I’m still finishing up reading the tidal wave of responses to my request for dog-buying-for-small-boy advice. Thanks for writing, folks. No need to continue, though; I’ve got about 300 suggestions already. Someone wrote with this priceless anecdote: “Our 11 year old started asking for a dog at about your son’s age. We are older parents and had no need for a dog in our spotless home. But when he left a leash hanging on the side of his bed ‘in case God left him a dog during the night,’ we knew we had lost the war.” Maybe that’ll be the sign Julie and I need. Anyway, I wanted to report the results of the dog poll. The overwhelming favorite, with about 70 percent of the vote, was the Labrador retriever. The second-biggest vote-getter was the pound mutt. There were sizable numbers of readers who recommended beagles, golden retrievers, border collies, bichons frise, and various kinds of terriers (except one reader, who said never ever ever get a Jack Russell terrier). There were even several readers who wrote to say poodles are great, if you don’t get them pomped up with ridiculous hairstyles. I like the guy who advised, “Rod, please don’t get your son a foo-foo dog. He even may like it at first, but as he grows older, he’ll be ashamed of it.” I can say without fear of contradiction that we are a non-foo-foo-dog household. Several readers sent me to this site, the SelectSmart for dog breeds. I typed in all my variables, and it recommended the following, in order of suitability: border terrier, labrador retriever, pharaoh hound, bulldog, airedale terrier.