Choosing the Right Family Dog
A few helpful tips to help you with a difficult choice
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Unlike older dogs, puppies are still very impressionable, and enjoying the primary learning stage of their lives. Their personalities are still forming, and can be drastically affected with relative ease. At a mere eight weeks you can start to clearly see distinct personalities forming within the same litter. The timid one usually clings to its mother or may shy away and cringe in available corners. The outgoing one (dominant) will customarily march right toward you confidently. Timid puppies back away from sharp sounds, while outgoing puppies go to explore them. These examples represent extremes of temperament within a litter.

Dogs become 'aware' at age forty-nine days, but most breeders will not sell you a puppy until it is at least fifty-six days old, and many will insist you wait until the dog is seventy days old. Only very savvy, experienced owners will insist on taking their new puppy at age 49-days.

Male or a female?
Male and female dogs express six behavioral differences prior to the age of puberty. Male puppies have masculine (more aggressive/territorial) brains as a result of surges of testosterone hormone that occur right before birth. Female dogs, on the other hand, are usually neutral in behavior until puberty, when their hormones start to do their work.

There are several obvious differences in behavioral patterns between the sexes. Males, for example, are usually more likely to be dominant – sometimes even over their owners. They are also more likely to act in an aggressive manner towards other dogs, animals, and people. They are also generally more active, and much more likely to protect their territories. Male dogs urine-mark their territories, and many like to wander and explore. Males tend to be much more destructive, more playful, and are more likely to be less tolerant with kids.

Female dogs, on the other hand, are customarily easier to housebreak and train for basic obedience. The females also frequently require (demand) more affection from their masters and the family. Female dogs come into heat twice a year. For about one week of each cycle, they attract male dogs over quite some distance, and have a blood–tinged discharge that stains, and will also attract males. If a female dog in heat urinates in your backyard, expect some neighborhood males to be strongly motivated to get into the yard.

Arguably, there is little or no difference between the sexes when it comes to defensive or nervous barking, or excitability. Neutering or spaying your dog will reduce or eliminate many of these sex-based behavioral differences. Even very aggressive males can be calmed 'overnight' by having them neutered.

One thing to be sure of is this: if you have a baby or toddler in the household, you want to be sure and look at dogs that are calm, and have little tendency to be aggressive towards children. The older the dog you select, the more difficult it will be to 'break' them to a child. And a 75 pound retriever can do serious damage to an infant in [literally] the blink of an eye – almost without intending to.

There many factors to consider when choosing the right dog for your family and situation – and we've lightly touched on a few of those herein. It would take volumes to cover everything, and more volumes just to describe the breeds. One advantage to selecting an AKC registered breed, by the way, is that you have a really good shot at predicting the dog's ultimate size and temperament.

Think of this brief missive as a prompt to get you started investigating. Use the internet, and do some research. Dogs are incredibly interesting animals, and some breeds have long, rich histories. Carefully look into every aspect of making the best choice before you get your new family pet – or as dog lovers say: the new member of your family.

Click here to see a list of the breeds the AKC recognizes as of January, 2006