Here's your site.

petfinder.com

You can search by breed, gender, size and location. It hooks into all the animal shelters in a given area. It'll even tell you if a pooch has problems with other animals, children, etc.

Thanks ck_IN ... I've actually been out to that site, lots of great info. I wanted to get some thoughts from you guys and then visit that site again.

I've typically only had big dogs, labs/huskies, etc... so I appreciate the responses from everyone, even from Phil and his yip yip.

My Fox Terrier 'Lazy-Saturdaying' it up.

I had only had big dogs too.

I'm telling you that you get all the benefits of pet ownership with half the headaches. I'm definitely going small next time around too.

Oh ok MHM, I missunderstood what you were after.

If you want a smart dog that's good with kids and is on the smallish side I'd look for some kind of collie/sheltie mix. My dog is a border collie/doberman mix. She's 40 pounds and loves everyone and everything (except cats and mailmen). She's high energy but not enough to be destructive.

You don't say if you have boys but a collie/sheltie mix would have enough energy that your boys could wear them out and get worn out. A win win for you!

Bigger version? You don't say.

That looks like Paul Bunyan's dog.

i picked up a stray my first year of college. I think thats the only dog i want is from the pound, reminds me of myself, from streets, kind of wierd, and gets hit by cars once a month running.

I have two beagles. One likes to bark a lot and the other barks about as much as the average dog. They're both great with kids but do shed a bit.

The Basenji is a Congolese hunting dog that rarely (if ever) barks (due to its unusually shaped larynx), but does produce an unusual yodel-like sound.

:spock:

I have two boys and a girl - the boys are the 5 year and 7 month old. So, yeah ... high energy is a great thing!

We feel for you. We had to put down our beloved scottie, Kylie, earlier this year. She had an aggressive bladder cancer that ended up bleeding, literally killing her in less than 72 hours from the time we first saw evidence of the tumor. She was 12, and the best dog I've ever had. I've always been a terrier person, and after owning scotties, I won't own anything else. They are a small dog (20-30#) with a lion heart and great personality. They do have a mind of thier own, so you do have to assert yourself as the dominant one, or they will take over your home. Despite being long haired, you actually have to strip thier coat, so shedding is not really an issue, especially if you just brush them down once a month.

Here is a pic of our girl:
http://bodytronics.com/pix/kylie.jpg

If you are interested, here is a link to more about the breed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Terrier

DT

If you like the lab temperament, but don't want to deal with the shedding, you might look into a labradoodle. The mediums and minis would be in your weight range. Just be careful, or you could end up with a standard. My mom's turned out to be a standard and it is gigantic.

I would advise against the Jack Russell Terror unless you have tons of spare time to devot to harnessing the energy those things have. They are super smart and that equals destructive when not properly occupied.

I know no one has mentioned it but I'm tossing this out as kinda of a PSA - Do not get a Dalmatian. Horrible shedders and not good with young kids as they have just as much enegry as the JR Terror but are at least three times as big.

Any of the long haired breeds (Malteese, Bichon, etc) are good as far as shedding goes, however, the grooming can be a bitch.

I've heard good things about Corgis (I'm not sure if they're bad shedders though).

You might look into an oversized Italian Greyhound (a normal IG is 8-15 lbs an oversized is 15-25 lbs) or possibly a Whippet.

Whippet resemble a Greyhound but are smaller - about 30lbs. They have short fine coats and hardly shed at all - supposed to be good with kids too.
Here is a link with more Whippet info

That's just the angle, the pic of my dog gives a better sense of scale. Usually run about 18-25 lbs. Mine's on the biggish size, because he's barrel chested [think Spuds McKenzie without the smushed mug].

My old man has a JRT.

Small, yippy, neurotic as all hell and not terribly trustworthy. She's a smart dog and can be quite a bit of fun, but she can be a demon when she gets the idea in her head. Just your standard Napoleonic terrier.

She's older now (13) and she's pretty nippy, so that's a definite negative. She doesn't give much warning, she'll just whip around and snap on some people. That'd scare me a little with a young kid


This is also the best JRT I've been exposed to. A friend of mine had one and you literally couldn't make it sit still. If you told it to sat, it would go down to about 3 inches from the ground and hover/tremble. The dog was a high strung, worthless piece of crap. He gave it to his grandpa and it just runs around his farm at 100 mph now.

So, in short, even a good JRT is pretty spastic and a bad one is a disaster.