About Your Best Breed
Finding the right dog is about more than falling in love with a breed.
Hi, I’m James. My wife Leah and I created Your Best Breed because we love dogs - and because we believe choosing a furry friend should be about finding the right fit for your life, not just the dog you happen to fall in love with in a picture.
Our pup Sunny (aka Sunny Buns) is a 4-year-old Beagle and a huge part of our family. We love taking Sunny for walks along the beach here in sunny California, watching him sniff absolutely everything, and generally letting him be the happy little dude he is. Sunny is our pride and joy.
And like most pup parents, we’ve learned that having a doggo is about so much more than just the fun stuff.
Sometimes the Perfect Dog Isn’t the Perfect Fit
One of the experiences that really inspired us happened with my in-laws. They recently welcomed an Irish Setter named Sax into their family. Sax is a wonderful dog - friendly, energetic, playful, and full of personality. There’s a lot to love about an Irish Setter.
But Sax and their lifestyle weren’t the best match. My in-laws don’t have a yard, and Sax absolutely loves to run. Irish Setters have a tremendous amount of energy and need plenty of exercise and stimulation, and without the space to burn it off, Sax can end up with a lot of it pent up. They love Sax, but they also realized they may have bitten off a little more than they could chew. (Pun intended)
And honestly, that’s easy to do. When you’re looking at a breed, it’s natural to focus on the things that make you fall in love - how beautiful they are, how cute the puppies are, how much fun it looks to have one. But what about the things that aren’t quite as glamorous?
- How much exercise will this dog really need every day?
- How much grooming? How much barking?
- How difficult will training be?
- Will they do well in an apartment?
- Can you keep up with their energy when they’re five years old - not just when they’re a puppy?
- What happens when your lifestyle changes?
Those are the questions we wanted to help answer.
Why We Started Your Best Breed
We wanted a place where future dog parents could get a more complete picture of what life with a particular breed is actually like. Across all 320 profiles you’ll find the good stuff - because every breed has plenty of it - and also the challenges, quirks, energy levels, grooming needs, training considerations, potential health concerns, and everyday demands that can get overlooked.
Our goal isn’t to tell you which breed to choose. It’s to help you understand what you’re signing up for. The best match isn’t necessarily the cutest breed, the most popular breed, or the breed you’ve always dreamed about. It’s the breed whose needs, personality, and lifestyle fit naturally into your life.
A dog is a commitment that can last well over a decade. The tiny puppy you bring home today will become an adult dog with their own personality, habits, needs, and quirks. We think you deserve to know as much as possible before making that commitment - both the wonderful parts and the challenging ones.
If Your Best Breed can help someone avoid realizing years later that their dog’s needs don’t fit their lifestyle, we’ve done what we set out to do. And if it helps someone discover a breed they never considered - one that turns out to be an incredible match - even better.
How the Profiles Are Put Together
- Size and weight come from each breed’s official standard - the AKC for most breeds, and the FCI or UKC for breeds the AKC does not recognize. Mixes such as the Goldendoodle have no standard, and their pages say so.
- The twelve trait scores, from Snuggle Factor to Go-With-the-Flow, are our judgment on a 1-10 scale, drawn from breed standards, breed-club descriptions and what owners of the breed consistently report. They describe the typical dog of a breed, not every dog.
- Lifespan and cost figures are ranges, not promises. We are verifying them breed by breed against published sources. Where a figure has been checked, a small “i” beside it lists exactly where it came from; the rest are working estimates we are still confirming.
- Health conditions listed for a breed are ones the breed is known to be prone to, not a diagnosis of any dog. For decisions about a particular dog’s health, talk to a veterinarian.
If a figure looks off, a breed is missing, or you know a breed better than we do, tell us. Corrections make every profile better.
From Our Family to Yours
Your Best Breed started with our love of dogs, our experience with our own, and a simple lesson from Sax: loving a dog isn’t always enough. You also have to be able to give that dog the life they need.
We created Your Best Breed to make that decision a little easier, a little more honest, and hopefully a lot more informed. Because every dog deserves a home that’s right for them - and every future dog parent deserves to find their best breed.
- James & Leah
And Sunny, of course. 🐾