<p>look up Keeshond online… Great breed, they have the looks, friendliness, smarts, great with kids. I stumbled across the breed researching online about 9 years ago, I wanted a lesser known breed…We own 2 now, one is the smartest dog I have ever come across…vocabulary is unbelievable.</p>
<p>I would second dmd77s suggestion about getting an older dog from a rescue or shelter.
Even Craigslist, if you dare. I found my wonderful 6 year-old yellow lab on Craigslist.
As long as you meet the family, the dog, and take your time to make sure it’s a good match, it’s not a bad way to go. My lab needed a home (family was moving into small condo, both parents working, kids leaving…), and we wanted a lab. Because he was already full-grown, his temperament and health were easy to discern with our visit.</p>
<p>Older animals are much harder to place, but they make wonderful pets.</p>
<p>I’d like to hear from some more beagle owners too re: temperament, ease of care, etc.</p>
<p>I heartily endorse the advice given by proudwismom and dmd77 on choosing a breeder and a breed. If you settle on a breed, you can contact your regional breed rescue organizations in addition to looking at shelters in general. Breed rescues will usually have more detailed placement advice because they have assessed each dog well.</p>
<p>There is an excellent web site out there maintained by Diane Goodman called [Great</a> activities you can do with your dog](<a href=“http://www.dogplay.com%5DGreat”>http://www.dogplay.com) She gives excellent advice on acquiring a dog, amongst other things.</p>
<p>I’ve never had a beagle, but there are two things about them that beagle lovers confirm: a) if your beagle picks up a good scent, obedience training goes out the window and you may pick them up in the next county, b) beagles have a baying sound that beagle people love, but others describe as the sound made by a dog being sawed in half with a dull knife. :)</p>
<p>If you get me started, I can go on for pages. </p>
<p>Our family preference runs to the large working breeds, and since '82 we’ve owned Newfoundlands. Had three, from 3 separate breeders, all males. Only one at a time, although wife and d would prefer a houseful.</p>
<p>Gentle giants, easily trained, great companion. Mediocre watchdogs as they love everybody, but the size alone can be a deterrent to most of the dubious elements you/they may encounter. Extremely easy to train and have a sincere desire to “please”.</p>
<p>You need to have no issues with being knee deep in hair and covered with drool. If you’re fastidious, don’t even think about it. </p>
<p>D brought home a retired racing greyhound when she graduated from a specialized animal care program ('twas her training dog) and you could not ask for a better companion. First time we’ve ever been a multi-dog household, but “the boys” get along famously. Very loving, great companions, considering these athletes have spent their early and young adult years exclusively and are not accustomed to standard household living, noises. TV and windows, patio doors can be completely new experiences, but they adapt quickly. Training can be an issue. (Many have never been taught to sit), and you may need to try a couple of methodologies.</p>
<p>The idea to attend a dog show to get an idea of what’s “out there” is a doof one. When you narrow it down to a few breeds or two, attend some breed specific shows. National breed clubs often have specific info and the pros and cons of owning, caring for, and personality/habit/lifestyle scenarios that match well with the breed.</p>
<p>Breed specific internet forums are out there, and many rival CC in terms of the willingness to offer advice and the collective wisdom available. Good breeders will recommend other good breeders, and will make it a point to steer you away from the “iffy” ones. </p>
<p>Be aware of breed specific health issues. Consider breed rescue groups as well.</p>
<p>I’m not advocating buying purebred. The choice is personal. If you have no preference, by all means adopt a shelter dog, They all need homes, and love. There rarely are truly bad dogs, but many poor owners.</p>
<p>Do your homework. Train the dog, and yourself. You will be rewarded a thousand-fold.</p>
<p>Rule #1 with a beagle - never, never, never off the leash outside.</p>
<p>Neither of my beagles have been very vocal (although I love it). Guess it depends on the dog.</p>
<p>I love beagles, so my opinions here are admittedly very biased.</p>
<p>When we decided to get a dog we debated a list of all the attributes we wanted: long hair vs. smooth, emotional dog or calm, large vs. vs. medium vs. small, indoor vs. outdoor, imtimidating watch dog vs. cuddly lap dog, etc.</p>
<p>Once we had an agreed upon compromise list we began to sort through the breeds to find the one that matched our criteria the closest. Our decision: Miniature Pinscher (w/uncropped ears). We’ve had two of them since then. Both excellent dogs with a lot of personality.</p>
<p>PS: Contrary to popular opinion, the Miniature Pinscher is not a smaller copy of the Doberman, because the Miniature (developed to kill rats) is the older breed by more than 200 years. If anything the copying went in the opposite direction.</p>
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<p>I could blame this on the Newf attempting to stick his 30 pound head in my lap and hitting my arm, but it’s simply a typo.</p>
<p>It’s supposed to read “a good one.”</p>
<p>also… let the dog choose you not the other way around.</p>
<p>Someone asked about beagles. My cousin has had them for years. Great dogs but there are two things potential owners need to know up front. 1. They follow their noses. Like most scent hounds if they smell something interesting they’re gone and may not find their way back. 2. They like to eat. A LOT. Beagles tend to get fat easily. It’s really hard to not give in to their begging when you see their big brown eyes.</p>
<p>Violadad, you’er right Newfs are great. My neighbors have two. We also have a lot of rescued Greyhounds around our area. After some adjustment time they make wonderful pets. A friend calls them 60 mph couch potatoes. </p>
<p>Coureur makes a great suggestion of making a list and deciding on what you really want in a dog. It will help keep you on track and allow either a rescue/shelter organization or a purebred breeder to know what will or won’t work for you.There are so many wonderful breeds to choose from. All will have their own pros and cons so it’s important to know your family’s needs and desires. One criteria I would add to the suggestion list is are you or your husband willing to be the alpha dog. Some breeds are not for push overs. For example a pit bull can be a nice pet given the right owner and right socialization but put it in a home that lacks discipline/structure and it will be a disaster.</p>
<p>We have had three dogs over our married life. Two were pound rescues. The other was a purebred Basset Hound.<br>
Rescue #1 was a tiny ball of cuteness, a terrier mix. She was a smart cookie, a good apt. dog. She wasn’t the best with kids which we found out after S1 was born. We ended up giving her away because she kept snapping at S1 as he toddled around. We couldn’t get her to stop. Maybe she was jealous. We had her for four years before S1 was born.</p>
<p>We bought the Bassett from a breeder. She was sooooo cute.
