My sister said we should get a Mastiff but I didn't want one quite that large, LOL and I didn't want the slobber that goes along with the breed either. They really are gentle giants but I think any dog, especially the larger and giant breeds NEED obedience training. They play so hard and jump around, it would be quite easy for them to hurt someone. When my mom was still living, she was quite frail and we always worried when she went to my sisters house because those huge dogs are so wild (no training whatsoever.) Luckily they'd always take the dogs outside until we could get mom in and get her seated.
Our new golden is very strong at 75 pounds and he gets really playful at times, running and jumping (he can jump pretty high too), he wants to jump up and grab our arms with his mouth. Canine's play rough with their litter mates so we know it's natural for him ... but we need to train him to realize that we are the alpha in charge and he can't play rough with us like that. I was out in the yard with Bo a little while ago and he was very frisky (he loves the cooler temp's) and he was running laps around the yard and came running at me really fast but luckily I saw him coming and yelled no, and he stopped, thank goodness. We are trying to be consistent and reinforcing with the commands and he's doing really well so far.
