Cross Breeds

Which breeds of dogs would be recommended for a first-time dog owner?

I would like to own a dog one day. However, I don't know which breeds would be suitable for a person who has never owned a dog, not to mention a person who lived with a mild phobia of said animal when they were young (I've been slowly getting over my fear of dogs for the past two years now).

Public Comments

1. It all depends on your lifestyle! http://animal.discovery.com/breedselector/dogselectorindex.do
2. toy poodles are a great animal just for loving. do not get one ifyou want to train it. they dont train well. get a small dog that will stay small. the bigger it is the harder it is to take care of
3. We just got a 3 month mini Havanese and she's a great dog and breed (w/out being biased). She's extremely smart (paper trained in 1 day, learned to fetch in 1 day, knows "sit" now after 1 wk), rambunctious and playful, good natured, non-shedding, and loves to cuddle when it's downtime. The breed is very social and is great w/ children. Ours will grow to be about 6-7lbs, but the Havanese breed in general can grow up to 15lbs depending. Come see her and read our findings in her puppy log: http://thepuppyexperiment.wordpress.com/ We're always updating as we learn more about her...
4. borer collies are really good as they are sheep dogs there very easy to train and learn tricks there well behaved i never used to like dogs but my boyfriend has a border collie and i love him
5. I would go with a medium size dog Golden retrievers, collies, border collies, cocker spaniels..are all good but I would also look into mixed breeds. take a look at your local animal shelters.. or maybe consider fostering a dog to see you if you can do it.
6. Why not try a shelter dog? I'm sure they would have some smaller dogs that wouldn't too easily scare you. You would save that dogs life :) Really the breed doesn't matter quite as much as the indavidual dog. If you do dicide to look for a certain breed make sure you find a good breeder, and don't perchase your dog from a pet store who probably got it from a puppy mill. Good luck on finding the perfect dog!
7. I have a 2-year-old miniature Dachshund named Flash. He's a wonderful dog: healthy, house trained, and does not bark at all!
8. Why not adopt a sweet senior dog from a rescue? Lots of truly wonderful (fully housebroken!) dogs end up in rescues because of no fault of their own. Owners get sick and can't care for them, people get divorced, or move to a place where they can't have a pet. If you get a mature dog - there is a good chance that you can adopt one already trained .... so you won't have the messes in the house, the things chewed up that puppies are known for, they won't get in the garbage or counter-surf. If you get a settled-older dog, they can have nice leash manners and not be all hyper and jump up on people. What they will do is give you unconditional love !!! Please consider an older dog for your first - they can take care of you and be your best friend.