Dogs of Spain and Germany

I have a huge soft spot for German Shepherds.  The two GSDs that we have owned were the gentlest, mellowest dogs we've ever had. This boy was in Solsona, Spain, and he had learned how to open closed doors (although he had yet to close one behind him.)

I can't help but notice dogs when I travel.

A worshipful dog gracing Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, along with his family. I think that he is very likely a Portuguese Water Dog, like Eddy.  PWDs graced the coasts of both Spain and Portugal for centuries.

In Spain, we noticed them everywhere, usually well-kept and going out for evening walks with their owners.

In Germany it was the same thing, and because we were with outdoors-men we saw a lot of lucky dogs accompanying their masters in the workplace: the forests.

 I took zillions of pictures of animal gargoyles in the cities of Spain and Germany.

But my favorite gargoyle of all was this watchful little terrier in Barcelona...

...although this hound dog looks alive enough to jump out of the stone wall, and I liked him too. Definitely a "him."

We spent a good bit of time in the Pyrenees, but this fellow was the closest thing I could find to the breed we know as the Great Pyrenees.

Look at this scary guy, guarding a building in Frankfurt, Germany. He must have been effective because the building made it through WWII unscathed.

Luckily all of the real live German dogs we met were much less scary. Since most of the time spent there was in the vicinity of foresters, it wasn't surprising that almost every dog we encountered was their breed of choice, a hunting dog, the German Spaniel.

Germans don't consider this dog a spaniel. He's called the Deutscher Wachtelhund, which is how the UKC registers him, but this breed is uncommon in the US and not registered yet by the AKC.  He needs a ton of exercise, loves the water, will hunt anything, wants to be indoors with you, and needs a strong leader.

 

The Germans say that "a wachtelhund will abuse any weakness you provide". Look at this boy, laying patiently on the cold floor of Frederick I's castle, through a boring presentation about German land tenure. He is waiting for the instant that his leader tells him it's over. Just like the rest of us! Good, good dog.