Last month we got a brand new dog for the family, our first dog in over 5 years, and we absolutely love it, in fact even the guys at the AV veterinary center were gushing when we took the little lab in to see them, especially as she is still just a puppy. The decision as to which dog we would get wasn’t easy to be honest and each of us had a different idea which we had to get through before we could all reach a consensus. Eventually however we did decide and having been through that process I wanted to share a little more about what I think should be considered when you are planning to bring a dog into your home.
Size
Honestly the size of the dog is a huge consideration to make for multiple reasons and the first going to be how the dog is in the home. If you have a small home or small children in home then the truth is that a big day is just not a good idea, and it will cause you problems. Another thing to bear in mind here is controlling and handling the dog, a big dog requires a lot of strength to control when you are walking it.
Hair
The amount of hair which falls from your dog is going to be an important factor too, it may not be a dealbreaker but it is well worth considering. Some breeds lose hair every so often, some all of the time and some never molt at all. The decision will be yours as to whether the dog you want is worth spending a lot of time hovering for.
Intelligence
The intelligence levels in dogs can vary greatly and you have some dogs like pitbulls and German shepherds which are super intelligent and can learn things very quickly. At the other end of the scale you have the smaller, more lovable dogs which just don’t have a great degree of intelligence. This will be important depending on what you are looking for in a dog, are you looking for a dog you can teach tricks? Or are you looking for a quiet little mascot to live with you? This is with considering too, before you go and look at dogs.
Character
Something else which changes between breeds is the character of the dogs, some are incredibly playful. some are fiercely protective, others may be quite lazy and some are better with kids than others. Do your research to find out generally what kind of personality each dog breed has, marry it up with your other requirements such as intelligence, size and molting, and this should help you to trim down your list of potential dogs to just a few.
It is important to do all of this before you go dog hunting, if you go and look at dogs first, one will steal your heart and it may not have been the right dog for you and the family.