Dalmatian, not “Dalmation”.
In my experiences, Dals tend to be too intelligent for their own good. They also stay in the adolescence phase nearly twice as long as other dogs. You end up with a dog that is hyper far longer than other dogs and listen to you when they want to. For that reason they tend to be not the best choice for families with young children (thanks Disney). Further, they need a lot of attention and DAILY WALKS.
Dals are extremely loyal. Almost to a fault: It can be rather heart-wrenching to see an old Dalmatian struggling to their feet to follow their master from room to room because they have to be near them.
There are some breeding issues – roughly 10% of them are born with some form of hearing impairment. We housed a temporary rescue that was completely deaf yet knew a lot of Sign Language.
That's not to say that some of them aren't slower than others. Meet Dalton and Ashley. Ashley was extremely smart. Dalton... well... He was a dufus and constantly failed his driver's license exam.
