My wife and I are looking for a dog and we have an idea of what we are
looking for, but were wondering if you folk had other suggestions as
well.

We currently have an aging neutered male ACD who dislikes other male
dogs and will have to get along with any dog we choose, and vice
versa, and have previously owned a laid back female Akita. I grew up
with a collie-shepherd cross, and my wife grew up with huskies, and
has owned another ACD previously.

We live in a large suburban house with fenced yard, on a cul-de-sack
with sidewalks. The main road is narrow without sidewalks, but a loop
of all the sidewalks on the cul-de-sac is about a mile.

My wife and I live alone, but occasionally have nieces and nephews
over who are just entering grade school, and there are neighborhood
children of similar ages. We work different shifts, so there are
about two hours of every day when noone is home, but there are
occasions when the dogs would be expected to be alone for up to eight
hours.

My wife loves the energy level of the herding breeds, but our current
ACD doesn't put up well to lots of affection (he has his moments). I
enjoy dogs who are more affectionate, as well as willing to curl up on
the couch. Something of a happy medium between those would work well.

Sizewise we are thinking between 40 and 80 lbs., or to put it another
way, big enough to put their head in your lap but not on the table
without lifting the front paws.

We'd like to get an adult dog or a laid-back adolescent, preferably
already house trained.

We're currently looking at retrievers, and some of the other sporting
breeds like spaniels, pointers, and weimeraners. We've also
considered standard poodles and collies (though we'd probably go with
a smooth rather than rough given the opportunity). We'd prefer to
avoid hounds that bay, most terriers (particularly bully breeds, we're
not sure we're ready for them), and toy breeds. We're also not
interested in greyhounds right now, more for all the political baggage
that comes with them than for the sake of the dogs themselves. Of
these, it looks like retrievers might be our best bet, just from an
availability standpoint.

Any other breeds you would care to recommend?

Thanks,
--Glenn Lyford