This troper once met an enormous black Great Dane who would easily have put his paws on her shoulders if he stood up. She met this dog when he BARRELED INTO HER HOUSE. He just galloped around the entire house once, stopped for a scratching behind the ears, and galloped on out. My sister and I named him Sirius

TRIAS! My precious 80 pound pitbull would never hurt anyone, he's such a sweetie!

Growing up, this troper had a 95lb. Black German Shepherd that would bark and snarl and be generally really, really scary to anyone outside the house. Once someone goes INSIDE the house, that dog was the sweetest, gentlest dog that ever lived. He let me ride him like a pony when I was little, tug on his ears and tail and paws and dress him up. This dog was also afraid of EVERYTHING. Thunder, newspapers, pillows, the vacuum. We should have named him Scooby Doo.

This same troper's current dog is a Rottweiler/Husky/German Shepherd mix. We got him from a shelter where he had lived for over half a year because no one wanted him because he looks scary. He was originally from a kill-shelter that euthanized his brother because he was too agressive. He does the whole Rottweiler stare-down thing which is made all the more freaky with his one blue eye and one brown eye and his fluffy Husky tail straight up. Also he can be scary because his happy sounds sound a little too close to snarling for people who don't know him. This dog is actually the friendliest dog in existence. He. Loves. Everyone. He is the life of every party because he is a total attention whore. His favorite activities consist of snuggling, jumping up and hugging people (as in with his front legs) and giving kissies. If you lay down on something, he will come up and spoon you. When you leave, he will cry. When you return, he will do a happy wiggle dance and proceed to bring you every toy he has and attempt to shove it into your hand.

There's a rottweiler who frequents this troper's neighborhood dog park who looks intimidating and does fight other dogs (Only ones his size, though), but is really timid around people and has an overall sweet disposition.

This troper's dog is a Rottweiler-Siberian Husky-German Shepherd mix who looks like the perfect AngryGuardDog... and has the disposition of a giant teddy bear. His favorite activities include face-licking and cuddling.

This troper's best friend's pureblooded black lab is one of these. No matter how much you torture him with treats or push him around, he will still be an eterally friendly, and adorable big 'ol lazy boy. Oh, and he LOVES pettings.

Why would you torture him? YOU MONSTER! :}

This troper's Doberman has terrified several small children. He just wanted to play.

Sounds like Dobes another editor's family had during her childhood. The biggest problem encountered (except for one acquired as an adult, who could not co-exist with cats and was rehomed as a result) was the apparent inability of the dogs to understand when they'd outgrown being able to curl up on someone's lap.

This probably happens a ''lot'' with breeds that have a reputation for viciousness, with a lot of people forgetting that being bred for strength and a firm bite doesn't necessarily make a dog violent if it's not been raised that way. When this troper was a young boy, there was a Rottweiler on the street that had a bark that was pure NightmareFuel; he later learned that said dog was one of the friendliest animals you could meet but (as her owner told us) ''very good indeed'' at scaring off would-be burglars.

This troper's best friend owns a fairly large (for the breed) pit bull who looks like pure NightmareFuel. He acts like a baby and want nothing more than to curl up in people's laps and play with kittens (seriously, he's best friends with the neighborhood cat and her kittens. It's hilarious). Unfortunately people are completely terrified of pits, even though he's so sweet that he's practically made of marshmallow. In fact, most pits are.

This troper had a family friend who owned a huge Doberman. Said Doberman would run laps of joy around the kitchen island whenever anyone came over to visit, and would long-sufferingly concede, every Christmas, to be photographed with a goofy stuffed reindeer-antlers headband on. Given how long we've known them, it's highly likely he's gone to the Great Doggie Park in the Sky... and if that's so, he's missed.

This troper has a pretty big greyhound/black lab mix who doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Seriously, she'll rub her head against you like a cat does.

This troper's 100 pound dog sits on your lap and gazes up at you with the sappiest look imaginable. When you don't pet him he pushes his head under your hand and rubs it back and forth. He's also jumped on the mailman not to attack him but to lick him.

No- this troper's dog ''did''. We had to put him down recently.

