breeds?

[mercades1999]

i have been thinking about getting a puppy for a while. but I'm unsure what breed to get. any ideas? i have a big ish garden.
i like big and small dogs. i wont be getting it for a while though because i have a new born so will be waiting about 2 years....

Look at your lifestyle before deciding on a breed. Do you like the great outdoors, lots of walking, don't mind mud, have plenty of time for training? If not then steer clear of most working and pastoral breeds, gundog breeds also demand a lot of time. If you are more leisurely family look at toy, some utillity breeds and some terriers. Read about what the breeds were breed to do before deciding as nothing worse than a mismatch. You have loads of time to study and research, a very exciting time indeed :)

Why not go to a rescue, when you are ready to get a dog? They will be able to advise on the temperament of individual dogs and ask you lots of questions about your lifestyle etc. They will then be able to help match you up with a good dog for you.

Agree with Magrat. And rescue dogs are usually housetrained so you shouldn't have to faff about clearing up puppy poo.

We got our pup when my youngest was 1.5. It worked out great for us and now we have a dog that's absolutely wonderful with all children (and adults). We still had everything baby-proofed/gated so that was perfect for bringing a puppy into the house too...

i thought about rescue dogs but in about two years i will have a 2 year old!? do they let you rescue a god when you have a child that old??
i will think about both ideas. thanks xx

We got our first rescue dog (a whippet) from the RSPCA when ds2 was almost 3 years old, however, ds2 is very little for his age, so at that time he only weighed about 10 kg! We have now just got our second rescue dog (a greyhound x whippet) from dogs trust and ds2 is now just short of 4 years old. When we were looking for our second rescue dog, we were also home-checked by greyhound rescue west of england and by scruples whippet rescue - in both cases, the home-checkers highly recommended us as potential adopters, but we got the second from dogs trust just because a suitable dog came up there first.

Be prepared to be guided by the rescue as to the suitability of a certain dog or otherwise and be prepared to look at a lot of different rescues or to have to travel to find the perfect dog, but in my experience rescues don't discount you if you have young children, they just try to make sure the dog they place with you is not boisterous etc.

ohhhhh okay thanks xxxxx

I have a Dogue de Bordeaux, we went for a big dog as neither me nor DP are very keep on the yappiness (is that even a word? lol) of small dogs. She is 7 months now and is a big softie. As long as she has a decent walk a day and gets plenty of attention she is very content. She sleeps a lot, I tend to find that bigger dogs do!

See pics on profile..
She is very good with my two DDs, they are 4 and 8 yrs, though we have to be very strict about her jumping up as she is 7 stones already.