Hello OB, I need your advice. My family and I want a dog. My wife and I had two cocker spaniels that lived to be 12 & 13. The last one died about six months ago. Both deaths were heartbreaking. All that said we are ready for a new dog...kind of.

We have two kids ages 10 and 6 who are both in school. They both want a dog. We want a dog that the whole family can enjoy. Our dogs that died were very temperamental and never really bonded with our kids when they were born. Cockers can be that way I've read.

My wife and I work and are not home during the day. Is it wrong to have a dog only to leave it home by itself during the week? There are So many opinions on this.

More to the story. We recently brought a rescue puppy home, a Schnauzer Yorkie mix. After two nights of not sleeping and cleaning up messes, my wife and I decided to take it back. It just never felt right from the beginning. My wife went to meet it and was talked into taking it home which wasn't the plan. The foster people were not going to be home for a the next few days after and they convinced my wife to take the dog to meet the family. I felt like they took advantage of my wife. Neither her nor I bonded with the dog. For me, it just wasn't what I had in mind as small dog and the timing was a bit off since we were in a busy time period with baseball and vacation. For her, the dog wasn't potty trained so she had to come home and let it out every three hours. Nights were long too. Is it possible to skip the puppy stage and bring home a trained dog? We had totally forgotten the work involved with pups.

Taking the puppy back was hard but we knew he still had a chance for a great home. We just didn't feel like he was one that would've been comfortable being home alone.

We do want a dog but maybe I want one that is trustworthy to roam the house while being home alone or be left outside. I think I want a Brittany Spaniel. Kids don't really care. Wife wants hypoallergenic. Would love a dog that is house and crate trained, wants to swim with us, travel, RV camp, jog 2-3 times per week for 3-5 miles, go to kids baseball games etc. must love kids too.

Is this possible? I'm okay with putting our family and a dog through some training.

Cliff Notes: want a house trained family dog that is comfortable being left alone while we are at work and skids are at school. Is this possible?

Update.
We met a mini schnauzer today. He is about 1.5 years old. Already house and potty trained, can use a dog door and very friendly. We will introduce him to the kids this weekend and see how it does when we bring him along on our weekend activities.

*************************
Update. We brought home Lucky (kids renamed him from Bogey) from Mini Schnauzer Rescue of Houston in May. He is well trained and a great fit for our family.

Goldendoodles

My wife and I rescued a one year old lab mix at the time. She was already potty tarined, house trained, crate trained, etc so it is possible. Granted we put her through more training, but I would lean more towards the one year and older pups as they are more likely to have the qualities you desire. Good luck with the search!

We are in the same postion. However, I volunteered to foster a lab puppy knowing what fostering was like bc i had done it in the past. Fostering a puppy is not anything like having your own. Your not going to have the attachment or bond to deal with the annoyances of having a puppy. Look into rescues around-many of them have "older" puppies. They norm ally start sleeping throughout the night and being more normal potty wise around 12 weeks-(my experience). Also its also my experience that some of the rescues can be super pushy and get you into fostering situations that arent the best for your family so what happened to your wife isnt that uncommon. Dont let this experience deter you just really look around and find what fits best with your family.

I would swim with any dog you can't hold or aren't afraid of pushing their head under water.

My lab is a horrible swimming companion because he wants to be too close to me all the damn time.

Other than that, he's a great dog so we just don't swim together.

I would look at rescues, not pounds or fosters.

You should consider a springer spaniel.

BenderRodriguez said:

---

petebrown74 said:

---

use the border collie rescue site, great dogs

---

He wants a dog he can leave alone for 8 hours at a time from the beginning and you suggest a border collie?

---

Once house and crate trained as a pup, my 12 year old border collie mix has been an awesome dog. She has the run of the house while we are at work with no problems.

My pup was just over a year old when I got him. House trained. No whining at night.

Lots of house trained dogs out there.

My collies are put up about 10 hours a day during the week. They sleep all day anyways.

We are on our second Golden Retriever. They make great family dogs. Neither of ours has ever been aggressive and they are smart. They love kids I would recommend them to anyone one that wants a bigger dog. We leave ours in the house and in the yard depending on the weather. They are a long-haired dog and do shed. We have ours trimmed at the beginning of the summer which helps with the shedding quite bit. Three of my grown kids have Golden's as well.

I would also suggest a Golden-doodle. They are smart, well-behaved and love kids. My daughter has one. He is crate trained and does not seem to mind being crated for 9 hours a day. They are hypo-allergenic but require a $40 haircut every 6 to 8 weeks.

I crate my bully, but I go home everyday at noon for lunch. So, he is crated for about 4 hours at a time and has 1.5 hours to play at lunch.

