How do I choose a dog breed that suits my life?

Most mismatches between owner and dog are predictable before the dog arrives. A working-line spaniel in a flat with a full-time worker, a husky with someone who does not want to walk in the rain, a curly-coated cross with someone who did not budget for grooming — none of those are the dog's fault, and all of them are foreseeable. Choosing well is mostly about being honest about the ordinary week rather than the imagined one.

What you'll need

• An honest account of your typical week
• Breed health scheme results for the parents (optional)
• Rescue centre assessments (optional)

Step by step

1. Write down the real week first.How many hours the dog would be alone on a normal weekday. Who is the fallback when you are ill or away. How much you will walk in the dark and rain in January, not in June. What you can spend monthly. Whether anyone in the house is unsure. That page is your specification and it does more work than any breed list.
2. Set the exercise and stimulation requirement honestly.Working, herding and gundog breeds typically need one to two hours plus real mental work every single day for a decade. If your honest figure is forty minutes, you are choosing from a different set of breeds, and that is a perfectly good outcome rather than a compromise.
3. Cost in the coat before you fall for it.Curly and long coats need professional grooming every six to eight weeks for the dog's whole life, plus daily combing between. Double coats shed enormously twice a year. Short smooth coats need almost nothing. This is a large standing cost and a large time cost, and it is entirely predictable.
4. Take conformation health seriously.Flat-faced breeds — French bulldogs, pugs, English bulldogs — frequently have breathing, eye, skin and spinal problems that are consequences of the shape rather than bad luck, and many need surgery. Long-backed breeds have spinal risks; giant breeds have short lives and joint problems. Look up the specific breed's known problems and the cost of managing them, and get insurance quotes at both three and ten years old before deciding.
5. Check what health testing exists for the breed and insist on it.Many breeds have established schemes covering hips, elbows, eyes and specific inherited conditions, and responsible breeders test and publish the results. Ask for the certificates for both parents, by name, and look them up rather than accepting a photograph or a verbal claim.
6. Distinguish working lines from show lines.Within one breed name there can be two very different dogs. A working-line cocker or a working-line border collie has a drive that a show-line dog of the same breed does not. Ask what the parents do all day; it predicts the puppy better than the breed name.
7. Consider a rescue seriously, and ask the right questions.Rescue centres assess dogs and know a great deal about them — how they are with children, cats, other dogs, being left, and traffic. An adult rescue is a known quantity in a way a puppy is not, which for a first-time owner can be a significant advantage. Ask what support they offer afterwards, because good centres offer a lot.
8. Meet several adults of the breed, not puppies.All puppies are appealing and none of them tell you anything. Go to a breed club event, a training class or a walk group and spend time with adult dogs of the type. Ask their owners what they find hard — most will tell you honestly.
9. Buy properly if you buy a puppy.In England, Scotland and Wales it is illegal for a commercial third party to sell a puppy or kitten they have not bred, so you must see the puppy with its mother in the place it was bred. If you cannot, walk away — that is the single most reliable indicator of a bad source, and buying anyway funds it.
10. Accept there is no hypoallergenic dog.The allergen is in dander and saliva, not only in shed hair. Low-shedding breeds spread less of it around a house but they are not allergen-free, and people with allergies frequently react to them. Spend time with the specific dog before committing.

Tips

• Size is the wrong first filter. A greyhound is large and needs comparatively little exercise; a Jack Russell is small and needs a great deal. Filter on energy and stimulation needs first.
• The breed most likely to suit a first-time owner in an ordinary household is usually a moderate, non-extreme dog of a stable temperament rather than anything currently fashionable.
• Talk to a groomer and a vet nurse about the breed you are considering. They see the reality of the type across many households, and they are usually very direct.

Common mistakes

• Choosing on appearance and then reading about the breed — It reverses the process. Once someone has decided they want a particular-looking dog, the exercise, grooming and health information stops changing the decision.
• Assuming a cross-breed avoids inherited disease — Crosses inherit from both parents. A cross between two breeds with the same eye or hip problem carries that risk, and health testing of both parents still matters.
• Believing you will exercise more once you have the dog — Almost nobody does in the long run. Plan for the week you actually have in the middle of winter in year four.
• Buying a puppy you have not seen with its mother — It is the clearest sign of an illegal or unscrupulous source, it is associated with serious health and behaviour problems, and buying anyway sustains the trade.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask