Your Inspiration

I was curious if there was a dog either in real life, in a book, movie, TV show, online etc that inspired your choice in breed or dog. Is there a dog that the moment you saw them you just knew you wanted a dog like that.

There's a dog that goes to the dog park that I go to that I've known for years. Her name is Foster and she is just amazing. She's this svelte, solid black, big eared, long legged, crazy athletic, drivey little dog. She looks like a Kelpie (possible cross) to me though the owner had never heard of them when I said that. He takes her there and just throws her ball or frisbee for hours and she is like a rocket with springs after it. She is just amazing and I've never seen her tire or slow down.

But anyways, the moment I saw her years ago I went "THAT is what I want" that build, attitude and drive has stayed with me for years and when I saw Koolies it was like I finally found my Foster.

What was funny is the first time I ran into the owner and Foster at the dog park he showed up while I was sitting on one of the picnic tables while a ton of dogs ran around. Traveler was being the loudest, fastest and most obnoxious puppy he could be. The guy gets there and immediately goes "Who's dog is that?" while pointing to Traveler and then goes on to question me for ages on everything about the breed because Foster was a rescue and he knows how lucky he was with her. He wants a Koolie so bad and is one of the few "pet" people I think could actually handle on really well.

But god, do I love that dog.

So yeah, I would love to hear everyone's stories if you have then about the dog that made you go "That's what I want"

Well I was raised with apbt so they've always been a part of me. However, I never liked Malinois or other fuzzy dogs.

I joined a flyball team and *knew* my next dog would be a staffy bull or a borderstaffie.

Denis (the other half) met Evee, our teammates Malinois, and fell in love with her build and ability. He wanted one now instead of his pursuit of a lab.

I helped him research and find his own Evee and shortly after Sloan arrived I knew I was hooked. I scrapped my borderstaffie plans (even had a litter lined up), shelved my potential border collie puppy, and dove head first into gator water.

While these two are very different in some ways I'm thrilled with both dogs. I still look forward to my potential border collie some day but I'm pretty hooked on these swamp collies.

There was a JRT at the farm where I did my apprenticeship called Winston. He was hilarous, and bad. He hated all wheels and would bark and try to bite where wheels hit the ground (very dangerous if there was farm equip going). He would run along and tell off the wheels of the feed cart. He also LOVED rocks. Rocks were the best.thing.evar to Winston. He would parade around with them, bury them in stalls, hand them to us.

He was so independent and contrary. He was a short coated JRT and would get cold. But he didn't want to stay in and he destroyed ever coat the farm manager bought him.

But even with how independent and curmudgeonly he was, he was also incredibly devoted with his owner.

I didn't even know what a papillon was when we met with Beau's breeder. Apparently my mom remembered a neighbor's papillon from when I was about 3 or 4 (I don't at all).

Beau is my reason for falling in love with the breed. I had ZERO interest in toy dogs prior to my mom getting Beau. We'd had herders all my life and I wanted a collie or an aussie or another sheltie. But she wanted this papillon and we hadn't had a puppy in 8 years so I was not going to complain. We went to the OKC dog show and watched the performance dogs and that's where I saw my first papillon, which we had already picked out as our breed. She was a zippy little dog that was SO in tune with her person while they were doing obedience. She blew the socks off the bigger dogs even. We met her afterwards and her owner was so nice and gave us breeder information.

About 3 months later we brought home the fuzzball that is Beau. Beau hooked us on the breed. Hard to describe but he is just a bomb proof rock solid little dog. He has the hands down best temperament I've ever met in a dog. So happy and so loving and intuitive and GOOFY. His pure devotion to being our buddy was something new for us. Our past dogs were good companions but Beau brought it in a new level that the others didn't have. And his energy level really revitalized the house and brought new life to everyone. It's hard to be down when you have a zippy little papillon running around.

Mia has thoroughly solidified my breed choice if the others hadn't already. I don't even know how to begin describing how awesome Mia really is. It makes me tear up thinking about her. Saying I love her drive, high energy and intelligence barely even scratches the surface. Mia's shown me a new level of dog ownership and it's one I will always have to have from now on.

So yes, breed I never would've chosen in my life and I can't imagine a day without at least one now. It's the dynamic personalities that keep me always coming back for more. And the love they bring and the hilariousness. Very easily the best breed I've ever owned at least for me.

I really wish I could be like the zillions of other people who say "Where the Red Fern Grows made me want to coonhunt!"

Saw the movie as a kid, was sad about the dogs, didn't give it another thought. (I was a city kid). PlottDaddy wanted a coonhound when we were in college, and Eer just happened to pop up on a classified page every time we looked for a dog. Talked to the breeder some, found out her dad won pretty much everything a Plott can win in UKC (conformation wise), and that Plotts were now eligible to play confo in AKC. Bought her on a whim, she turned out to be awesome, now I can't stop...

Am I allowed to choose my own dog?

When I was younger, we went to a "moving sale" where a family was moving out of state, and literally selling EVERYTHING they had, including their dogs. One of the dogs was an Australian Shepherd, and she was GORGEOUS. She was bi-eyed (which freaked my dad out) and I thought that was so cool, and beautiful. I'd never seen a dog with a blue eye/blue eyes before. I wanted her SO, SO, SO badly. My dad said he'd think about it, and I was SO excited, and hoped we could get her. My dad said he just couldn't handle the two different colored eyes, that it was "weird". And said that another breed that had those gorgeous blue eyes, were Huskies.

I had an all breed dog book that I had gotten for Christmas years before (I've always been obsessed with dogs. ) and we read up on them a little. With very little knowledge on the breed, we began searching for one.

We found in the paper that a man was re-homing a 1 year old grey and white Siberian Husky with blue eyes. We drove for what seemed like forever to the man's house, and as we pulled onto his street, we saw a man walking a BEAUTIFUL husky. My dad said "Wow, if this dog looks anything like that one, we're getting her." Turns out that dog WAS her. Her name was "Mystee". We changed the spelling to Misty, and she was ours. <3

She was one of the best dogs I've ever had. Stubborn, crazy, evil, sweet, loving, loyal. She was my first of three huskies I've owned, and she's the dog that inspired me to want more of them. It's funny because Violet reminds me (personality-wise) a lot more of Misty than she does of Holly. (Maybe the blue eyes make them crazy. :rofl1

I was obsessed with Lassie as a young kid - from age 3 to maybe 11, I was absolutely in love with any kind of collie. My obsession dwindled after meeting a few poorly bred/trained collies who really weren't as extraordinary as I had hoped they would be!

Fast forward a few years, I joined my first agility class with my papillon and met some well-trained border collies (and show collies) that were seriously my idea of "lassie dogs". One of these lassie dogs happened to have whelped a litter recently and the home for the last male puppy had fallen through, so I wound up with Dakota. I had so much fun with him and my family liked the breed so much that my mom and I wound up each getting a BC girl and letting my dad have Dakota.

I'm still looking forward to living with other breeds but I've definitely had a lifelong fondness for collie types.

I tend to like dogs, not breeds. I have "favorite" breeds were most every dog I meet of that breed I adore, but I'm still more of an individual dog person (which I'm going to assume is because we've always had mutts that vary in their behavior and looks to an extreme). So I'm still searching for "that breed".

My mom has always been a huge Saint Bernard fan. She' met her first Saint when she was babysitting after school one day. She said she heard one of the kids say, "Amy....help me." She walked into the room and the Saint Bernard had gotten into the house and was sitting on top of the kid licking him to death. ROFL She's loved them ever since. She also likes Newfies and Berners.

Dad has always been a big GSD/Collie fan. He's not an animal person, but he always admired the farm dogs he grew up with due to their smarts, temperament, and loyalty.

A Dog Fancy article made me want a JRT.

Both my mom and I had read about English Shepherds before but for whatever reason they just didn't come to mind when we were looking for our next puppy. We were re-introduced to the breed through True Blood.

YouTube - Sam Merlotte Tribute (True Blood)
NSFW if you watch the whole thing. Start at 0:46 - check out the old shepherd painting on his wall! There's a clip of the dog right after that, and again at 1:30.
YouTube - Sam Merlotte. Who Let The Dogs Out
Short clips of the dog throughout. Again, NSFW - Sam's frequently nude.
(OMG, you had no idea how many lame freaking Sam and Sam/Sookie ship videos I had to watch to find one with like 2 seconds of the dog!)

I absolutely LOVED the dog. Every single episode I'd comment about him, LOL. We just figured he was a really nice Collie cross but finally we read online that he was an English Shepherd - ohh, right *lightbulb* ! We looked more into the breed, oddly enough they were exactly what we were looking for, and so we started trying to find a breeder around here. Got in touch with our breeder, turns out Quinn's aunt (her sire's littermate) only lives about 30 minutes away so we met and visited with her for a day and that was that.

Now I see English Shepherds everywhere! There has been one in a Pedigree commercial about healthy joints, and I'm 90% sure it's the same dog that's in a new Purina One commercial. I wouldn't even be surprised if this dog is the same as the one in TB - very similar head shape.

I'd ALWAYS wanted a German Shepherd, and when I saw some of them at the park doing some obedience, just the connection, the style and the way they responded had me hooked. I started my search for a GSD first, then I found Schutzhund, and started looking at breeders who bred for performance. The first breeder I looked at bred for the AKC show ring, and now, years later, I am SO SO glad I moved away from that.

I got Apollo, and that was it. He was everything I wanted in a GSD, aside from his terrible health, and I loved him dearly. Hopefully I'll be getting my next best GSD soon.

When I worked with horses, most of the dogs that ran around the barns were either JRTs or corgis. The JRTs were irritating. When I got into dogs, it was because I was getting out of horses and getting a corgi was something of a nostalgic moment.

