Working dog

Dog Breed Categories
Herding Dog : Hound : Non-Sporting Dog : Sporting Dog : Terrier : Toy Dog : Working Dog

Working dogs are one of the seven dog breed categories. Throughout history, working dogs have provided an invaluable service to man by protecting, rescuing, and even providing transportation, and is very likely the etymology of the phrase, "to work like a dog"

Working dogs are typically large and well built, yet intelligent. Even well trained dogs in this category can be quite a handful for any owner - they can be difficult to keep inside, and difficult to walk since most of them can easily pull the average adult man. Since they are no longer typically used for physical work, they need lots of exercise and mental stimulation to keep them in line.

• Guard Dogs or Watch Dogs - These type of dogs were bred to protect the lives and property of their masters. Guard dogs typically were trained to attack and/or actively defend their territory, while watch dogs were trained to notify their masters (usually by barking) or simply intimidate intruders.

• Sled Dogs or Cart Dogs - As the name might tell you, dogs were bred to pull things like sleds and carts which sometimes held cargo, and sometimes human transport. These dogs are typically quite large and strong, and can run for days.

• Rescue Dogs or Search and Rescue Dogs - These dogs are trained to find and/or rescue lost travelers. Sometimes they were simply meant to roam an area, and sometimes they were sent to actively help and seek out someone who was known to be in trouble (not to be confused with hounds who actually track a person or an animal). Some dogs in this category are used on boats for water rescue.

Working Dog Breeds

• Akita
• Alaskan Malamute
• Anatolian Shepherd
• Beauceron
• Bernese Mountain Dog*
• Bouvier Des Flandres
• Boxer
• Bullmastiff
• Canadian Eskimo Dog
• Doberman Pinscher or Doberman or Dobermann
• Dogue de Bordeaux
• French Mastiff
• German Pinscher
• Giant Schnauzer
• Great Dane
• Great Pyrenees
• Greater Swiss Mountain Dog
• Greenland Dog
• Hovawart
• Komondor
• Kuvasz or Kuvaszok
• Leonberger
• Mastiff
• Neapolitan Mastiff
• Newfoundland
• Portuguese Water Dog
• Rottweiler
• Russian Black Terrier
• Saint Bernard or St. Bernard
• Samoyed
• Siberian Husky
• Standard Schnauzer
• Tibetan Mastiff

Some Famous Working Dogs

For more famous dogs, see Presidential pets.

• Beethoven (St. Bernard) - from the movie Beethoven
• Cujo (St. Bernard) - the rabid dog from Stephen King's book
• Hooch (French Mastiff) - from Turner and Hooch
• Marmaduke (Great Dane) - from the cartoon
• Patrasche (Bouvier des Flandres) - from the movie A Dog of Flanders
• Scooby-Doo (Great Dane) - Shaggy's sidekick (or is it the other way around?)
• White Fang (half wolf, half Alaskan Malamute) - from the book or the movie