More info on Which Breed Should I Get?

[wyvernfire]

I am looking specifically for an active biking/roller skating partner for me that will happily go the distance every morning and evening.
An indoor dog as a constant companion for me during the day when I am home alone while the kids are at school and my husband at work.
A dog that will also be a hunting partner for my husband every duck season. He grew up with his father's hunting dogs and wants to share that experience with our children. He has also owned several of his own dogs that he trained himself through out his life.
A dog that I will have with me when the kids are beginning to grow up and move away.

I am a 36 years old and a homemaker with three children ages 8, 6, and 4. I also have two 7 year old indoor cats.

I know my previous posts were a little scatterbrained but I jumped at at the chance to prove to my husband that I could find the right kind of dog for our family, since I know very little about them. I just recently went to the library and checked out several AKC Dog Breed books and realized there was a lot more to a dog especially when there are over 150 kinds of breeds. I then picked out several gun dogs books and Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Poodles, American Cocker Spainel, and Pointer all seemed to fit the bill of active family dog that will also duck hunt. The AKC book listed them all as good with children and other animals.

I have nothing against any of the shelter dogs I fostered, just that none of them were duck hunting breeds and I wasn't sure if you could train a Border Collie, a Doberman, a Boxer, a pit bull, or a Husky to duck hunt. My husband wanted me to get antiquated with as many different dogs as possible so I am familiar with their behavior and different personalities. My husband is really keen on duck hunting since he has been a hunter ever since he was a boy, and we live on lake Michigan about and hour and a half from the Chicago area.

I hope this information helps and I probably should have posted this all first, but I got excited and way in over my head. This is why I came to this forum. I love Victoria Stilwell's positive training methods and show, and is seemed like the perfect website to find out all the information I needed.

[gwd]

I re-read your other posts and given that 'kid friendly' is very important, I'd remove American cocker and pointer from your revised list.

Both are lovely breeds and I certainly think they're great for many families. Cockers can be rather snarky. Ask any groomer about cockers and they'll regale you with stories about some of their most challenging cocker clients. ........not a dog I'd recommend for a family with young kids.

Pointers are also a breed that doesn't do as well in families with a lot going on. They can be a very sensitive breed and turmoil of a normal family can be more than they're comfortable with.

Perhaps I missed it, but what are the age of your children and how do you incision life with a dog. What sorts of things do you hope for? That will help us tailor our responses.

[JudyN]

If you're looking at getting an older dog, the dog's previous life and individual personality might be more important than its breed. In your previous thread you said 'I have fostered plenty of dogs from the shelter but the dogs that I loved, weren't quite the right fit or the breed wasn't known for getting along with cats or kids, or considered good 'starter' dogs': if these dogs have lived in your home with you, then if they have got on OK with the cats & kids, it doesn't really matter what the breed standard says.

By all means go for a breed that seems to tick all the right boxes, but even if you've had them from pups, some dogs with a reputation for being great family pets may not have read the breed standards.