undecided

Question
Hello. I would like to get a dog but really have no idea where to start. I grew up on an island with a lot of stray dogs that chase and bark after you, so I'm terrified of dogs.  However, I would like to own one so I could overcome my fear.  I am looking for a smaller dog that doesn't grow very much at all (bigger than a chihuahua though), can be easily trained, and doesn't shed a lot. Besides that, I have no knowledge of dogs at all..please help me out.  Thanks so much!  And this site is awesome, didn't know I could get so much info.

Answer
It is hard to know where to start.  www.akc.org and www.purina.com have breed selector pages on their site.  They also have pictures and descriptions of each breed.  You might try them.  Don't take a recommendation for some obscure, hard to find breed too seriously. Even if your puppy doesn't grow up like you expected, how you raise it helps make it what you need. The first 12 weeks of a dog's life greatly affect its adult personality. Expose it to your lifestyle, and it will be comfortable with you. Gretchen, our one German Shepherd did not grow up suspicious of strangers. She knew no other life except being out and petted by strangers from the night we picked her up at 7 weeks old. After she was a year old, the dog guide school chose to retain her as breeding stock.

Finding a good breeder and purchasing a puppy that will make a good pet is very difficult. Almost nobody is intentionally breeding dogs to be nice pets. Most of your so called reputable breeders are breeding for show or something. They may say the puppies they don't keep for their purpose make great pets, but the truth is that the parents were selected for other than health and temperament. Often they keep the puppies in the kennel too long and they miss the important early socialization puppies need to live in the house with people.

Next are the disreputable breeders. Puppy mills breed any 2 registered dogs they can lay a hold of looking only at the money they can make selling them to pet stores. Pet store puppies are easy to find, but difficult to socialize into nice pets, perhaps difficult to even keep alive. You will not get what you pay for at a pet store.

Backyard breeders are only slightly better. At least there, most of the breeding stock is acceptable to live in somebody's home as a pet. Unfortunately many of them know nothing about what it takes to produce quality puppies. Some of them are breeding for the selfish pleasure of vicarious motherhood, and others the same greed as puppy mills. If you don't get good answers to questions about allergies or OFA and CERF certification, go elsewhere.

Avoid puppies forced to live in their filth or that saw little outside their kennel between 6-12 weeks. At 7-8 weeks, a puppy is quick to adjust to its new home, new people, and new things. Past 12 weeks, it may never adjust to its new life as well. Even some of the better breeders hold puppies too long without proper socilization.

One of the best sources for dogs with a predictable personality is the rescue dogs. These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them. You may find a rescue near you starting at http://www.akc.org/breeds/rescue.cfm The rescues charge a fee to help cover their expenses, but is much less than the price of a puppy plus all its medical expenses the first year.

One other thing is just go to the local animal shelter and let a dog speak to your heart.  There are many nice dogs, and you can see how they look with little or no grooming. You can also see how they behave. Look for dogs that want your attention, but are not going wild. Leave the ones that retreat to the back of their cage. Look at their teeth. Look for ones that still show a 3 lobed, clove like pattern on the front ones. Leave the ones that fight letting you look at their teeth too much. If the points are worn off the teeth, it is an older dog that may break your heart by dying too soon. Pinch the web between its toes. It hurts. It is OK for the dog to pull away or whine, but it shouldn't growl, snap or show its teeth. Since the shelter likely will kill most of the dogs, you may as well pick out a nice one.