Best Small Dogs For Apartments

Below is the Breed Selector Matix that helps find the best small dogs for apartment living and your individual lifestyle. A selection of popular small dogs are rated for 12 characteristics on a scale of high, low or medium. A rating of high means that the behavior is very prevalent in the breed while low means that the breed does not typically demonstrate this trait. Remember that dogs like people are individuals and these traits vary within breeds based on other genetic and environmental factors. However it is safe to say that breeds that rate high for a certain trait will always show more of that behavior than breeds that are rated low. For example, Fox Terriers which are rated high for excitability will always be more reactive and yappy than Shetland Sheepdogs which are rated as low.

How to Find the Best Small Dogs that Fit Your Lifestyle

The bottom rows of the matrix allow you to select your preferences by putting an X in the column. You can select more than one rating by marking multiple rows. For example, if you are comfortable with a breed that is low to medium in barking put X's in both the LOW and MEDIUM rows. The bottom row is for weighting each characteristic and by default is set to 1 making each trait equally important. You can customize this to fit you own preferences. For example, if you want a breed that is very tolerant of children and does not bark much but if being good with kids is twice as important as not barking much, put X in the HIGH in the Tolerant of Children column and X in the LOW row of the Barking column and then type 2 in the Weighting row of the Tolerant of Children column. You can use can use any weighting scale you like but I suggest keeping it simple, like 1 to 3 or 1 to 5. The total score shows the % of your weighted preferences that are met by each breed. The higher the score the better the breed fits your lifestyle.

Click on the name of any breeds that interest you to see a description of its behavioral characteristics. Before buying any purebred dog, we strongly suggest you purchase a good breed book so you fully understand  what you are getting into for at least the next 12 to 15 years. Owning any dog involves a substantial commitment in money, time and emotion, the more you know before taking the final step the better off you will be.

In addition to this list of the best small dogs for apartments, we have similar analyses for both medium size and large breeds.


The 12 Traits in the matrix are:

Need for Exercise	Demands Affection	Destructiveness
Dominance over Owner	Excitability	Ease of House Breaking
Receptiveness to Training	Playfulness	Excessive Barking
Shedding	Territorial Defense	Tolerance for Children

Best Small Dogs Trait Matrix

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