I might recommend a Cavalier King Charles spaniel - the two I had were total couch potatoes once they were through puppyhood. However, they seem to be a very social breed and I’m not sure they do well with lots of alone time.
The only greyhound I knew was a retired racer and she was indeed lazy, so that’s one more possible vote for that breed. But you mentioned that “short life span” is a drawback, and obviously any animal you adopt when they are older is going to have fewer years with you than a puppy.
Have you thought at all about whether a cat would make sense? Obviously it would not, if you really don’t like cats, are allergic, can’t stand the idea of furniture being scratched, or whatever. But some of us can be flexible - I’m most decidedly a cat person at heart, but can definitely make room in my universe of pet love for particular dogs I get to know. Similarly, I’ve known dog people who have become very attached to specific felines. If you’ve bought into the stereotype that all cats are aloof, think again. My outdoor cat comes bounding over to me whenever I pull into the driveway, and when I feed him he ignores his food until he gets some love first. My two indoor cats race to the door to greet me, guard me from evil water spirits when I shower, and are rarely more than a few feet away from me when I do stuff at home. You just have to choose the right cat if you want one that will openly show devotion.
Older dogs often end up in rescue because their owner went into a nursing home or died. Few people want them and they are usually killed. They are already well-behaved, and generally like resting. My Bonnie, sixteen and half which is like 98 in dog years, basically just wakes up for meals.
In case Gatopescado doesn’t come back, I’ll chime in.
Dachshunds are very barky. They’re good burglar deterrents, but they bark at everything. And their bark for their size is LOUD. Neighbors will complain.
We’ve had two in our townhouse condo, and other than the barking I can’t think of any other reason they’re not for apartment living. Sadly, both passed away within the last year, but we just got a new guy from dachshund rescue. We think he’s maybe a bit of a chiweenie, but he’s got lots of dachshund in him. He’s a strong squirreler. And he’ll eat anything not nailed down.
This is not entirely true. My dogs (and any fosters or pups we are dogsitting) get fed near each other in the kitchen. When I bring in a new dog, I teach them the food rule in my house, which is that everyone gets fed and there will be no competition or stealing each other’s food. Enforced by me, so they learn to feel secure and confident and don’t have to resource-guard their food. That’s not a greyhound thing, it’s a dog thing.
While they’re tall enough to counter-surf in the kitchen, it’s not hard to teach them not to do that. And some don’t even seem to think beyond just sniffing what’s up there.
And while they certainly can spread out on the bed or couch, they are also capable of curling themselves into a tiny ball, like cats do. It’s almost magical how they can tuck those long, long legs completely under their bodies.
I’m another greyhound fan and highly recommend them for situations like the OP’s. The one “gotcha” is that they are prone to osteosarcoma. They have a longer life span than other breeds their size (12-15 years) but that’s IF they don’t get the dreaded osteo. Everybody I know in greyhound social circles has lost at least one to it, if not more. I’ve lost one to osteo at age 10, and had one live to just short of 15. You just never can tell.
We went to the shelter. Most dogs were flipping out. Two were not. One of those came home. 4-5 years old, and not a mellow breed. But like you say, dogs are individuals. And older helps.
I agree with **filmore **and Ulfreida. Don’t worry about breed, get actual road-tested dogs from a foster.
I have a rescue that is a American Staffordshire Terrier/Lab mix and she’s chill AF. I had her for 2 months before I got my second dog, and she didn’t go outside much, didn’t eat her food until she felt like it, didn’t play with toys. She was only about 18 months at the time. She only does “dog stuff” now because I got her a crazy brother!
She was at my parents’ for 4 weeks when brother had ACL surgery, and she went right back to her old lazy ways. No outside, no scarfing down food, just chilling all day on the couch and in the sun.
There’s nothing that says an AmStaff/Lab mix will be lazy, but that’s what I got. Any dog can be a lazy chill bum!
Anyway, what about a pug? Aren’t those little goobers the laziest of lazy dogs?
Also, you might see if you could find, say, a dog-loving retiree in your area (even in your building?) to work out some kind of “shared custody”. An older person might not be up to the physical or financial requirements of owning a dog full-time but might really enjoy having your dog’s company while you’re off at work.
I’m with the others who say get an older dog that is known to be calm - as themselves, not as a breed. Rescues will have plenty of those, and if you don’t have kids or cats then they’ll love you as an adopter (not that the dog would necessarily be bad with kids or cats, just that they don’t know if it will be or not, so some rescues are cautious).
The one caveat I’d add is that, if you have a lot of stairs, get a dog you can carry if you need to. Occasionally larger older dogs get rehomed precisely for that reason - they have some arthritis, and have years of love and fun to give yet, but can’t manage stairs. They really are still fun dogs, though. I used to look after a chocolate lab who couldn’t manage more than a few stairs, but she loved walks and cuddles, would chase a laser pointer like a cat, could play fetch to an extent, and as long as the kitchen bin was completely inaccessible to her (they’re greedy dogs) she was fine to leave roaming free indoors at home.
“Doggy daycare” isn’t always that expensive either, depending on where you live, or a paid dogwalker who’ll take the dog out at lunchtime. Maybe look into that before deciding that you have to leave a dog at home all day.