This troper is afraid of these dogs.

This troper has one of these - but how can you be afraid of something this cute? I guess it's different for little kids, whose eyes are generally at mouth-level.

This troper prefers this sort of dog over the small, yippy kind. She's had a black labrador named Abby since she was six, and she's so sweet that even people who hate dogs don't mind her.

My Boxer dog, Junior, is like this. He isn't really friendly with other male dogs, but he's sweet as sugar with humans. Even people that don't like dogs has a sympathy for that great buddy :3

This Troper's friends own a big, bony, lurcher called Reuben, who loves nothing better than curling up on someone's lap, even if he almost squashes them. Despite his size, Reuben is often put in his place by this troper's dog, a Parson Russell Terrier.

This troper had a huge Rottweiler with a loud bark that terrified the living hell out of some of our neighbors. He frequently got loose, but would always be right out on our doorstep when he was done running around. One girl in our trailerpark was particularly afraid of him. This troper recalls one incident in which said girl was walking while he was loose. He started jumping at her. She happened to be carrying a sandwich. Turns out all he wanted was the sandwich.

I later found out she regularly threw rocks at him when she passed our house. She's lucky he never got loose when she was around again.

He died two years ago trying to keep a neighbor's dog (a pit bull) out of our yard. He was 12 years old, so he lived a good life. I'll miss ya, Dante.

Our dog, Rundll (named by my brother, who's a programming nerd), is a big ol' malamute/shepherd mix who never met a human he didn't like. He even loved the mailman, which I'm sure violate some sort of ancient canine code of conduct. He's also the gentlest soul you'll ever meet; a toddler once pulled his tongue and all he did was whine a bit.

This troper's family has two English Mastiffs and has had Great Danes in the past, so she knows that this is certainly TruthInTelevision. Her dogs are both big sweethearts who like nothing better than to be around "their" people, sometimes taking this to ridiculous extremes. They also back up to the sofa and sit on the laps of whichever unsuspecting family members/visitors happen to be sitting there.

This Troper works at a [=PetSmart=] and can tell you that large dogs being really friendly seems to be the rule rather than the exception - however, this might just mean that owners of big, mean dogs just leave them at home. Mean little dogs, however...

The owners of big mean dogs are ''advised'' to keep them at home, or they're smart to know they can't trust their dog in public, they leave them at home. I don't know where you lived, but the local Petsmart out here had one of the local nutjobs bring in a very aggressive big dog...and the dog went on a rampage with the owner not even ''bothering'' to stop him even ''after'' the dog killed someone's Chihuahua and attempted to eat a rabbit out of a kid's hand. When they told him to get the dog out, he said "IT'S MY RIGHT TO DO THIS!!!" and threatened to shoot them if they said otherwise. (Keep in mind some of the people I live with are absolute gun-happy ''maniacs'' who would make even stereotypical Texans say "OH MY GOD!! CALL THE ASYLUM!!!") The police escorted him out and off to jail, and Petsmart had a rule saying "Please do not bring aggressive animals into the store". (And it works; the groomers can tell you this)

This editor has owned several (though now he owns small, yappy dogs), and the person whose house his D&D group meets at owns two. For some reason (perhaps due to his two cats), the dogs are inexplicably fond of this editor...

Our family's Bernese Mountain Dog Roki is definetely this. He's big (47 kg), fluffy and would like nothing better than eating and being scrathed all day. He might bark when he hears the doorbell ring, but stops and starts wagging his tail as soon as he sees whoever is there. The only exception to this is our mother's youngest brother, who Roki usually is a little suspicious of for a while for some reason. But even him Roki stands well, no growling and such, ever. He just has the problem of not realising that not all other dogs are as friendly and big as he is. He would like to play with them all, regardless of size. That probably wouldn't end well.

My parents have a big white Labradoodle named Sadie, along with a medium-sized spaniel and a tiny Havanese. Sadie will let absolutely anybody pet her for hours on end, and give you big sloppy kisses when you're feeling down. Plus no matter how much the smaller dogs try to provoke her, Sadie will never retaliate.

