Have you ever had any experience with an English Shepherd dog?

The English Shepherd makes an excellent pet, loves kids and is very protective. Guard dog neutral, they will sound the alarm, but will rarely attack. Highly intelligent, unlike their counter-cousins, they are less hyper, and require much less exercise and do have an "off-switch" when not playing or working. These are a quiet, gentle dog, however, of late some breeders have been crossing them with the Border Collie, producing a smaller dog, but much more excitable and hyper temperament.

English Shepherd Temperament

I raise & rescue herding breeds, & am in the process of training an English Shepherd puppy . . . or rather, she's training her humans, LOL. Read everything you can about them, esp. on actual English Shepherd breeders' sites, b/c they are definitely NOT the breed for everyone. All of those warnings you'll see on breeders' pages abt how difficult they are, as teenagers (which lasts longer than most breeds, I might add) is true. They are terribly intelligent, terribly stubborn & MUST have humans who are smarter & stubborner than they are, or everyone will be miserable. If you can survive the awful teenaged phase, though & make it to adulthood, they're one of the best dogs on the planet.

If you're a herding/working breed rookie, I'd highly recommend starting out w/ a little less difficult breed - Australian Shepherds are very similar, but not nearly as difficult as the English Shepherds. Be sure to shop carefully if you're wanting a working stockdog, though b/c Aussies are very popular on the pet market, so you have to look for the ones who aren't "just another pretty face", who haven't had all of the smarts & working instincts bred out of them, in order to make them more suitable housepets. That goes for just abt any of the herding/working breeds, actually.

We have a working livestock farm, raising mostly dairy goats, but we also have free range poultry, the family milk cow & various types of meat animals. I raise Pembroke Welsh Corgis & Miniature Australian Shepeherds, but have an array of breeds of canine farmhands, including 2 ESes & the most recent addition to the pack, a Scotch/Rough Collie (who is not one bit dumb, as someone indicated) (she is out of proven working farmdogs, though). I've been doing this for over 12 years, so feel I have at least have a little experience to speak from. ;)

Hope this has helped.

Sarah/Lost Nation Farm/south-central MI

They are wonderful. Mine just passed away after 12 years. I am heartbroken. She was not "smart" like other dogs. She was intuitive and eager to please. She pretty much housebroke herself - all we did was take her out every hour, and she learned that outside was to go potty. She loved routine (she learned everything this way) and hated closed doors. She wanted to be with me all the time. If you want a constant companion, go for it. I could tell you so much more about her. All the positives that you'll read about the breed are all the things that made her the perfect companion.

Nope, only that they need to be trained. I always had cats. =^-^=

google, never heard of one