I am getting married next month and my fiance and I will be moving to a house downtown on a fenced 1/2 acre. We both love dogs and have had them as kids, but neither have one now. Robert wants to get a dog as soon as we are settled in for several reasons:
1. companionship. He likes affectionate nice animals.
2. protection. We are moving to a nice neighborhood, but it's in a big city. Unsavory types do drift through and his parents place on the next block has been broken into a couple of times. He feels very uneasy about leaving me home alone.
3. Jogging companion. We are both active and like to hike and go for long walks in town. We would like a dog that would enjoy hiking/walks, and also to serve as a mugger deterrent during walks.
Some other things that we are trying to take into consideration are:
1. We are planning on starting our family pretty soon. This means the dog would have to be very gentle with small children. We prefer one that would be protective of them if a stranger came into the yard.
2.Neighbors are close by, so a less vocal dog would be nice, although I feel fairly confident a lot of seemingly random barking could be taken care of through careful and consistent training.
3. Robert prefers a breed that isn't super sheddy.
4. We will be in a hot dry climate, so I assume something like a St. Bernard would not do well.
5. As cool as some of the more obscure/rare breeds are, as newlyweds spending $800-3000 on a fancy spancy dog with a name I can't pronounce or spell isn't a feasible option.
6. I have two banty hens that are going to be constantly penned up, hoping for a dog that can be trained to either leave them alone or view them as part of his job to protect.
7. We would like a dog about the size of a golden retriever, or GSD.
He grew up with a golden retriever, and a crazy boxer mix that tried to eat every strange man it encountered. I grew up with a german shepherd, a GSD/norwegian elkhound mix, a rhodesian ridgeback/dingo mix, a dobie/weimaraner mix, and a malamute/wolf (one parent was supposedly 75% wolf, whatever that means, he was also the biggest baby of them all).
They were all awesome dogs, most with the qualities we are looking for, but we don't know what exact kind of availability there will be of those breeds and mixes, and how to pick a puppy with that kind of temperment. We have also talked about getting some kind of awesome mutt from the pound, but again we aren't sure of the best way to tell what kind of personality a dog will have from its puppy behavior. Any tips and suggestions?
Also to be noted, a friend of mine has a smooth collie that I had to puppy-sit, and later as he got older, dog sit. No offense to collie lovers, but the collie bark just completely grates on my nerves, they (at least her dog) have way to much energy for me, and I can't stand the constant need to nip-herd everything around them. Neither of us wants a nipper, even if it is done in a friendly herding kind of way. Especially since we will have little ones crawling around in the next couple of years.
If anyone has any suggestions for a breed or mix that would fit our needs we would really appreaciate hearing them. Sorry to ramble, but wanted to get everything we could think of out on the first post. Thanks for your time!
1. companionship. He likes affectionate nice animals.
2. protection. We are moving to a nice neighborhood, but it's in a big city. Unsavory types do drift through and his parents place on the next block has been broken into a couple of times. He feels very uneasy about leaving me home alone.
3. Jogging companion. We are both active and like to hike and go for long walks in town. We would like a dog that would enjoy hiking/walks, and also to serve as a mugger deterrent during walks.
Some other things that we are trying to take into consideration are:
1. We are planning on starting our family pretty soon. This means the dog would have to be very gentle with small children. We prefer one that would be protective of them if a stranger came into the yard.
2.Neighbors are close by, so a less vocal dog would be nice, although I feel fairly confident a lot of seemingly random barking could be taken care of through careful and consistent training.
3. Robert prefers a breed that isn't super sheddy.
4. We will be in a hot dry climate, so I assume something like a St. Bernard would not do well.
5. As cool as some of the more obscure/rare breeds are, as newlyweds spending $800-3000 on a fancy spancy dog with a name I can't pronounce or spell isn't a feasible option.
6. I have two banty hens that are going to be constantly penned up, hoping for a dog that can be trained to either leave them alone or view them as part of his job to protect.
7. We would like a dog about the size of a golden retriever, or GSD.
He grew up with a golden retriever, and a crazy boxer mix that tried to eat every strange man it encountered. I grew up with a german shepherd, a GSD/norwegian elkhound mix, a rhodesian ridgeback/dingo mix, a dobie/weimaraner mix, and a malamute/wolf (one parent was supposedly 75% wolf, whatever that means, he was also the biggest baby of them all).
They were all awesome dogs, most with the qualities we are looking for, but we don't know what exact kind of availability there will be of those breeds and mixes, and how to pick a puppy with that kind of temperment. We have also talked about getting some kind of awesome mutt from the pound, but again we aren't sure of the best way to tell what kind of personality a dog will have from its puppy behavior. Any tips and suggestions?
Also to be noted, a friend of mine has a smooth collie that I had to puppy-sit, and later as he got older, dog sit. No offense to collie lovers, but the collie bark just completely grates on my nerves, they (at least her dog) have way to much energy for me, and I can't stand the constant need to nip-herd everything around them. Neither of us wants a nipper, even if it is done in a friendly herding kind of way. Especially since we will have little ones crawling around in the next couple of years.
If anyone has any suggestions for a breed or mix that would fit our needs we would really appreaciate hearing them. Sorry to ramble, but wanted to get everything we could think of out on the first post. Thanks for your time!