This troper has four of these dogs. Well, they're friendly with him, anyways. Other people, not so much. They've also never quite gotten the concept of Staying Off The Bed, which means it's not a question of 'if' this troper is going to wake up in a dogpile, but 'when.'

My paternal grandparents used to own an ''enormous'' chocolate Labrador named Caffrey. He was a little boisterous, but very affectionate and good-natured. My father's neighbour owns a small pack of black Labs, all of which are very friendly towards both humans and dogs (as well as being some of the healthiest dogs I've ever seen, but that's irrelevant to the trope).

This Troper has has three of such dogs, a black lab/collie mix, a large pure black lab (he could easily carry a basketball in his mouth), and an even larger yellow lab / great pyrenees mix. All friendly once they knew you. The black lab/collie mix is actually the most dangerous because he was both a tad overly friendly and has poor coordination meaning he will on occasion crash into one's legs.

This troper has a small dog, himself - but his neighbours used to have a big-ass bloodhound (called Mister Bean because he was such a gigantic dork). I can not imagine a nicer dog. Always sort of doing his excited howl-woof at you when he saw you ( "ooohwooo!"), gigantic floppy ears (and mouth flabs). He also had a rather big scar on his head - he was bitten by another dog and did nothing back. The only annoying thing he ever did was constant howling - always prompting an " Oi, Bean!" from my neighbour. May you rest lazily in Heaven, Bean.

My cat Riley is the same way: Freakishly huge for an American shorthair (he weighs about fifteen pounds and isn't even a bit overweight), but he's the lovey-est out of my three cats. He also has a really wimpy meow, which just adds to the adorable factor.

This Troper has a dog who's a husky/ germain sherpard mix. He's the size of your averge sized mini-horse and tiny kids are afraid of him yet he's a big baby. When we first got our smaller dog, a Jack Russel mix, the smaler dog had our larger dog backed into a corner for two days! And another instancee comes to mind, our old neighborhood used to be really bad (Drug-dealers, whores etc. etc) so the police were often visting. One day a murder occurred in an apartment down the road so they had to clear everyone out right so SWAT people come barging into our apartment, in full gear with guns pointing at us and the dog and all Ozzy wanted was for them to pet him!

This troper got through high school by working for various pet-related companies. One, a pet store, also did grooming. By far, the friendliest of the grooming animals was a Rottweiler that was large for its breed, a bit overweight, and still under the impression that it was a three-month old puppy. She was extremely friendly - but not possessing the sense that a giant, wet dog was not what most people wanted jumping on them. This troper was often given the task of handling the dog's grooming simply because the dog was too difficult to control. As it was, both parties ended up getting bathed more often than not.

This troper has one. She will just run up to you and run around in circles and knock you over until you pet her.

When this troper was six years old, she went to her Aunt and Uncle's house and met thier young Aussie. To a short little girl, she was HUGE. Let's just say that "Pep" wanted to say "HI" by hugging me. They were wondering why I was afraid of her. Now that Pep is older, she's has calmed down a lot and is still very friendly.

This troper had a German Shepherd named Suny (my mom found him in the State University of New York). He was HUGE, but he loved everyone he knew. Unless you're a burglar, in which case, I'll meet you in the Intensive Care Unit when you're torn limb from limb. Everything about him was endearing. Suny died on August 16, 2006, at 5:03 in the morning. He is missed to this day. Fortunately, we got another dog about a year before Suny shuffled off this mortal coil. He isn't nearly as good a watchdog, but he is adorable, and I named my username after him. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hug Peanut for awhile.

Around 14-15 years ago, we picked up this 1-year-old German Shepherd that we called Buddy. His previous owner(s) must've abused him, because he was a complete and total coward. He rarely ever barked, even at passers-by, and was terrified of thunderstorms; he'd even let the family cats steal food out of his bowl. He was big, and seemed mildly frightening, but in reality he loved everyone who would spend time with him, and he had a bit of a mischevious nature. A few years after we got him, though, he was spooked by our smoke detector (it went off while Mom was making dinner); so, we took him outside and chained him to a pole, complete with a choke-collar. A minute later, the detector went off ''again''; when next we looked, there was no sign of him. Buddy had escaped from the collar, scaled the fence, and took off. Mom claims to have seen him once since then; when we were packing up to move to a house across town a year or so later, a truck drove by with this German Shepherd, and he was staring very intently at our home and at my mom. If it really was Buddy, then I'm guessing that someone managed to pick him up, and that he managed to live a long, happy life.

