That's a much better picture than any I've found.

The dog my daughter's and I want is Dempsey, as seen on this page:
[url]www.hart90.org/pets.asp?page=1&type=dog&status=available [url].
The ad says he's 30 pounds, but he looks a lot closer to 40-45. He's been at the vet's a month, though ... and since a lot of these guys come in malnourished, it makes sense he would have put on a few pounds. My wife very reluctantly agreed to the JRT, but is now in love with her - thinks it's her baby - which is fine with me. But she doesn't seem to be budging on the bulldog. I think she's afraid of it - also she *really* likes cuteness in a dog, and thinks another JRT would be good. It's silly, but I'm not going to coerce her or do it against her wishes (as the kids want me to do ... brats).

Her argument is it's too big - and it is a sort of larger middle-sized dog, almost what I'd call a large dog. To my mind:
<= 25 lbs small
25 < and <= ~60 medium
> 60 to 100 big
> 100 very big

I will say that while I consider him small, I think he definitely has the strength (but not the aggressiveness) of a larger dog.

To wifey I think anything bigger than 14 inches and 20 pounds is a big dog. Strange how we can use the same words to describe something and mean entirely different things.

She has a point. We do have a small house. The dog is large for the house. But not necessarily too large. We do regular walks and weekend dog park. JRT's are famously hyper, but ours is flourishing under this same regimen. She's very happy. She has no behavioral problems (gnawing furniture, fighting, biting, etc). I think we could make the bulldog a happy home, but I'm guessing it's not going to happen at this point.

Looks like the larger hounds are out, too. Currently we're considering bull terrier (don't see many of them in the shelters, though), boston terrier, fox terrier, another jrt. We expect to get a mixed breed, since we're adopting from shelters.

I'm very fond of poodles, too (and I would argue with you that they're at lest as smart as sheep dogs), but they often get attached to one family member to the exclusion of others. Don't want that.

We had a *LOT* of dogs growing up, and starting from about 14 I was the primary caregiver for some of them. Also, I had two jobs growing up: best paying was babysitting. There were ladies who wouldn't let anyone else watch their kids. But the work was spotty. My steady source of income, which payed less, but was more enjoyable was cleaning up dog poop and walking dogs - so I've had a fair chance to get familiar with breeds I've never owned. However, in retrospect, I think a lot of those dogs had the doggie equivalent of personality disorders. In particular there was an English bulldog I intensely hated, but I realize now what was going on with him. (Owners were nice to people, but were idiot dog owners.) Also had trouble with a norwegian elkhound (same root cause, imo).

Anyway, all things relating to canines are on my mind these days. While we do have preferred breeds, what we're really looking for is personality and good health.


thanks,
k