Down boy, down! Hilarious pictures of the giant dogs that tower over their owners

Mailonline ^ | 5/15/2012 | Leon Watson

[blueyon]

Who's the master in this relationship then?

With some standing nearly 6ft tall, you might think its the pets who are taking the lead in these incredible pictures.

Not only do the oversized dogs tower over their owners, they have wagging tongues as big as human heads.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2144694/Down-boy-The-oversized-dogs-tower-owners-like-big-cuddly-bears.html#ixzz1v4vzq9HW

[CatherineofAragon]

Awww, what a big baby! He can lay on my lap anytime if you’re busy, LOL.

Yeah, I’ve heard that the all-meat pet foods produce less poop. I believe those junky, pasty, carb-laden foods are really unhealthy for dogs and cats. They’re meat eaters; they can’t process the other crap.

[Gone_Postal]

[CatherineofAragon]

He’s just gorgeous.

My sister-in-law and her husband used to have a huge Shepherd, Schutzhund-trained (I know that can’t be the right word, but it’s probably close). He was especially protective of the women in the family. One day I was visiting, and a repairman came in. The dog sat down on my feet, facing outward, growling low in his throat, until the guy left the kitchen, LOL.

[Gennie]

Thank you! My dogs are distantly related to Shilohs, the oversized AKC German Shepherds that the Shilohs stemmed from are in almost all of my dogs. That puppy is very cute, any idea on a name for him? I love sables :)

[EyeGuy]

Shazam!

With that magnificent beast by your side, who needs a handgun?

[Gennie]

That's funny! German Shepherds are very smart, so I wonder if he thought that guy had something up with him in addition to already being trained. One of my dogs absolutely HATES the school bus because she thinks it comes to kidnap the kids every day. It has become a joke because if you even say the word "bus" she'll start barking.

One day as I was getting the kids ready for school I look down and I see her chewing on a shoe, something she's NEVER done before. I say NO JAVA! and start wondering what the shoe could have had on it that was so tasty or what could have compelled her to do so since she's never done it before. I then realized she knows that I yell at the kids every day before they go out to put their shoes on. She must have thought no shoes = no kids getting on the bus, lol. Thankfully, it was the shoe of one of the smaller ones that stay at home for now.

[brytlea]

Sweet! We had a shepherd when I was a kid. Great dog, altho she had a thing for skunks and porcupines. Silly girl, she never won.

[lonevoice]

My friend, the soon-to-be owner of the puppy, has decided to name him “Shiloh”, after the very first in a succession of GSDs he’s owned since the 1970s. He had always owned a GSD until he got his first Shiloh Shepherd 8 years ago. His last couple of GSDs suffered from hip problems as they aged, and had their lives ended prematurely because of it. His now 8-year-old Shiloh is still as healthy and vigorous as any adolescent dog, going on rugged ten mile hikes with him a few times/week just as she did when she was a pup.

There are wonderful GSD lines behind the Shiloh breed, the very best, I’m told. They were originally selected for intelligence, health, temperament and size. Yours is one of the most beautiful examples of a GSD I’ve seen in a very long time. His conformation looks wonderful, with that healthy and natural-looking topline, as compared to the extreme slope some breeders introduced into the breed. I love your boy’s coat. I just read your post in #46 while I was editing this. Wonderful story! These are just the kinds of stories my friend has been telling me for years about his Shiloh.

[brytlea]

LOL

[CatherineofAragon]

LOL, that’s scary smart.

[lonevoice]

Hi, stillwaters. I'm pinging you to post post #20 from FReeper, Gennie.

Gennie is the owner of Pioneer German Shepherds, and I just now read on his/her(?) webpage how the Pioneer GSDs continue the line of some of the original GSDs that Tina used in her founding of the Shiloh.

I thought you might be interested in this explanation from Pioneer's website at this link.

(P.S. to Gennie - my friend is an inveterate lurker of 9 years, and while he doesn't post comments on FR, he's a regular reader and will enjoy seeing the history of your dogs.)

[lonevoice]

Gennie, I'm also pinging my sister, FReeper Pride in the USA to your posts about your German Shepherds.

She lost her beautiful GSD, Charlie, prematurely due to degenerative mylopathy, one of the conditions for which your dogs are tested as clear non-carriers. Charlie was the sweetest, soft-temperament GSD I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Everyone who knew him was heartbroken.

Pride, Freeper Gennie has been breeding German Shepherds for a very long time, with some of the original lineage that Tina Barber used as the foundational basis of the Shiloh Shepherd.

I think you'll be interested in his kennel website at www.pioneergermanshepherds.com. The dogs are old-style, natural straight back German Shepherds, with what appears to be extensive genetic testing and certifications.

[chrisinoc]

Gennie,

Charity is a sweet dog who has been a foster mate to five other GSDs.

