Recommend me medium size, active dog breeds to consider?

[brawhen]

Could you helpful people recommend me dog breeds to consider?

We will be first time dog owners. We would be open to rescuing/adopting a young dog, but I don't think our inexperience puts us in a great position for this. Thus probably looking at a puppy.

There is me, DH and two teen boys. Dog idea is really being led by me, but they are all amenable; DH would definitely get stuck in.

We live rurally (in a small village, national park, direct access to miles of trails). We have recently moved to a large(ish) house, big garden (nearly an acre).

Between DH and I, we work from home 4 days/week. Both of us are full time. 1 day per week dog would ideally come to the office with us (it's our own business, so we are in charge of saying this is fine!). We can cover a fifth day at home for early puppy days, and there are local dog walkers if we wanted to change our mind and use them for the fifth day.

I trail run ~5 days/week and would VERY much like the dog to become a running companion. We can offer lots of weekend walking time, likely including bigger expeditions/hillwalks on many weekends. Definitely 2 good walks/runs per day during the week (and probably additional short ones). I know that the running & long walks will take at least a year to build up to.

Dog would need to do an hour's car commute & back once or twice a week.

I very much like the idea of investing in training the dog. Obviously I've never done it before, but I think (hopefully!) I'd quite like the process. Training good manners and good recall would be high priority. I quite like the idea of gundog-style training, and there are agility classes & similar locally too.

To counter my inexperience (a bit!), I have lots of friends with dogs and a highly recommended trainer very locally.

We're looking for a medium sized dog. To give you an idea, these are breeds I think I might like (though not all for good practical reasons!)

• Cocker/Springer/Sprocker Spaniel - they are good runners, you see lots locally round here, they are beautiful. But reading about them puts me off as everyone says crazy...
• Border Collie - my grandad had one (as a family pet, not working) and I have fond memories. Very trainable. Next door have a super-chilled, well behaved, 10 month old collie - I had assumed he was an adult dog, no puppy madness evident! My dog-owning friends also suggested a collie. But reading about them the advice says not as a first dog.
• Labrador - this seems to be a sensible choice? But probably on the big side of what we imagine, and you see lots of chunky labs that don't look like they'd like to go on a 10 mile run with me...
• So I thus started to google collie / lab crosses ??

Breeds we are not keen on

• Anything 'toy'
• Anything enormous
• Anything that cannot (with practice and as an adult) run 10 miles or hike up a munro

I don't think I'm bothered about boy vs girl (we would spay/neuter anyway). Don't mind a bit of hair, but I guess lower grooming maintenance would make it easier.

We have enough £ for vets, food, etc.

We have a minature Labradoodle who fits your criteria very well. He’s wire haired so looks like a small vizla rather than the curly things which means his coat doesn’t need looking after. Very clever, very trainable and able to run for hours.

A lagotto romagnolo!

I'm only saying this as it's the breed I've identified that would best suit us, semi rural and active.

If you're rural and likely to be walking in more wild places definitely think about the coat and how much care you want to do. I don't think I really appreciated just how easy it is to look after a lab coat until I met some spaniels and cockapoos/doodles on walks. Spaniels having slightly fluffier feet seem to drag more mud in and their ears seem to get filthy and the poodle cross owners spend a lot of time picking out grass seeds and other debris.

We have a Springer Miniature poodle cross. Springer sized.
She is great, loves to run and very clever and affectionate.
I think either Springers and Poodles generally are great, smart, fun dogs.

I have a collie x cocker, both parents working dogs. He's perfect. Great off lead, perfect recall. He'd love to be my running buddy :)

I wouldn't recommend a collie for a first time dog - they are very intelligent and need a lot of mental stimulation to be properly happy, calm dogs.

I would look at:

Cocker spaniels
Springer spaniels
Sprocker spaniels (springer/cocker cross, bred to work)
Working-line labradors
Flatcoat retrievers

If you're happy to keep them on lead, I would also look at beagles. They're very healthy dogs with fantastic temperaments and they love people and company. Mine is four and can easily walk 5+ hours a day with zero issues.

I know lots of doggy people are snooty about poodle crosses - but we have a goldendoodle and he would absolutely tick every box. I prefer the head-shape to a poodle (shallow like that) and especially a close-clipped poodle, but crucially I think they are more relaxed at home. Poodles are almost too clever.

I’d avoid flat coat retrievers due to the insanely high rates of cancer in the breed.
Collies… not for a first dog.
I grew up with setters and find they can be a bit neurotic.

