Are You Looking for a Family Dog?

Picking a family dog is made much easier with the step-by-step process outlined here:

Although there is a lot of important information on our site that we would love for you to read, visitors often look for a concise step-by-step guide to help them with the process of looking for a family dog.

What follows, is a condensed article with the main steps needed in following through with the search quest to find the best dog breeds for children, and one that will match the needs of your family.

We hope that you will find this step by step guide to choosing a family dog helpful!

How to Go About Choosing a Family Dog

Throughout time, humans have honed the characteristics of different dog breeds to fit the needs of man, and help them with the work that they had to do. Certain dogs, like ones in the American Kennel Club's Sporting Group were originally bred to help hunters locate and retrieve prey. Other dogs, such as dogs in the Herding and Working Groups, helped humans do their physical work- pulling carts, sleds and fishing nets, assisting with search and rescue, and keeping herds of cattle and sheep together. Many others, like examples in the Toy Group, were bred simply to be good companion animals to their humans- gentle, sociable and loyal to their families.

Altogether, the American Kennel Club organizes dogs into eight different categories or groups. Two of these, the Non-Sporting Group and the Miscellaneous Class, have very little in common and are considered more as "catchall" groups, but the remaining six groups have distinct characteristics, based on the "jobs" that these groups of dogs were originally bred to do.

In picking a family dog, it is important to learn a bit about why different breeds behave the way they do. With a good understanding of general breed characteristics and the breed’s original purpose, along with knowledge of your own family's lifestyle, you can do a much better job of choosing one of the best family dogs that is a good match with your family.

The first step in our guide, is to read through some information about the different breed groups.By checking the information about the different breed groups, all available through the links listed here, you can read our recommendations within each group, based on these reference sources.

After some initial research on breeds and breed groups, I recommend taking a Selection Quiz for Choosing a Dog, like the one available on the Dog Paw Print website, to help you discover what your lifestyle is really like and to determine what types of dogs would work best with your family. This type of a quiz is more general in nature, but will really help you narrow down your choices before proceeding on to a Breed Selection Tool, which would be the next recommended step.

Next, take the information that you learned from your Quiz and utilize a breed selector tool, like the one linked above, to get specific breed recommendations.

With this information at hand, research the recommended breeds a little further in your library or online, especially noting which are the best dog breeds for children. If you already have other pets, pay attention to the the breeds you are considering, to make sure that their native characteristics help tham get along with other animals you may already have at home.

Once you have your choices narrowed to a short list of compatible breeds, your final step in our step by step plan is to begin your search for the individual dog you will bring home to live with you. You can either look for a purebred dog in one of the breeds you have found to be a good match, or look for a mixed-breed dog that has some of the breed characteristics that you are looking for.

Places to find your dog would be a local animal shelter, a breed rescue group, a reputable breeder or a pet store. I NEVER recommend purchasing a dog from a pet store because they are notorious for obtaining their dogs from Puppy Mill breeders or inexperienced backyard breeders who do not know how to breed out genetic faults.

With that in mind, my suggestion would be to start with your local animal shelters and breed rescues. Here is a very good resource- Petfinder.com- that gives you access to a national database of adoptable dogs, searchable by your own geographic area. Breed Rescue Groups are easy to find on line, and are excellent at helping find a good match for your family and current pets you already have.

You will find in your reading that certain breeds, because of their tendency for health problems, are best purchased from a reputable breeder. Local veterinarians often have good recommendations for breeders, both locally and nationally.

For lots more information about both choosing and celebrating your family dog, please visit Dog Paw Print often. Our site is updated frequently with information that we hope you find useful and interesting!



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