Selecting the best dog breed for kids and your family is a very important decision. It depends on various factors your lifestyle, your food habits, your personality and your budget. Introducing a dog should be smooth, it should not cause any hurdles to your daily lifestyle.
Do not beat yourself up here is an easy guide for your better selection:
Train Your Children
Training your dog is necessary. However, before bringing a pet, you should also train your children how to behave. Usually when a dog gets introduced to a new environment they get nervous, therefore handle them with care. Look for positive signals from them like wagging tail, licking and then proceed towards petting. Teach them to treat the pet with respect.
Lifestyle
Most of the sturdy dogs like physical and outdoor activities. Your family should be able to give time to such dogs. A lot of children prefer dogs, which are active so that they can play with them. Dogs like Dalmatians and Alsatians require minimum one hour of daily activity. However, if you are remaining indoors most of the time, it is best you go for less active dogs like pugs.
Your Living Conditions
The kind of dog you are going for is directly proportional to your living situation. Large dogs like German shepherds, Alsatians, Labrador and Bernard are suitable for people who own a lot of free space. You can also have them if you have a garden because large breeds need to exercise and play.
People who are dwelling in urban areas or flats are advised to go for smaller dog breeds. You can go for Welsh, Pugs, Dachshund, Beagles, Poodle and Corgi. These breeds prefer to stay indoors. Therefore, if you are working, you don’t have the tension of taking them out every day.
Grooming and Proper Care
All dogs need attention, grooming and care regularly, some breeds may require more. Dogs which have long fur and furry coats need to be bathed and brushed several times a week. Therefore, it is not possible for your children to groom them properly.
It is advised to go for dogs, which have short fur so that they are easy to handle and even play with. Go for adult dogs, puppies look cute, but cannot be maintained by children.
Affordability
Buying is not the end point, you must also think about how to maintain them. Large breeds are expensive to maintain because they consume more food and needs to be groomed periodically.
Smaller breeds are less costly to maintain and even their healthcare costs are low. Moreover, they can fit in smaller environment. Pure breeds needs more attention than the mixed breeds because mixed breed dogs are usually genetically stronger and are not easily susceptible to weather change.
Conclusion
Given the right conditions and right situations, you can go for any type of dogs, but it is always better that you choose based on your lifestyle and family. Different dogs have different temperament, but given the right training most of the dogs make a great pet.