Purely hypothetical not currently in a position for a dog. We are thinking about a dog in a few years time and I just want to enjoy idly contemplating the breed.
We will have a busy household with 3 children aged between about 3/4 years old and 8/9 years old. We have cats and (free ranging) chickens. A good sized garden and live in a rural area lots of walks and a walk to school for the dog twice a day. A lot of outdoor family outings and walks are what we're in to and we have a lot of friends also with young families and dogs that we would like to join for days out.
We both work but husband mostly from home and the dog could be with him on most but not all days. My husband wants a running companion for his frequent (3/4 times per week) runs of 5-15k. Obviously dog wouldn't have to come on all of these but the more the better!
What would be convenient would be being able to leave the dog with either set of retired parents/in laws if we were going out / away, and for it to get along with their unfamiliar cats also (if this didn't work, obviously we'd have other solutions but it would be ideal).
We live in an area with lots of dogs, and unfortunately some of these dogs are under stimulated, poorly socialised and reactive (generally just barking but sometimes running up with no recall etc) so a dog would have to be able to deal with that. It would also have to deal with being tied to a post outside school and being passed by school children for the school pick up / drop off.
My other very strong preference is for a low shedding low smell dog.
I would prefer a small dog because we have 3 kids and all their stuff it's just even the practicality of space for the dog in the car etc. We obviously would like a responsibility bred, healthy dog above all.
I think a miniature poodle ticks most of the boxes. A whippet seems to be another possibility.
It seems downsides of the poodle are:
- Separation anxiety, yapping and general lack of chill
I feel like we have some fixes for these (being with my husband nearly all of the time, dog sharing with friends, commitment to good training practices, providing the dog with space of its own away from kids etc)
But downsides of the whippet are:
- Rough and tumble, biting etc during play which may be incompatible with the little kids
- Prey drive / chasing which could be an issue with our other pets and maybe whippets are just too distractible to make running companions?
- Can they physically handle being a running companion?
Opinions very welcome! What have I missed? Are there other breeds to consider? Am I doing the whippet a disservice?
We have not owned a dog before and feel very inexperienced and as though taking on a dog would be a huge challenge but something to occupy us / fill the hole once we're out of the baby years. We'd be looking for a puppy or young dog to get many years of running companionship for my husband. For the time being as mentioned this is hypothetical we're not in the position for a dog for at least another couple of years.