Right Dominant type males can tend to mark in the house. I had it with one male. I put him on a short lead and tied him to the couch foot. I slowly lengthened it to where he could get around the entire LR. After awhile of that I took him off the leash and he was AOK after that. He had a large yard to run in so exercise was not the reason he marked. The other male who lived in a separate part of the house never marked. They were both stud dogs. Small dogs and hounds, with SOME exceptions are harder to housebreak. The pup you get will grow up to have the traits that pro breeders breed for if you bought from a pro person. If you bought from a pet shop, pet farm or backyard breeder than since they practice NO quality control you have NO idea what traits are latent in the genes. You get a pig in a poke. Most pro breeders choose for stable and outgoing personality. ONE growl or snap or bite at a judge and that dog can never be shown again. Still, some breeds can be trained to behave in the ring and still not be friendly to strangers elsewhere. Know thyself equals know thy dog. Temperament problems can come from even 4 generations behind your pup, especially in the more aggressive types. There are no small problems with big dogs. Friendly pups do not always grow up to be friendly adults. Adult personality can easily be very different from puppy personality. If you are adopting I think a grown dog is the better choice as then you are quite sure of what you are going to live with. Personally I always choose an adult if possible, unless it is a really rare breed with few puppies bred and available in the market sense. In the rarer breeds adults are seldom available as they are usually not impulse buys since there is usually a waiting time for a puppy. Impulse buyers usually don't wait. They just buy another breed. Seeing the parents and other family members is a good idea. I would often have 3 or 4 generations living when I was breeding regularly, so buyers could see the dam, granddam and sometimes great granddam. Sometimes grown ups from previous litters out of the pups dam and/or sire. Sometimes sisters of the dam. It all makes for a fuller understanding of the objectives of the breeder and the range of type, size and personality in the bloodline ( which of course most sellers of dogs do not have). A bloodline is the breeding of one person for 7 or more generations. That can lead to distinct qualities that are prominent throughout the line : ie good toplines, heavy muscles, strong movement, deep and wide chests, small ears, dark eyes, and so on. This happens because the breeder chooses what to keep or breed to that have those qualities. THAT makes a real breeder. People who only do random breedings with no intention of aiming for producing correct dogs ought to take up another hobby. They only flood the market with inferior puppies with no benefit to the long term advance of the breed. That is a MINUS for the dogs and the...

I admit I haven't read all the responses because I got tired of the judgemental and flame responses. I do have two thoughts. If, at all possible, create a small enclosure outside a doggie door so the dog can "go" at will. Yes, the door creates a loss of heat or cooling, but all pets are costly in some way. I would be concerned that on some days the dog, just like a human, may find it has to urinate more often than usual, even though they aren't ill. A thought about using piddle pads--if that is your solution it would be wise to get a female who doesn't lift a leg and urinate against something. You will probrbly have fewer "misses" that way. There is a TV show on TLC called "The Littel Couple". They are professional people who have a Boston Terrier that uses pads and he does sometimes overshoot the pad. I am a fierce dog and cat lover, active in rescue, and I have 4 Siberian huskies and 3 cats, all adopted rescues. I would never feel comfortable asking them to wait 9 hours between bathroom breaks. My dogs, who are always separated from the cats (Sibes have an enormous prey drive and I can't trust mine around cats), have a 24/7 doggie door to a fenced acre. This is what I have decided I HAVE to do in order to feel I am treating my pets well and I have chosen to budget accordingly. Responsible pet ownership is expensive, even for one dog or cat. I respect you for asking for suggestions prior to getting a dog. One last thought; I am retired and at 65 found that social security and Medicare represented a big decrease in available funds. I did plan for inflation, but I never realized how the present resession would strain my pet budget. I am committed to feeding only top quality food, the likes of which are never sold in a supermarket. All my animals are nutered and all are kept current on shots and at least annual physicals. Occasional illness or injury visits are unplanned expenses. I expect I will outlive my dogs, but the cats are young and have a long life expectancy. For that reason I have made arrangements for their care if anything happens to me.

gvecchio1, So sorry to hear about your loss. I am in that same situation with my father right now, it only a matter of time. Ya, isn't it crazy. You'd think these doctors would at least wonder what's going on their client base in menopause who are having muscle pain! All I know for absolute certain is that vaginal Estrace, used regularly, completely wiped away all the muscle pain. GONE. And the nodules that had developed on the sides of my fingers, vanished completely. When I went to an endocrinologist and spoke with her about this and asked for her opinion on whether or not this was all related to estrogen, she responded, "Well if it works." Seriously, that was her only comment and she wasn't remotely interested. So good luck to the next woman coming to her looking for answers with chronic pain. Woman need to keep connecting on symptoms and how they found relief. I hold out little hope working with the majority of doctors.

It doesn't matter whether there's ripping or not. She probably bruised him even if there were just a couple scratches and no blood. It hurts. If it were a child he/she could have permanent emotional trauma. When my 44 pound blind 17 year old dog mistook my hand for her bone it felt like getting squeezed with pliers. A bruise and deep dent no blood. She's pretty bad now if she's making contact. Usually they start by trying to hide from the scary person and if he/she doesn't go away they will bark then charge. So you probably have seen the start of this but didn't know it was anything important. Never have a scary person approach the dog, let dog decide on his or her own if she/he is comfortable coming up to a person. If you keep your dog safe then eventually they get calmer around scary stuff. I've known this because I read everything dog I can get my hands/eyes on so have always taken even barking seriously and move my dogs away from people and situations they must bark at. Ginger, my more or less normal dog, is afraid of large dogs. She barks in their faces then bites at their hind legs. If they look at her she will run away screaming that the dog is trying to kill her. People think she has been attacked. Nope. She's having a panic attack. It's happened twice in 4 years and won't happen again. Try making a lark's head loop with the leash and put it around your wrist rather than holding the loop. Bucky gets frantic and seems to be deliberately trying to yank the leash out of my hand and he cannot if it's attached with that slip knot. Then use the other hand to regulate how much slack she gets. Only do this if she is unable to pull you over though! Bucky is only 13 pounds and cockapoos can be double that size. But better is to shut her away from the action altogether as I wrote earlier.