Tips on Breed Selection

Back in the days when we picked our first dogs, we kind of knew we wanted Labrador Retrievers so we really didn’t go through much of a breed selection process. This time, when we made the decision to get a new puppy my husband wanted to try a different breed and we weren’t really sure what we wanted. We used the Internet and included our Vet in the decision making process and we are very pleased with the results.

We knew we wanted a pure breed because we wanted the dog to be true to the attributes we were looking for vs. the unreliable results from mixed-breed dogs. Like most folks, the first thing we did was purchase a current book on dog breeds that had profiles of the different dog types along with ratings according to their different attributes. If you don’t have a good idea regarding what you are looking for, these books can be overwhelming because there is a lot to choose from.

One very helpful Internet resource we found is a Dog Breed Selector tool on the Animal Planet website (http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogselectorindex.do). This tool enables you to identify the attributes that are important to you and then recommends appropriate dog breeds based on the fit with the provided profile. The site provides detailed profiles of each dog with good quality photographs. We also used Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) to provide additional information on the dog breeds we were interested in.

Once we narrowed it down to a few breeds, we asked our Vet to provide input based on her real life experiences. This is the kind of feedback you won’t get from books and made all the difference influencing our decision. Our top pick was a Vizsla (http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogprofile.do?id=1820) but our Vet indicated these dogs have a high energy level and are either working productively or working destructively most of the time. They needed more space than what we had to offer and she strongly suggested this was not a wise choice. Our second pick was a Flat Coated Retriever (http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogprofile.do?id=1710) but we quickly learned from her that Flat Coated Retrievers have the highest incidence of cancer in any of the Retriever lines. Our third pick was a Brittany (http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogprofile.do?id=1630) which got the thumbs up sign from our Vet. She told us the Brittany has a manageable energy level and is a relatively disease free breed.

We started contacting Brittany breeders that week and by Friday brought home a four month old Brittany female named Belle. We have been absolutely delighted with this choice and are thoroughly enjoying her. She has a very sweet temperament and personality. She gets along well with our Labrador Retriever . She is really smart and is very manageable in size. She is excellent interacting with strange people and dogs. She is quite acrobatic and can even stand on her hind legs! We are looking forward to teaching her really cool dog tricks!

If you are looking for a new breed of dog and are not sure what you are looking for, we highly recommend using the web resources identified above and including a Vet in the process to make sure you get professional perspectives from people who have broad “hands on” exposure to breeds of all types.