Choosing a Puppy: Finding the Right Dog for Your Life
Choosing a puppy is exciting. Really exciting.
You picture the walks, the cuddles, the days out, the dog curled up beside you in the evening and that wonderful companion who slots beautifully into family life.
Hopefully, one day, that is exactly what you will have.
There is quite a lot between bringing home an eight-week-old puppy and ending up with that lovely adult dog, though.
To begin with, you essentially have a small land shark with very little bladder control, no understanding of your household rules and absolutely no idea why your favourite shoes are apparently not a chew toy.
Your puppy also hasn’t arrived with a little guidebook from their mum explaining that when they get to their new home, they’ll be expected to toilet outside, sleep in a particular place, leave your shoes alone and come back when you call them. None of that is obvious to them. It all has to be taught.
They don’t arrive speaking English either. To your puppy, words such as “sit”, “come”, “leave” or even their own name are initially just sounds. They have to learn what those sounds mean. In many ways, they are learning a whole new language at the same time as learning a completely new way of living.
Before choosing a puppy, it is worth thinking beyond how the dog looks and asking a much bigger question.
What sort of dog actually fits your life?
Start with the dog, not the photograph
It is very easy to fall in love with a breed because you have seen one that is beautiful, funny or incredibly well trained.
The adult dog you admire is the finished product. You are not necessarily seeing the genetics, training, management, experience and time that went into creating that dog.
Breed really does matter.
Most of our dog breeds were developed for a particular purpose. Retrievers were bred to find and bring back game. Spaniels were bred to hunt. Terriers were bred to pursue and tackle vermin. Herding breeds were selected to notice and control movement. Guarding breeds were developed to watch, assess and protect.
Those jobs did not just influence what dogs look like. They influenced behaviour too.
That does not mean every Labrador will retrieve, every Border Collie will chase children or every terrier will dig up the garden.
Dogs are individuals.
Genetics matter, though, and some behaviours are far more likely to come naturally to particular types of dog.
Understanding that can make an enormous difference when choosing a breed.
A spaniel spending half its walk with its nose down is not failing to appreciate the beautiful countryside. It is doing something generations of spaniels were bred to find incredibly rewarding.
A retriever wandering around your house carrying a shoe, tea towel or somebody's sock may be making a choice that makes perfect sense to a retriever.
A dog bred to guard and make independent decisions may not automatically think that every stranger coming through your front door is its new best friend.
None of this means we simply accept unwanted behaviour because “that is the breed”.
Dogs still need training.
It is much easier to train the dog in front of you when you understand what may be driving the behaviour in the first place.
Think about what you actually want to live with
People often tell me they want a really intelligent dog.
Be slightly careful what you wish for.
A highly intelligent, highly driven dog can be enormous fun if you enjoy training and want dog-related activities to become a big part of your life.
Clever does not necessarily mean easy.
A dog that was designed to work all day, solve problems and respond to tiny changes in its environment may need considerably more input than somebody who simply wants a nice companion for a couple of walks and a Sunday lunch at the pub.
Neither choice is wrong.
The important thing is being realistic about which one you actually want.
Think about your working hours. How much time do you genuinely have for training? Do you enjoy long walks whatever the weather? Do you have children? Cats? Other dogs? Do you regularly have people coming into the house? Do you want a dog that can travel easily? Do you like busy places, cafés and holidays in Britain, or do you regularly fly abroad?
How much dog do you actually want?
A dog does not simply fit into one little corner of your existing life.
It affects almost everything.
It may influence the car you buy because you need room for a crate.
It may change the furniture you choose because cream velvet suddenly seems like a questionable life decision.
Your clothes may develop an impressive collection of dog hair, mud and treat crumbs.
Your holidays may start being chosen according to whether the accommodation takes dogs.
Your mornings change. Your weekends change. Your evenings change.
Even spontaneous days out need a little more thought when there is a dog waiting at home.
You are not simply choosing a puppy.
You are choosing something that is likely to influence a large part of your life for perhaps the next twelve to fifteen years.
