Description Intelligence Dog

All are sufficiently intelligent to be trained and a high proportion of breeds remaining in the Working Group are sizeable, both in height and stature. Their functions in life differ considerably, several used as watch- and guard dogs, others originally for fighting, while the Great Dane was used to hunt boar and stag. The Giant Schnauzer and Bouvier des Flandres mainly herded cattle, although the latter, like other Working dogs, is now involved in security work. Then there are the breeds which work in water, dragging nets and retrieving, while others toil in snowy terrain, the Saint Bernard doing rescue work, and others like the Alaskan malamute and Siberian husky representing several breeds involved in heavy haulage work. In Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Newfoundland, dogs pulled smaller carts, none the less coming to the aid of mankind in his toils.

Although many of the dogs which fall within this group are used now just for exhibition purposes and for companionship, rather than the work for which their breeds were developed, in a number of cases, especially abroad, these breeds still carry out their work, providing invaluable service to man. Among them are dogs much loved and admired the world over.

As with the majority of group classifications, there is a wide variety of dogs in the Working Group, but none within this group can be considered small dogs. There are gentle giants such as the St Bernard and Newfoundland and that majestic dog the Great Dane -indeed, were these dogs not amenable to training they would be very difficult to handle. Also in this group fall some of the Bull breeds which are enormously strong. The large ones, especially, need careful handling as one can be dealing with a dog whose overall weight can be well in excess of one's own. Added to this such dogs are powerful in every way, so it is of the utmost importance that they know who is their boss.

Coats vary from the short-coated Bull breeds to the more substantially-coated ones such as the Portuguese water dog and Pyrenean Mountain Dog. The breeds within this group all have active minds as they were bred to work in all manner of ways, some of them to guard their property and owners, so it is important to fully understand a working dog's original function before deciding whether a particular breed will be well-suited to one's own lifestyle - town or country, active or sedentary, and so on.