Yes to working labs, Dalmatians and Vizlas

Springer/working cocker/sprocker
Working lines Labrador
Viszla
Weimaraner
English pointer

I love Nova Scotia duck tolling retrievers they might fit the bill

A collie would work well with tour plans and living situation, but a hefty note of caution on just how much they need walking every single day. Mine would be halfway sane after a two hour run. Anything less and you'd see some aggressive behaviour. They are easy to train, but so intelligent they are often looking for the upper hand. The breed itself can be a bit unpredictable in that they are so highly bred for work, you can find the one you chose will never stop being a sheepdog, and bicycles seem like strong candidates for rounding up...whatever you do, you'll never quite lose that behaviour of you have a working one. I miss him every day though, love of my life!

Try some of the Pointer rescue charities, even if they don't have a suitable dog or a rescue isn't for you they are always happy to talk about the breed warts and all.

They are high energy and their high prey drive means off lead walking may never happen. But alot of people do Canicross with them. They do love their cuddles and try and curl in your lap like a cat. My teens adore our rescue pocket pointer. She is currently nudging me to stop typing so I will stroke her.

Irish terrier
welsh terrier
kerry blue terrier

Our cocker is a loveable lunatic

I'm not sure I would ever recommend a working cocker to someone as a first dog but now I have a cocker, I would never ever get another breed so that must tell you something

Please do look at spaniel aid. With the environment you describe, you would be high up their list as a suitable family. Many people underestimate the training cockers/most working spaniels need so if you are keen on that, it's a bonus.

Ours is still an angel in gun dog training. He absolutely loves it. But finds it hard to convert it to real life situations mainly because he has serious FOMO. He is a seriously impressive sniffer dog and will make a sign for drugs and gunpowder.

Fwiw our walker doesnt walk springers because he finds them too mad. One thing going for ours is that he has impeccable recall and would never lose us while running somewhere.

I think once you have a spaniel you never look back. He may be a lunatic but he's our shadow and I actually can't imagine a life without him in it!

You want a Hungarian Vizsla!

People pleasers, not obsessed with food, the easiest dogs to train I have ever come across, very calm docile creatures, incredibly affectionate and sweet-natured, don’t bark, active - will easily do a 10 mile run, short coat easy to groom, great health - no susceptibilities, not greedy so don’t become overweight, great recall unlike some breeds which can follow a scent obsessively (beagles), can be between 18kg - 25kg (girls are smaller).

Working labs can be pretty compact, especially if you have a bitch.

Look at this beauty

spanielaid.co.uk/bounty-sa2844/

I wouldn't get a collie or a collie cross for your first dog!

Get a working lab. They are smaller than show labs. Awesomely clever & affectionate too 🖤🐾🐾🐾

Another vote for Springers! Mine is only 6 months old but utterly joyful - yes they have a lot of energy but so incredibly loyal and clever. I do a lot of mental stimulation games and we’ve started a sniffer dog class as well as our usual training classes which he loves. I’ve also done a couple of 1 to 1 puppy agility sessions which were amazing but he can’t start it properly until he’s 1. So he does need a fair amount of attention but the payoff is so worth it.

I have a teen and a pre-teen and they adore him, also great at playing manic games in the garden to tire him out! Our set up sounds very similar to yours and he’s been the perfect breed for us so far

Echo way @tizwozliz says.

Working line Labradors are slimmer than show lines, super chilled inside (once Pat puppy stage) and adore being trained.

Mine has a mardy if he runs more than 11 miles, but is super keen to run 10. He's the best running companion ever!

We have a 14 year old working cocker who went (out of his own choice) for a run this evening. They are great companions although arseholes as puppies. It's also true that the more you run them the fitter they get so it's difficult to tire them out. They are ace though.

Some of the smaller breeds are awesome runners like jack Russell's and terriers are fun to train as they are rather stubborn!

We’ve had a Springer and currently have a red setter and retriever.

The sprinter and setter could run all day, the red setter in particular has the most joyous gait and just loves running. He can run for hours on the huge (largely deserted) beaches near us.

the retriever doesn’t run as much

English pointer. Joyful characters, (read ‘slightly bonkers’).

@hotdogsjumpingfrogs - our pup is only young so we're not running together yet, but the short bursts I've done are a bit dispiriting, my running is just a gentle trot for pup! I need to get a gps tracker on her to see how far she actually runs on walks, I'm sure she covers three times the distance I do.

Another vote for an English Pointer.