Your Method For Choosing a Dog?

[Camilla and Darwin]

First off, I apologize, this question is a little abstract. But I would like to know your experiences. We have always known we would have two dogs, and we wanted to wait until Darwin turned at least a year old. He is currently nine months so we are starting to research and look around for a possible addition.

My question: how did you come to the decision to buy a doodle? Research is a must of course, and I have done TONS of research. But I still have a hard time deciding. Another Goldendoodle? A Labradoodle? Golden Retriever? Standard Poodle? Lab? Another completely unrelated breed? The options are endless, and a little overwhelming. In addition to all of these options, there is the question of a puppy or adult, rescue or from a breeder, etc.

I know the all the differences shedding vs heavier grooming, more intelligent vs more eager to please, dominant vs submissive, wool vs fleece, but how do you decide what is priority?

Also, is one year old enough to add a second dog to the mix? Darwin is neutered and submissive and gets along with every dog he meets, so I'm not extremely worried about him not accepting an addition. Not to mention we will also spay/neuter the addition.

Although I did a lot of research on which breed we wanted initially, I was less than informed when it came to actually purchasing, and it was really a BYB situation we got Darwin from. This time around, I know SO much more. I love Darwin and am glad we chose a Goldendoodle, but I'm also open to other breeds.

Anyways, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed so I'm sending this question out. What process did you follow to decide on what breed, how old, and when?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Jane, I met a malti-poo puppy at the vet's today. She was soooo cute and so soft.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

When I was a child, we started with a black cocker-looking mixed breed dog - my all time favorite dog. She lived into her 20's. We also had two Samoyeds. Also wonderful dogs. When I was a young married adult we got a rescue Irish Setter/Retriever mix. Another great dog! When my kids were little we got our first English Springer Spaniel. A fabulous dog. We always wanted another Springer, but couldn't find the "right" one so we got a lab mix pup to be her companion. When she passed away, my son brought home a doberman re-home. My son worked sooo hard and that dog is the best trained of any of our dogs. When he finally moved out, we found our second Springer. We love him dearly BUT he has anxiety issues and at six is still pretty high energy. We won't get another Springer. Then our total impulse buy - little Ned. We just fell in love with doodles and had to have one - our only requirement at the time - smaller size. I would get another doodle in a New York Minute, but besides another one with a gentle, calm temperament (for us old folks), easier care coat would be a must. My daughter and daughter-in-law volunteer at the local humane society, so I might just check them out before ordering up that doodle though. As to timing, I like several years between dogs, so Ned is safely our 'baby' for a while yet.

[Natasha]

We looked for temperament of the parents as our first big indicator. From there, we asked the breeders a lot of questions about dogs and about how the puppies were raised. We wanted him to come from a home where children were involved in raising the puppies and we wanted to see how the children handled the puppies (you can learn SO MUCH from that because they lack a desire to put on a show for you - you see exactly how the family would typically operate).

Then, we spoke with the breeder about our home life (we like long walks but aren't ball throwers, etc.) and that we wanted to train our pupppy to be a therapy dog and asked her to select only those puppies that she thought would naturally fit into our family. From there, we did the following test (we did this at several breeders' homes before finding what we were looking for):

1) Lace your fingers together under the puppies rib cage and gently lift the puppy a few inches off the ground and hold for 10-20 seconds. A submissive dog will not or will minimally squirm

2) Cradle the dog in your arms so that the puppy is on his/her back. Hold for at least 45 seconds. A submissive puppy will relax into your arms and not squirm.

3) Walk around the room and see if the puppy will follow you (need to be in a room with few distractions - not one with the other littermates). Look for a puppy that will naturally be curious about you and want to follow you.

4) Drop your keys on the floor. Look for a puppy who will startle at first, but then will approach the keys and sniff. A dog that runs away and will not follow through to investigate may be timid.

5) Play a strange sound (like the alien or duck sound on many cell phones) and see what the puppy does. Again, you want to see a puppy that is willing to investigate rather than one that runs away and stays away.

These are just a few things that you can do to get an understanding of the temperament of the puppies that you are looking at. NOW, if you want something other than a submissive dog (for instance, you want a dog that hunts or you want to raise a bomb sniffing dog), there are other tests and traits to look for. For instance, people who want to train a dog for search and rescue missions will look for a dog that is completely obsessed with balls.

Of course, we did look for other things than simply temperament, but temperament was THE most important thing to us (we wanted a non-shedding dog, but our life isn't any different with Rouser the shedder). I don't care that he sheds, but I would really have a hard time if he was an aggressive dog that didn't listen to me or an overly excited dog that jumps on people.

Hope this helps!