small dog question

[Lloyd Smale]

just lost my lab and don't really want another dog at this time but my learning disabled son lives in a small apartment here on my property and would probably love a dog. Dog would have to be on the smaller side. His apartment is to small for a lab sized dog. That said I hate little dogs that bark at everyone and everything. I would go beagle but my wife has taken a liking to feeding all the rabbits around here so a beagle would no doubt chase them off. Is there such thing as a small bread that isn't high strung and barks and growls at everything and doesn't cost a grand to buy?

[w5pv]

Find you a Fiest,they can be rambunchish at times but will settle down after the puppy stage.

[44man]

My friend is a Pekinese. Loves everyone and is not the normal little snappy thing. Calm and lazy, almost never barks. Friends come over and she goes nuts to be picked up.
Pomeranian's are great little dogs, watch inbreeding though.
I don't like high strung either.Attachment 172000 My little poople, thinks she is a people.
I never had a dog like her in my life. She is sleeping under my seat right now. Carol named her Mai-Ling. She sleeps on my legs when I watch TV in the recliner.
She is a leaf and grass mop though. Carol gets mad with stuff on the floor so I told her to dust with Mai .
Spoiled rotten and has 100 toys.
I will never find another like her. I take her out in the morning but always on a harness and leash. Put her in and clean the dog pen from those in the garage and after her. The pen for the garage rat pack is large 40'X70". Then she waits for me to get coffee to come down for her treats. Never a sound.
If I sleep late, carol lets her in from the kitchen, she comes to the door, sneezes and stands up on the side of the bed. Wants a hug. Then gets a toy to play. I play heck to catch her so have to throw her toy a bunch of times.
Yeah, I have a rat pack in the garage too, not allowed in the house, too big and hairy. But I air condition the garage for them. Attachment 172001 Me with my baby.

[richhodg66]

Not really small, but smaller than a Lab, Bassett hounds are the coolest dogs going in my book. I've had three, been without one for a while and want to wait til I'm around home more before getting another one.

[44man]

Hard to find a good dog today, too much of the inbreeding for money. I had 2 peekapoms that were super but both had strokes, one went blind first. Broke my heart. Sisters that got into it all the time too so I had to grab one. Super dogs that did not live long enough.
Puppy farms ruin our lives.

[Ithaca Gunner]

I didn't think I would like small dogs either, then we took in a dog that needed a home. She's part Pomeranian and Jack Russell, looks like a mini Golden retriever with foxy ears. She does bark a little, but not like the typical yap-yap-yap-yap small dog does. I've had some limited exposure to Boston Terriers and though playful, I didn't think they barked a lot at all.

Take your son to the pound/shelter and look around, I'm sure the staff will guide you along if needed, and like I said before, when the right dog comes along, you'll both know it.

[Pine Baron]

Beagle/Collie mix. Smartest dog that God ever put in my life. Mellow in the house. Great with the kids. She left the rabbits and ducks alone in the yard, but was great in the field. Miss my Christa-belle.

[runfiverun]

my oldest girl got herself a chug that's a Chihuahua and a pug crossed.

I think little dogs are pretty worthless for the most part, but this one is actually a pretty good dog.
she is mostly quiet and has been pretty easy to train, she stays out of the way or just lays there quietly on your lap or next to someone.
she loves going to the store, or for walks and meeting people, but is fairly alert around the house, and she does very well around other dogs.
she is great as a companion dog and would work well for your L.D. son.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

My suggestion is to go to a shelter i have a lab German short hair mix comes in right at 60 pounds that we rescued from a shelter one of the best dogs that I ever had

[Jeff Michel]

Blue Heeler, smart, seldom barked, obedient to a fault. Mine weighed about 30-35 pound. Best dog I ever had, and I've had a bunch. I have a Fiest currently and have had Jack Russell terriers. Great dogs, but they are hunting machines. They would give your rabbits a real workout. You have a tough job, I never met a dog I didn't like.

