A small mixed breed might be a good choice for the average person.
Sometimes I get comments and e-mails asking me about what kind of dog someone should get.
I need to be honest here.
I really can’t give that advice.
I can give you some suggestions, but really, you have to really do your homework and then actually meet the dogs before making that decision.
Of course, many people don’t do that. They just get the dogs, expect them to be like Lassie when the owners are home and then lie around and do nothing when the owners are out.
The truth is no dog is like that.
Usually, the most biddable and reactive working breeds– the ones we think of as “smart dogs”– are normally so active and obsessive that the average person can’t provide for them. And the ones that are really laid back and less reactive are generally not the best competition dogs. In fact, some wags might call these dogs “stupid.” I don’t.
Generally, any dog that is performance bred is going to require physical and mental stimulation beyond what the average person willing to give.
Really, the best dog for the average person in this country has little or no tendency to exhibit predatory motor patterns. Those predatory motor patterns are the behaviors that most people find annoying. However, they are the exact behaviors that make these breeds good working dogs.
The average person is better off with a dog with a relatively low energy level. Most people don’t have time to really exercise a super active dog. And not getting enough exercise is a major cause of behavioral problems in dogs.
Because most people live in more urban environments, smaller dogs are probably a better choice than larger ones. However, “normal” small dogs are better than super tiny ones, which have been linebred and inbred to fix those super small characteristics and are very often puppy mill dogs. And because most people are urban, the dogs need to have a lower tendency to become barkers.
Now, the average person would be better off getting a “random-bred” dog rather than a purebred. The only reason why I suggest this is because random-breeding reshuffles the genetic deck and makes it a little less likely that the dog will have genetic disorders. I am not suggesting that random-bred dogs don’t get genetic disorders– they do. But the reshuffling gets you a possible leg-up in the probability game.
Now, we do have a pet overpopulation in this country, but the problem isn’t from wont of homes. The truth is demand for dogs continues to grow, even during this recession. However, the demand is coming from people wanting either a specific breed or a specific planned crossbreed. I think some of the overpopulation problem can be mitigated if people were a little more willing to take in a rescue.
And the average person works too many hours to really care for and train a puppy, so the typical prospective dog owner should consider a dog over the age of 2. If the person is really busy, a dog of even more advanced years might be a better choice.
So my advice for the average person is to get a small (but not super small), mixed breed dog that is over the age of two and is relatively low energy and prey drive. It is also good if the dog has a very low tendency to bark. The breeds and strains that actually make up the dog are not as important as the dog actually having those characteristics.
If dogs with these characteristics were the latest fad breed, I would be very happy.
I like the idea, far-fetched as it may be, of walking through a shelter blindfolded and “feeling out” the dog best suited for you. The problem for me, not being blindfolded, is looking into the eyes of every dog I come to and determining, “This seems like a pretty good dog”. That doesn’t narrow it down. (For example, I’d take that dog in the picture above cos well, he seems like a pretty good dog.)
That’s exactly why I can’t be trusted to choose a dog for myself at an animal shelter.
That is the exact advice I gave a friend last week. He came home with a purebred Siberian Husky. I congratulated him on choosing the very worst breed for a busy person living in an condo.
We are no longer friends.
And I bet it was six months to a year of age, too. Right when they stop being cute, and start being ornery.
I agree with everything in your post, but think the part about puppies should be boldfaced, underlined, and in 48-pt type. Young (8-16 weeks) pups are just not a great idea for people who leave the house for more than 2 hours at a time (that is, people with either jobs and/or friends). Training and socializing an 8-week old puppy requires just as much work as retraining an adult, except with more poo. What often happens is the pup get penned up with the puppy pads all day, learns to poop indoors, and is afraid of everything.
The other way to look at it is that mutts trend towards the median in terms of health and temperament, whereas purebreds trend towards very specific outliers. My dog exhibits all of the normal predatory behaviors except the kill-bite, but doesn’t favor any of them over the others, and lacks the high drive that characterizes most working breeds – for which I’m eternally grateful. The end result is an active dog that enjoys most of the fun things dogs do without obsessing over any of them, and will stop and come back to me when called.