I'm partial to large dogs. I find them gentle giants. Whose gonna mess with something that size and because of this I don't find them aggressive at all, just big teddy bears. I've had a golden and 2 labs. Both are extremely smart and loyal. My neighbors lab knew my golden had lung cancer. I kept seeing him sniffing his chest and was wondering what was going on. Long story short, took him to vets low and behold - lung cancer and into pneumonia! I also had a cat that was very intune with me he was very smart!! I believe love makes the biggest difference with animals!