First time family dog, what breed might we be missing?

[IesuGrist1975]

We are finally in a position to get a dog within the next year due to my father-in-law moving into our granny(dad) annexe meaning a pet dog will be a companion for him on my 2 work days. Our youngest children are 6 years old and 10 years old and we have a medium sized garden and live in an urban area but have access to a good few large parks and spend the weekends at kids sports, usually in muddy fields with loads of other dogs so a dog being happy around other dogs is important.

It will be our first family dog, we have a 9 year old cat and while my parents occasionally bred my father’s working springer spaniels when I was growing up, they lived in kennels rather than indoors so this is a first indoor pet dog. Another thing to mention is that this dog is going to be a bit of emotional support me (my mum is terminally ill) so a dog that is happy to be loved by me would be excellent.

Having done quite a lot of research on here and other online resources I’v got a shortlist of,

• Miniature (or standard) poodle,
• Rough collie
• Border terrier.

These have made it onto the list for being either side of medium. Intelligent, happy with a couple of 30- 60 min walks a day, being good family dogs, happy to relax after a good walk. I’m wondering if we’ve missed any other obvious breeds off the list? Or if any of those don’t really fit the bill? We’ve been in contact with a couple smooth collie breeders and they’re currently what we’re leaning towards but happy to be swayed.

Everyone can suit themselves, as a society we shouldn’t be compelled to stick to old breeds, if they suit you fab, for what I want a new breed, bread by the Australian Guide dogs association to be the most trainable hypoallergenic dog they could suits me perfectly, so why get a big slobbery lab probe to hip problems or a retriever who will shed sack fulls of hair.
No need to look down on new breeds, if they aren’t for you fine, but I went with this and I think he’s a perfect family dog.

Do you not feel like a hypocrite?
You object to people being critical of the Labradoodle, but then refer to big slobbery Labradors prone to hip problems and Retrievers shedding sackloads of hair.
You refer to people being judgmental, but I haven't said a thing against your breed at any point, all I did was defend old breeds that you seem to consider inferior. You then saw fit to refer to my 4,000 year old breed as a dinosaur.
So who is the judgemental one here? It isn't me.

Most vets now recognise that a well bred pedigree is going to be healthier than a designer doodles. There’s been quite a lot of articles in various journals about it recently. Just FYI.

There's also a lot of talk lately about the hypoallergenic dog being a myth, so you might want to stop using that as a selling point.

I maintain that an australian labradoodle is very different to a first or second gen doodle. And it was the ald i recommended.

Which breeder did you buy your dog at, out of interest?

Edit - oops said kennel by mistake 😁

Not just one run. This is simply not enough. Anyone not bothered to do more with the whippet should
not have one.

Golden Retriever .. soppy, happy, intelligent (we wrote down about 50+ words that ours understood) - kid friendly, food motivated (whoever gives (ANY) food is their hero) - need exercise, but then sleep / snooze happily. Good bed buddy. They 'snow bathe' if its cold or snowing, and sunbathe if its hot, Love swimming, love everything!!
Greet you as if you have been away for a year if only taking out the bins....a good hoover is needed though......google Facebook AGuyandaGolden - so cute & very trainable. Soft mouthed, they don't tend to bite but it doesn't hurt if they do when they are puppies! So good with children, & yes, I love them , lol. Just be prepared to be followed everywhere - bath / loo / bed / - happiest, most gentle breed I know! Good luck with your choice. xx

PS - they may also greet burglars if the said burglars offer food.....😋

please don’t recommend dogs based off YouTube videos. Many Goldies are nothing like that - and Teddy is a US Golden, who are very different to British Goldens.

And. As I said before, no good breeder (particularly a Goldie one) will sell to OP with such young kids. They’re all massively
prone to resource guarding. Not a good idea with kids, is it? And trust me. It hurts when the little bastards bite when they’re puppies.

I find it remarkable how many people are recommending a breed(s)that over the last 10+ years has begun to show behaviour that makes them very poor choices for families…nearly as bonkers as the person who suggested a border collie

screenshot of one of mine (from a video hence the funny logo in the corner) curling his lip before he bites. All friendly. Would a child recognise anybody language, and not be scared? Probably not…

Edit; just to say, I love Goldies. But people recommending dogs on this thread without being frank about the behavioural issues particular breeds are prone to (such as Colldie, who nip and herd) do people no favours. A 40kg dog with resource guarding traits, which is becoming increasingly common in the breed, is not a dog anyone should really be recommending to small children.

