my wife and i are trying to have a baby and we decided that when she gets pregnant we want to buy a puppy also to raise with our child. we were both raised with dogs and want our child to be too. what do you think is the best type of dog to buy?

We have only had one dog--a miniature poodle. It didn't shed and poodles are not very allergenic to most people. It was an extremely gentle animal. I've heard that large dogs can be very sweet, too, such as golden retrievers, but then it would scare me a little to have a dog which was so big around a baby. I like the idea of waiting until the youngest baby is at least 2yr old. In our case, we didn't get a dog until the youngest was 7yr old. It's a lot of responsibility for parents to take care of both dog and children. The kids I know usually don't really contribute much to the overall care and the dogs develop poor habits and behaviors. I would be very sure you want the dog badly yourself before venturing out.