Sophie's Daddy: I suspect what you have seen with the large dog people are the same type of guys that wouldn't ever neuter their dogs because they so identify with the male genitalia of their dogs. Most of these guys have no business owning another living thing, let alone a large dog that is rarely taught basic manners. Oh, well, off the soap box.
I, too, am a lover of all dogs and that includes the giant breeds (my sister breeds and shows Saint Bernards), but my dog of choice will be the Jack Russell Terrier. I recently lost my purebred JRT, but still have the JRT mix and she has been the best dog. One of those, "whatever you want me to do...." sorts, unlike our first family dog, an Australian Cattle Dog mix who was the most independently minded dog I know, but still a lover (also waiting at the Rainbow Bridge after contracting lymphoma and deteriorating in 2 months). Next year sometime, I intend to get another JRT to "sister" the memory of my beloved Trev. It is so much easier to keep a small dog in the house, although I would never advocate keeping any dog outdoors all the time. I had a lot of students that had Goldies and Labs and they were very willing to train them and work with them daily. The ones who didn't want to do that didn't come back to class. It was so sad for the dogs that their people didn't want to spend the time with them and teach them simple manners.....
Well, animals in general rule -- large or small and mankind needs to listen more to their needs than to keep pushing his needs upon the world -- oops, another soapbox. I'm sorry.