I wouldn't think a border would be ideal. Temperament wise I've always known them to be great with people but so many I know are very reactive with other dogs. Not great for wanting to walk in busy parks.

We have a poodle cross whose mainly poodle and I'd be very happy with a pedigree miniature poodle. For the big retriever types they could be great depending how old your father in law is as they can be boisterous when young.

She has stopped breeding, so I won't name her, but there is a Facebook group run by five of the leading ALD breeders in the UK if you or anyone is interested www.facebook.com/groups/246330395991317

One of them has 15 breeding bitches, and is a clear puppy farm.

Another one has 13 breeding bitches, and is a clear puppy farm.

Another one has 16 breeding bitches, and is a clear puppy farm.

One is the puppy farm another poster linked yesterday (with four breeding bitches).

One refers to her puppies as a 'Spring Collection' (how distasteful, dogs are living breathing beings - not 'collections.') But doesn't say how many dogs she has - but given the above, I imagine it'll be a rather large number.

I'm not trying to be a dick - but if those are the 'leading breeders' then your 'breed' has a serious problem as every single one of them has all the hall-marks of being a puppy farm. No one with that many breeding bitches is putting the proper time, care and attention into breeding their dogs and ensuring healthy litters- it's physically not possible.

13, 15, 16 😱 WTF 😮
I wonder how many of their pups go to first time owners who think that this is the norm @LandSharksAnonymous , I imagine it is quite a high percentage.

I have two (sighthounds, not cats) and completely agree with this.

Totally anecdotal, but I went to a fete last week, lots of dogs there. By far the worst behaved was a Golden Retriever. Clearly a young dog, but already big and powerful. It was “just friendly”, but it decided it liked my dog and so kept bounding over to us, dragging its owner behind. Almost had my child over once, just by bouncing up to us.

People seem to think GRs, labradors, etc go from little and cute to grown and sensible, but there are 2-3 years in the middle where even without any specific issues they are big, strong, unreliable, and need lots of training by someone who is strong enough to work with them (ie not a child or elderly person).

Woah, sizeism and ageism in one post @KnitKnitKnitting 😱

All I'll say is that handling large or giant breed dogs is not about brute force. Experience and knowing your dog counts for far more.

("elderly" petite female, adolescent 50kg dog, 45 years experience)

I would ALWAYS get a small/toy breed as a first time owner with kids because at least a misbehaving small dog can be easily handled than a large, physically strong breed. So I agree with the poster above that I wouldn't get Labradors/Goldies because they are large and heavy and quite difficult when younger.

We are literally discussing a dog for an inexperienced family with children! Yes, experience counts. It is also irrelevant to this post.

Your post was completely irrelevant also. Why did we need a story about a badly behaved Goldie? I met a badly behaved dachshund yesterday, but I wouldn't say the story had any relevance here.

Speaking as a Goldie owner, not a YouTube watcher.

Speaking as a breeder, owner and person who spends an inordinate amount of time trying to rehome Goldies bought by inappropriate, foolish, owners who watched YouTube videos and thought ‘oh Goldies are easy, I’ll get one.’ 😄

We have a similar set up to the OP and got a Miniature Schnauzer 2 months ago.

He's an absolute delight - to me the goldilocks dog of not being small and ratty or big and slobbery (managed to offend everyone there, sorry)

He's brilliant with the kids, clever and easy to train. He's full of beans but not needing 10 miles walks a day.

Although I can see Labs / Retriever dogs are beautiful and good family dogs in some situations surely they'd not work for the OP who wants to be able to do short walks some days? I've not had one myself but the friends I know who do indicate they need a lot of walking and I wfh so need a dog that's happy with 45 mins at lunchtime.

My grandma had the kindest dog when I was little, which was an Icelandic sheep dog. My younger brother has severe learning disabilities and could be a bit heavy handed when petting and hugging her, but she still let him and knew he was showing love.

I know quite a lot place their bitches with families and bring them back a couple of weeks before they are due. Not a model I’m particularly comfortable with but a long way from some of the sort of battery hen operation you usually think of when you hear puppy farms.