which breed to buy?

senileturtle

UKTigerlily wrote: »

Please don't rule rescue dogs out, you can get Pups in rescue, you can get dogs with full histories such as where the owner has died, the ones to maybe avoid would be strays as they have no history.

As to breed, i'd say the Staffy as they are well known to be excellent with kids but I have a feeling you'd rule those out too

This. Rescues also have puppies too. Just because your friends had bad experiences doesn't mean you will. You just need to browse all the local rescues and take into consideration any information they have on the dog or pups history. I've always had rescues and I wouldn't change it for the world. You give an animal second/third chance in life be it adult or youngster. Plus you free up a space in a shelter/sanctuary for another unwanted or neglected animal.

By buying from a breeder you are perpetuating the idea that animals should be sold like items. You also encourage more breeding. Because of breeding dogs, cats, etc are overpopulated so many get put down in shelters because the shelters just do not have the space to look after them all.

codemonkey

melly_g wrote: »

Hi,
We sadly lost our cavalier king Charles after 15 years and after much contemplation we have decided to get another dog.
We would like to get a puppy so we can train it ourselves. Also several of my friends have had bad experiences with rescue dogs and having 3 kids I don't want that risk.
Obviously as this is a big commitment I want to do this right.
Can anyone offer me some advice on what are good breeds to have with children please?
Are pedigrees or cross breeds better?
Any help will be much appreciated
Where are the best places to buy from?
Many thanks in advance :j

When we decided to get a dog, being overthinkers, we decided to list our personal circumstances and rule out breeds based on their needs rather than decide on one.

For example, I love giant breeds but our house is tiny so those were ruled out, as was anything bigger than a labrador. DH was unwilling to walk a small dog, so we were looking at medium sized dogs really. We both work so weren't sure we could give the dog 3 hours of walking so that ruled out working types like collies/huskies and the separation anxiety issue did for the staffies (that came later when we couldn't find one) and we didn't want a dog that required a huge amount of grooming - although idiot dog needs brushing daily. Obviously, that's about as far as we got because we going for a rescue dog, and it depended on the types of dogs in rescue and as it turned out the staff got to know us and what we were looking for and we got first refusal on captain dumbass .

But if your heart is set on a puppy, you might want to consider how far you're willing to travel as that will rule out some breeds based on the location of decent, non-puppy farming breeders and that you'll probably want to visit more than once to see the pups interacting with their mother and choose one. Then how long you want to wait because good breeders have waiting lists, and these will obviously be longer for more fashionable types of dogs.