[claude]

I have a 10 pound poodle, easy enough to care for and I have found that training is the major key to the yappity yapp yapp stuff. One can't get rid of all of it because they're dogs, and dogs are gonna bark, but it can be lessened a good deal.

Mine is a spayed ***** and I don't have the Pissing on everything in sight issue, but she's a tough little turd and chases the deer and an occasional bear out of the yard at my request.

[merlin101]

look on line for shelters near you, they'll have a lot of dogs pics and stats listed. Or go to a shelter, you'll see the dog in a stressful situation and if it's laid back and not barking you might have a winner.

[shdwlkr]

miniature Australian Shepard smart, loving and smart weigh about 20 pounds, when they bark sound like a big dog, lets you know when someone they don't know is around

[44man]

No dog is bad, owners are. Love is where any dog lives. Size is because of room you have and small are just too great too. Never met a dog I don't like. They know too so even those that are ruined by owners feel it. Never beat or spank a dog, Just a stern look if they did wrong, I never holler at mine either because they know if they messed up. It happens and my little one can mess the basement and will not come down until I clean up. I never get mad because I want her to be healthy and if she doesn't go outside, I worry.
It is OK fellas. Like a baby, love them. Nothing worse then baby poo in a diaper but you love them.
I admit I like female dogs better, males seem stiff but sure not dumb and love as much.
I would not have mine fixed because they can balloon and the way she eats, it would kill her.
I feel so much at home here with all of you. I know a person right off. He will love dogs.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

One notion to forget is that small dogs are necessarily inoffensive. For generations they have been kicked off and heard some unparliamentary language, for behavior which would get a rottweiler out of the breeding business, and perhaps out of this world, in one fell swoop. It is a good idea to avoid fashionable breeds or rare breeds, and especially fashionable and rare ones, since inbreeding within a restricted gene pool is liable to be a problem.

Jack Russell terriers are everywhere, seldom inbred, and can be very good. My German sister-in-law has one that loves learning tricks, and when my 88-year-old German mother-in-law was very frail after surgery, knew it and waited outside the bathroom in case she needed the alarm raised. In the local park the microcephalic owner of two dalmatians egged them on to frighten people, a practice which ended suddenly when Mr. Phipps fastened himself to one's throat. Unfortunately it was only the dog's.

Against that, even Mr. Phipps was foolhardy in his youth, with jumping off bridges etc. Some British Jack Russells appear just as good, but others are snappy little blighters. The old lady next door's was the only dog that ever bit my mother, totally unprovoked, and my mother always remembered hoping blood wouldn't show on the traditional Scottish "Cardinal" red-waxed doorstep.

It is right and proper for a dog owner to think the latest is the best, and for my Irish terrier a good case can be made. He is totally unaggressive, loves man and beast of every description, and barks at nothing but his enemies Mr. Vacuum Cleaner and Mr. Wheelie Laundry Basket, who eat up his cherished belongings. He doesn't mind stayoning in a small house all day, did almost no destructive chewing, and though like terriers he wasn't the fastest of dogs to house-train, suddenly said "Right, I'm house-trained now" and never offended again. He never steals except in cases of honest confusion, and you can take food from him without complaint, which is unusual with terriers. With dogs or physical dangers he looks before he leaps, although then he generally leaps.

But he is a manically energetic 40lb. dog. Indoors it only takes the form of finger and toe chewing with carefully contrived gentleness. He can untie and remove shoelaces without being noticed. But he has a fascination with kids, particularly when they have a football, and is very difficult to get away from them. He seems to think that leaping head-high without contact is an adequate compromise into which he has put a lot of effort. Fortunately they recognize childlike innocence of intent, but he might knock one over, or meet one who is terrified, though he hasn't yet. The TV dog experts who say you should never punish, but encourage good behavior, have clearly never put themselves in the situation of seeing his rear end a hundred yards off and heading for trouble as fast as anything without whippet blood can. You can see him noticing a white milk jug in the park a quarter-mile away, and thinking "That's a football, so where are the kids?" Also an Irish terrier might easily cost that grand, though their health record is good even compared with mongrels, and one big veterinary bill could make you worse off.

