Choosing a Dog - Let Us Help You!

It seems that choosing a dog, for most families, is a confusing process. "Where do I even begin?" you may ask.

The answer is, "Begin Here!"

One of the main goals of this website is to help you "get it right" as you venture on this quest of choosing a family dog and bringing it home to join you, your children, and your other pets.

When chosen carefully, the success rate of your match is high, and the risk of behavior problems in your new dog becomes much lower, because you have taken the time to learn what will work best for you, and are able to give your new dog what it really needs.

What your dog really needs is not just a good home, good food, and love and attention. Those are all important factors, but the biggest reason that dogs end up in shelters is that their humans felt that they just weren't working out with their family. They were not a good match. Your dog needs more than the comforts of home. Your dog needs to have the basic needs of its breed met. We should care enough about dogs to spend some time learning how to ensure a good fit. If you do, you will find one of the best family dogs for YOU!

Choosing a dog requires some work up front, in order to make the time after you bring your dog home a joyful experience. Your research time will be well-spent, and you will be rewarded for your efforts with a wonderful companion for your family. If you are looking for a family dog, We will help you with the process of picking a family dog, and reveal the best dog breeds for kids. These were not chosen haphazardly, but rather after consulting numerous well-respected references- ones that are proudly listed on this site.

Try Our New, Fun Search Engine to Find What You Want!

check out the Choosing a Family Dog swicki at eurekster.com

How Can Dog Paw Print Help You
Choose Your Family Dog?

Although you can find sweet-tempered individuals in all groups of dogs, breeds tend to have broad characteristics. It is these characteristics that can help you narrow down your list of choices.

Is it possible to find a friendly, sociable dog within a breed that is generally solitary, undemonstrative, territorial or highly dominant?
Of course exceptions do exist!
Individual dogs can always break the "rules" of these categories.

But our goal here is not to help you find the one dog in a group who is different from his group.

Our goal is to help families with choosing a dog by suggesting breeds of dogs that will fit best with families because of their known breed characteristics.

How do you know what the needs and characteristics are for the breeds you may be considering, and what would be a good match when coosing a family dog?
Well, there are many books and articles you can read on the different breeds and what their native traits are, and that is a good idea, but we will hopefully make your life a lot easier by offering you information here that can help you narrow down the choices much more quickly and making choosing a dog easier.

What We Look For

If your children are very young, it is imperative that you NEVER leave your child alone with a dog, no matter how sweet its temperament. Children can poke and pull, and even sit on dogs, and sometimes the dog may react in an unexpected way to unexpected situations. Always making sure that you are present protects both your child and your dog from being injured.

With that always in mind, we look for dog breeds that:

Are known to be sociable and friendly with humans and other dogs
Are tolerant
Are more on the submissive side- not dominant
Are non-territorial
Display consistent behavior that you can depend on (rather than have a personality that vacillates)
Are able to be distracted from a task, so that when your child "breaks in" to whatever it is that they are doing, they can switch gears without becoming angry or frustrated.

Choosing a Dog is Not as Hard as it Might Seem!

We do a lot of the legwork for you.

We have researched this topic thoroughly, through ell-respected books, articles, videos and pamphlets. We have had conversations with veterinarians, dog owners, shelter supervisors, rescue groups and breeders, and want to share with you the information that has come from our research that will help make choosing a family dog a successful quest for you and your family.

Dog Paw Print's Web Site Goals

2) We also want to help you learn about the best way to locate dogs good with children. If you are looking for a family dog, we highly advocate shelters and rescue groups first, and have had great success with these methods in our own family. Next, after our first choices of shelters and breed rescues, we will also educate you regarding reputable breeders (how to locate and what to look for). Although pet stores are wonderful places to go for supplies, and we fully support pet stores who feature rescue and shelter animals, we cannot in good conscience support pet stores who sell dogs. Many of these dogs come from the "puppy mills, " deplorable places that sadly create terrible dogs, and keep some suffering, as they produce litter after litter.

3) We hope to give you and your children tools about how to care for and train your new dog once you have brought him or her home.

4) We wish to convey the importance of spaying or neutering your dog.

5) We'd also like to help you learn about "Special Helpers" - service dogs with special jobs to do that help their human companions, such as guide dogs, signal dogs, therapy dogs, police dogs, and others.

6) We want to give you fun things to do both with your dog and about dogs in general.

7) We'd like to help you solve problems regarding boarding your dogs or taking them with you when you travel.

To begin the steps of choosing a dog, answer the questions from the Dog Paw Print Selection Quiz for Choosing a Dog to discover what might be the important lifestyle points for your family. Then, from there, begin reading about the different dogs in the American Kennel Club groups (Listed in the navigation bar buttons on the left: sporting group, etc.), and see which ones we've selected as good family dogs from each group, noting the activity levels that need to be met to keep the dog content, size of dog vs. the room you have to give it, grooming needs, etc.

After you've narrowed down the selections to a short list of types of dogs that you think would work for your family, you can research your family's fit with these breeds by following our link to a helpful breed selector tool, located on the bottom of our Selection Quiz answers page.

When you start looking for the individual dog that fits with your family, you will then be armed with the knowledge you've learned from taking our selection quiz for choosing a dog and reading about the different breed characteristics. Picking a family dog- the perfect dog for your family- will be much easier!

Be sure to visit us again after you have brought your dog home. We have dog treat recipes, care information and fun dog-related activities to try. You might even want to add something to our site about your own dog by using our Contact page.

We have a bright future planned here at Dog Paw Print, and you won't want to miss a thing, so after you let us help you with the process of choosing a dog, be sure and check back often!

We're very glad that you are here.

Return to the Home Page

To SELECTION QUIZ