Having a dog as a pet|Owning a dog] brings a lot of benefits. Dogs provide great companionship, they can significantly lower your stress levels, benefit your blood pressure, provide unconditional love, improve your mood, and provide a vocal incentive to exercise more. Not only that, they can be a great way of meeting people whilst you’re both out for a walk. And if you’ve got kids, dogs can be excellent at teaching them about being responsible and aware of someone other than themselves.

But, should you get a large dog or a small dog?

Of course, if you don’t have a big yard or live in an apartment where they regulate the size dog you can keep, you may have to get a small dog. But even if you are blessed with a large backyard, there are distinct benefits to getting a small dog that bear weight on other issues than the size of your home.

For example, if you have children or pets, a smaller dog can be less threatening. Breeds like the Tibetan Spaniel dog breed, the Miniature Poodle, Maltese, Chihuahuas, and similar lap dogs, are not really suited to families with small children.

Or, if you are not especially strong, sick, or older, getting a small dog is less of a strain to look after. Large dogs weight more – so they are going to be correspondingly more difficult to handle on a physical level. To illustrate, walking an excited, large dog on a leash might be near impossible if your dog becomes impervious to anything but the pursuit of a car or another dog. As well, there will be moments when you’ll have to lift your dog. If someone isn’t close by  to help you, this could be a issue, particularly when your dog grows old. Will you be able to check your dog’s teeth regularly, and be able to establish yourself as ‘top dog’ when training your dog.

Additionally, large dogs need more exercise as a rule, although some smaller dogs also need a lot of exercise as well. This is very true for working dogs, irrespective of the size they come in, such as the border collie dog breed. Border collies have a lot of energy. They are very intelligent and active dogs. They have been – and still are – used to herd cattle and sheep, and consequently have particularly high stamina and endurance. They can run for hours, although as a pet owner, a couple of hours of exercise – both physical and mental, ideally – would be sufficient. So, for a person with a busy lifestyle, who’s unable to devote the time to your dog, a border collie or similar would be an inappropriate pet.

If you’ve got a family with kids and you’d like a small dog, you could consider: {border terriers, boston terriers, bichon frise, English Cocker Spaniels, Kerry Blue Terriers, Miniature Australian Bulldogs, Miniature Australian Shepherds, and Miniature English Bulldogs}. And small breeds like the French bulldog, whose temperament is easygoing and happy, and who love spending a lot of time with their owners, and do not require much exercise, are best for the elderly. French bulldogs are even used in pet therapy in aged care homes.

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