She would go on walks with us but when she got tired would just lay down on the sidewalk/street and could not be moved. She was very friendly and good with kids but not super energetic once she got past the puppy stage. Her bark was hilarious…not as bad as the beagle I had as a kid. She didn’t seem quite as “smart” as our rescue dogs.
She was very sweet and loving but didn’t pick up on things like the others. </p>
<p>Rescue #2 (our current dog, 14 yrs. old) A bassethound/black and tan coonhound mix. Weighed 75 lbs. in his prime. Hands down the smartest dog I have ever had. I can’t say enough about what a great dog he has been. He slept with my kids when they were little, watched the Simpsons with them when they were teenagers, loves every dog he meets, knows more words than some humans I know, practically house-trained himself.<br>
I could go on forever.
He did chew up a bunch of stuff as a puppy but other than that we could not have asked for a better dog.</p>
<p>I don’t know if we’ll get another dog when he’s gone.<br>
If we do, it will be a rescue dog.</p>
<p>Our family had beagles when I was growing up. We always had two as they are very social and get lonely when left alone. When our children were young, they were both highly allergic and we didn’t want to chance having a dog that we would then have to give up. About 6 years ago their allergies had improved and we looked for a dog that didn’t shed. Spent a lot of time researching on dogbreedinfo.com and then once we had the list of acceptable breeds narrowed down we started looking for a “pound puppy” on petfinder.com. Eventually found our Lhasa/terrier mix at a rescue shelter. He was two years old, neutered, housetrained, microchipped. Brought him home and now we wonder how we ever lived without him. Not a good dog with small children, but ours were 13 and 11 and had no problems with him. Puppies are cute, but I really enjoyed not having to expend the effort to housetrain. I highly recommend adopting a young adult dog already trained, ours was a seamless addition to our family.</p>
<p>Puppies are cute, but I really enjoyed not having to expend the effort to housetrain.</p>
<p>Seconded- which is why I probably will get a rescue dog- maybe I will even let my D pick one out as I think she was volunteering at a shelter in PDX.</p>
<p>Yes, our awesome pound puppy was close to a year old (we think) when we adopted him.
I’m sure that had something to do with how easily he housetrained.</p>
<p>I’ll never get another puppy.</p>
<p>I love my poodles. Yes, grooming every 4-6 weeks is pricey but there is almost no fall-out to clean up in the house. They are very smart. I now have my second puppy (older dog, who was an unplanned addition, needed company when late dog passed on) who is being trained by the experienced dog.</p>
<p>The availabiliy of differing sizes is good, although there are differencesin personality, especially between toys and standards. I loved my first dog, a standard, who was a great outdoors dog, but, at 50 pounds, she was the absolute limit I could lift–and I was lifting her alot at the end of her life, when she could not manage stairs. Two weeks after she left us, I realized how bad my back pain had become as it began to subside forthe first time in months.</p>
<p>We have a brittany. He is nearly eleven and still a wild dog. We say he is a bird dog because everyone who comes in to the house gets a goose. Since the Christmas bomber who sewed the explosives into his underpants, we have been telling people the dog is a bomb-sniffing dog. I love this dog. I will not get another one. He is a pointer but runs and runs and runs if he gets out; eventually he comes back.</p>
<p>Next dog will be a herding animal. I want one that will stay around. I like Austrailian shepards and border collies are also nice. They both would require some grooming.</p>
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<p>One of the funniest bogus medical research papers I’ve ever read was one published in JIR purporting to tell how some doctors trained a hunting dog to the scent of vaginal swabs taken from women with yeast infections. They then tested the dog by repeatedly turning him loose in a gynecologist’s waiting room where the dog would “point” to women who, in the dog’s opinon, were infected - thus making the job of diagnosis much easier and quicker.</p>
<p>The study was complete with authentic-looking statistical analysis of the trials: rate of false positives and false negatives, clinical sensitivity and specificity, positive predictive value, etc.</p>
<p>Currently have a 10 yr old golden. She is a doll and I will never have another breed of dog - preferably 2 next time. She is quite large, but not all goldens are. She is a couch potato who is always ready to go when we are. Loves the car and long walks. Not a digger/chaser/barker, but VERY hairy. Not for fastidious people.</p>
<p>Violadad, I love Newfies, too.</p>
<p>Old English Sheepdog. Only way to go. Once you have one, you’ll never want another breed. Wonderful, wonderful dogs. See how easy that was? :-)</p>