Large Dog Breeds That Can Be Too Much for First-Time Owners: Big Dogs, Big Demands

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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 I get one like, oh my God, what the fuck? 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, the podcast 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 joined by Max O'Neill from the Down Under Dog Trainer. And we've been covering off breeds, this time breeds that Max does not recommend for first-time or novice dog owners. And we are going to hit up the large breeds this time.

We've done medium, we've done small. It's time for the big boys.

Yeah. So for us, large is sort of anything kind of 40 kilos or 35 kilos and up. So, and again, there's an endless list of large breeds I, you know, could not recommend for you. But I'm going to get— not getting into the minutiae and recommend you don't get a Dogo Argentino or something. I'm going to recommend a breed that's actually likely to come across your radar when you do some Googling or one that you're likely already thinking about. So, we're going to go with things like that. Let's kick off with number 1, again, in no particular order, the German Shepherd.

So popular.

Super, super popular. And I get it. I did a post about this a while ago. I did a reel. I think it nearly got like a million views of why German Shepherds aren't the beginning I know, and again, a lot of people really resonated with it. Yep, I did it, worst thing ever. Or a lot of people went, mine's absolutely brilliant. And cool, you might be the exception to the rule, but there are again a lot, a lot of dog to handle. And if you look at what they're bred for— your protection, your tracking, your herding, things like that— unless you're prepared to provide them suitable replacement activities and outlets for those behaviors, they're fine. You're going to see a lot of, yeah, fulfillment-seeking behaviors. They're going to try and herd other things, bark at other things, bite other things.

Barking is the big one with German Shepherds. Like my neighbor over the road, Barry, had a beautiful German Shepherd, but since passed away. But barking, like, would just bark at— I mean, I mean, I mean, great, great for like if you want that. But again, you, as you said, you need to give it more of an outlet when it comes to German Shepherds because they're a guardian breed.

Yeah, they're, yeah, they're just, they're just a lot to own. And again, like they're a pretty high maintenance dog. They got pretty— they shed a lot. They need to be brushed a lot. They've got a big battery. They need a ton from you. And they're one of those ones where unless you really nail those first couple of years of their life, you can create a pretty dangerous dog. Like some of the— My brother had one. Yeah. Some of the diciest situations I've been in have been with German Shepherds who have just not been raised well, and they can be absolute monsters. So there's a reason why the police use them again. Yeah, exactly right. Exactly right. If you look at what they're originally bred for, look at your life, they're probably two polar opposite things. So probably not a breed you need. Again, if you're a dog enthusiast, someone who wants to really get into their dog training and experiment with this and play around, great. Again, if you're a first-time or beginner or novice dog owner, this is just probably a bit too much dog to handle. So, that's number 1 on our list. Number 2, the Rottweiler. Hey. Sorry, Nelson, if you are listening. But again, look at what I do for a living, guys. I am a professional dog trainer who is obsessed with training my dog, even first thing in the morning, last thing at night, and all day at work. Okay. Is they're a breed. Again, when you sort of look at a dog's potential of how good can this be, they can be one of the best dogs you've ever seen. They can do police work, military work, assistance dog work, herding work. They're a very versatile dog. But then you look at the downside of how bad things can be. And I remember the year that we were supposed to get Nelson, we went, oh wow, like the, you know, they're going to be born in this month or whatever. I'd just convinced my wife to, hey, we're going to get this working line Rottweiler, like not like the big boofy ones we hung out with, like a proper one. And she reluctantly agreed. And then the moment we agreed to it, over the next 6 months, we had a Rottweiler kill a person in Tasmania, 2 Rottweilers basically pull off their owner's leg in Perth, and then another one kills someone in like the UK or US or something like that. Is the downside of how bad things can get is pretty bad. And again, some of the diciest situations I've been in, one of my first big bites when I started out training was from a Rottweiler. It's a pretty intense dog. So again, if you know what you are doing, if you've done your research, and if you're genuinely prepared to put in work, they can be a fantastic breed. But if you're like, oh, all that sounds like a lot, don't get a Rottweiler. They are a huge, huge, huge responsibility. And although they've got these amazing upsides, you've really got to do a lot of work to bring that out of them and make sure that they're a good level-headed member of society.

Because, I mean, you say something very, very important. They are a big responsibility because a lot of these dogs that we're naming here, whether it be your Malinois, your German Shepherds, your Rottweilers, it's—

you are basically bringing in a potential killing machine into your house.

Well, that's, that's what they're bred for.

I mean, exactly. So if you don't know what you're doing and things do go wrong, you know, it could, it could turn out really, really fucking bad.

Exactly. And that's the thing is like with— you look at like your herding breeds, right? Herding breeds were designed to chase around in circles and bite the ankles of things that were a similar height and size to us.

Yeah.

When you look at Shepherds and Rottweilers and the next breed on our list, you know, Dobermans, is these guys are guardian or protection breeds that were bred to

attack,

attack, guard, and be defensive towards people. Is these guys like, you have to know what you're doing because they come bred in with them a high amount of suspicion. They can be incredibly antisocial with anyone other than their household and Again, some of the diciest cases I see are people who've got in way over their head. They're like, hey, look, we wanted a dog to protect the household, but now like we're the ones that aren't safe. Our family and friends are the ones that are not safe.

So it's a status thing as well for a lot of people, you know, having the big dog, the big scary dog. Don't come near me. You know, I've got my big protection, my big scary dog. But then they don't put in the training. And then, as you said, it gets out of control and then they can't even— And then they become the most dangerous. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In your own house.

Which is kind of crazy. And yeah, we just said number 3, Dobermans, for that same reason. I would say Dobermans have also got the added pinch of I do see, at least in Australia, a lot of really nervy Dobermans. Dobermans at this point for me are just giant Dachshunds. They're just similar sort of barky brain, very fragile, very sort of erratic and nervous about the world. But again, where a lot of breeds might feel intimidated or scared by something and run, a Doberman might go, hey, that thing scared me, I'm gonna go bite it. And again, they can be big, muscular, intense dogs, and I do see Yeah, a lot of Dobermans with some pretty intense behavioural problems where there can be— it can be handler aggression, like handler aggression and, you know, redirection is a huge problem in Dobermans. You know, a lot of dog antisociability, separation sort of stuff, just general nerve being freaked out and wanting to bite a bus that might be too loud when it goes by. They can just be a lot of dog to handle. So Dobermans would definitely not be on our list for beginner dogs. Um, and then number 4, we did put a little cheat one in this one. We did just any dog over 50 kilos.

Yeah.

And I see this a lot. We see this in our class. It'll be first-time dog owners and they've got themselves a Dane or a Mastiff or a Wolfhound mix or something like that. And unless you really know how to teach a dog proper leash boundaries and really know how to train a dog proper obedience and to get them compliant, a dog any bigger than that is a liability. Like, I just, I see some people getting the absolute piss taken out of them by these giant breed dogs. And like, mate, you would have been out of your depth with, you know, a freaking Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. But for some reason you chose to go and get a freaking 65 kilo Cane Corso. Like, there's just no need. So again, these, for me, anything over 50 kilos, like you've got to have had a dog before. You've got to be experienced. Your first car is not going to be a Lamborghini and neither should it be with your dog. You shouldn't get a dog with that much power if you are completely in over your head. Yeah. out of your depth, I think.

All right. Well, there we go. Those are your 3 breeds. And if you haven't checked out medium and small, go back and listen to those. And of

course, as well as finding out what breeds Max does recommend, we've got those episodes available for you as well. Any questions, as always, the Dog People Podcast on Facebook, chuck them in there. We'll get them answered for you. 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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