Well, between the added last-second rush video work and the election coverage, it doesn’t look like I will be sleeping at all tonight. I figured since I am up and while things are rendering, I will move the potential dog decision forward.

The items I will look at when choosing among these dogs are:
Exercise needs (is my backyard enough, or are daily walks required)
Health issues (normal range or prone to certain disorders)
Travel issues (am I free to travel with it)
Temperment (will it accept the multitude of visitors without trouble)
Each of these will be rated on a scale of 1-10 (10 is best)
After that, I will weight the above issues and rank them according to their results.

Australian Cattle Dog
– Exercise 5 – Health 10 – Travel 4 – Temperment 9

Bassett Hound
– Exercise 10 – Health 7 – Travel 9 – Temperment 10
Beagle
– Exercise 8 – Health 9 – Travel 7 – Temperment 9

Bernese Mountain Dog
– Exercise 6 – Health 8 – Travel 2 – Temperment 10
Cardigan Welsh Corgi
– Exercise 10 – Health 9 – Travel 10 – Temperment 7
Great Dane
– Exercise 6 – Health 7 – Travel 2 – Temperment 10

Great Pyrenees
– Exercise 7 – Health 6 – Travel 1 – Temperment 10

Newfoundland
– Exercise 5 – Health 6 – Travel 1 – Temperment 10

Pembroke Welsh Corgi
– Exercise 10 – Health 10 – Travel 10 – Temperment 8

St. Bernard
– Exercise 6 – Health 6 – Travel 1 – Temperment 10

Okay, the prelimary unweighted results are:

Pembroke Welsh Corgi 38
Bassett Hound 36
Cardigan Welsh Corgi 36
Beagle 33
Australian Cattle Dog 28
Bernese Mountain Dog 26
Great Dane 25
Great Pyrenees 24
Saint Bernard 23
Newfoundland 22

Okay, so now we need to weigh the categories… travel is going to be very important to me so it will be quite high. Exercise is important too because I tend to not make a lot of time for walking the dog. Health is important as I am fresh off losing a friend waaay too early. Finally, temperment will probably have the lowest weight because none of the dogs in question have remotely bad temperment. Has this included dogs like pit bulls, it would be very important, but as I have chosen all good tempered dogs, it will not be as critical here.

Travel 45%
Exercise 25%
Health 25%
Temperment 5%

Okay, after applying the weights, nothing changed, they are still in the same order.

Pembroke Welsh Corgi 17.65
Bassett Hound 14.3
Cardigan Welsh Corgi 16.6
Beagle 14.85
Australian Cattle Dog 13.75
Bernese Mountain Dog 11.15
Great Dane 10.15
Great Pyrenees 8.95
Saint Bernard 8.7
Newfoundland 8.45

So what have I decided from all this? Well, that the big dogs are out. As much as I love big dogs, I cannot give them the environment that would be best for them and still do the things I intend to do. I will remove the bottom five from the list and continue later with the top five… four small dogs and one medium one.

Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Bassett Hound
Cardigan Welsh Corgi
Beagle
Australian Cattle Dog