This troper has three big dogs, all of which are pretty friendly. They'll nose you for pettings and our husky, called Bear, will plop his paw onto your leg for attention.

This Troper once had a Husky named Tamarak who would follow you around and allow all kinds of hugs. She also had a mutt dog named Shannon who would jump on you and lick you until you were sick of it. And Shannon's puppies were much the same, Sarah loving belly rubs and Link...just being spaced all the time. Atticus, the border collie was also like this, when he wasn't hyper, and finally, Shayleigh the Border Collie is like this, when she's not in hyper-puppy-I'm-going-to-eat-you mode. As you can, this Troper's family has a thing for Big Friendly Dogs.

This Troper's friend has a dog which is the product of many generations of a 'survival of the fittest/biggest' breeding program in a country where all animals are 'free range' and 'intact'. Ugly as sin, is this dog, but as friendly and docile as you could ever want a dog to be around young children. Mind you if another dog takes issue to him (and only if attacked first) he is quite capable of holding his own. Big Pushover he aint.

My 80-kg iberian mastiff is peaceful, easygoing, and loves small things in general. Ants fascinate him and once he adopted a country mouse that lived in the garage. Pic here: http://www.justusdogs.com.au/upload/flex_img/07062008094222_01.jpg

This troper's dog a black lab/border collie mix is very friendly to people when he was younger he used to jump up at people until someone pet him, sometimes when you are petting him and suddenly stop he will lean against you and grunt until you do, when my cousins were little they were terrified of him. Another example is my cousin's neighbor's dog a St. Bernard when they let him out he nearly knocked over my brother and he was huge for being 9 months at the time.

I have an 80 lb Belgian Sheepdog who is a little too friendly. She'll actually wedge herself right next to you on the couch and will poke you with her nose until you pet her. The funny thing is that a dog as nice as her actually scared our neighbor's dog, who regularly fights off packs of coyotes at night (he's an outside dog who runs off at dark, even though his owner regularly tries to get him to stop), into submission.

In this troper's Pokemon fanfic series, late in the storyline he catches a whole bunch of new Pokemon. Among them is a big friendly ''Typhlosion''. It isn't dumb, though.

This troper had a neighbor with an Akita that for the most part fit this trope...until you get too close to her master, where she had nearly broken the arm of her master's {{Stalker With A Crush}}. Aforementioned Akita had inspired me to, in a fanfiction, give one of the protagonists who lived in a horrible neighborhood an Akita puppy from the significant other for Christmas. Unfortunately, with the separation, poor Yukio did not go with her master.

This Troper's cousin has a dog who may as well be the physical incarnation of this trope. We think she is part Mastiff, part Boxer, and part Great Dane. She's huge and not the prettiest thing ? but she is basically a puppy that never grew up.

Averted/Subverted by this troper, who has a fear of dogs after several neighborhood ones decided they would stop at nothing to try and chase me down. A pattern emerged: when visiting the house of any dog-owner, everyone would invariably assure me that the dog was totally harmless and friendly, using a description that sounds like it came from this page. I was never convinced, so they would lock the dog away somewhere and say it would remain there for my stay. It would then proceed to somehow escape and chase me down. Every. Single. Time. One time one of them even managed to open a door to get to me. Eventually, went I went to another friend's birthday party, and his mom managed to actually keep the dog on a leash. At one point while I was eating, I heard a bark behind me and quickly turned to that dog to discover he was still on his leash; it was the neighbor's dog who had ''escaped from his house and tracked me down''.

Not mine, but my cousin's big black labrador scares my sister when she tries to lick her.

