We lost our sweet four-year-old German Shepherd very suddenly to GDV a couple weeks ago. Completely devastating, especially since she was so young, and we all found her dead in the morning. We loved her tremendously, but wouldn't get a German Shepherd again due to the potential for GDV. (We've since learned it's the second leading cause of death in this breed and it's extremely hard to prevent death once it starts ... they can die within an hour. Never even heard of it until it happened.)
My husband and I are having early talks about getting another dog when we are all ready, maybe late summer or fall. We obviously want a family-friendly breed, but wonder which breeds people have had luck with as far as longevity/few health issues? We'd like a medium to large dog. We will be going through a shelter or rescue group when the time comes, so a mixed breed is certainly possible. Temperament and longevity will be our biggest deciding factors.
My golden retriever lived to be 19. Her half brother only lived till 9.
No breed has guarantees.
So sorry for your loss. We've always had mutts (7 to date) and they've always lived well past 12. We even had a golden/border collie mix that made it to 18 and was ridiculously smart. They were all healthy and I've heard mutts are generally the healthiest (so says my vet). I also think mixes have the best temperament. We have a pit mix now that might kiss you to death if given the chance. Since you're going to a shelter or rescue, they will be able to guide you as to the dog's general personality. Make sure you spend time alone with them to see how everyone gets along. Again, I'm sorry for your loss.
I'm so sorry for your loss!! I lost my fur baby 13 June 2015 without any notice on his 5th birthday. My heart STILL breaks today. I miss him terribly. He was an AWESOME dog - he was Boxer/Pit Bull Mix.
I would find a rescue dog or a mixed breed. I know that pure breds can have more problems than mixed....
Labs are good - but they have hip dysplasia problems sometimes.
Great Danes are tough - short life span and touchy stomachs.
I personally love Pit Bull mixes. Most loving dogs I have ever owned!!
Good luck! I'm truly sorry for your loss!
As a general rule, the larger the dog the shorter the lifespan. Mutts tend to live longer than purebreds and females tend to live longer than males. Go for a small female mutt. We had a female beagle mix that lived over 17 yrs!
I am so sorry. Our pets are our family and we are so attached to them.
We've always had dogs in our home. We've had English and American Cocker Spaniels. Health, temperament and basic good dog was more so from the English Cocker. We've had 2 of each. All lived anywhere from 13-15 years with exception of out best one ever who got suddenly sick last August and died at 10 years old of kidney failure. That was a shock!!
We have a toy poodle now 10, who is thriving and a great dog. He was a companion and raised with the last Cocker.
I recently adopted a lab/shar pei mix from the shelter. She's a wonderful dog, does not shed much. She's big and is my guard dog, but lovable cuddle buddy! She's about 6 months old, and pushing 40# of muscle.
Again, I'm sorry for your loss. It hurts so much when we lose our fur babies.
I too am sorry for your loss. I have a soft stop for German Shepherd. I agree that a shelter animal would be best and I just wanted tell you about our dog. She isn't mixed breed but still just as good and sweet dog as any.
About 6 years back we took in a Bassett Hound after a family bought her and were then relocated and couldn't take her with them. While she is not a mut she has a great temper. The kids play hide and seek with her she's not to big or too small. My husband and son love to take her for walks, fishing and camping. My daughter will curl up on the floor with her and snuggle.
Our Charlotte dog is starting to show that she is getting older and slowing down a bit. I know Bassett can be prone to back issues and being over wight and a touch lazy some times however that just has not been out experience. She does like to chase our cat from time to time but in the few times she has cought him she just licks him and wags her tail (much to kitty's disgust) but she have never tried to hurt him. She is a great dog.
My husband would want me to toss in golden retrievers as well. He had one growing up and she was his best friend.
I think its important to spend time with whatever dog you chose. Temperament is super important. Also think about what you want the new doggy friend to do. Is he/she going to go on outings with the family? Things like that.
Again I am sorry for your loss and I am sure when the time comes you will pick the right dog for your family and puppy will be lucky to have such a great home!
I'm so sorry for your loss! Fur babies are our family.
Our dogs are all mixed breeds or mutts. I've had the longest life with Rottweiler/Shepard mix, he lived 16 years.
You never know what you are getting with any breed. Nothing is guaranteed.
I am so sorry for your loss. We lost our male Neapolitan Mastiff to bloat at 7 and it was heartbreaking. Bloat is more common with larger, deep-chested dogs. Some preventive measures include elevated bowls for food and water, feeding 2 small meals instead of 1 large one, don't let them run around after eating, and DO feed table scraps (continually- they do better if they have a little variation in their diet all along). We did all that and still lost ours, but it might help.
