Breed suggestions please

[catwithnocream]

We’re a family of 4 looking to get a dog in the next year, kids will be 9 and 5 by then. I work from home full time and DH is also wfh 3 days a week. We have a decent sized garden and plenty of coast and countryside on our doorstep.
we’ve never had a dog before and do have a cat.
I think medium sized dog, probably a retriever would be too large but I’m not a fan of small dogs either. Friends and family have cocker/cavapoos and all seem very anxious and hyper so I don’t think we’d be keen on those kind of mixed breeds.

I guess it really depends on what you're actually looking for in a dog and what you absolutely do not want in a dog.

You need to think about breed traits and what to expect with that and what you and can't give a dog.

You also need to think about running costs because that needs to factor into your decision in choosing a dog (some are just a lot more expensive than others). And ignore the advice on the internet that says it only costs £60 a month to take care of a medium dog - I think that's the Blue Cross - because realistically, it's over £100.

Honestly, I'd go with a poodle. With small children you want something good with children (or at least as good as dogs can be), something easy to train and something that isn't hugely prone to being over-excitable. Relatively cheap - minus the grooming - and relatively health. They do bark a bit though but, if I am honest, no dog is 'perfect'

Costs were kind of prepared for, getting rid of a monthly £700 nursery bill will free up enough to cover everything.
We want a good natured dog, fairly easy to train that requires no more than 1h walk per day.
aesthetically I love the kind of big heads like mastiffs, bulldogs etc but can’t justify buying a dog I know will have health issues and contribute to that problem. I like the look of a beagle but worry about how vocal they are, we have a detached house it’s more for my own sanity!

If you like big headed dogs then a well bred staffy?

I say this on every 'what breed?' thread, but be VERY aware of the difference between the pet/show lines and the working lines of any breed. A few years ago I was able to compare the behaviour of my working-line hunt-point-retrieve puppy with a friend's show-line golden retriever. The GR would toddle up to you as you sat on the floor, play for a minute or two, climb into your lap and fall asleep. My puppy would bound over, jump on and off your lap five time, jump onto your lap again, try and get onto your shoulder like a parrot, eat your hair, lick your ear, fall off your shoulder on the third attempt at being a parrot, come back round in front of you and start all over again.

Working lines are great if that is what you want, and dogs from hell if it isn't.

That aside, how do you feel about grooming? Are you looking for the human-focus of a gundog or the less obliging more independent hound-type personality?

@biscuitsandbooks posts on this page quite often - she has a beagle and might be able to advise about noise.

Landsharks has great advice. I would say an hour a day isn’t much exercise. Plus what about grooming? Do you mind having to go to a groomer?

Staffy, great with kids, happy with a hour walk….also happy with more, not nervous (usually quite the opposite), easy ish to train but can have selective hearing and don’t need grooming.

My puppy would bound over, jump on and off your lap five time, jump onto your lap again, try and get onto your shoulder like a parrot, eat your hair, lick your ear, fall off your shoulder on the third attempt at being a parrot, come back round in front of you and start all over again.

To be fair... that sounds exactly like my show cocker. Love her, but god she's unstoppable. (Or 'incorrigible', in the vet's words, after we'd had the fourth visit in as many months for Excess Idiocy.)

Try a bichon or poodle, OP.

It’s difficult to recommend a specific breed as they’re so different even within that. My 18 month old working golden would fit you perfectly. He’s a couch potato and happy with 1 hour or less a day. He hates rain and being bathed and genuinely is brushed maybe once a fortnight. He’s gentle and whilst he’s on the larger side for height is only 25kg so not a huge boy. He didn’t have a single accident in the house, loves to please and is perfectly obedient and always has been. However his siblings are completely different.

A lot of the smaller breeds that are happy with 1 hour of exercise often come with very serious health conditions

We have a miniature poodle puppy and at nearly 1 year old he is a dream. Great with young kids, happy with 30 mins or 3 hours exercise a day. Easy to put under my arm when needed. V east to train and quick to learn. Loving.

A maximum of an hour a day walking is very much on the low side, you’re pretty much looking at a small companion type breed.