This Troper has two of these: an Irish setter named Rufous, who really likes to get petted and barks at people he's glad to see, and a Great Dane named Isreal (we call him Izzy), who likes to curl up with people and lean on their legs. We let them roam around the living room when we're not home because they're very likely to scare away any unwelcome guests, despite being big 'fraidy cats. They also keep people with clip boards away from our house as an added bonus (though they've been known to scare away the pizza guy, too).

This troper has a goldendoodle (golden retriever and poodle mix), and he is one of the sweetest dogs she has ever met. Her little sister was scared of him at first, but then realized how harmless he is. He was abused before he ran away and ended up in an animal shelter. Even so, he's never had any problems that most abused dogs (especially males) have.

This troper's goldendoodle, Buddy, is perhaps the friendliest animal he's ever seen. His best friend is a young cat who hangs out in front of the glass door, probably to see Buddy freak out and try to play with her. He loves people so much, he's figured out how to work the door knob, just so he can hang out with us more.

I have had the enormous pleasure of owning a lively Great Pyranees/Lab mix. Everyone in my neighborhood, especially the kids, absolutely adored him. Despite being over 150 pounds, he was so sweet and gentle with the younger kids, who could ride him like a horse.

This troper's aunt has had two great danes. The first was more of a slow-yet-friendly sort, while the second, who is currently 4 or 5 years old, is very jumpy and excitable, though otherwise harmless.

The neighbourhood Doberman actually had a "Guard dog" mode that would turn on and off. When it was off, the dog would solicit random people for games of fetch or Tug-of-war, sit next to people who were sitting on the ground and ask for pets, and ''would'' lick your hand if you held it out for him. But when it was on...don't go ''anywhere'' near him. Amusingly, if you were accompanied by one of the family members to his house, he'd immediately start trying to lick your face.

This troper's dog, while not particularly huge, is a fully-grown purebred yellow labrador. You see, however, like all labradors, instead of "lab", we call her a "wuss dog". This is because she is large, dim-witted, tactless, has a tendency for stomping on feet... and the most loving thing in all existance. If someone is sitting on the floor she will walk straight over, sit down on them (not near them-- ''on'' them) and lick their face; if this troper is trying to play a video game, she will come up and nudge the controller out of his hands with her head. She doesn't so much as growl at anyone. (And she gets really, really affectionate if you happen to be wearing black, thanks to her light fur.)

This troper thinks you might have my dog's sibling. Yellow Lab, 85 pounds, biggest marshmallow in the world. He'll charge full-bore at you when you walk in the door, sit down just long enough to get a "Good boy!", and THEN jump all over you. He also has a habit of repeatedly bashing your mouse hand's elbow with his head if you're on the computer, and then leaning his entire weight on you until you pet him. Tell him to go away and he'll give you this tearjerking gooey look before very slowly laying down at your feet. We love him to pieces, but good God can he be a blockhead. :-)

This troperette was once knocked to the ground by a big Great Dane belonging to a neighbor. He only wanted to play with me.

My aunt has a Lab/Mastiff mix (looks like a black Lab with a squarer head. And huge). He's so sweet, I ended up with a dog of my own mainly because of him.

There's a Bernese Mountain Dog in my neighborhood that I trust so much, I've been using his help in rehabilitating my lhasa apso (about a tenth his size) who is terrified of other dogs. He's about as sweet and patient as you could ask for.

My family has a boxer. She's a bit shy around strangers, but extremely good-natured. She also does this hilarious sort of happy dance whenever I visit.

I was walking down the street when I encountered a guy with two huge Rhodesian Ridgebacks. How huge? One of them jumped up and put his paws on my 5'8" shoulders. This wasn't an attack, he just wanted to give me a hug.

Met another guy with a gigantic, mean-looking Rottweiler. . .with the temperament and disposition of a lamb.

Every mastiff owner I've ever encountered swears up and down that their dog is an absolute sweetheart, and they're right.

This Troper has a purebred German Shepard, rather large for his breed, very vocal and about makes the pillow beside him look vicious.

