Choosing a Dog

In Choosing your new puppy  © Kaye Hargreaves 1998, I wrote:
“Before deciding to get a puppy, ask yourself the following questions:
Will I have time to socialise, train, play with, exercise, groom, shop for, feed, read about and clean up after my dog?
Can I afford to feed, train, house and care for the dog, give it veterinary attention, put it in boarding kennels, pay for registration, buy necessary equipment etc.?
Do I have the patience and tolerance to put up with the frustrating and irritating behaviour of a normal puppy?”
Increasingly dog trainers and animal welfare people are finding that the most common reason for people getting rid of dogs relates to behaviour problems. This does not necessarily mean that they are all bad dogs or bad owners. There might be a mismatch between the person and their dog.

The purpose of this booklet is to help you to consider the issues involved in choosing the right dog for you.

Dogs are not all the same, any more than people are. What are some of the ways that dogs differ from each other? Some are more obvious than others: size, colour, type of coat and appearance, for example. Other important differences might not be so obvious: temperament, behaviour, breeding, intelligence and activity level, for example.

Size

Size is the most obvious. Dogs vary from tiny to giant ... but size is not everything.
Small dogs do eat a bit less than big dogs, but in proportion to their size, larger dogs are not all that more expensive to feed. Nor do they necessarily need more space and exercise. Some large breeds are sedate house pets who require only moderate exercise. Some small breeds are highly energetic and should only be chosen by active people. A small dog might suit Grandma, but a Jack Russell Terrier (a breed that is often feisty, strong and energetic, that will kill her crochet and delight her with dead rats) may not be the best choice.

Type of coat

A dog’s coat is usually pretty obvious, although sometimes it is hard to tell what a puppy’s adult coat will be like. Think about whether the coat will be short, medium or long, whether there is an undercoat that sheds a lot, how much the coat grows, how much clipping, grooming and washing is needed. But having decided what type of coat you prefer, put that on hold, and come back to it after you have considered other issues. After all, dogs with non-shedding coats (such as poodles or schnauzers) come in sizes ranging from tiny to giant, but they vary in how yappy they are, how much exercise they need or how effective they are as watch dogs.

Appearance

It’s easy to fall in love with a dog or puppy because of its appearance. This can be a trap. A cute face may hide the wrong temperament, a beautiful colour may draw attention away from an unsuitable personality.

If you particularly like the shaggy dog look, or the lean athletic short-coated look, or the soft, gentle look,  don’t pick the first one that comes along. Some shaggy dogs come from many generations of working sheep dogs, others from a long line of lap dogs. Some short-coated breeds make quiet,  clean house pets, others need to spend most of their time in the great outdoors.

Cost

You do not necessarily get what you pay for. A dog costing hundreds of dollars is not necessarily any better than one that is “free to good home”. However, most people who offer dogs to the public, whether breeders, businesses or animal welfare organisations, do have costs to recoup. These include the cost of upkeep of the dogs, vaccinations, desexing and other veterinary attention. So you should expect to pay for this. The cost of adopting a desexed, vet-checked dog from an animal shelter is around $150. The cost of purchasing a pure-breed puppy from a breeder ranges from about $300 to $600, possibly more for rare breeds. Expect to pay less if you purchase an older pure-breed dog from a breeder or from someone who purchased the dog as a puppy. Some owners who have a genuine reason for rehoming their dog will be more concerned about finding a good home than getting a good price for the dog. However, they might legitimately feel that the prospective new owner will be more responsible if they are willing to pay something for their dog.

It does take money to look after a dog. If you cannot afford a modest purchase price, think about whether you can afford to keep a dog.

What should you consider when choosing a dog?

If size, cost and appearance are not the best or only guide to choosing a dog, what is?
The behaviour, temperament and energy level of the dog is far more important in determining whether you and your pet will be a successful combination. However, this is not simply a matter of deciding whether the dog is “good” or not. Consider your own lifestyle and the sort of relationship you want with your dog. Look not just for a good dog, but a good match.

What relationship do you want with your dog?

It is really important to match your lifestyle with the behavioural characteristics of the dog you choose. Are you home a lot? Are you physically active? Would you rather curl up with a book or in front of the TV with a dog on your lap, or would you rather spend the afternoon riding on the bike path or throwing a frisbee on the beach with your dog? If you spend a lot of time visiting family and friends, would your dog be welcome to come too? Do you have a constant stream of people coming to your house? Should your dog welcome them, or would you rather have a dog that is wary of callers?
Years ago dogs had the freedom of the streets and weren’t fenced in - now it is different - dogs have less freedom and lead more structured lives. This means that that we now have a range of problems such as boredom, destructiveness and nuisance barking  by dogs that don’t get enough mental and physical stimulation. What can you do to provide quality time with your dog or to teach your dog to cope with being at home alone?

