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

In article
,
Glenn wrote:


Any other breeds you would care to recommend?

Since you aren't married to a particular breed, many "all americans"
could suit your needs and there are a lot of shelter dogs who will. My
Lucy is now 12, but I adopted her at 22 months old. She is 1/2 lab, 1/2
WGSD. Sporting and Herding all in one package! She's smart, sweet,
affectionate, fun, active but can curl up and hang out all day with or
without us here, and moved into our house effortlessly. She had lived
with kids, cats and another dog, so she came with a wonderful resume.

I'm not someone who will always push shelter dogs over purebreds, and I
currently have 1 purebred purchased as puppy, and 1 purebred
puppymill/shelter/rescue, along with Lucy. They're all wonderful for
themselves. Since your primary need is household companion, I think a
dog like Lucy (no, you can't have her!) would be an excellent choice.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

Any other breeds you would care to recommend?

Since you aren't married to a particular breed, many "all americans"
could suit your needs and there are a lot of shelter dogs who will.

I agree a mix who is of the right temperment and compatible with our
other dog would suit us just fine. I should have said that we're
mostly looking at shelter dogs, but a lot of the search services like
petfinder sort by breed, so starting from a certain reference point
can help.

She is 1/2 lab, 1/2 WGSD. *Sporting and Herding all in one package! *
She's smart, sweet, affectionate, fun, active but can curl up and hang
out all day with or without us here, and moved into our house effortlessly. *

Yes, a dog with her credentials would be great. Thanks for the input.
--Glenn Lyford

In article
,
Glenn wrote:


Yes, a dog with her credentials would be great. Thanks for the input

She's incredibly cute as well!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/...6106e2c7_b.jpg

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

She's incredibly cute as well!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2387/...6106e2c7_b.jpg

Yep! And I fall for that slightly sad look every time.
--Glenn Lyford

Glenn wrote:

Any other breeds you would care to recommend?

Since you aren't married to a particular breed, many "all americans"
could suit your needs and there are a lot of shelter dogs who will.

I agree a mix who is of the right temperment and compatible with our
other dog would suit us just fine. I should have said that we're
mostly looking at shelter dogs, but a lot of the search services like
petfinder sort by breed, so starting from a certain reference point
can help.



You don't have to specify a breed on petfinder though. You can enter
Young, Female, Medium sized and you will probably get several dogs
matching your criteria of various breeds. Then you can disregard the
dogs that are of breeds you do not want. This way you won't skip over a
real gem of a dog that is of a breed you didn't think to search on.

Nick

Glenn wrote:


We're currently looking at retrievers,

The whole time I was reading your post, I was
actually thinking "Golden" or "Lab" from a
rescue.

:-)

Glenn said in rec.pets.dogs.breeds:

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.

I usually hesitate to recommend herding breeds, but I will here
with a couple of caveats.

There are a lot of Border Collies in rescue who didn't quite
work out for whatever the original owner intended. Often
they're rejected because of a lack on intensity (or too much
intensity!). In areas like mine, too many are bred.

Since you and your wife like herding breeds, check out Border
Collie rescue sites. I've met many grown rescues who are
totally willing to turn it on when needed and be couch potatoes
otherwise, a few want nothing but full-time couch priveleges.
Look for an adult dog from an informed rescue/foster to be sure.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

[...] check out Border Collie rescue sites. I've met many grown
rescues who are totally willing to turn it on when needed and be
couch potatoes otherwise [...]

Thanks. I keep hearing about both ends of the BC spectrum, the
"always on" and the adaptable, so have been a little leery of them. I
guess in the end it's simply better to match individuals than get
stuck on breed generalities. Of course, one can say the same for
retrievers, too.

Look for an adult dog from an informed rescue/foster to be sure.

I think this may be our best bet. The two big organizations for
goldens and labs in our area don't even list their dogs, prefering to
match by temperment once you've applied. I'll look into some of the
other breeds, like BC's, for something similar, now that you've
brought it up.

Thanks,
--Glenn Lyford

You don't have to specify a breed on petfinder though. *You can enter
Young, Female, Medium sized and you will probably get several dogs
matching your criteria of various breeds.

Thanks for the pointer. I've already been doing that using "medium"
and "large". Sizes on petfinder seem to vary by whatever the listing
shelter's own criteria are, rather than by any set standard. We've
seen some likely candidates, I guess now we need to get serious about
meeting some of them.

--Glenn Lyford