You guys are giving me some hope here. I love Goldens but the wife needs hypoallergenic and less shedding. I'll look at Goldendoodle and some of the other suggestions. Don't want a dog that is too big. More of a medium size dog.

I don't think we can do a puppy. Not fair for the puppy in my opinion. We do want to give a good home to a dog and plan on taking it with us wherever we can. Sounds like we might be looking for a 6 mo to 1 year old dog.

WTH is that?

Poodle with old English sheepdog?

I got a Border Collie and Sheltie, the Sheltie has an on off switch. The Border is older, she can go all all day or nap all day.

I cant handle it. After finding out im allergic to dogs my next was going to be a doodle cross breed. Sheepadoodle just edged past golden.

Southside AG said:

---

You guys are giving me some hope here. I love Goldens but the wife needs hypoallergenic and less shedding. I'll look at Goldendoodle and some of the other suggestions. Don't want a dog that is too big. More of a medium size dog.

I don't think we can do a puppy. Not fair for the puppy in my opinion. We do want to give a good home to a dog and plan on taking it with us wherever we can. Sounds like we might be looking for a 6 mo to 1 year old dog.

---

I'm not sure how much luck you'll have getting a goldendoodle that isn't a puppy. I don't picture that breed as one that gets surrendered all that often.

Rescue Greyhound? Usually crate trained, personalities vary but you can find one that is more affectionate and playful, short hair and not too much shedding

Not hypoallergenic, but we rescued what appears to be a lab, husky, shepherd mix. He has been a fantastic dog from day one. Great with the kids, awesome on and off leash, and has never had a single accident in the house. We have had him for 7 years now. The way I chose him was to go to the pound, walk the aisles, and look for any dog that did not bark, jump on me, or lick me. That narrowed it down to about 2 or 3 dogs. I then took them out to their play area at the pound one at a time. The dog that listened the best is the dog I chose. He has been an outstanding dog.

Yes, Poodle with old English Sheepdog. Can't say enough about how good of a dog he is. He is about 50lbs though I believe they come in smaller and larger sizes. I think he is the perfect size, not too big and not too small.

A miniature schnauzer fits a lot of your criteria ...

Quote:

---

one that is trustworthy to roam the house while being home alone or be left outside

---

Ours is home alone during the week for 5-8 hours at a time, but we do have a doggy door so she's free to go out whenever she wants.

Quote:

---

Wife wants hypoallergenic

---

I'm in the same boat - my wife is crazy allergic to most dogs, but schnauzers are perfect for her

Quote:

---

Would love a dog that is house and crate trained

---

Like I said, we have a doggy door, but we crate trained her first.

Quote:

---

wants to swim with us, travel, RV camp

---

Not so much swimming ... she doesn't voluntarily get in the water (but the kids certainly drag her in a lot), but she LOVES being on the boat at the lake. She travels well and has no car anxiety.

Quote:

---

jog 2-3 times per week for 3-5 miles

---

She's not much a jogger, but she loves going for long walks every day - we walk her 3-5 miles about 5 times each week. Schnauzers are "sniffers" so jogging with them is touch since they never really look up from the ground.

Quote:

---

must love kids too

---

We got ours as a puppy and our kids were 9 and 6 ... she is absolutely wonderful with the kids, and the kids' friends.

Hope that helps ... good luck!

I have nothing to add here since our dog isn't hypoallergenic but we found him at around 9-12mo. He was crate trained, does good with people after he's introduced to them(barks at the door), does great with my young niece/nephew, and I think my wife loves him more than me. He does have some leash aggression around other dogs, and he needed to be taught how to walk on a leash, but that's pretty much been resolved after additional training. He's 2.5 now so it can be done...

He's in the crate during the day following a similar schedule as you guys and it's never been an issue. Like the others said, he sleeps during that time on the weekends anyway.

We found the guy wandering the streets of a friends neighborhood in Kingwood of all places.

Newfoundland

Irish Wolfhound

Cuddly and awesome. No one will mess with your place with either roaming the grounds. Two birds, one stone.

Labradoodle

Coondog or other large hound breed is not a bad choice, some swim and some absolutely won't get near water. Mine never bark inside, outside is a whole other issue, but as long as you do not have a family of opossums or raccoons move into a tree in or near your backyard it won't be bad. Mine have never barked at deer/axis, cats, squirrels, etc only coons and possums. They bond quickly, aren't mean/biters, mature reasonably quickly, and with the rare exceptions aren't very destructive unless it's trash or an armadillo under the deck.

JJMt said:

---

Sounds to me that this might not be the best time in your lives to get a dog.

---

Based on all your restrictions... I think I would tend to agree here... Dogs need a little more than "set it and forget it" owners...

goldendoodle