Hello...and a question, kinda long too!
Greetings,
New member here and looking for some information. Hopefully, this is the right sub-forum for my question.
My wife and I own a home in Massachusetts and have 2 children; a 12 year old boy and 9 year old girl. We had our Doxie for 13 wonderful years,and, unfortunately, he has crossed the Rainbow Bridge 2 weeks ago. Though we enjoyed the breed very much, we are leaning towards a larger "Fun" dog for the family.
My wife works as a teachers aid during the day and I work as a Police Officer 3p-11p. As you can see, our time is fairly broken up. During the summer, we have a seasonal campsite (camper) in Bourne. My wife would stay there all summer and I would be there on my rotating days off.
Herein lies the dilemma....
I am often subjected to working dayshift overtime/court etc. That would leave our future family member home alone in the house for 8-9 hours of the day, usually not more than that. Our neighbors at the cape have a beautiful Yellow Lab that is the most gentile and quiet lab I have ever seen. Perhaps that's where we developed the affection towards a larger breed. We sometimes visit the in-laws in Maine and used to leave our Doxie with my 70+ year old parents who own a Yorkie.
Our concern is this....
1. The time "alone" that our new pup will have to endure, both as a "pup" and throughout his/her life
2. The ability of the pup to be both gentile and undemanding on my parents and their dog.
I would love to hear your opinion on our dilemma. We love the Lab breed. They are beautiful and if they are anything like our neighbors dog, both fun and very good with the kids. I just don't want to subject the dog to any unnecessary stress with being left alone should the need arise and the "burden" my parents might have to endure should they decide to watch our future furbaby.
Hopefully, this makes sense. I have read about a lot of breeds and just can't see us getting into another "small dog" with the kids growing older. I want them to be able to toss the ball and play and walk with the new breed and it seems a Lab is just the ticket we are looking for.
Basically, we want a "fun" dog that we can take on rides, run around with and play ball with. We don't have a fenced yard and are on a corner lot with2 driveways so it would be a front yard play area.
Any help you folks might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated!