tatonka

People get themselves into trouble whenever generalizations are tossed around. You just can't say Chessies are aggressive and Labs aren't, or vice versa. All breeds have the good and bad and it comes down to a well bred dog that is socialized and trained properly. A Chessie from the right breeding that is socialized and trained properly is no more aggressive than a Lab, German Shorthair, Golden, etc. that is from top lines and socialized and trained correctly.

We tend to base our opinions on a couple of incidents that we either see or hear about and after that use those experiences to judge all dogs within a breed. That and we perpetuate things that we've read without actually seeing those things first hand to verify if what we read is true or not. We are all guilty of it, and it's wrong. I breed Chessies and I keep in touch with the people who get pups from me. I have yet to have one person come back and say their dog is aggressive, possessive, or anything close to that. Not one, but I'm a stickler for temperament. I absolutely will not own an ill tempered dog...I won't have one on my place.

Golden Retrievers have the reputation for having wonderful temperaments, but I've seen two that should have been put down. They were the meanest, ugliest dogs you'd ever want to see. There is a Lab in our town right now that has bitten 3 kids.....don't ask me why the dog is still alive......there's a huge controversy going on over it.There's another lab that a local farmer owns thatI would never turn my back on.....if I stop to visit and the dog is loose, I won't get out of my truck until they come out and have control of him. Now, based on what I've seen I could easily say that Goldens and Labs have some temperament problems, but I've been in this game long enough to know different.

Chastise an individual dog within any breed if you want to, but to chastise an entire breed based on a few personal experiences is rediculous.