Group Guide
Dogs
The widest range of size, drive and need of any domestic animal — and the one where getting the choice wrong hurts most.
A dog is a ten-to-fifteen year commitment to somebody else's exercise needs. The gap between breeds is enormous: a Greyhound and a Border Collie are the same species in name only. This is the group where the honest answer is most often not that one.
At a glance — all dogs
- Lifespan
- 8–16 years
- Adult weight
- 2–70 kg
- Daily exercise
- 30 min – 3 hrs
- Trainability
- Breed-dependent
- Alone time tolerated
- 4 hrs is a common ceiling
- Shedding
- Nearly all shed
- Noise level
- Breed-dependent
- With children
- Depends on breed and dog
- With other pets
- Depends on prey drive
Purebred entries plus one honest Crossbred page. Deliberate designer crosses are deferred, not forgotten — they get pages when we can write ones that are not guesswork.
Breeds · 34 listed
Every entry below is a breed page with its own colours, costs and honest warnings. The portraits are illustrations drawn to show each breed’s typical build, not photographs of individual animals.
Afghan Hound
- High grooming
- Independent mind
- Sprint then sleep
The most beautiful dog in the building, and it knows you know it.
Australian Cattle Dog
- Very high exercise
- Needs a job
- One-family dog
A working dog first, last and always — the heeling is in the name.
Australian Kelpie
- Extreme exercise
- Needs a job
- Escape artist
Possibly the best working dog on earth, and precisely that hard to live with in town.
Australian Shepherd
- High exercise
- Heavy grooming
- Velcro dog
A beautiful, busy herding dog that too many people buy for the coat.
Basset Hound
- Low-slung build
- Very vocal
- Scent-driven
A big hound folded onto short legs, with the ears doing half the comedy and half the work.
Beagle
- Escape artist
- Very vocal
- Food-obsessed
Merry, sturdy, wonderful with kids — and its nose does not have an off switch.
Border Collie
- Very high exercise
- Needs a job
- Not for empty houses
The smartest dog you will ever meet, and the one most often rehomed for it.
Boxer
- High exercise
- Boisterous
- Family devoted
A clown in a bodybuilder’s body, permanently seven months old.
Bulldog
- Low exercise
- Heat-sensitive
- Snores
The most loveable temperament in dogdom, in a body that needs to be chosen with your eyes open.
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
- Low exercise
- Very affectionate
- Read the health section
The loveliest temperament in dogs, attached to the breed's most serious health problem.
Chihuahua
- Low exercise
- Long-lived
- One-person dog
A whole dog’s worth of opinion in the smallest package sold.
Cocker Spaniel
- High grooming
- Gentle nature
- Needs company
The wagging never stops, and neither does the ear cleaning.
Crossbred
- Not a breed
- Adopt
No standard, no prediction, and for a lot of households the sensible answer.
Dachshund
- Distinctive shape
- Big-dog bark
- Stubborn streak
A big hound’s soul over very short suspension, and the back is the whole conversation.
Dobermann
- Very high exercise
- Velcro dog
- Experienced owners
A velvet shadow with a serious engine — and one organ that decides everything.
French Bulldog
- Low exercise
- Heat-sensitive
- Apartment-suited
Enormous charm per kilogram, and every buyer’s job is to audit the airway it comes with.
German Shepherd
- Very high exercise
- Heavy shedding
- Needs a job
The complete working dog, which is exactly the problem in a house with nothing to do.
Golden Retriever
- High exercise
- Heavy shedding
- Everyone’s friend
Everything the reputation says — and the reputation skips the hair, the mud and the hard question about cancer.
Great Dane
- Giant breed
- Gentle nature
- Short lifespan
The biggest heart in dogdom, on the shortest lease.
Greyhound
- Low exercise
- Very quiet
- Adopt an adult
Sprinter, not a marathon runner. Sleeps eighteen hours a day and asks for very little.
Irish Wolfhound
- Giant breed
- Gentle nature
- Short lifespan
The gentlest giant of all, on the cruellest clock.
Jack Russell Terrier
- Very high energy
- Escape artist
- Big-dog attitude
Ten kilograms of dog, forty kilograms of intent.
Labrador Retriever
- High exercise
- Heavy shedding
- Very trainable
Genuinely easy-natured, genuinely hard work as a puppy, and permanently hungry.
Maltese
- Low exercise
- High grooming
- Long-lived
Bred for exactly one purpose — your lap — and it has had millennia of practice.
Miniature Schnauzer
- Low shedding
- Alert watchdog
- Regular clipping
A proper dog at apartment scale, with opinions and eyebrows to deliver them.
Pomeranian
- Low exercise
- Big personality
- Double coat
A sled dog reduced 95% in size with none of the attitude removed.
Poodle
- Three sizes
- Low shedding
- Very trainable
One of the smartest dogs alive, wearing a costume that makes people underestimate it.
Pug
- Low exercise
- Heat-sensitive
- Comedy included
Multum in parvo — much in little — and much of it needs a buyer who has done the reading.
Rhodesian Ridgeback
- Powerful breed
- High exercise
- Strong prey drive
A lion dog with a velvet off-switch, for owners who mean what they say.
Rottweiler
- Powerful breed
- Experienced owners
- Devoted guardian
A calm, devoted heavyweight whose reputation is written by its worst owners.
Shih Tzu
- Low exercise
- High grooming
- Companion first
A thousand years of practice at being adored, wearing a coat that needs staff.
Siberian Husky
- Extreme exercise
- Escape artist
- Heavy shedding
Built to run over the horizon with fifteen friends — and your backyard has neither the horizon nor the friends.
Staffordshire Bull Terrier
- Med exercise
- Great with kids
- Dog-dog issues common
Devoted to their people, robust, and frequently misjudged in both directions.
Whippet
- Sprint then sleep
- Gentle nature
- Feels the cold
Thirty seconds of lightning, twenty-three and a half hours of cushion.
The questions that actually decide this
- How many hours a day is the house empty? That single number rules out more breeds than any other.
- Who walks it in July, in the rain, at 6am, for the next twelve years? Name the person.
- Every breed here has a health test regime. A breeder who can't tell you their dogs' scores hasn't done them.
Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.