What made you decide on your dog?

[PlayingGrownUp]

Did you know from the start what kind of dog you wanted? Did you end up with something completely different? Did something silly/ odd put you off certain types of dogs?

Would love to know!

I've always loved the Mountain/Mastiff breeds. I have a picture somewhere of 4 year old me at Moreton in Marsh show sat with 2 Saints, a Bernese & an English Mastiff. I always said I'd own a St. I met my DH when I was 20, he told me he wanted to me to meet his Mum & her dogs...she had a Golden, a Lab & a St, poor bloke's doomed to spend his life covered in slobber . Thankfully he loves them just as much as I do!

I grew up with & around gundogs, terriers & collies, I'd probably have any except a collie, I'm not really sure why, I think because I see them as working dogs in a more 'full time' sense than gundogs or terriers.

I wanted a rescue staffie, DH wanted a gundog breed to train from a pup as our old lab had retired. I was keen on a GSP. He persuaded me they were too much of a challenge with a baby on the way. We had our eye out for a lab from working parents. Then a friend of a friend had a litter of lab x cockers from an accidental mating of 2 gundogs and we chose a dog who looks like a tiny lab with big ears.

DH grew up with a border collie which was the best friend of his teenage years, so that was the Only Dog For Him. Our BC #2 is now 2 yrs old, he's a lovely dog and pet, good thing DH likes walking!

The dog I want is a cat.

First dog was from Dogs Trust and wasn't mine originally. She was rescued by a friend and we used to have her for weekends/holidays if friend was going away. Then friend received a totally unexpected posting on the back of her marriage failing. She couldn't keep the dog so we 'inherited' her. She was a JRT Corgi Cross and was bloody fantastic with (then baby) DD.

2nd dog we got from Many Tears Animal Rescue. We decided to have a new dog, only specification was 'puppy' so we could train it ourselves. At the time MT had something like 30 pups in. I fell in love with MuttDog, DH liked a Springer and DD wanted a chihuahua. When we heard MuttDogs story we just had to have her (dumped in a sports bag next to a bin). She's a collie springer cross with maybe something else mixed in. She is DDs best mate.

2 years later I was volunteering at a local rescue walking/training dogs. One Sunday morning I got a call from the owner saying "Eve can you come down and take this bloody rottie out, she's driving me mad". Rottie had been taken by the Warden a couple of weeks previously and wasn't settling in kennels at all. She barked and howled all day. I took RottDog out for a few hours, took her home for a couple of hours, took her back to the Rescue...and picked her back up that night . We only had RottDog for 2 years; we lost her to bone cancer. She was an absolute pain in the barky, stinky, needy arse. But oh my God she was ace. I still miss her now.

If I could choose the dogs I wanted and have as many as I could now it would be an Otterhound, a Saluki, a Springer and a Toller. For no other reason than their looks. I just think they are all gorgeous (but I'll stick with the Mutt )

Shih tzu x terrier. Dh is scared of dogs so we had to go small, otherwise I'd have got something bigger. He's adorable and doesn't shed (a big consideration after my last dog) but he's white and fluffy and one step on slightly damp grass and he looks like he's been mud wrestling😫. We always planned on getting another and was going to go for a similar dog but I've fallen totally in love with a couple of local Hungarian vizslas. Am slowly introducing dh to the idea...

I grew up with house full of boarder collie's, we had a dog each, so walking, training, feeding of mine from when I was 8, was my responsibility.

After having DC and once they were at school I felt able to have a dog again. I decided as much I as loved them, I wasn't ready to have another boarder collie or a puppy. I spent nearly a year looking through rescue websites, and reading up on breeds like springers, Dalmatian or lurcher.

I always dithered when I saw a dog, then by the time I wanted to look they'd be gone.

Then I saw pic of some sort of smooth coated boarder collie looking so excited and ready to play, my heart melted, I talked to dh about her, but the next day she had homed written on, I was gutted.

Then a few days later she was back up for rehoming. I didn't hang about and booked to see her immediately. She was perfect! Took the whole family to meet her at the weekend, she was only 7 months, but she was showed such loving signs to the DC, at one point she barked in excitement and frightened my youngest who ran to me, she came straight up us to nuzzle DC in a sort of apologies reasure way. That just sealed the deal for me.

she fitted into our family straight away and after 2 days it felt like we'd had her all our life.

She been with us 7 years now, still full of beans, but totally laid back chilled dog. Everyone always comments on her laid back attitude.

She has been a never tiring companion for the DC growing up and she adores them as much as they do her.

Really sorry for the long ramble . she's worth the ramble though

One came free when we bought our house, one was found by the side of the road as a tiny pup, in the middle of a thunderstorm, one was part of a litter handed in to our vet, and the youngest was born in a field and the farmer was going to shoot the mum and her pups as she was stealing eggs. We went and picked them up and re-homed them all except for the one we kept. (I'm not in the U.K.)

rambled about dog