Breed advice please.

[Rainfallrainbow]

Hi everyone, I’m after some advice.

I have always wanted a dog. Always. It is something I have been researching for a long time and I’ve narrowed down potential breeds that would fit with our family. I’d like to see what you all come up with to see if I’m on the right tracks/there’s a breed I’ve missed:

Family of 4, myself, dh and 2 children aged almost 8 and almost 5. Eldest child is currently undergoing assessment for ASD.
We live in an average sized house with an average sized garden with lots of surrounding countryside. Due to our working patterns and shifts either myself or dh are always at home 5 days of the week. Monday’s and Tuesday’s are the only days of the week that everyone is out of the house. 8 hours each day in total so we would need to get a dog sitter/walker on those two days. Those days might change in future (ie might not always be a Monday-Tuesday we’re in work, but it’ll always be 5 days at home, 2 days in work but not necessarily consecutive days).
We need a dog that is good with children, ideally easier to house train/train as we are first time dog owners. There is a puppy class very local to us that we would attend but I know some breeds are harder to train than others. We’d also prefer a medium to small size breed that doesn’t shed huge amounts.

Would love to hear your sugggestions, thank you.

Another poster has mentioned a miniature poodle and I can second that! They are smart, funny, pick things up quickly so quite easy to house-train, don't shed and will take anything from a 30 minute walk (if the weather is really bad, we walk ours more than that normally) to several hours walking if you're near countryside. They do need brushing 2-3 times a week but if you get them used to it when they're puppies (or even as an adult dog), that doesn't take long and they then need clipping every 6-8 weeks.
Our boy is mostly true to the breed characteristics apart from not really liking small children, but all the other minis we know are fine with young children. They are quite a chatty breed but don't bark for the sake of it, more if they want to tell you something (although ours has to be desperate to bark to go out to the toilet, he starts by giving you a hard stare and if you're not paying attention, headbutts you!). As someone else on here has said, if you go for a poodle cross there are some responsible breeders around but you'd need to be very careful where you got a puppy from, unless it was a rescue. There are far fewer pure poodles around and hence, far less likelihood of getting one from a back yard breeder or puppy farm. Poodle Network would be the place to contact if you wanted an adult dog - they rehome 100s every year.

We have a golden retriever who we got as a puppy and although he does shed a fair bit, he is such a good family dog. He is great with my two year old and is pretty well behaved. We have a working breed retriever so smaller than a show breed. As long as he has about an hours walk a day then he's happy sleeping for the rest of the day or bringing balls to us to throw for him!

Can I recommend a Whippet or Whippet X.

They are low shedding, very friendly & love children, easy to train, nice size, very clean and easy to house train. Happy to laze on a sofa or go for long walks, they just love to be with their humans.

Only negative is they are not always good on recall & can be master thieves.