By easy to train, do you actually want to do lots of training or do you just mean fairly calm as an adult?

We have a miniature poodle and she’s amazing. Poodles are very intelligent so easy to train. She great with other dogs, has 100% recall, good with kids, never chewed anything, doesn’t shed, loving. She’s brilliant.

Grooming was something we had factored in, don’t mind taking them or doing ourselves, whatever is needed. I definitely prefer the look and feel of a flat coat rather than a poodle. Ive already read up on show vs working lines so that was on my radar that we’d prefer a show line dog. I like the look of show cockers too but worry an hour a day exercise wouldn’t be enough, we could do longer walks a weekends but want to be realistic about what we can fit in around work and kids during the week.

Hello! Yes - we have a beagle - he can be quite noisy but it’s certainly not constant and we’ve never had any noise complaints. It’s mostly when he wants his dinner or when he’s excited (like when someone he knows is at the door). He does bark on walks when he catches a scent but again it’s not constant and he can easily go days without doing it.

He’s a fantastic little dog - we walk him for an hour day a day. He’s good with commands and is easy to train as he’s so food motivated. We also have three cats and he’s fantastic with them
too.

I’d say the only downside is that he doesn’t like being left alone.

ETA: I’ve named changed - was previously @biscuitsandbooks - thanks for the tag!

Yours obviously didn't get the memo same as @EuropeBaby 's golden.

But usually it's a pretty clear divide.

In the words of our dog trainer, she 'has a lot of drive'!

Agree with this. By and large working lines are far harder than show lines - you get the odd oddball, or the odd Goldie or cocker that is happy with an hour or day. But you absolutely cannot buy a dog of that breed and work on the assumption that’s what you’ll get because 99.9% of the time, it’s not.

OP- an hour really isn’t much - almost all medium sized breeds need more than that, and those that don’t…well, they’re pretty unhealthy tbh. Really I can only think of beagles (and you had excellent advice up thread) or poodles

As @LandSharksAnonymous and @EdithStourton said it’s quite unusual that they do vary from their breed traits but just something to bare in mind. I wanted a dog to go out for early morning walks with in all weather and he doesn’t get out of bed until gone 10 most days (makes himself as flat as possible and you have to carry him but he’ll just flop down and refuse to walk). I thought he could come to work with me where he’d be lovely and active but instead he prefers to lie around all day whilst my husband works from home. Of course when we do go out for walks he’s full of energy and loves a good run providing the weather is to his taste!

I’d pick something that on the whole will suit your family but be prepared to be flexible. We plan to get another working Goldie and absolutely don’t expect them to be similar at all. You just can’t guarantee how each individual dog will be.

Have you thought much about what you’d like to do with a dog? Scent work, chilled walks/picnics, wild swimming, caravan holidays, 10 mile hikes. As something that needs an hour a day when you’re working might not be up to the things you’d like to do in leisure time

'An hour a day' can be many different things. I've had working-line HPRs be perfectly happy on about an hour/hour fifteen on 3 or 4 days during the week, provided that 20-30 minutes of that time was focused training of various sorts, and the rest free running, and they had more exercise at weekends or days I wasn't working. It's their brains you have to worry about, and if they don't get an outlet they can be unbearable.

One of my dogs is a case in point...

Yes, our beagle gets an hour of actual walking, but we also do an added 30-45 minutes of mental stimulation on top.

Being a hound, he needs to use his nose, so that's mostly in the form of scatter feeding, treat hunting and trick-training (for food). He gets kibble scattered about to find three times a day - inside in winter, and out in the garden in summer. If he doesn't get that for some reason, he's fine for a few days but then becomes frustrated and his behaviour deteriorates.

It's not especially hard work, nor is it especially time-consuming, but it is something that needs to be factored in. He also gets a good, long-lasting natural chew several times a week which helps calm him down.

A staffy might suit you? We had one who had an hour or so exercise in the week, and longer at the weekends. They’re generally happy little dogs who like to lounge around the house. But can be stubborn! They will basically walk as long and far as you will.

Havanese are great family dogs and would likely be happy with an hour of walking per day