Puppy vs. Adult Dog

ALSO, just to throw my two cents in, it's pretty durn hard to get a good read on a dog's personality while it's at the shelter. When we got Pi, we thought he was 5-7 years old, and he was the same way with new people as your (potential!) dog sounds like. Turns out the silly boy just needed some love, food, and a few HUNDRED flea baths. He's actually about 3, and has learned to love strangers!

I have a 6month old that I got at 8wks & this was my first dog. I wish I would've listened to everyone on this board who told me to get a rescue older dog, but I had to learn for myself.

Puppies require A LOT of time just like an infant.  The housebreaking, crate training, training are very time consuming.  Every waking moment of ur life, in the beginning, is concentrated on their schedule, which if ur trying to do it the "right" way it's taking the pup out every 2hrs.  The first week I did this I seriously thought I made a terrible mistake. But I hung in there, now there's still a lot of rough spots to work thru, but it's not nearly as bad as the beginning.

If you have the time, patience, money go for a puppy.  But doing it again I would get a dog that's at least 2yrs old & hopefully has already gone thru those growing pains.

She sounds like a great first dog!  I bet she'd love to do agility and it would help her confidence so much!

Greyhounds are amazing to.  There is this guy at the dog park here who has three and they are the sweetest dogs, he says they mostly just sleep all day and are really great dogs. 

I wanted an older dog for my first, but we ended up with a puppy.  In a way I'm glad because I feel like we got to socialize her and get her really used to the kids ourselves.  She is A LOT of work though, she's 12 months and still has to be watched constantly.  I'm a stay at home mom though, so I think that makes it easier since there is no period of time where she had to be left alone.  If I worked full time no way would I consider a puppy unless I could afford doggie day care or a dog sitter.

I love hearing all of your stories.  Hopefully this thread will help other people who are trying to decide, too.

Yesterday I went to buy a crate, bowls, toys, and all of the fun stuff that goes along with having a new dog.  I'm going to set the crate up tonight so the cat can sniff it and get used to it for a couple days.  I will definitely post pics when she gets home and we get settled a bit!