Best breed for us?

[iwearmysunglassesatnight]

What in your opinion is the best/easiest dog breed for us?

*First time dog owners who don't have experience of caring for dogs
*Household of 2 adults, 2 children (6 and 8years) a cat and chickens
*kids have lots of toys lying about do we would prefer a pup that isn't prone to chewing things (not sure how realistic that is)
*Both adults work from home majority of the time
*Fairly active family- could realistically manage one long walk plus a shorter walk
*medium sized garden but have chickens roaming
*we have saved a decent amount of money to fund puppy classes

We would prefer a puppy to grow with our family. I've done some research but wanted to hear what other dog owners thoughts are?

We have a staffie that didnt chew when they were small, i suspect it was luck rather than the breed though. She's wary of our chickens but it's not an issue currently due to the chickens having to be inside.

We have a lab. They like to chew!

Be warned, having a pup is very hard=work.

What are you classing as a long walk? What sort of size would you prefer? How do you feel about grooming?

While some breeds are very chewy as puppies and some not as bad, it’s also down to individual dog personality and training generally ... but, also, kids toys are very hard to distinguish from dog toys and its a very big ask to expect a puppy to know which toys lying about are theirs. Realistically anything like that that you don’t want chewed needs to be elsewhere when not in use at least for a significant period of time.

The chickens - breeds and again individual dogs have varying amounts of chase and catch the fluffy noisy thing drive, but, I absolutely wouldn’t have roaming chickens and a loose puppy. I’d be planning to section off the garden at the very least until I’d done a lot of training with the dog and was fairly confident it was ready to try being on a lead bear then without trying to chase them... and possibly that might end up being a permanent sectioning off if it never got to that point.

Rough Collie - gentle, not destructive, minimal prey drive so won’t chase hens.
can be nervous, being at home is perfect but they hate a lot of noise.

King Charles cavalier ! Although they do often have heart issues they have the sweetest nature.

yes go cavaliers if you can find a well health tested one. However all puppies will to some extent chew and chase

No such thing as a puppy that won't chew toys

Labrador! My lab is great with my cat and chickens. She only doesn't chew baby toys because she had her own and is ball obsessed. I imagine if the baby came first, she would have chewed. We also make sure she has lots of antlers, yak sticks and coffee wood sticks for chewing.

I have a 7mo Labrador puppy on my books at the moment (dog walker).

He chewed through a chair in two minutes last month when his owner was on a zoom call 😬

Zoom calls are hell when you’ve a puppy 😂

Anything like that, that my dog has actually managed to destroy (rather than just attempt to of fo it slowly after repeated attempts) was because I was on a work zoom call so not quick enough to get it - as in, I was in the bloody room, but having to appear professional and not get up every 30 seconds to grab something from a nutty puppy.

Crate training works well with puppy's and zoom calls.

Staffies are amazing but bull breeds are not for the faint hearted. I have 2 Staffs and an Alapaha. Love them all but they've all been chewers to some degree. Antlers, buffalo horns, etc are a god send.

All pups chew, the minute you take your eye off them OP. Our pup, pulled up vinyl flooring, chewed up shoes, loved chewing up the spindles of the banister. As a first time dog owner I would suggest an easier small breed such as Lhasa Apso. As a PP said, all pups are hard work, but worth it. Good luck.

I used to have a westie, and he didn't chew as a pup! I bought toys to help him with teething, and he seemed to use them rather than my furniture thankfully! However, he's the only dog I've had so maybe he was an enigma, he definitely had some strange habits 😅

What size and coat care are you looking at?
Generally I would say anything that is a companion breed would be fine.

Gun dogs, hearding breeds and utility dogs should be fine with the chicken. But then you are looking at a dog that needs good consistent training.

Stay away from terrier tyres and hounds- they love a good chaise!

The puppy is crate trained but the owner was literally sat next to it when the destruction happened

Staffies are awesome but not for first time dog owners , bull breeds need experienced owners.

Greyhounds are great first dogs but the cat and chickens will be a issue

Do not get any kind of working dog so that rules out all gun dogs , herding breeds, and some of the terriers especially the high active ones. Also avoid guarding breeds.

I agree with the poster who said King Charles, they are great with kids and make very good 1st dogs

Also look at bichon frise, Maltese etc

Cavalier or papillon.

As someone who has just done the puppy plus three kids thing I learnt you only have two options: 1 train the kids to put everything away during the chewing stage or 2 spend a lot of time at the vet waiting for your pup to puke up socks/Lego/small plastic unicorns and freaking out that your puppy will die from a bowel obstruction. We did 2 for a couple of months but then all agreed 1 was much better. Overall the kids got with the programme. Now she's 1.5 she has her own toy box and will fetch things from that and leave other things alone so it doesn't last forever. Puppies explore with their mouths like babies. But when people say they are hard work it's true and part of the disruption is puppy proofing and dealing with a toddler from another species in your house.

Our border terriers breeder had free ranging cats and chickens and the five adult terriers ignored them. The pups wanted to play. Our 13 week old wants to play with our very laid back confident cat but with training is learning to be calm around him for the most part.

ALL dogs have a prey drive. Some can finish the job. In an agility class of two terriers, two ridge backs and three cocker spaniels it is the show spaniels who are chasers and killers. Our last dog a terrier hound cross lived safely with cats. It’s much about the training and individual as the breed type IME.

You will need to put the work in with your other animals. Ours is our first pup after having adolescent rescues and by god she’s hard work even though she’s a happy, confident little soul. I wouldn’t have done it if rescues hadn’t turned us down for over two years. We’ve no kids and husband WFH.

A Havanese would fit your requirements. Ours was fine with free ranging chickens (he would sometime try to herd them, but they just ignored him!). Almost no chewing. Toilet training was straight forward. They do like company but if you wfh should be fine.

Can I suggest NOT a working line gundog of any kind? There is currently an epidemic of working-line cocker spaniels ending up in rescue.

We're experienced dog owners, have a gundog that I work, and our most recent puppy, from very high-drive lines, nearly finished us off.

I definitely agree with this.

The Facebook page for Spaniel Aid is heartbreaking- so many young spaniels whose owners didn't do their research 😔

Also agree with @EdithStourton we (naively) got a Lab x Springer as our first dog. Love him to bits but my god he is hard work. Clingy, ball obsessed, anxious. The size of a Lab but with a Springers nervous energy always on the go. We do a lot with him - agility, long walks every day, lots of training and mental stimulation but it has been HARD and it's taken us a lot of compromise to create a lifestyle that works around him. I don't think I would ever own a Spaniel/Spaniel cross or any kind of working line dog again

The thing with working-line dogs is that they are bred for a job. If you can give them the job, or a decent facsimile of it, they are very much happier. Our older dog becomes antsy and unpleasant round other dogs if she doesn't have that outlet. Give it to her, and she is very easy.

@Dallimore you may have tried this, but have you given scentwork a go with your spaniel x? Or taught him to hunt up tennis balls in long grass and brambles?

I love our WCS so much, i never thought it was actually possible to love an animal like i love him! He's dp's dog who came with dp ;)

but I totally agree, spaniels are definitely not for the faint hearted

Westland Terriers are great dogs - clever, eager to please, not very big so not too overbearing for first time owners - not sure what they would be like with chickens though