Dog Breeds and Breed Groups

Your dog’s ancestry will come into play in your life together, whether you choose a purebred or a random-bred dog. There are certain traits representative of your dog’s breed that will most likely show up in your pet, although every dog exhibits a variety of qualities. When a dog has several breeds in his mix, he may show traits from just one or all of them, although one breed usually tends to dominate. Spend some time looking at breed descriptions before choosing a breed for you. Before making your decision, consider exercise needs, kid appropriateness, size and best family situation for each of the breeds you are looking at. Don’t base your choice on the looks of the breed alone. Make sure you have a full understanding of the temperament and characteristics that come with the particular breed.

When you are adopting a dog from a shelter, it’s difficult to determine what breeds are dominant in an individual, there are many dogs that are so randomly bred. Ask shelter workers or volunteers for help. Ask them to steer you toward the right dog for your lifestyle by describing what you want in a dog. Even if the workers don’t know the exact breed of the dog, they probably can tell you quite a bit about the dog and his personality and needs. A good shelter will try to determine dominant breeds in each mixed dog, but puppy looks can be deceptive and there are no guarantees.

Generally, smaller dogs are bred to be companions, but that is not always the case. A Chihuahua is a great apartment dog with few exercise needs, a terrier is super active and intelligent. If you don’t give a terrier a job, he will usually find one on his own, and it may be something that you will not appreciate, like chewing up shoes, digging holes in the carpet, or making mad dashes out the front door. So what if we have a Chihuahua/Norwich terrier mix? You need to be prepared for traits from either breed, because there’s no telling which personality traits will dominate as an adult.

You can follow some general rules with most dog breeds. It’s also helpful to determine the group that a breed is part of. Every breed registry categorizes breeds by a number of groups. Even though the group names of the American Kennel Club (AKC), United Kennel Club (UKC), and Federation Cynologique Internationale (FCI) differ, they follow similar lines and they can tell you a lot about the breeds that are included within them.

UKC group guidelines are used here—companion dogs, gun dogs, scenthounds, sighthounds and pariahs, herding dogs, guardian dogs, terriers, and northern dogs. There are general descriptions of every breed, but as usual, there are exceptions within individual breeds and dogs. One dog never has every trait of a particular breed. There are Velcrolike Siberian huskies and independent golden retrievers, aggressive Labrador retrievers and mellow Norwich terriers.

Match your interests with the dog’s needs when looking at the different groups and breeds. Make a list of what you a looking for in a dog. You may think you want an Australian shepherd, but after comparing your list and the dog’s description, you may realize that an Alaskan malamute is more what you are

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