Dog breeds - which for a young family?

[legallyblond]

So annoying - I just wrote a really long post and it got deleted!

Slightly more briefly:

We are a young family (finally) moving out of our London flat to the country (yay!!!) and that means we can get a dog, which we've wanted for years. DH is a SAHD and plans to be for many years (all the time we have young children - we've only got one so far, so it will be another 6 or 7 years at least!), so there would be someone at home all the time for a dog, apart from the usual classes and shopping etc.

But looking for a dog seems to be a TOTAL minefield.... we are completely unsure as to what breed to go for.

We have no experience of being solely responsible for a dog, but my parents have a dog (rescue dog - lab cross) that we know well and have looked after for a week at a time (house sitting for my parents!). DD (who is 15 months) and my parents' dog are literally in love with eachother so no issue of her being scared of dogs or anything like that! That said, he is VERY tolerant of her (she naps on him!) so she would need to learn to give a new dog some space.....

But we are totally stuck as to breeds! Our, somewhat random, thoughts so far are:

Priorities:

• Brilliant with children
• Good with other dogs (ie my parents' dog - we are moving to be near them)
• Not too much grooming - I can handle brushing a couple of times a week and the odd trip to a groomer
• Not needing more than about 1.5 hours of exercise
• Fairly easy to house train (if this is even a breed thing - I guess it falls within trainability etc) as DH, while he is up for it, has not done it before
• Not massive, although not necessarily tiny!
• Obviously, we'd love a dog that doesn't bark too much, is afectionate etc etc, but I suspect that's down to us, not the breed!

Breeds (possibily all wrong!):

• Cocker Spaniel
• Cockapoo
• Border terrier (but we also want to get DD a rabbit, in a hutch - is this a problem? Also, are terriers ok with small children?)
• Lab or golden retriever
• Havanese (although they seem nigh on impossible to find and expensive)
• Minature labradoodle (ditto)

I am not averse to a rescue dog, but I wonder if that is suitable with small children....

So sorry to ask, but any advice or opinions (even "we have an X and s/he is great!") would be really, really appreciated.

it's all Stephen Fry's fault. So I believe the bee dogs website was featured in one episode of QI or something, anyway it was linked to on a thread on here and then of course I wasted an evening looking at it. Then I made the FATAL error of showing it to the dds the next day who remembered with only the clarity of a child remembering random shit that somewhere we did own a bee outfit. Two hours of nagging later I decided it might be a most exclellent training opportunity of the "watch me" command to dress her up as a bee while she remained focused upon my person.

Which she succeded at with a little help of a frankfurter or six.

check out the focus on her face. impressive huh.

Am usually a lurker but feel compelled to post. I can't say enough good things about a whippet being an excellent family dog. I'm at work at the mo so can't go into a lot of detail but we went throught the whole "what dog would suit us best" scenario 2 years ago and have not regretted our choice one bit. As gentle and affectionate and all the rest, eg. excercise, as others have said about greyhounds but on a smaller scale .

hahahahaha oh dear @ lurcher in a hoody

We have a Whippet too, well they told us she was a whippet, I'm not so sure she is anymore. I think she is some sort of very tiny lurcher. She is very cute though.

Thanks again... and I love all the pictures!

Are there whippet rescue centres as well [needs to do some googling!]?

all!!!

Most Greyhound rescues take in other sighthound breeds and might have Whippets and Lurchers for rehoming. For sighthound rescue advise you need Scuttle. She'll be along soon enough, now that Greyhound rescues have been mentioned

This site will also be able to point you in the direction of any Whippets waiting to be rehomed.

erm excuse me, look at my profile for the cute spaniel pics, then hopefully chickens will say the same, then you have a matching pair, nobody can beat that for cuteness.

I would echo what some others say regarding puppies and a young toddler. We have a 6 month old puppy and my dd's are 3 and 5. I personally would not have wanted to get a puppy when the dd's were much younger as it is really hard work. It is literally like having another child. In your circumstances, I think I'd look at an older rescue dog.

In saying all that though, I don't regret getting our puppy at all! He is the love of our lives! He's a welsh springer, and has a beautiful temperament and the breed is well known for being fantastic with children. They are a little smaller than the English springers but just as cute, and apparently need slightly less exercise ( time will tell on that one)!

Good luck in your search!

Don'5t get a dog until your child can reliably follow a safety instruction even when you have left the room (because the dog won't)

I have a 6 year old, a 3 year old and an 18 month old child... And a 11 week old GSP. Sensible choice is definitely not to buy a puppy, buy a young dog instead. I would say I am definitely frazzled these days with those sharp puppy teeth.

My vet recommended no terriers, no rhodesian ridgebacks and no vizslas. She did recommend labs, spaniels and german pointers. (we were asking about medium to large dog breeds to be fair. I also suspect it is a very personal recommendation from the vet.)

greyhounds are fab!

We have a german pointer and 3 young children. She is the most gorgeous laid back dog ever now, really tolerant, very quiet and loves nothing more than curling up on the sofa with her people. She will happily take as much exercise as we can give her but if its only the school run thats ok too. That all said she was a hyper puppy and was hard work for the first year. She is fab and i would have another without hesitation nut would be better prepared this time.

Greyhound.

Can't add to D0oinMeCleanin at all. Our kids are 3 and 5. He doesn't share the sofa with them they had that staked out as their own from the off and he's too big anyway but they do cuddle up on the floor together. Lovely.

Note to self - don't show DD the Bee Dog website. She'll want one of whatever Harley is for sure. I showed her that mucky spaniel earlier and now she's added springer to her list of dogs she will own when she's grown up. Nor should I even hint that such a thing as a tiny lurcher may exist....

well... we have 2 German Shepherds. And have always had them as a family.

Got one when I was 3 months pregnant with DS. That said, I would NOT recommend it to the 'first time dog owner'. Its not big or clever. He was the most wonderful family dog and lived a fantastic life with us until he sadly passed away at 10yrs old.

Although I adore my shepherds and they work with our family, please dont get one. They arent really 'first' dogs.

A lab - but not a working line one, a greyhound/whippet/lurcher is lovely, but you said you want a bunny for your DD, so I wouldnt advise it.

Have a look on Many Tears, also have a think about Guide Dogs or Hearing Dogs. They rehome their dogs that dont make the grade for whatever reason and they will all be child checked, cat checked, house trained and will all have a level of training and usually quite young... unless you go for a retired dog.

The perfect family dog is out there for your family, but please dont under estimate the amount of work a dog is.

My Whippet is horrified of rabbits. We once made the mistake of leaving her alone, in my sisters house, completely forgetting about Evil Bunny.

When we realised we ran straight back in to find Whippy cowering on top of the sofa whimpering pathetically because Evil Bunny was sniffing her

There are also Greyhounds who feel similarly about rabbits as Whippy does here.

Although, they do, more commonly, have the instinct to chase, getting a rabbit friendly sighthound is not impossible.

dooin that made me laugh. Its funny what our big scary dogs are scared of.

I suppose EVERY dog has a prey/chase instinct, its just whether you can train it out enough so that bunny/dog/cat/any other animal can all live happily together. You are ri
ght, its not impossible.

We've got a Springer, she is 12 now, we got her when DS1 was 2yrs and DS1 was 6 months. People thought we had gone stark raving bonkers at the time but I took her to training and I'm not denying having a puppy, a toddler and a baby was at times challenging but it got us all out in the fresh air everyday! She is adorable apart from days like today when she is doing her best smelly wet dog impression! We also have a Westie who is convinced she is a springer spaniel! She is as good as gold but I wouldn't recommend them with smaller children.

Border terriers need a lot of exercise.

I would say staffy!
Great with kids - known as the nanny dog
Don't need that much exercise.
No grooming needed
And if you get a staffy from an actual breeder ( and not one that is meant to be a staffy) they aren't massive!