What should we get?

How much exercise would you be willing to give the dog? How many walks a day? What kind of energy level are you looking for?

I was the same exact way.. I researched dogs for about three months then I ran across the Corgi's. She was a breeze to house break they can have back problems.. but what dog doesnt. She is obedient can be stubborn but is SO eager to please. She does well in the apartment and sits at the door when she needs to go outside and go potty. They are great!! I couldnt have made a better choice for a medium breed

How about a rescue dog.  Many of them are really great dogs.  Check out this site that was listed on another discussion about designer dogs.  Surprised me for sure.
 
www.grumpybumpers.com/dogs/

We would probably take it on 2 walks a day and let it out into our small fenced yard anytime it needed to go out. We're couch potatoes really so we'd like something that's not going to be highly active but will be a very sociable dog. From what I've read though how social a dog is all depends on the amount of people and other animals it meets early on. My boyfriend likes the fox terriers. 

It sounds like a pug would be a good dog for you. go to dogbreedinfo.com and check out what they have to say about the breed.

Have you studied about fox terriers? Like any terrier they're hyper! If you're coach potatoes even if you could give it 2 walks it would still be enerjetic. A Pug, or any of they toy breeds would be good. Buy a dog breed book; do some reaserach on that breed's club website. Most of the time they have quizzes asking you questions to see if you could handle that certain breed. Research, research, research!

I don't know, I've not met a young, non-active Pug yet[]
 
 

I was thinking a cavalier king charles spaniel would be a good match at first since they are intelligent, very sociable and easily housetrained, with in my opinion the only downside of being prone to separation anxiety if left alone for several hours a day for work or whatever. Mine sleeps through the whole night now at 3 months of age and have had much fewer accidents than I expected.
 
They do have health issues particularly with the heart, but that risk is quite low as long as it's from a very good breeder who does all the health screening and is showing the dogs. But a cav would likely require more exercise than that. My pup would go nuts if all he got was two walks a day and being let out in the yard, he needs a lot more stimulation than that, and I imagine most other puppies are the same.

Why a puppy? Why not an adult? What you get in a puppy in adorableness you pay for with the extreme amounts of attention, stimulation, play and exercise they need. And a puppy is only a puppy for 12 months tops and then you have an adult anyway (well, no, for a few months after uppihood you have an adolescent, which is even more trouble than a puppy: all the naughtiness and twice the size!). Personally, I've always opted to skip the puppy part and go straight for the adult. Even housebreaking an adult dog who has never been housetrained before is a trillion times easier because biologically a puppy CAN'T hold it for long periods of time. And adult can, you just have to communicate to them why they should. I was able to housetrain the dog who I adopted who'd never lived in a house before to about 75% very very quickly. That last 25% was a little slower going but most puppies can't be reliably housetrained in under 6-9 months anyway. It really does usually take that long.