Choosing the Right Dog Breed
Choosing the right dog breed is vital to you and your pets' success as a family. Not all breeds are alike and not all of them will be right for you and your lifestyle.
Often, when people think about the kind of dog they want, they think about breed. Sometimes they just like the way a dog looks, sometimes they choose based on being familiar with a dog of that breed, and sometimes the choice is more random based on what is available at the local pet shop or shelter. (Please note that I do not support the purchase of dogs at pet shops. In my opinion, it's more important to save a dog from shelter life).
But choosing the right dog breed for your family, your needs, and your lifestyle is one of the most important choices you can make. While all dogs should be evaluated on an individual basis, there are many standards (or characteristics) that are common in each breed... knowing what those standards are is critical before adding that breed to your household.
Time and time again I see or hear of a dog that has been surrendered to a shelter because a family was unprepared to deal with the needs of that dog... and did not consider choosing the right dog breed for them.
For example, while Labradors are well known as a great family dog... and are super cute as puppies... they grow into very large (and very strong) dogs that are high energy, stubborn, and need tons of exercise. If you live in an apartment and work all day, unless you take your Lab to doggy day care (or have some other daytime arrangements), you're going to end up with a dog that is unhappy, frustrated, full of pent up energy, and possibly even destructive.
However, in the right environment, these dogs are happy, playful (and funny!), loving, and devoted to their family.
Choosing the right dog breed does matter.
To find out which breeds are right for you, do your research. The internet is full of free information (including a lot on this site) that will help you discover the standards of a breed and will help you decide which breeds are right for you.
However, as I mentioned above, there are times (especially with adoption or rescue) that the breed is pre-determined and the question is whether or not you are the right person to save this dog and bring it in to your home. For example, rescuing Gunner (my pit bull) was not at all planned. We had even specifically decided not to bring home a dog until we had a home with a fenced in yard (as we currently reside in an apartment). But suddenly Gunner was in desperate need of a home and we were approached and asked if we could take him in.
Even though we were already familiar with Gunner and knew lots of people who had pit bulls... I had never had one and I wasn't even sure if that breed was right for me. So even though we desperately wanted to save Gunner, before we made the decision, I spent time online researching the breed. And once we brought Gunner home, I went even further and purchased some books that would help us to understand Gunner more by understanding the characteristics of pit bulls.
So where do you start?
As I mentioned before, there are a lot of resources online to help you in choosing the right dog breed for you. One such resource that can be very helpful is Animal Planet's Dog Breed Selector. If you're in search of a new pet and wonder which breeds might fit you best, that is a great tool. If a dog is brought to you in search of a new home, do your research before taking that dog in... if you don't, that dog could end up right back where it started... looking for a new home.
And if you've found a few breeds you're interested in but are not sure which one is right for you, consider fostering a dog. These are temporary (however, sometimes lengthy) situations which will allow you to see if the breed you're considering is really right for you. However, this decision should also not be taken lightly. Fostering can be difficult so you'll need to do your research and be prepared to possibly take on a dog that needs a lot of extra attention and special care.
Out of the Box: While there are breed standards that give us general ideas of what a dog of any breed would likely be like, taking these generalizations and putting all dogs of a breed into a stereotypical box would be a sad mistake.
So keep in mind that while these descriptions are here to help you make an informed choice, it's just as important to evaluate the dog as an individual when you ask, "Is this dog right for me?"
Click here to begin your research to find the right dog breed for you.
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