In your place I'd consider a cairn terrier, like Toto in "The Wizard of Oz" or Fremont in "Dennis the Menace". Ours, in childhood, was a little bully with our dogs, and growled when food had to be take away, but it was just show, and she never did anything violent. I wouldn't go for a Skye terrier, though. They are bigger, painfully elongated beasts of minimal intelligence, nothing like Greyfriars Bobby, and with a painfully small gene pool. I used to know a lady who bred them, and hers tried to chase sheep. That is a thing unforgivable in rural Scotland, but the sheep just stood and said "Are you going to bite me or anything?", and the dogs remembered business elsewhere.

Another possibility is a whippet. They are brighter than greyhounds (i.e. above garden gnome levels of intelligence), and although very fast, are far more content than most breeds to laze around outside brief exercise periods. But they would feel the cold for a lot of the year in Michigan, and modern whippets are so fast and light-boned as to be very easily injured in running on rough ground. They will tackle game the without hesitation, but a lot get hurt by foxes, even if the fox winds up wishing he hadn't, and coyotes are bigger.

A breed as tiny and beautiful as the Pomeranian is the papillon. They are very bright, tough little dogs, and perhaps easier to keep groomed. A friend's mother brought hers to visit him and his two working, fox-catching lurchers. But they got on as well as any other three dogs until the papillon was pestered too much, and then he saw them off with a growl like a dental drill.

Here is a very controversial TV documentary which warns of what you might expect in the pedigree dog world. Of course specific breeds may be quite different on different continents. I wouldn't for example know if the seriously bad state of British basset hounds applies in the US. But attitudes to breeding and showing probably do. The second of these shows that a lot, though perhaps not enough, is being done, and that the breed associations, empires run by prima donnas, vary greatly in their resistance to change.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_Dogs_Exposed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigr...Three_Years_On#

[Bookworm]

We had a Pug for several years, before it succumbed to liver cancer (of all things...).
Not the smartest dog I've ever been around, but certainly the most eager-to-please. Once that dog figured out what you wanted, it was all over it.

Very quiet dog, loved people. Very easy to get along with, not high energy - yet always willing to go for a walk or whatever. It would chase small animals, but never got anywhere close to catching one.

At 18 pounds, it ate 1 cup of dry kibble a day. Economical to feed.

We took it everywhere we could. Hardware store, car-parts store, park, Lowes, camping. It got along well with other dogs.

And, it was house-trained at 4 months old. Really.

[montana_charlie]

Daschund or miniature daschund

[jmort]

I have had many large breeds over the years and when the last one left us, we got a small hypoallergenic West Highland Terrier. Really like the smaller dog all-around. I want to add a hypo-allergenic miniature Schnauzer next. Less food, less mess, way less fur/hair but hyper-vigilant. I am a small dog convert. I just need a little head start which the dog gives me when someone or something comes around the house. My daughter just got a German Shepard /Husky mix and for me it confirms all I have discovered about small dogs. The only down-side for me is heading out in the field. It is nice to have a large dog around. I do miss that.

[Rick Hodges]

How small LLoyd?...my all time favorite is the Springer Spaniel. Get one from hunting stock, bright, trainable, good natured dogs. A ***** (oops female dog) will go 30 lbs and a male another 5-10. Bigger than an ankle biter and a decent working dog if you are so inclined. (flushers like labs, great grouse, pheasant dogs...small for waterfowl but they are eager and excellent for jump shooting ducks).

[popper]

On my third ****zu - calm, friendly, playful - don't shed. Might also suggest a Maltese. Fine indoors, take care of themselves if you change the litterbox. Kind of cat version of ****zu. If he needs any 'protection', a 20# Seal Point neutered male Siamese will do the job. Very 'one person' but with some peculiar habits.