Temperament and behaviour

Temperament and behaviour are notoriously difficult to assess and predict. They depend on a mixture of inherited factors and environmental influences such as:
 • breed or breed type of the dog
 • characteristics of the dog’s sire and dam (parents)
 • individual differences within a litter of pups
 • early socialisation of the pup
 • later training and experiences of the dog
No single factor determines what your dog will be like, but they all have some influence.
If you are considering adopting an older dog, you can only influence the later training and experiences of the dog, not the early socialisation. You might not have any information about the dog’s history. However, you do have the advantage of “what you see is what you get”. If you adopt a puppy with no knowledge of his or her background, be prepared to take pot luck. Estimates of how big the pup will be when fully grown can be way out, and identification of breeds and cross breeds is notoriously inaccurate.
There is no guarantee of perfect temperament or behaviour. Dogs require a lot of input from you, in the form of training and management. Not even the best dog runs on automatic pilot.
Some of the most important aspects of temperament and character relate to whether the dog is:
• high or low in confidence
• highly sociable with people, or highly independent and standoffish
• highly assertive or pushy, versus highly submissive or amenable
• highly reactive to sights and sounds, versus relatively unreactive
• highly excitable and playful versus placid
A dog at either extreme can be a challenge. However, these qualities are not necessarily good or bad in themselves. A dog that is less confident than average can be an excellent choice for a quiet, mild-mannered person, but not robust enough for a “loud” family.

What is the energy level of the dog?

Dogs vary enormously in their energy levels and need for stimulation. Breed, and the purpose for which the dog was bred, is a good indicator. Working and herding breeds and those bred for hunting tend to have a lot of energy, and are great pets for active people. They require interaction with their owners, mental stimulation as well as physical exercise. Border collies, kelpies and cattle dogs are wonderful if you have time to interact with them, train them and provide enough mental stimulation. They can be a disaster if left to languish in the back yard or allowed to roam. Gun dog breeds such as Weimaraners, the increasingly popular Hungarian Vizsla, or the German Shorthaired Pointer need endurance and persistence to do the job they were bred for, but this can make them appear destructive or “stubborn” if they are not given an outlet for their energy.

Breed of the dog.

The breed of dog, and the overall group to which the breed belongs (e.g. herding breeds, guarding breeds, gun dogs, terriers, sight hounds) gives you some indication of what to look for. However, there is much variation within each breed, and even within a litter of pups. So look for the individual characteristics as well as breed generalisations. Choose the pup from the litter that is most suited to your personality and needs e.g. the most or least assertive pup in the litter, a more sociable or more independent representative of the breed.

Of course, many dogs are crosses between two identifiable breeds, and others are mixtures of breeds that can be hard to identify. Unless you actually know the parents, it is hard to say for sure what a mixed breed dog is. Appearances can be deceptive. Research that was done into the breeding of dogs has shown quite clearly that although some cross breeds might look a bit like both parents and behave a bit like both parents, other pups from the same litter can look like one parent but have the behaviour of the other. In practice, this means that the pup from a shelter that looks “three quarters cocker spaniel” can actually have the behaviour or temperament of a Basenji, or vice versa.
Pure breed dogs in general are more predictable than mixed breeds, but this needs to be qualified. Firstly, not every dog has the qualities set out in the breed standard. The breed standard represents the ideal, but not every dog of that breed measures up to the ideal. Be careful if you are choosing a popular breed. Popularity probably means that there are poor quality dogs being bred as well as good ones, just because there is a market for them. It can also mean that there is a greater variety within the breed.

How intelligent is the dog?

Intelligent dogs are not necessarily easy to handle. Working dogs are smart but not easy to manage. They need interaction and stimulation. They may have enough initiative to get themselves into trouble if they are not given enough to do.

Age of the dog

A mature dog is not the same as a puppy or an adolescent. It comes as a rude shock, if you have been used to a stable, mature dog, to take on a new puppy. You certainly need to have time and patience, and be prepared to tolerate the sometimes irritating behaviour of a normal pup. Some people prefer to avoid this by adopting an older dog. To some extent “what you see is what you get”, but an older dog can come with a lot of baggage, and this can take a lot of time and effort to sort out. The advantage of getting a puppy is that you can set up good experiences and socialise the pup to fit in with your lifestyle.