Best Large Dog Breeds for First-Time Owners: Gentle Giants

Hello, dog peeps. Jack here. Just a quick one before we get into this episode. You may or may not be aware that when I'm not talking dog stuff with Max, I in fact interview people who are incarcerated in prisons across the United States on a show called One Minute Remaining Stories from the Inmates. And that show has been nominated for an award in America. And I would love your support if you've got 60 seconds to click the link in the show notes of this episode and just vote for my show. That would be amazing if you could. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and don't forget to verify your email address. Otherwise, the vote does not count. Thank you.

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It's the Dog People Podcast with your host, Jack Lawrence. Secretly, I decided to start this podcast for some free dog training advice. You know, Malinois seem to be like the dog at the moment. Like, I think people see them on Instagram doing these incredible things.

Yeah.

Go, oh my God, that's awesome. And then they get one like, oh my God, what the fuck have I done? And Max O'Neill.

You would not believe how many people I meet and I go, what made you want to get, say, an Aussie Shepherd? They go, I don't know. I go, had you met one before? They go, no. If you want to ask me how often I walk my own dog a week, it's only twice a week. It's the Dog People Podcast.

This podcast is hopefully giving you a no-nonsense approach to dog training so you never have to shout, it's okay, he's friendly. My name is Jack Lawrence, not a dog trainer, just a dog training enthusiast. But of course, as always, Max O'Neill, the man in the know. And today we're rounding off the breeds, the 3 recommended breeds for first-time dog owners. We've covered small, medium, and now we're on to large, Max.

Yeah. So our large is sort of for us, anything that's kind of in that 35 to 40 kilos and upward. We were thinking of doing a 4th one of then going giant breeds, but we'll just kind of lump them all in and we'll just give you 3 large recommendations. So again, in no particular order, let's start with number 1, the greyhound. I might be a little shocked. No, didn't see that coming. Is— I might be a little bit biased here. We've got a greyhound, Turtle, who we love dearly. Turtle is so sweet. But again, guys, like, people have got it wrong about greyhounds. People think that these dogs are just going to run around and kill everything, but honestly, You know, even Turtle, who's an ex-racing one, is like, that's the last thing on her mind. And sure, when they reintegrate into a home, if you have rescued one from a track, is they might need a little bit of socialization just to show them what's acceptable, what's not, and kind of educate them about the world.

Is there a rule about having them muzzled?

In Victoria, I believe that's still in place.

Right.

Queensland, no. New South Wales, I'm not too sure.

Okay.

But yeah, no, greyhounds are just good, man. Like I said, Once again, the world's fastest couch potato just absolutely fits them to a tee. Like, I can tell you honestly, I reckon once or twice a day I will go and check Turtle's pulse just because she has not moved a muscle in 7 hours on her bed.

Mm.

Is that's all she wants to do. She goes for a walk around the block every day, 20 minutes. She like a few times a week, she likes to go for a 10-minute just zoomy at the park, and then she's good. She's just so content doing her thing. Again, even if you get one that's been at the track and raced and all that sort of stuff, it's pretty easy to train that stuff out. And if you get one that's never done that sort of stuff, you just give them an outlet, some stuff they can chase, whether that's a ball or a flirt ball or, you know, remote control car or whatever you want to do. But it, you know, it's, it's fine. They're really easy dogs to own. They've got a nice short coat. So they're just a win-win-win.

On greyhounds, because obviously we've, we've, you know, the breeds we've gone through are very specific and most people think, oh, we'll have to go to a breeder for that. And we're like, well, yes, you probably will. for a number of these dogs, although you'd probably find a few of them maybe in shelters. But when it comes to greyhounds, if you're looking and you want a greyhound, you know, there are still a lot of ex-racing greyhounds that need homes. So that's probably not a bad route to go. 'Cause I mean, we, as we've done episodes on buying from breeders before, we're not anti it at all for the right reasons. But I mean, I think when you're talking greyhounds, there's no reason why you shouldn't get a rescue greyhound.

Exactly.

And it's one of those win-win situations where you can get a dog, you can skip the puppy stage, you can get a dog, and you know, you're rescuing and doing a good thing. And it's just, it's just a win all around. They're such good dogs, and everyone who meets Turtle's always surprised and be like, oh, I thought she'd be running around like a million miles an hour. Like, nah, like, this is all she does there. If you're just looking for like a really chill house dog who like, you know, looks nice, acts nice, there's everything about them. Like, I honestly haven't got a complaint. And like I said, um, they're pretty easy to rehabilitate. There's, um, a lot of the greyhound agencies are also really good in terms of providing resources. I know our friends that rescued Turtle, they had a lot of ongoing support from the rescue. And even when Turtle got handed over to us, we're in touch with the rescue now, even though we're like her second home and all this sort of stuff. So a lot of them are fantastic like that. And honestly, they're just a great dog. If you get yourself a greyhound, you— I'm 90% sure you won't regret it.