To your question, I am a vote for Pitties or pit mixes. They tend to be very healthy, particularly those on the smaller end, like 40-50 lbs. We had two sisters from the same litter. One passed away a few months back at 12, the other just turned 13 and is still with us. If you had a GSD, you can handle a pit no problem. Have fun choosing your next furry family member!!
I'm so sorry - we lost our 14 year old terrier 6 years ago and it was just awful and painful. They leave a hole in your heart. Please do what you need to in order to heal.
I'm so happy you are going through a shelter. We did the same thing, adopting a mixed breed that was partly the same breed as our terrier. Smaller dogs often have a longer life span so do look into a dog that is a mix of several desirable breeds. Mostly, go for temperament and a good history so you have a good mix. While longevity is desirable, a painful 13 years with a poor match doesn't outweigh a wonderful 9-10 years with a wonderful match. What we've noticed is that our rescue dog, while showing certain issues that come from having been abandoned several time and probably abused, has an amazing gratitude and devotion that exceeds even what our beloved prior raised-from-puppyhood dog displayed.
For me, going for a dog with a single coat really cuts down on the shedding. I'd much rather put a sweater on her in the New England winter than vacuum all year long. Otherwise, go for your family's lifestyle. Sometimes (not always), rescue dogs can't be left for as long, or boarded (too many abandonment issues). So DO work with a shelter that has a really strong dedication to figuring out each dog's personality, needs and so on - don't just go by diseases.
Good luck and I hope you find your perfect hound.
The longest lived large breed dog is likely the greyhound. They often live 12-15+ years (unusual for large breeds). They are superb family dogs BUT they are predatory. You cannot safely have either a cat, small dog or infant with them. Some greyhound rescues 'temperament test' them to see if they are 'safe' with small dogs or cats. However this is by no means a guarantee and I would NEVER ever take a chance like that.
Golden Retrievers have a median life expectancy closer to 10-12 years with a high incidence of cancers at a younger age. Siberian Huskies are fairly long lived (average 12-14 years) but IMO they have some real personality issues.
So sorry to hear this. It must be awful to have something like this happen without warning.
As far as longevity in breeds, I would simply say that there is no breed that comes with guarantees that something unexpectedly tragic will never happen. I know that doesn't help. But it's the truth.
We have a GSD (and if I were to ever get another dog, it would likely be a GSD again) who just turned 12 in March. Yes, 12 years old. She is still in excellent health, except arthritis is gaining on her. As long as she simply has to walk/trot around, she is good. But climbing or jumping just don't happen for her anymore, sadly. She still has the will to do them, but she just doesn't have the required range of motion in her hips to support it. She has been on meds since she was 6 years old and we almost lost her to a sudden and unexplained (still to this day) event. She appeared to have head trauma (though she is an inside dog and nothing out of the ordinary had happened, no visitors, nothing), but we couldn't find any source. We looked for bite marks (snake, spider, anything) and even the vet could find nothing. She went into seizures. Eventual hospitalization got her stabilized, and at that point her thyroid was no longer functioning properly/fully, so she went on anti-seizure meds and thyroid meds. 6 more years later and no more seizures, and no other health issues, other than the slow creep of time and arthritis gaining on her.
There's really no way to predict. I assume GDV is bloat? I know it is well known to be something that can happen, but there ARE things you can be proactive about to try to reduce the risks. Elevated feeding/water dishes is something I read early on, and our GSD has had elevated feeding/water bowls from day one. As she grew, the bowls/height of the stand did, too. Don't feed and then play. Allow time for the food to digest and move through the digestive tract a bit. It's easy for us, b/c our GSD is picky and prefers to eat at night, when everyone goes to bed. So she is done horsing around for the day by then. She self regulates very well, and even when hot and thirsty, will come in from outside, and drink a few laps of water, then lie down on the tiles to cool off in the a/c and from the tiles before she drinks much more. She doesn't gulp her food or rush through it. And we have always been careful not to feed table foods.
I'm not saying it couldn't have happened to our dog. I'm not saying that you guys should have done something you didn't. Not at all. Simply that you can't let every "what if" dictate whether or not you'll have a wonderful GSD ever again. Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. It will be a pitiful day in our home when our beloved P leaves this world, but I wouldn't trade the misery and sadness to have never had her. Even if she had passed at 6 years old instead of whatever age she will be.
Such beautiful, intelligent, loving, loyal, dutiful creatures. I don't think I could possibly choose another breed.
