Thatās the most important part!!
Agreed. Iāve been on quite friendly terms with some lap-size dogs. Just canāt deal with the hyper yippy high-strung ones. Calmer ones, such as @SanVitoās described Maltese, I like just fine.
Iām used to maneuvering around small pets blocking traffic or taking should-be-impossible-at-that-size amounts of space, since Iāve had cats my whole life. 
We dog sit for my daughter and SIL, and their two little terriers are a blast. Our bigger dogs are always a bit intimidated by the two little guys racing around, ducking under the couch, etc.
Iāve become a Doberman person, but the dog of my heart when I was a child was a Pekingese.
I just like 'em all (and cats too). However, right now I have two big dogs and two mid-size dogs, and lemme tell ya, it aināt easy walking around my house without getting inadvertently bruised and stepped on.
My favorite large breed is the Lab. My uncle had one that was very friendly. I loved playing fetch with it.
You can train other breeds to fetch. It depends on the personality of the dog. Iāve had a couple that would only fetch their favorite toy. Theyād only play for a few minutes and lose interest.
I prefer a size that can keep up with a horse and jump into a truck bed, not so big as to be clumsy, or so slight they are overly breakable. 35 to 65 pounds, approximately. But there are so many other factors.
I just read an article (CNN?) about a study of heritable traits in dogs. They found that one of the most predictable traits was fetching in retrievers. My experience with Labs is that they are fanatical fetchers, to a dog.
Iām fairly pragmatic about my pets and the reason Iād want a dog is at least partially home defense. Companionship, sure, but thereās lots of critters who can provide that so if Iām going for the work and responsibility of owning a dog, itāll need to be large enough to scare someone off, plus keep up outside without needing to be carried and all that jazz. So something on the larger end of the spectrum.
Oh my gosh, thatās such an adorable looking crew! We can only really have one dog around at the moment, but, one day, Iād love to have multiple dogs around, and three sounds just about right.
Thanks! Over the years Iāve taken that exact picture with whichever three dogs weāve had at the time. Loki (far right) is getting older and doesnāt always want to play with Kizzy. When we brought Simi home from St Martin, the idea was to give Loki a break. Turns out Loki is having a second childhood, playing with the pup as much as Kizzy does.
med - large (45-75lbs ish) are the bestest; donāt need help getting on the sofa or in bed, donāt need Barbie-sized toys, big enough when you give them a (playful) whap they donāt move, unless itās to run to get a toy or to turn to (playfully) chomp the hand that just whapped themā¦& then itās on, full-blown rasslinā match! Try that with a yappy little tripping hazard & theyād go flying across the room & Iād probably not be able to stand back up after bending over so low.
Her My baby girl is a 5yo hound/shepherd mix who gets scolded if she sits next to me on the sofa. Sheāll get non-stop skritches when lying on my lap, then fall asleep, right thru twitchy dreams.
Thatās how it went for me too. My first dog was a 90lb golden retriever. They really are the best, most perfect dogs. But once it got to the point where I had to pick her up I realized I needed to scale down. My next dogs were two 50lb mutts.
My boy is the absolute worst at fetching. He cannot and will not figure it out. He chases balls like a pro but then either runs over to the flower bed to hide them, or merely drops them in place. I had his DNA tested and he is a mix of MANY dogs but he has zero retriever in him. That tracks.
My girl is 25% lab but sheās too prissy to take part in any lowly dog activities such as fetching.
Also a medium sized dog lover. We started with a large ~80 lb. GSD but downsized to a more reasonably proportioned ~55 lb. GSD for our current hund.
Iād extend the weight limit for medium-sized dogs to at least 50 pounds so Pluto can be included. I definitely donāt think of field spaniels as ābigā dogs.
I have a preference for big over little dogs when it comes to meeting someone elseās beast. Big dogs are typically more confident and friendlier. I donāt trust terriers and other small terrors not to snap at you out of fear or cussedness.
This sounds like a perfect dog for agility trial work!
The dog would be able to do it great ā¦ not sure that I am ambitious enough!
We did an agility class with our current dog before Covid hit ā¦ problem is that I my wife and I each often have weekend hours and there are no classes that arenāt at least a half hour drive. Making it each time was a challenge not always met.
Owner fail. 
There is a tiny chihuahua in Kizzyās agility two class. The dog has heart! He does whatever is asked of him, although the jumps need to be adjusted in height. He is fun to watch, even more so due to the owner being a very tall, thin woman.
Nope, Widget came from a rescue in Fossil, OR, which has a population of less than 400 people now and probably even fewer back then. The woman who owned Widgetās mother was in a feud with the rescue owner, who had tried unsuccessfully to talk her into spaying her dog. At the time of her impregnation with Widget there was a grand total of two intact dogs in the entire town, a JRT and some huge shambling mass that absolutely was NOT the sire. Widget came to the rescue after she refused to surrender the pups but her next door neighbor talked her out of Widget so heād have a chance at a good homeāout in Eastern Oregon stockdog puppies are like pibbles in town, someone is always looking for homes for a litter. Anyway, the woman did confirm the JRT was the papa, apparently she witnessed the mating and it was a one time thing. Nope, Widget was just an oddball, came out looking like a weirdly long legged version of a border collie and although we feared heād be of nuclear energy levels it turned out the two hyper breeds crossing produced a pretty mellow velcro dog. He didnāt look as big as he was, he was just a lot of muscle and curly fur. I miss him.
I took this pic just outside of Yellowstone after an epic rafting trip down the Green River in Utah, circa Labor Day '12. He would have been about six at the time.
cool looking dog. Iād own a dog like that.
Iāve always had dachshunds. As my doormat says āA dachshund is my doorbell.ā They like to bark if thereās a reason ā theyāre not mindlessly yappy. They are somewhat controllable, and I liked the burglar alarm aspect so it doesnāt bother me. He barks a lot less over the last year, but he was a rescue at then end of 2019, so he had some adjusting to do.
Now, that Iām older, I MUCH prefer a smaller dog. We have stairs in our townhouse and stairs to get down to the parking area, and it would next to impossible for me to carry a big dog down. Iād have to put him on an improvised travois (sp?) and drag him down.
Doxies are really smart. A lot of big dogs Iāve known are nice and all, but donāt have that doxie āspark.ā