White Lab
White Lab
White Lab
should i get a white lab or should i get a white American Shepard first dog?
I'm only 14 years old my older brother had a dog but that didn't go so well i think I'm much more mature and can handle the responsibility which is the better choice thanks
No.
First you should search the website of the AKC to find out whether it recognises a breed called an "American Shepard" - betcha there is no such thing. You can look in the web-sites of the UKC or Con.KC, whatever, if you wish, but I assure you that NO-ONE anywhere in the world takes any notice of them, just the Yanks who ignore the rest of the world and think that anything that accepts their money must be authentic. Not that I expect you to find an "American Shepard" breed in the UKC's site.
Then you should study the blueprint for the Labrador http://www.fci.be/nomenclatures_detail.asp?lang=en&file=group8
([Riley] - take note of its "COLOUR : Wholly black, yellow or liver/chocolate. Yellows range from light cream to red fox. Small white spot on chest permissible." If you've had a white Lab it was WRONG, as untypical as if it were 12" or 30" tall or had a strongly sloping back-line.)
and the blueprint for the German Shepherd Dog http://www.fci.be/nomenclatures_detail.asp?lang=en&file=group1
so that you know how each breed is supposed to look and behave.
While in Group 1, look for breeds that use the word "American" - the FCI is the organisation that records the Country of Origin (or occasionally the Country of Development) name & standard of every breed recognised by any country's official Kennel Club.
If you then think that a GENUINE and typical Labrador might be right for you, go watch them in obedience training classes and working with hunters.
If you think that a GENUINE and typical GSD might be right for you, go watch them in obedience classes and working with sheep or training for Search&Rescue. A 14 year old human is unlikely to have the stability (emotional, physical) for a DogSport GSD.
Those sources will also give you contacts to breeders of the GOOD dogs, and help you avoid the ignorant BYBs and the puppy-millers pumping out "product"...
Both breeds were developed to work, but in very different ways. By & large, you will find that Labradors are cunningly stubborn (we never did manage to convince the District Nurse's Lab to stay Down after she dropped the many-yards-long cord attached to its leash! That was its signal to take off for a gallop around the race-course...), GSDs are keen to please their owners.
Both breeds REQUIRE training to be any good, with the Lab tending to react to inadequate training by just ignoring the household except for food, the GSD tending to react by taking control of the household before it is 3 years old.
But as both are in the top 5 of the world's most popular breeds, both have HUGE differences WITHIN their own breed in structure, and especially in attitudes & behaviour & health. The more popular a breed is, the more extreme an individual has to be in order to "stand out from the crowd", and the more pet-owners who allow 2 unsuitable pooches to mate & have pups. The result is caricatures for shape or behaviour among the dogs bred for competition. And crap among the dogs bred because the bit.ch was on heat and the dog was available and because "puppies are SOOOOOOO cute!" or to "get some return on my investment" - and naturally one doesn't waste money on hip & elbow & eye certificates or getting character & conformation & trainability certificates when breeding for "cuteness" or to "get some return", nor does one waste time on pedigree research to avoid genetic defects.
As a GSD addict, I can instantly rattle off 6 obviously-different departures from the GSD, all entitled to be registered as GSDs just because their parents were (except in Germany, where behaviour & joint passes are required before any GSD can have a litter registered, and the off-colours cannot be registered. And except in Australia where joint certificates and haemophilia clearances are required before any GSD can have a litter registered, and the off-colours cannot be registered).
http://www.leabashiba.com/fashion.vs.GSD.htm will alert you to a couple of the fashionable departures from the GSD breed, plus show you some genuine GSDs. There are sure to be similar sites about Labradors, but hunting is not my hobby.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967
Very cute white lab puppies