Great topic!

I grew up loving dogs, and I had a thing for GSDs. Rin Tin Tin - I don't know how many times I read that book and watched the Littlest Hobo. My aunt had a GSD and I loved him. As a kid I had an english springer and then a golden retriever. Both great dogs.

Fast forward a few years to when I was a teen and my dad (not living in the same house as me and my mom but same town) ended up with a puppy. The neighbors down the road were not taking care of her and she kept wandering over to his place. He fell in love with her (also a dog lover) and they 'sold' her to him for a case of beer. He named her Brew.

She was the weirdest, craziest little dog - my dad was told she was part coyote and part shepherd. A few years later she had an oops litter, because he could not keep her in the yard. She jumped (and sat on) 6ft high fences. I fell in love with the Runt of the litter and convinced my dad to keep him. We 'shared' him and he was a beautiful GSD mix (of who knows what) but he was seriously the perfect dog.

Fast forward again to last year when my husband and I were finally ready to get a dog. He was on board with getting a shepherd. I started searching rescues and kijiji, and came across 'belgian malinois shepherds'. Never heard of them before so I started doing some research. After reading up on them, and after going out there to meet the family and seeing the dam I was almost convinced that the dog my dad had was part Mal. On top of that this family was from Holland (my dads side of the family came from there) and they said the father was half 'dutch shepherd'.

I basically took those as signs that this was the type of shepherd dog I had been looking for and since there were only two males left - I chose the one who looked at me with love in his eyes (even though he was shy).

The rest is history

Pics of Brew:





And the "runt" (Joey)





I see some similarities in the facial expressions of him and Riley. And also the fact that they are both big babies.

^ Dude, Joey is so "my type of dog". Beautiful. His mother was, too!

What a cool topic!

Growing up, my family had labs and rough collies. My friends, however, got a Border Collie puppy and I was absolutely smitten with her. I fell absolutelty head over heels with the breed. I found myself going over to my friends house JUST to train their dog! LOL. I knew right then that they were the breed for me, and about a year later I got my first Border Collie (Riley.)

Grew up with APBTs always had them around and always will (once we own we will have out own)

Filas would be Kharma. I saw some at a show once and LOVED them in body type but the temperment was NOTHING like what I wanted and later learned not what they are supposed to be.

As for liking hard tempered dogs its just what I have really started to love since Walker. Liked it before but now its really a must have for me.

When my mom okayed me to get a dog, I was all over the place never having dog and not knowing what breed I wanted. Then I watched a friends two schnauzers, and it was downhill from there (my two are niece/nephew-y to hers).

The poodles I wanted an "easier" dog, one that wasn't as stubborn or bitchy as the schnauzers. I had met toys and standards, but never a mini, but knew that a toy make just be too snackable to the schnauzers, thus came Lincoln. Who is the naughtiest and energetic poodle I have ever met LOL. Tsuki was a surprise

Our neighbors got a GSD, Princess when I was about 5. They were horrible dog owners and I always wished we could have Princess. I very badly wanted a GSD from the moment I first saw Princess as a puppy, it took many years before I got one though. I got a collie because my 4H advisor had a smooth named Kojac that I just adored. I got into Belgians through the same 4H advisor. I was never was really around them until I started training one of her's for show, now I can't imagine not having Crazy Black Dogs My husband likes Corgis because he rescued a stray one years ago and was impressed with how attentive and loyal the dog was.

When I was growing up I often went out to my uncles hobby farm, he'd usually have about 30-50 head of sheep and cattle, a couple of horses, chicken and a mixture of other interesting animals he'd decided to raise, turkeys, pigs, ducks, peacocks and once he even had a couple of emu.
And when I was about 7 he got a young red and tan kelpie pup called Smokey and I just adored him, that grew gradually into a love for the breed and a desire to own one. I still can't wait to see smokey whenever I go down there to visit, I was his favouirte kid back in the day and now he's dealing wiht raising my uncles 5 grandsons and taking it in his stride.
He reminds me so, so much of Buster in looks, personality and mannerisms its unbelievable and I still can't wait to get one of my own.

With BC's, I never liked them. I thought they looked too fluffy and not as lean and nicely built as kelpies. Eve was the dog that made me relise differently, I now relise there are still a LOT of BC's out there I don't like the look of but these are all the show type, classically marked ones. I still prefer odd markings and I will only ever have working/sport bred BC's but they are on par as far as my love of kelpies goes now. I adore both breeds and I'm so grateful for discovering BC's as a good match because I couldn't imagine having anything else at this point in my life.

When I was about 7 or 8, my mother and I were sunbathing in the yard and I opened my eyes to find myself being studied by a big red Doberman. He was being walked by on the sidewalk ( the yard was so tiny that I was about 6 inches in from the sidewalk. I never heard him or had any clue that he was there until I opened my eyes. That dog has always stuck with me.