re: Best dog to get?

Any dog would be fine with young kids with the right amount of training (unless it’s a rescue/older dog and already has some established habits). The better question, to me, is how much time do you want to spend with the dog? German shepherds are incredible protectors and usually good with kids when raised around them, but are very high maintenance and require lots of walks/energy drainers and will be tough to have if you don’t do keep exercise them.

We opted for low maintenance since we have full time jobs and kids that demand more of our attention. Our golden retriever is now almost 4 and he’s perfect. He’s on the bigger side for the breed (90lbs) and can be a bit of a bull in a China closet, but he was awesome with my newborn despite never really being around newborns before. He loves EVERYONE—even the mailman. He’s happy to just be around us and he’s fine if we miss some walks. Some dogs struggle with listening when they’re not tired, but he’s smart and still listens to commands extremely well even if he hasn’t been walked. He pretty much just sleeps until we start paying attention to him. Best dog I’ve ever owned by far.