Bouvier
+1 on the Bouvier, although their coat requires trimming, is very thick and high maintenance. It does, however, add to their already impressive appearance.
My neighbors up the road have a young male Bouvier, and he likes to play with my two labradors. He tosses my 90+ pound lab around like he was a beagle. If you have never seen a bouvier charge, it is pretty impressive! A couple of nights ago he was coming down the road on leash and I was out with my dogs. When 140 pounds of dog wants to come play he is hard to hold on to, so his owner called out if she should let him go. In the meantime, my 65 pound lab was parading around, barking and growling at him - until the leash came off.
Then it was time for a frantic retreat by the little dog. Fortunately, the Bouvier is much gentler with the smaller one than with the bigger dog, although the little one is fast and has some great moves They are all 3 getting into the 3-5 year old range, and are starting to settle down in their play a bit - more just running around together than the frantic wrestling and chasing.
Last year, they let the Bouvier out very early in the morning and there were two coyotes in the driveway. Off he went in pursuit, into the woods. He came back in about 15 minutes and did not have blood on his muzzle, so they assumed he did not catch them. I said, yeah, and now there are a couple of coyotes, sitting around the campfire, telling the story that starts out, "And then a pony came out, only it was a
really mean pony".
I read the transcripts of the trial and appeal (denied) of Knoller and Noel, the defendants in the SF Whipple slaying.
Autopsies of the dogs stomachs showed that the male had devoured parts of Whipple (don't recall if the female also ate.)
There is no training that I know of which allow dogs to consume human targets.
These dogs were vicious beyond human irresponsibility.
My original point was that the Whipple killing was predictable - not a sudden event by a previously well mannered animal.
I have read the transcripts, as well as seen some of the excluded evidence, and it is not for the faint of heart. Frankly, if Stephen King had written this whole tale, it would be easy to say it was too far fetched.
We could probably debate the nature/nurture issue endlessly and never really know the answer - it is just my feeling that if these two dogs had a different path, with an sane owner experienced in handling mollossers, they would have been fine. Just a feeling, though.