My husband and I are quite fond of large dogs and wanted a breed that would be easy to care for and train. We also wanted to choose a breed that did not have a strong prey-drive. Prey-drives include the instinctive drives that enable most herding and gun dog breeds (most of the breeds in the United States) to excel in the tasks for which they were originally developed. Prey drives are actually stalking and predatory instincts that can usually be shaped for chasing, retrieving and doing other such things on command. Unfortunately, predatory behavior around livestock is generally undesireable. Even a herding dog must allow its predatory chase instincts to be controlled. It makes little sense to keep a predatory animal when there are choices among breeds that can be safely kept with livestock without chasing and killing these other animals.
