Adoption Process / Finding the Right Dog

My first step would be to visit a shelter.  The no kill shelters are going to be able to give you more information on the available dogs simply because they are often THERE longer.....not under the threat of being put down because their time is up.  For that reason alone, as an old hand at dog ownership, I'd be going to the kill shelter to save a life.  However, if you've not owned a dog, I'd try to take a very dog savvy friend or even a trainer with you to evaluate the dogs at a kill shelter.
 
Most of the shelters, or local breed groups can link you to the rescues.  And most rescues have very strict guidelines that you may or may not meet.  When I foster, the rescue screens the potential folks before they ever pass on my phone number to them, and then I screen further before I place a pup.  And I'm very particular.  But, when someone gets a pup from my home, they are crate trained, potty trained, leash trained and have a good start on basic obedience and have been socialized out the ying yang.  In most cases, I've helped to whelp these pups and  I have a vested interest in them, so by golly you'd better impress ME or you'll go home empty handed.  Some rescues are not so picky.
 
We have one near by that brought up a large number of Katrina dogs and immediately started adopting them out.  Many, many of these dogs turned up heartworm positive, and to their credit, the rescue did pay for HW treatment, but gosh, that's a tough road and sadly, many of the dogs had NOT been released by their owners, but left behind because they weren't allowed to take them when they evacuated.  So you want to be certain that the shelter steers you to a really REPUTABLE rescue.  Ask around from the breed clubs, from other dog owners, from vets, to see who THEY recommend.
 
Good luck in your search, and be sure to come back with pictures and your million or so questions when you find "the one"!

What I did was contact (via petfinder) several agencies. I usually wrote them in regard to a specific dog and usually chatted back and forth a bit. I wanted to find an agency that really knew their dogs and had the perfect match for my families. I told the agency just what we were looking for.
We needed a calm non barking dog because I have a child who is sensitive to audial stimulation. We needed a gentle patient dog because we have two children who are rambunctious and quite young. We needed a dog who had the skills to deal with our current dog who is playful and very powerful. I told them about our house, and I was honest about where they would sleep and how often they would get a walk.
We were turned down several times, and I was always thrilled that the agencies did not just try to place any dog in our home.
Both our dogs have come from shelters, because my children are so young (all under 10), I wanted the dog to have spent some time in Foster care. This was the case for both of them and we have been very pleased with our experience.

Some things to think about.
1. Be patient. Our first dog took several months to find. Our second was faster, but it still surprised us how long it took to find Sally.
2. Don't limit yourself geographically. Look closest to you first, but if you can't find that perfect dog in your own town or state, many shelters have a way to get homeless dogs to a good home. Sally was four hours away from us and they brought her to the nearest big city.
3. Consider a dog that is out of infancy. We adopted a 1 year old and a 9 mo old. Both were fully grown and past that "awwww, such a sweet puppy" faze. Both had been looked over because of that. BUT, both were housetrained and past the crazy baby behaviors that would have been too much for my family to handle.
4. Don't limit yourself by breed. We ended up with two breeds I was dead set against. We have a corgi mix and a full bred jack russel terrier. We wanted CALM dogs...which we got- in unexpected breeds. Mixed dogs especially are mostly a guess about breeds, and it is much safer to go by a known temperment learned from the foster family, that what you might guess the breed temperment is.

Good luck, I can't wait to see what you find. In fact, I miss petfinder so much, that if you tell me where you are and what you are looking for, I will browse doggies with you. I have to stay off there for myself because two is all we can handle. I would have a houseful otherwise.

Here's a good article on some things to look for when going to the shelter:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1405&S=1&SourceID=47

And here's one describing temperment tests and links to other articles about temperment tests. Some people don't like temperment testing, but we used this info as sort of a guide, not a bible. A lot of trainer say their own dogs wouldn't pass a temp. test, but then they are trainers, so they can take dogs with some behavioral issues. Just remember that dogs in shelters are in a stressful environment and may react accordingly. Jumping up for instance, that's easily trained "off", and I certainly wouldn't NOT pick a dog just because they jumped up.

http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIPS/DogTip_Temperament.php

I'd also spend a lot of time on [linkhttp://www.petfinder.com]www.petfinder.com[/link]. Because you have a few breeds targeted, you can put the breed and your zipcode in, and it will give you back all of the purebred and mixed breed dogs with the breed you put in in all of the shelters and rescues in your general area. For instance, if you're looking for a golden retriever, if you put "golden retriever" into the search field it will show you all the purebred goldens, but also all the golden mixed breeds as well.