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Compatible Canines

How a result is weighed

The same answers always produce the same comparison. Nothing in the result is a probability or a single recommended breed.

Evidence

Morrill and colleagues reported in Science in 2022 that breed explained about 9% of behavioral variation among individual dogs. Physical traits tracked breed more closely than behavior. A breed example is a planning note. A shelter’s notes about one dog are better evidence.

The breed file is the live source. Only records marked eligible are matched. We only match on traits with a published source. Each explanation names that trait’s source. Credits for Wikidata, Wikipedia, Darwin’s Ark, Hall 2020, and McMillan are on the sources page.

Items that cannot be outweighed

A slider for a calmer home or less shedding reorders examples. It cannot erase a housing limit or a care task. Those items include: under 20 minutes of daily care time; a long alone stretch without real backup; a monthly budget under the averaged low end or still unsettled; a published minimum weight above your cap; an exercise or thinking-work gap of two bands; a breed with lower heat tolerance plus heat or hard exercise; unavoidable stairs for a breed whose sources flag stairs; a strict noise rule plus a sourced big bark; a coat that mats when nobody will brush or hire a groomer; and a hunting history plus rabbits, other small mammals, or birds.

Hours alone are about the household plan. They do not mark a breed as unsuitable by themselves. “Action needed” means there are items to address before adopting, such as a walker, daycare, or a midday visit. Examples that conflict with housing or care are left off the results page.

Allergies

No breed is truly hypoallergenic. If you say someone hopes a low-shedding dog may suit allergy symptoms, low-shedding examples move up and others are described as a compromise. The individual dog still has to be met.

Trait guidesSources and the cost formulaMeeting a rescue dog