How to Choose the Right Dog for Your Family

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We recently moved from a condo to a home and we were more exited about being able to get a dog and chickens than we were about the house. We love animals, especially dogs. Our family has cat allergies so a dog the only large pet that we can consider owning. Before choosing your new family member, it’s really important to ask yourself a few questions. Today I’m going to help you learn how to choose the right dog for your family. We’ve done this a few times.

Things to ask yourself when choosing a dog for your family:

1. Who will be responsible for taking care of our dog?  If this is not decided in advance, it will most likely fall on the mom’s shoulders. Take it from me, you don’t need another thing on your plate. So it needs to be clear who will be taking care of the dog and when. We have the animals as a part of our chore rotation. One week the girls take care of the dog and the fish and the next week the boys do. We also have a turtle and chickens that fall into this rotation.

2. Where will the dog live? I grew up with inside dogs, my husband did also, which is why he will not allow our dogs inside the house. It grosses him out. He hates the fur everywhere and doesn’t like the potty training process. So we have outside dogs. We have a great Igloo Dog House that keeps them warm in the winter, and if needs be, they will go into the garage to keep warm. During the summer we have a little “doggy pool” outside for them to cool off in. If you are going to have an inside dog, make sure you are up to the task of cleaning fur off everything and cleaning up all it’s messes. Not just bathroom accidents, but also everything they will chew up. It’s just like having a baby in the house.

3. Where will we get the dog? Are you going to rescue a dog from the animal shelter or are you going to buy a puppy from someone? May 13-15 is National Adoption Weekend. Head over to the PetSmart and learn how you can adopt a pet this weekend! I highly reccomend going to a few animal shelters as soon as you are ready to take a dog home. Those cute little things need a home. But sometimes that’s not right for some people. We decided to purchase a puppy from a farm because there was a specific breed we were in search for. We wanted an Australian Shepherd/ Border Collie mix. We wanted to be able to train the puppy the way we wanted to and we didn’t want a dog with any bad habits around our kids.

4. What breed fits best with our family? Different breeds of dogs have different mannerisms. We chose an Australian Shepherd/ Border Collie mix because we wanted a Medium/ Large dog. We wanted the dog to be really smart and loyal. We knew that this breed is excellent with kids and that it is an easy dog to train. We have active kids so we knew that the kids would keep the dog very active playing outside and going on walks and runs. Your family may want a small dog so the little kids can take it on a walk without being pulled across the street. No matter what though, if you have kids make sure to study up about each breed you come accross and see what people are saying about the dogs mannerisms. Here is a great site that I gathered a lot of information on breeds for families. Make sure you consider the dogs living environment when researching. Will it live indoors or outdoors, does it get along with children, is it easy to train, and how protective is the dog of it’s property? If you get a guard type of dog, be prepared for it to not be nice to visitors to your home.

5. How much will it cost? One very important thing to consider is how much it costs to own a dog. We purchased our dog from a farm. He is the son of two dogs who actually work with sheep. We knew that his parents were taken care of and trained well. He cost us $200 and he had already had his first shots. After the initial cost of purchasing the dog (if you get them from the animal shelter you’ll be paying for their shots and neutering also) you’ll need to get all the supplies needed to keep him happy. Once your dog is old enough to get the rabies shot, you can head over to your city and register him. This is a MUST. The city will keep record of your dog and give you a tag to identify him so if he is ever lost and picked up by the city, they can call you and let you know where he is. It’s also a good idea to get their checkup with the vet to make sure they are all caught up on immunizations and healthy to bring into your home.

6. What will we need? Although dogs don’t require a ton of stuff, they do have basic needs that you’ll need to meet. We headed to PetSmart and had a blast picking things out for our puppy. We love the fact that we could bring him with to PetSmart so he could pick out the toys he liked.

We were surprised at what he wanted to play with and what he ignored completely.

We grabbed a warm dog house for him with a sleeping mat. Stainless steel bowls (so he couldn’t chew them up), a leash and a collar (you’ll have to buy multiple ones as your puppy grows), and of course dog food. Make sure you choose dog food where the first ingredient is meat.

If you chose a puppy, make sure you get some things for him to chew on. You need to be able to correct bad chewing behavior by replacing the thing he CAN’T chew on with something he CAN chew on.

And of course, some cute t-shirts! We got this cute one that say’s “I Smile With My Tail.” I love the bright color that will help me pick him out of a crowd at the dog park.

If you will be potty training your pet, these pee pads are so helpful.

They have a scent that helps the dog use the bathroom right on the mat. Then you can move the mat towards your door then outside to train them to go outside when they need to use the bathroom. So smart!

I hope some of these ideas help your family when choosing your new dog. What are some things you wish you would have known before you adopted your dog?