This Troper has played with several {{BigFriendlyDog}}s at various times of his life. The first was a neighbor's Collie (an exact lookalike of Lassie) in his gradeschool years. Never afraid to pet it (it just let me). Much later on he saw a Saint Bernard while visiting a relative, and all the kids swarmed around it and played with it like a huge plushie. More recently, Labradors have become the rage, and this troper owned two Yellow ones (though the first one died *sniff* ), while his cousin has a Black one. All of them may be big and active (especially my yellow one, which is also a loud barker), but start petting them and they'll lie down and let you have your way with them (and if you stop, they sometimes beg for more affection, if not find something else to do or someone else to get some loving from).

This Troper's family has two, though one is getting older. The female once plowed into me in what felt like a recreation from a {{Peanuts}} scene, while the male is basically a big Weimeraner mix teddy bear. Seriously, he loves it when you use him as a pillow.

This troper recently noted that many offices using K-9 units for security have these kinds of dogs. My own office has one such unit, and all the dogs employed are friendly, especially this brown one who got to know me by sniffing me and is very happy to see me and get a petting each time I pass by his guard station. Same thing with the office across the street, where I have lunch and park my car - the notable ones there are the German Shepherds and Black Labradors, one of which likes to stand on his hind legs and prop himself on his handler for fun to the delight of the office workers and visitors.

This troper had an eighty-five pound Isabella White Siberian Husky, who could at times be standoffish, but only in defense of his dignity. In reality, he was one of the goofiest, sweetest dogs he had ever met. (In memory of Wolf, September 2000-September 2010.)

This troper once met a dog that weighed about as much as he did (70 kg) who was a big, happy, grinning idiot. Rottie-Newfie cross is my best guess as to what they had to shake together to get him. His owners called him Tank because his ability to slow down was in question...and a dog that big at speed becomes a battering ram. A well meaning one who only wants to play, but a battering ram all the same. He was apparently so enamored with the concept of "BALL!" that he took out a gate to get to it when it went over their fence, and if you tried to use him for a pillow, he'd let you, then try to see if he could do the same to you. This rarely ended as well, but his owners always seemed to find it funny.

This troper's best friend's dog is pretty much this trope incarnate. He's a shiba/chow mix and is pretty much always like "HERP DERP :D" around everyone. Needless to say, this troper starts to sound very stupid around him...

My friend had a dog, a bouvier des flandres, which is a huge curly haired, black dog. I was initially worried because it could knock me over with one paw because I'm so petite but the dog was absolutely sweet and would happily wag his stubby little tail whenever you gave him attention. Then again the breed is pretty much this trope personified.

This Troper's Pomeranian Luna inverts this trope by being a TINY Friendly Dog.

This troper's good friend owns a rescued pit-bull. She's huge, scarred (her previous JerkAss owners tried to make her fight but couldn't), missing part of her tail because some drunken moron slammed it in a door.... but so incredibly derpy and sweet it's hard to believe she'd ever been hurt. We figure she's either a {{Yangire}} without the violence or really, amazingly emotionally resilient. However, though you can pet her as much as you like, don't hug her. She'll panic and you'll get peed on.

I had one of these. Her name was Maggie, and she was a Rottweiler who weighed over 90 lb. She was the friendliest dog you could ever meet, in my opinion. She had never, in her entire 13-year life, bitten a human. In fact, she let my cat use her body as a bed. Too bad all the neighbors hated her because of bias against Rottweilers.

She will be missed.

This Troper, {{Dutchtica}} had a Rottweiler when growing up. She was a MamaBear to us, anybody else would get the typical OH HOLY FUCK WHAT IS THAT THING treatment. Also his uncle had a Bennard Senner, or however you're supposed to spell those. Which is like a palette swapped Saint Bernard. And it was easily the same mass as I. And well, I'm relatively large. So this dog scared most people. Both both were AWESOME.

One of this troper's friends owns a Rottweiler by the name of War. The dog was the nicest puppy one would ever meet...although, that may be because he's old.

Big Ben, the English mastiff. He can lick countertops without lifting his feet at all, can knock over grown adults, and LOVES EVERYONE. And everyone loves him.

