What Kind of Dog Should We Adopt?

[Elle]

Dog breeds still known to be superior and desirable:
Australian Cattle Dog

Apparently I have a type.

[Reika]

It depends on a lot of things.

How much space do you have in the house and outside? If you get a big dog, or one that's really energetic, you're going to want to have space for them to move around in.

What kind of time do you have? In my experience, dogs are higher maintenance than cats. Besides walks for waste elimination, they also need to be exercised. You also need to put time into properly training a dog.

Finally, before buying a pure breed, go to your local shelter and see if you find a dog there that clicks with your family. The shelter would also be able to tell you about personality quirks.

[Elle]

Why are people who run dog rescue operations utterly bonkers? Makes things harder.

[Elle]

Yellow lab: three dogs known well to me in past. All were good dogs but kind of pushy and stubborn. Smart but mentally fixated on specific plans, as opposed to smart-reflective-reactive like cattle dog. So, not sure if this is normal for breed or just the three I knew, who lived in a narrow world of Fetch and Food. Could this be a herding dog vs. retriever thing? Maybe should stick to herding dogs, which I know and love.

[Elle]

Question:anyone here ever had a corgi?

[Tahlvin]

Nope. My daughter wants one, but they're not for me. If I'm going to have a dog, it's going to be a big dog, not a cat with a personality disorder. A lab, or a shepherd, or a husky, something that size.

[Elle]

That's where I began from too, but it's amazingly hard to find the right puppy. It's really astonishing since I adopted our last dog years ago: in the intervening period, a bunch of breed-specific or large, private rescue groups have cornered the market on all the non-pitbull breeds (and even then, some pitbulls), and the local shelters that make no money at all and do the work of the angels are left with about 80% pitbulls and pitbull mixes, 15% chihuahuas (why?!) and 5% other that they keep telling us shouldn't go to a home with kids. Sigh. I applied for a dog and it takes an eternity. I might score an interview soon, and if we pass, maybe a home visit, and if we pass, maybe a dog. It's really frustrating. Craigslist is your alternative, but I am having trouble buying a desk from the Humans of Craigslist, much less a living creature that requires a lot more information and trust. They are quite an array of the human species there. My favorite was the dude I once bought a wooden chair from. We exchanged three hours worth of paranoid text messages before he agreed to set the chair in the driveway and then come out to accept my cash if I wanted it. Has he been mugged repeatedly, perhaps? I was like dude, this is me, this is my website, my husband's website, our phone numbers, the blood type of our firstborn, and I AM THE ONE WHO SHOULD BE SCARED OF YOU! ARGH! But I got my chair. I have learned there are people in this world who will not even communicate with you via phone or whatever beyond text because they don't want to leave any recorded trace of their live existence, no matter how much they might like to have your twenty bucks for their chair. I can sympathize with that but it's still weird and inconvenient when you want a chair.

[Mike]

We have a half-corgi. She's got an attitude. But more importantly, she sheds more than any three dogs you've ever met. Once a week, we sweep up after her and just construct a whole new dog.

[Elle]

Oh wow, that's what I'm hearing from others too. And this dog I'm thinking of adopting is part corgi, we think. This is probably why the dog is shockingly soft and cushy as if made from a trillion fibers of the finest silk spun by silkworms that feast only on silvery ambrosia as they lounge upon the clouds. I'm helpless at this point unless they decide not to give us this particular dog. Once you have been chosen by such a dog, the hook is in you and there's no turning back. I locked eyes with it and we both knew.