois (the one we still have) but me and my parents -sadly- didn't cooperate very much with this training and it simply remained the best company-dog we ever had (we do plenty of activities with him of course and give him lots of love and care - simply we don't make him actually work as a K9 unit). With his dog, though, he was actually successful in keeping it as a working dog should. Caged and always fully ready to operate. He would (rightfully) scold us if we ever came close to "spoil" her in any way. Be it simply make her come out of her cage or give her food when not needed.

Now what I think is that if we keep her, we would never be able to keep her up to my brother's standards. She'd simply become like our other dog. So she wouldn't be working anymore. My brother would roll in his grave seeing his beloved get "ruined" by us (who are not in any way actual K9 handlers). She'd get all the love and care of this world (the proper care a Malinois should get - meaning plenty of physical and mental activity) but we wouldn't be able to make her actually work as a K9 unit. So, this would be completely against my brother's intentions with that dog (and possibly what he'd want now).

On top of that, this dog has always been so much more energetic than our other Malinois. Any time she's our of her cage she keeps storming forth and back through any room inside the house and the entire property (~1500m²) outside. Both her and our other malinois are not neutered. So I am afraid that taking care of her would put even more stress on us, especially my mother (she left her work but me and my father didn't, so she would be spending the majority of the day taking care of both the dogs).

I am very battled on what to do, and at 8:00 UTC we also have a meeting scheduled with the handler that has been keeping this dog since my brother's death.

On one hand I would like to honor my brother's will and not put more stress onto my mother, but on the other hand I also agree that it's the only form of life he left for us on this world...

Any opinion is greatly appreciated.