Cool. All right. Number 2.

Number 2, same again. Can't go wrong. Golden retriever. They're one of like the GOAT breeds for a reason. Um, they're just so fantastic. They're such a good dog. Um, I guess when you think about like this, they're a big dog. Like some of them, the males I see can get to 40+ kilos. And if you do want a big dog around the house who's got a big bark and has a bit of presence, like golden retrievers will still do that. They'll carry on a little bit. Same again, they're just so safe with kids. They're always social with other dogs. They're really easy to train because they are so trainable. They're food driven. They generally like a You know, have a really high level of compliance and things like that. And again, you have to be a— I'll be honest, you have to be a pretty bang average dog owner to, you know, stuff it up with a golden retriever. If you, you know, do your puppy school obedience and have some good boundaries around the home, you'll get a cracking dog.

Question without notice, but what's the difference between a golden retriever and a Labrador?

Just a coat, really. Like, if you, if you just shave them down, they've got a pretty similar skeleton. Um, like, the golden retriever's got a slightly different head. They've got like a larger So the occipital bone. Anyway, something like that. Um, but yeah, they're honestly pretty similar things. Like, yeah, I think the Labradors are originally English and then they migrated to America. Um, and the Golden Retriever comes out of Scotland, actually. So yeah, right, similar sort of thing.

Same with all the retrievers.

Yeah, just, yeah, same, same. There's just a preferred variant. I think a bit colder up in Scotland, they gave them a longer coat.

Fair enough. Yeah. All right.

But yeah, Golden Retriever is absolutely great breed. Um, and then lastly, So we were actually, you know, back and forth on this one for a bit, you know, and I know Jack had a few things. Oh, what about this one? What about that one? And we could always kind of find an argument for, nah, I would, if I was a beginner, I wouldn't get, say, a Great Dane for this reason or one of these ones for that reason. But, you know, so the one we actually went with is a Bernese Mountain Dog. If we put this one in there, because we wanted to put one giant breed in there, there's definitely going to be people out there who want a massive breed. You know, like your Mastiffs, etc., etc. And we thought out of all the large giant breeds is your Bernese are, I think, one of the best ones is they're a bit silly, but they grow out of that pretty quickly. They're really trainable. They're actually intelligent, whereas some of the giant breeds aren't.

They're a guardian breed as well, aren't they?

They can be. Yeah. They're sort of like an all-purpose farm breed originally. So, yeah, they can. They did a bit of basic herding, some cart pulling, some guarding. Some just, just things like that. So again, they've got a bit of presence around the home, but I really don't see too many of these guys in my work. So they're always pretty social with people and dogs. Yeah, honestly, they're, they're a great breed. If you are looking for a giant breed, again, they've got the long coat that can be a bit to put up with, but they're a, they're a good bet, I reckon. I really don't see too many of them. And I think if you do want that, that big dog, they're probably your best option out of all, all the options available to you.

You know what breed I saw the other day, which I haven't seen? I don't know the last time I've seen one of these things was, but it was a Saint Bernard.

Oh, they're massive. And that was one that actually came up, didn't it?

So big. It was so huge. I've never, I've never actually— I think it's the first one I ever met. Yeah. And I mean, it seemed pretty docile and—

Yeah, like they can be. I feel like once they grow out of it, but those first couple of years, they, you know, by 6 months, a lot of them are already 45 kilos, which is bigger than Nelson. Yeah, they're big dogs. Um, and they've got a 6-month-old brain, so they can be like a lot to deal with. I, I do see these guys a lot, and it's almost always in those first couple of years where, again, people have taught them all this stuff and then not realized this, or, you know, not thought ahead how big they're gonna get. So, um, yeah, generally the first couple years can be a bit chaotic, and they can be a little bit goofy and boisterous and not as trainable. Um, so hence why they didn't sort of make it to our list. But, uh, yeah, no, still a great breed, but we picked the Bernese over them.

As always, any questions, jump on the Facebook page, The Dog People Podcast. We'll see you next time. The Dog People Podcast is a Mashed Pumpkin production hosted by Jack Lawrence and Max O'Neill. Edited, produced, and audio production by Jack Lawrence.

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