How To Choose Your Dog – Shortlisting Your Breeds

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Shortlisting my breeds?

Shortlisting your ‘breeds’ might sound a but funny.  You might have thought that ‘breed’ would have been better.  However many people find that they suit several different breeds and need to make a choice.  Here’s why.

Your lifestyle has many factors

Your assessment of your lifestyle produces a list of key characteristics you need in your dog.  Different dog breeds meet those in different ways.

Think about an example which isn’t dog-related to begin with to see how this works:

You’re in the market for a car.  You’ve got three children of school age.  This means you need space for kids, school bags, and possibly even their friends occasionally. You like to go away a lot so you need boot space for suitcases and a car that will take a heavy load. You want and need something reliable, and reasonably fuel economic.  And you have an upper budget of $20,000.

So that’s

  • spacious
  • seats five or more
  • tough load lugger
  • reliable
  • sparing on fuel
  • under $20,000

This is your list of must-haves.  There are several makes and models which might fit your needs.  Maybe that’s a Ford Galaxy, a Renault Espace, or a Volkwagen Touran.

In the same way you will usually find several breeds of dog that meet your lifestyle factors.  There will be quite a few that (for example) love kids, fit in your house/garden, are easy to groom and are ok with the amount of exercise you have time for.

A list based on your key factors is where you start.  You need to have a list of what you want and a method of recording how well the breeds fit that.  Just like you would with buying a car.  So get started.  Your assessment of your lifestyle will tell you what your list of must-have’s really is – but only if you’ve been really honest.

If you’ve done that right the shortlist will be easy.

Looks aren’t everything!

A word of warning – don’t start with looks!  Starting with looks (a photo usually or something you’ve seen in the high street) will lead you to shut out breeds which would have worked.  Always do that at the end.

P.S.  See you for the next lesson soon!