Help me out here... GSDs

DanL

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#41
I was thinking more along the lines of the Presa that was mentioned earlier.
 
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#42
I don't know, I"ve worked Presa's, Fila's and GSD's and I have to say I have a totally different opinion. Good friends of mine raised, bred and workd Fila's for a long time, but eventually made the switch over to GSD's about 10 years ago for various reasons and I'll just say we'll have to agree to disagree.
 

Amstaffer

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#43
I was thinking more along the lines of the Presa that was mentioned earlier.
I am by no means an expert on either Presas or Filas but why would it be any different? Filas are bigger and logic would think they would be even more hampered during endurance trials and stamina intensive work. Remember there are

I have know people with 90 Rotties who take them for 5 mile runs with a ATV and the dog still plays tug and fetches after they get back.
 

Romy

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#44
What I want to know is why malamutes are so large? If it is always true that larger dogs don't have the same stamina as smaller dogs, then why would people create a giant breed for endurance sledding in a culture/climate where food for dogs is scarce anyway. If that was always true, then all sledding dog breeds would have adapted to be the size of siberians. More compact, less food required, and supposedly better endurance and a longer working life. But that isn't necessarily true is it?

Anyway, even being 110 lbs it sounds like Willow managed to outlast some of the standard size working mals and GSDs folks in this thread were aquainted with. She didn't start having any elbow problems until 8 years old, and at 9 is just getting to the point of retiring. IMHO, a lot of the health and endurance aspect at this point in the history of breeding dogs probably has more to do with an individual's breeding and conditioning, more than what specific breed or size an animal is.
 
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#45
For sure within every dog breed their is a reason they were bred they way they were. Some for size, to be more hardy, to pull larger loads, to hunt bigger game, some were bred smaller, sometimes to better fit that climate, to better fit the terrain, so they could be something that they couldn't get in a large dog, and everything in between.

I'm not too familiar with malmutes so I can't answer anything about them, but i'm sure they were developed for a reason and have their strengths and weaknesses compared with other breeds and we could all argue about the merits of such attributes.

But a GSD wasn't meant to be big, just like a 60lb chi wouldn't probably be a very good representation of the chi breed or a 50lb JRT or a 20lb GSD. For any number of reasons those aren't really good representations of the breed and within these generalizations about bigger and smaller dogs we can always find exceptions on an individual basis.

and size isn't the only determining factor, i've seen plenty of 70lb gsd's that couldn't do squat because of their genetics and upbringing, so obviously size isn't the "only" factor.
 

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