What Dog Breed Is Right For You?

We all love to keep canines in the house; trained and housebroken, they are the greatest gift and friend that we can depend on. They are playful, make themselves useful most of the times and also keep a watch over the house. They gel well with kids too and can be good playmates. The thorn in the eye, however, is the fact that we are not sure which breed is good for us – the large one or the small one, the furry one or the one that has less fur, a watchdog, a hound, a utility dog or a toy dog, one that needs too much monitoring or one that does not. These are things to be kept in mind before buying a dog – one shouldn’t only go by the looks. Here are some other considerations that would help you in choosing the right dog breed.

 

 

Here’s what to keep in mind when choosing the right breed of dog to include into your family:

 

Lifestyle 

The first thing that should decide the breed of dog is your own lifestyle – in terms of how much time you spend at home. If you spend most of your time at home, you could choose dogs that require more attention and monitoring, like Pomeranians, Dachshunds or Pugs. If you cannot spend much time with the dog because of an active lifestyle, you should go for sturdier and stronger breeds like Dalmatians, Alsatians, and Great Dane. 

 

If you have children in the house, particularly young ones, you might want to take them into account too. Though dogs can be trained into not harming a child, you may still have doubts about huge sized dogs in case you have children younger than four years. In such cases you should give a miss to the larger breeds of dogs like Alsatians, Great Dane or Doberman and go for the smaller varieties like Lhasa Apso, Chihuahua and so on.

 

Are you looking for watchdog that is moderately friendly and will also effectively protect the house? Or are you looking for a dog that looks fierce and can scare people away? Some breeds like the Bull Terrier, German Shepherd and Rottweiler are fierce ones which effortlessly scare people away. There are others like Scottish Terrier and Italian Greyhound that are moderately friendly too.

 

If you lead too busy a lifestyle you may not be able to give too much time to a mutt’s grooming needs. You may not be able to check its fur regularly for ticks and lice, especially if it has too much of it. In such cases you might want to go for dogs with less fur so that they are easy to handle. Also, you might want to go for a sturdier dog that does not need to be given a bath or taken to the vet too often.

 

If you have less time to train a dog, you may not want an untrained, un-housebroken dog or pup. In that case, you should go for grown up dogs or dogs that do not require much training so that they may not pose a problem to your lifestyle or add load to your already overflowing schedule. You must be able to enjoy your dog and its company and its presence in the house, not spend your time complaining about the workload.

 

The other things that need to be considered is the sociability of the dog, the amount of space it will occupy in the house, too much fur or less of it, feeding habits, how much exercise it requires and so on. Make sure also to do a thorough research on its medical history to see if it suffers from any disease or is prone to any that you should protect it from. You could also take into account if any of the family members is allergic to dog hair, so you may choose one that has less fur.