Here's another long coated beauty available. She was adopted out as a puppy last year, then dumped at another rescue last month.

http://www.gsroc.org/available_dogs_detail.asp?ID=2311

[Gennie]

Thank you for the nice compliment about my dog! It's funny, most people looking for a companion prefer the look of my dogs versus traditional show shepherds (both American or German which look drastically different, as you noted slope or roached back), but obviously a lot of German Shepherd breeders dislike my dogs. As far as the history of the Shiloh GSD lines, you are correct that they focused on all this, and originally how I got into my dogs was originally wanting a Shiloh for the longest time. Things worked out differently than I had originally planned however, and rather than getting into Shilohs I got into old style GSDs instead. I did seek out dogs that did have the older AKC Shiloh American lines, so most of my dogs do have at least some of these dogs within their pedigrees. I also have Rin Tin Tin in one of my girls, and the girl I was talking about in my other post, Java, is actually of East German decent (one of my few with no older AKC Shiloh lines), however I feel those lines do compliment the older lines greatly.

I tend to be repetitive when I type AKC Shiloh lines, mainly because I've had people insist my dogs are mixed because Shiloh Shepherds are something a bit different than my dogs as they broke away from the American Kennel Club in the early 1990s and incorporated a malamute cross named Samson Woo. Because of this, there are people (a lot of breeders, even) that would assume when I refer to those lines, that it means my dogs are anything other than German Shepherds.

[Gennie]

Didn’t flip the page to respond to the next comments, lol. I have been into these dogs since 2005. As far as health testing goes, for example Ash (my boy pictured), is about 130 lbs at the moment, and has had hips OFA certified, been TLI tested for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (normal levels) , and also a degenerative myelopathy clear non-carrier. Unfortunately, with DM, there was not a test out until recently, I don’t know how many breeders are even aware of it. I have not tested all of my dogs yet, but so far everyone tested has been normal non-carriers, which means regardless of who that dog is bred to, a normal non-carrier should not produce a dog who exhibits the symptoms of degenerative myelopathy.

[Gennie]

Wow, what a beautiful dog, and it’s so heartbreaking that she does not have a home :( People will buy a cute, cuddly little puppy thinking they’ll stay that way and don’t realize that they do grow up into big dogs.

[lonevoice]

I do appreciate the time you’ve taken to explain your breeding program. I also found your website had a ton of good information on it. Conscientious, reputable breeders are not always easy to find, and worth their weight in gold, imo. You deserve a lot of respect for the choices you’re making regarding lineage, health testing, and breeding for the “old” (more vigorous and healthier, imo) style GSD. It’s breeders such as yourself who will preserve the GSD in the form that so many remember with such fondness. They’re really a special breed.

My friend is picking up his Shiloh puppy tonight! He’s so excited about it he hasn’t slept much for days now. :-)

[Gennie]

I had family visiting over the weekend then keyboard broke so had to get a new one, so am finally able to answer this and just wanted to say THANK YOU for the nice compliments :) It's ironic that you say this, because of course there are some people out there that think breeders like myself are singlehandedly causing the downfall of the German Shepherd breed, haha!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your friend's Shiloh puppy, I know there are a few different registries for them, I believe Tina Barber's are the ISSR Shilohs and then there's the ISSDC and other registries as well. Do you know which breeder he got his pup from?

[lonevoice]

Hi, Gennie. The pup arrived all healthy and well. My friend got both of his Shilohs directly from the Barber's kennel, New Zion. The pup is a real beauty, and he's going to be huge. He's just turned 11 weeks old, and the older Shiloh has already potty trained him. She takes him outside, shows him where to "go", and waits until he does. The pup already heels, sits, comes when called, and responds quickly to corrections, maintaining good, direct eye contact. Here are a couple of pictures my friend sent me.

Those feet are gigantic, LOL!

Here's a picture of the two of them hanging out together

The older female is a "smaller" Shiloh, at 90 pounds. The pup is probably going to be closer to 150 pounds. They're really sweet together, and it looks as though they're developing a wonderful bond.

[Gennie]

Oh, they are both beautiful! They look similar to the short coats I produce, though in Shilohs I guess they are referred to as smooths. I love sables :) Here are some of my past pups, etc. I am in the process of redoing my site (if I ever get a chance) so I just uploaded to my Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48399143@N05/

It's good to know your friend got dogs directly from New Zion, I have tried to follow some of the things between that group as well as the others, but there's too many politics involved for me to keep up. Tina died just about a year ago, I was very sad to hear and only found out about her being as sick as she was a few days before she passed away. If you look on this page http://www.shilohshepherds.info/shilohHistory.htm you'll see some of those old ads. Even after she split off and had her first Shiloh Shepherd ads, the dogs in there were technically GSD, most with AKC papers. Some of those dogs are in my pedigrees, including the ones on the early 1990s Shiloh ads.