Sporting

Bred to work side by side with their human counterpart, sporting dogs are rugged, tough dogs who possess a natural instinct for hunting and tracking and also possess a high play drive. This group of dogs are commonly used when hunting feathered animals, such as duck, waterfowl, pheasant as well as other game birds. The sporting dog tends to be a strong swimmer, especially retrievers. Other sporting breeds, such as pointers, setters and spaniels, tend to work best in open grasslands or wooded areas.

Herding

Our favorite group of dogs, would be the herding dogs. Breeds such as the Belgian Malinois, Dutch Shepherds, German Shepherds, Border Collies are bred to perform many complex tasks. With the natural instinct to herd other animals such as cattle, sheep and goats, some of these herding breeds are trained for the professional world such as police work, search and rescue, avalanche rescue, tracking and many other jobs. This group of dog possesses great sniffing abilities which can be tuned to work in illegal narcotic detection, mold detection, even bedbug detection. With the ability to work in the medical industry in jobs such as seizure alert, diabetes detection as well as wheelchair assistance, these dogs can be bred for the family home or the professional working world.

Working

The working group of dogs are comprised of breeds such as rottweilers, huskeys and boxers. With jobs such as pulling sleds, guarding homes and businesses, guarding livestock and other food source animals from predators. The working breeds are a very intense, focused hard working group of dogs that are born with the natural abilities it takes, to perform such tasks. Many of these dog breeds have a stern, intimidating look in their physical stature as well as their actions in movement, eye contact and overall appearance. The working breeds were used in ancient times, through to the present times. Most of the working breeds not only perform a great service to their human counterparts, but they also make great house pets.

Terriers

In this day and age, many in the terrier group have a bad name. Most of this is caused due to the human that have contributed to the destruction of the breed in the sense of back yard breeding, inexperienced breeding, dog fighting and no passion in the terrier breeds to produce quality, stable minded, physically and mentally healthy dogs. Some of the breeds that fall into terrier category are breeds such as staffordshire terriers, pit bull terriers, welsh terrier, jack russells, bedlington terriers and the manchester terrier. There are many more breeds that fall within the terrier group.

Hounds

Bred and born to hunt, chase and track, the hound group is very talented, thinking breed of dog. Very witty with the ability to out-think their prey, hounds live for the thrill of the chase. These dogs possess a natural ability for the hunt. You can typically find these dogs working side by side their human counterpart in the field, wooded area or wetlands. They possess explosive power giving them a better chance at chasing down their prey, as well as great scent detection. Hounds can normally smell their quarry, way before they can see them. But all of this would be no good without the drive it takes to perform such tasks. Prey drive and play drive are of no concern for dogs found in the hound category. They can go, for as long as it takes, once they have the prey in sight or in scent.

Toy

Mostly human companions, the Toy group are the smaller dogs that tend to also be called lap dogs. They work very hard at being affectionate to their human, as well as fulfilling their own satisfaction for attention and affection. Commonly found in a city dwellers purse or backpack, sometimes almost an accessory, the toy group can also possess issues with aggression or aggressive tendencies. Most are not born with aggression issues, but become this way with over affectionating or humanizing the dog. Being that these breeds are smaller, people will tend to allow these breeds to jump onto the furniture or in their beds. Humans will also take these breeds with them, wherever they go which can lead to separation anxiety when the breed doesn’t have their human around. We see a lot of damage done to this breed, by those who are simply trying to give their dog a good life. The one thing the human tends to forget with this breed, is that they are still dogs.