Working lines and show lines matter too
Choosing the breed is only part of the story.
There can be considerable differences within the same breed, particularly where dogs are still bred for very different purposes.
A working-line Labrador, Cocker Spaniel or Springer Spaniel, for example, may be quite different from a dog bred primarily for the show ring or as a companion.
Working lines are often selected for stamina, drive, hunting ability, retrieving ability, speed and willingness to work.
For somebody who wants to train, compete, work their dog or spend a lot of time doing activities together, that can be exactly what they are looking for.
Those same qualities can be a shock if somebody expected a Labrador that would happily potter around the park and spend the rest of the afternoon asleep.
Show lines may generally have been selected with different priorities and can sometimes be less intense. That does not automatically mean every show-bred dog is calm or every working-bred dog is bouncing off the walls.
Again, you are dealing with individuals as well as genetics.
Look at what the parents are like. Look at what previous generations have been doing. Ask what the breeder is selecting for.
Do you definitely want a puppy?
This one is worth asking.
Puppies are wonderful.
They are also exhausting.
Toilet training, chewing, biting, disturbed sleep, socialisation, lead walking, recall, settling, being left alone, learning household boundaries and learning how to cope with the world all take time.
Training is rarely a straightforward upward progression. You will have really good days when everything seems to be coming together, followed by days when you wonder whether your puppy has forgotten everything they have ever learnt.
Sometimes it really does feel like one step forward and two steps back.
That is normal. Puppies are developing, learning and changing all the time, and progress can be very up and down.
Sometimes people actually want the relationship they imagine having with an adult dog rather than the experience of raising a puppy.
An older puppy or adult dog may suit some homes far better.
There is nothing wrong with deciding that the puppy stage is simply not for you.
What about temperament?
Temperament matters just as much as colour, markings or whether one puppy happens to climb into your lap first.
It is tempting to visit a litter and decide that the puppy who rushes over and chooses you must be “the one”.
It makes a lovely story.
It is not necessarily the best way to choose the dog you will live with for the next decade or more.
A good breeder has watched those puppies every day.
They know which puppy tends to charge into everything first, which one hangs back and watches, which one recovers quickly after something surprises them and which one is constantly looking for something to do.
That information matters.
The busiest, boldest puppy may be enormous fun in one home and utterly exhausting in another.
The quieter puppy may suit somebody looking for a calmer companion, although very withdrawn or fearful behaviour should not simply be dismissed as a puppy being “shy”.
Choosing the right puppy should be a conversation with the breeder, not a race to grab the puppy with your favourite coloured collar.
We will look much more closely at choosing a breeder in another blog, because this deserves a subject all of its own.
Health needs to be part of the decision too
Different breeds can be predisposed to different health conditions, so researching health should happen before you choose a litter, rather than after you have fallen in love with a puppy.
Responsible breeders should carry out the appropriate health testing for the dogs they breed from.
Exactly what those tests should be depends on the breed.
We will look at health testing properly when we talk about choosing a breeder, including what to ask for and why being told that the parents are “healthy” or “vet checked” is not the same thing as proper breed-relevant health testing.
For now, the important point is simple.
Do not choose a breed based purely on appearance without finding out what health problems may come with it.
Choose for the life you have
There probably is not one perfect breed for you.
There may be several that would fit very well and several that, however much you love looking at them, would make everyday life much harder than it needs to be.
Forget what is fashionable.
Forget the dog you saw on Instagram.
Try not to choose according to the colour of the puppy.
Think about the adult dog.
Think about what that dog was bred to do, how much exercise and training it is likely to need, what sort of temperament would suit your household and whether you genuinely enjoy the things that dog is likely to enjoy.
Then think about whether you are ready to put the work in.
That gorgeous companion you have pictured in your head does not arrive fully formed.
You build that relationship.
You teach them how to live in your world while learning how they see theirs.
Choose carefully, put the work in, and you give yourself and your puppy a far better chance of ending up with the life together that you imagined in the first place.
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