Temperament

“Bold. Faithful. Willing worker. Alert and vigilant.”

It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well, it can be. But … stop and think about it for a minute.

All of these words have a flip side, and each strength can become a weakness.

Bold

can mean confident and self-assured, and even courageous!

Faithful

describes our dog as a devoted companion.

Willing Worker

might sound like a dog who will be easily trained.

Alert and Vigilant

means the dog will alert us to anything they perceive as out of the ordinary.

But these words can also mean …

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Pushy

Like most working dogs, Swissies have strong opinions about many things, and they can be quite unmannerly in expressing those opinions. Because of their size and strength, this can be a safety issue.

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Clingy

That adorable, snuggly little puppy grows faster than you can imagine, and quickly turns into an often immovable obstacle that is always at your side. Swissies want to be right in the middle of everything you do.

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Needs clarity

Working dogs do best when they understand what their job is. If we don’t provide that clarity and back it up with consistent training, they just might decide to keep busy with tasks that are not to our liking!

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Wary

A Swissy who perceives humans as threatening is dangerous. This includes wariness of strangers and any type of guarding behavior (food, toys, people, places), and is especially of concern around children.

Make an informed choice.

It is hard to look past the gorgeous dog and think about how that dog will fit into your daily life; however, it is something you must do before deciding to add a Swissy to your family. We believe it is best to ignore descriptions of the breed that say Swissies are great family dogs, because they are only great family dogs for the right families.

Large-breed working dogs must always be closely supervised around children. Kids cannot be expected to read the dog’s body language, and it really isn’t fair to ask any dog to just accept whatever behavior a child exhibits toward them. If you have children in your family, please consider the temperament information very carefully, and be prepared for us to ask a lot of questions about how you plan to manage a Swissy around your children.

One of our priorities as breeders is placing our dogs where we believe they will be successful. We are looking for outstanding homes who will commit to proper training and management of this breed. We hope that might be you!