What is the best household dog for us?

[Hopes]

BEAGLE! Short hair. Big dog personality in a compact body. Gets along with kids. Loves to cuddle. Great breed.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by Hopes

BEAGLE! Short hair. Big dog personality in a compact body. Gets along with kids. Loves to cuddle. Great breed.

Good call. TONS of Beagles in shelters too. They're often used by research labs because they're so docile and those that make it out alive wind up dumped at shelters.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by yankeegirl313

We just lost our little cha waa waa mix not long ago. We rescued him out of the pound.
My husband says that he doesn`t want a flat nose dog, that you have to keep cutting his hair.
He would like to have a short haired dog, but we also have two cats, and two larger outside dogs.
We have a ****shu mix, too, that came with the nephew.
It has to be a breed that can tolerate kids pretty well, and small enough to sleep with us at night.
Any suggestions? Guess I misspelled sh*t shu!! LOL

Of course I am partial, but Shih Tzus love kids or all I have seen do. Ours was raised with no kids cause by the time we got him our kids were long gone and our grandkids, for the most part were grown. Even then, not they come over, with their babies and little ones, Mr Sumo is so good with them. As for sleeping with us, it has never dawned on him, there is anyplace else to sleep except the couch or my husbands leg and knee. When he is being boarded, the gal who keeps him, as well as about 5 or 6 other little guys at the same time, let's him sleep with her cause he is so good about just laying there. Ofcourse we raised English Spingers for years, they too are great with kids but shed. They love to sleep with mom and dad. Someone suggested Brittanys: great dogs. I love Beagles, but they are so active and have to be on the run or love to be anyway...

The animal shelter is a great place to find your next child, but I prefer using a rescue club if you make up your mind what dog you want. Rescue clubs usually seem to have more honest badkground on the dogs. We have seen and heard of some scary stories about dogs from the Humane society, Not their fault, but people just dropping the animlas off or giving false reasons for putting them up for adoption. Either way, I am sure you will find the right match.

[talloolla]

Originally Posted by Dashdog

I think you have answered the question yourself..go to the shelter,rescue etc and see what they have in the way of smaller dogs and see if one stands out then intoduce it to the family, dogs included and see how it goes. I have found when I visit shelters etc there is often a dog that screams I am your dog and so far it has been true, even Chaos who I only saw a photo of. Something about her screamed that and having her these last 20 months I have no doubts.

Exactly what Dashdog said.