This troper had a big German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix for almost her entire life. She was absolutely massive, dwarfing the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood, had a growl that would have frightened off the devil himself, and was also the sweetest, most loving and dedicated dog there ever was. She loved kids, (which is good, because I have a rather large family,) and got along with cats, birds, and other dogs just fine. She loved everyone she ever met, and was just generally the doggie messiah. She was the best dog there ever was, and was definitely one of my best friends. Jerker}} I miss you, puppy.

My current dog, a Black Lab called Arnie (nicknamed Bear) is quite frankly, massive. Honestly, he's possibly the largest Black Lab I've ever seen, and he's also the biggest sweetheart you could ever hope to meet. He greets new visitors by waiting 'till they sit around, resting his head on their legs and keeping it there until they start to pet him. Whenever I get home he'll drag the blanket we put in his basket over to me and want a game of tug of war, which he usually wins as I'm a weakling and he's an elephant, basically. One thing that amuses me though is that my friends are terrified of him. Whenever I invite them to stay the night and they need to go through the kitchen later on, he'll growl (mostly because he's sleeping, I'd do the same thing if a klutzy teenager stumbled through my room whilst I was trying to sleep), then they'll call me down stairs to distract him. All I do is take his collar off and run off with it, he'll chase me, sit down and cry until I give him it back. D'awwh. Of course, I intentionally mess up my hair and my clothes before I return to make them believe I was mauled, I want them to keep being terrified of him in case they get any clever pranking ideas, the threat of the Bear descending on them should sort them out.

My cousin has one of these with the name Megatron, of all things. He calls him "Mega", which everyone at the family reunion initially misheard as "Megan", leading to an obvious conversation that was quite amusing to everyone involved, myself included.

I have a golden retriever. They are this trope incarnate.

This troper's late grandmother had a Rottweiler named Rocky. At first, he looks intimidating, but he's, as one of my aunt's accurately describes, "A big slobbering fool." However, they discourage face licking, so I let him do it when no one else is watching. He also liked licking hands and bare feet. We had to give him away when she moved out of the house, and dogs couldn't stay at the apartment we were in. She also, in an inversion of this trope, had a Bichon Frise named Snowflake, who did the same thing. Sadly he died when someone poisoned his water, but he was the first dog to break my fear of dogs with his gentleness...

This Troper has had big dogs her entire life. While they all have had different personalities in terms of everything else (one was very elegant and well-trained, one was tough and smart, one is shy and sweet, and one is mischievous and extremely playful) they all have or have had the friendliness quality.

Some years ago I visited a friend of a friend out on the West Coast and got introduced to his giant Malamute named White Fang. Such a sweet animal! And yet before the FoaF got him, he'd been so abused he was literally ''dying'' of mange. And if you tried to get him into a small room with people he didn't know? Total panic attack. I uneasily wonder what was done to him sometimes.

This Troper had a dog called Bobby who resembled a Foxhound (I'm not sure what breed he was exactly) and he had been with the family for as long as I was. He would come upstairs and snuggle up onto the couch. He was a really friendly dog, he was just really scared of lightning and stuff. We had to put him down a few years ago since he was very old. He couldn't even move anymore, it's like he was paralyzed from neck downwards. It was hard watching him struggle. Since I live on a farm, we got another dog afterwards; a half German Shepard called Lara which you can see here.

This troper has a big Black Labrador mix named Molly. Very friendly, loves kids (and kittens, for some reason), and in an adversion of the trope, is a ''great'' guard dog. She barks at '''anyone''' who comes near/goes by the house, though once they're in the house, she pretty much starts hopping around them to get someone to pet her (well she used to, she's getting too old and weak to do that anymore). Despite her age (currently 14), she still perks up whenever our besinji mix, Lizzie, comes to visit. It's adorable to watch them play!

As a child, @/FarseerLolotea had a Rott/Dobe/who-knows-what cross who could play the role of the AngryGuardDog quite well, but was an absolute creampuff to anyone who'd earned her trust. (Said dog was also far from dumb, and in fact verged on being a canine MarySue.)

