1. You must have an in-depth and personal experience with many different breeds. And more specifically, you must have multiple experiences with each breed. When you've been training dogs professionally for about 10 years, you've seen pretty much everything cross your path, at least three or four times. And for the more popular breeds, you've had literally hundreds of experiences that can put you in a very good position to analyze the pro's and con's of each breed.

2. You need to understand both the wants and needs of the family who is looking to adopt a new dog. A couple who have very dominant personalities and no children will generally be able to handle a dog with more horsepower than would a quiet, submissive couple with a few small children.

That being said, here are the top five breeds I recommend to people I don't know very well:

1. Golden Retriever: These dogs have a soft, pliable and easily trainable temperament. They are very pain-resistant and very forgiving to the owner who accidentally steps on a toe or clumsily trips on the dog. Purchased from a good breeder, these dogs are a joy to own.

2. Poodle (any variety): These dogs score extremely high on both the trainability scale and on the intelligence scale. I'm always amazed at how quickly these dogs can pick up an new behavior. It's almost like communicating to a human in dog clothing. If it wasn't for the sissy factor, I'd probably own one myself. Professional dog trainers see very few dog owners who walk through the door with troubling behavior problems. If everyone owned a Poodle, we'd all be out of business.

3. Australian Shepherd: Not to be confused with the Australian Cattle Dog (also an excellent breed but not for the amateur or weak owner) the Australian Shepherd - if obtained from a quality breeder - is fantastic. I don't think that there is anything you can't train this breed to do.

4. Boston Terrier: These dogs are clean and quiet. They make a fantastic house dog and are very easy to get along with. A perfect companion for the elder dog owner, or just somebody who wants a very peaceful dog ownership experience with a breed that is not very demanding.

5. Shetland Sheepdog: Small, easily trainable and possessing a soft temperament, they are intelligent and - with the right training techniques - will learn new behaviors very quickly.

That's all for now, folks!
Adam