[John Galt's cousin]

I agree that they are not qualified to adopt a dog.

As far as breeds go, we have had a lot of luck with mutts. They seem to have the best characteristics of their component breeds. And you can always threaten to send them back to the pound if they don’t behave! ;^)

If I was going to choose a breed for myself, I would consider a Brussels Griffon. They have an insane looking face and look as if were out of a Dr. Seuss book!!

Here’s a link to photos on google:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&q=brussels+griffon&revid=425129217&resnum=4&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

[cubreporter]

What in the world do you mean they are not qualified to adopt a dog? How do you know that?

[AnAmericanMother]

I bred and showed Siamese cats for years before we got a dog.

Assuming always that you go to a reputable breeder and select carefully, purebreds are more predictable in terms of what you're going to get.

We had two small children, so we went the predictable route with a Lab from a good show breeder. She is now almost 8 and a particularly Good Dog. We were so pleased with her, we got a second Lab, who is also a Good Dog but in rather a different way (she is a hot-rod field retriever, she's a very nice dog but quite a handful.)

I'm completely smitten with the working retrievers and wouldn't get a toy dog like the Griffon. If we did something other than a Lab (and I really see no good reason to switch) we'd get a Chessie. Great working dogs!