People in this troper's neighborhood are terrified to walk past her house because of the loud barking that comes from the 105-pound Rottweiler on her deck. Okay, the barking is kind of freaky if you're not used to it, but he only barks at the people walking by because they're not close enough to pet him. Once you ''are'', he melts like a little puddle. He drools like a maniac, which is totally not disgusting when he's licking every inch of you he can reach. He's been known to purr when petted, and to shove his nose under your armpit and refuse to move his big ol' blockhead until you keep on scratching his ears.

This troper has a Great Pyrenees who's afraid of cats, mice, thunder, water and loud noises. He is counter balanced by a Chihuahua who fears nothing. Ponchy, the Pyr, was thrown from a car as a puppy and has fear issues. Lili, the Chihuahua, defends him to the death. It's really weird to watch the Chihuahua tackle a man and try to rip his leg off while the giant dog sniffs you timidly and nuzzles your hand.

I have a pit bull who is the ''biggest'' pile of chocolate mush there ever was. If you lie down on the ground, she pounces on you and forces you to stay while she falls asleep on you.

This troper has two golden retrievers who are about 70 pounds each. One of them can be described as ''dainty''. She's the gentlest creature on this earth and a bit dopey as well. She was abused as a puppy and so she is afraid of loud noises or harsh discipline. The other is just as sweet, but more of a tomboy. Together they make an adorable pair. Big friendly dogs are this troper's favorite kind of dog and he'd ''love'' to get a Newfoundland or a Great Pyrenees but is a little wary of the drool and sheer amount of dog hair.

Every dog that has ever scratched me so deeply as to leave permanent scars, and every dog that has ever chased my bicycle, causing a near-fatal accident? Every single one of them, according to their owners, was "just being friendly". Exact same form of words every time. "Just being friendly". The one that eventually kills me (and some of those accidents have been ''extremely'' near-misses; my luck can't hold forever) will, undoubtedly, be regarded in exactly the same fashion.

This Troper once walking back from chippy through a neighborhood of semi-detached houses in one English town,(where she temporally lived),met a big,BIG Rottweiler which was just roaming aimlessly without a collar.Suddenly it approached her and had this very goofy look on it's muzzle.Having an experience with these kind (once got bit by a pup and the same dog grew up to be a total attention bitch)she knew they can't be trusted but took pity on poor dog and gave it a chip.It asked for more.She snarked 'Yeah right and then you'll bite me for not giving you the whole box'.And the response was?He gave her a paw!PAW!She decided to lead this dog to the police station,since this neighborhood was infested with small kids.Next thing she went to her apartment,him following, and said 'Stay here,I'll finish my chippy and be back in 15 minutes'.She though 'Yeah right he has probably just run off now and caused some havoc'.But to her great surprise,he didn't!And the thing that totally done it for her, was the hug he gave her when he saw her coming out - he jumped on her and placed his head on her shoulder giving a big sigh.She named him Vergil and they went on an epic journey ,scaring sh*t out of chavs ,and looking for the police station.

Unfortunately the police were an inconsiderate insensitive bastards who didn't want to call the dog catchers so she had to ask a random shop manager to call them.She cried the whole process because she didn't want them to hurt him.The only behavioral problem he had were bald people - he suddenly went aggressive when saw a pair,but apart from that he was a really lovely goof.

This troper's recently deceased dog Kes was one of these, a purebred black lab who loved kids, cats and… well, everyone. She did lose some of her possible scary factor when she injured one of her back legs and spent the rest of her life limping.

This troper and his wife drove up to his in-laws' home one night, and as we came out of the car, a hulking black figure loomed into view through the dark and trundled towards us, startling this troper slightly. Wife quickly stepped forward and revealed that it was the neighbors' Newfoundland, having gotten out of the yard. Said dog is absolutely sweet, and seemed to only look at us with an expression of "I am SO SORRY, I know I'm not supposed to be outside the yard.."

This troper's neighbor has a giant dog who is probably the gentlest, calmest dog he's ever seen. He's never even heard it bark. Not only that, the house two doors down has a litter of kittens that will frequently crawl into the yard with the big dog. The dog will only look at the kittens, or sometimes smell them, and pretty much act like their guardian. Oh, and the dog is only about eight months old, meaning it's still a ''puppy''.