Our little 13 year old doxie, Merlin, loves attention, laps, and will lick you constantly if you let him. He is well house broken but on occassion will sneak a pee in the house if he's mad at you. If you know doxie's they can be adorable and smart, but also willful. He sleeps in a crate at night, stays in our den during the day when we are gone (he has an 8 hour bladder), rings a bell to go out for a potty break and has a fenced in area to go in. We don't let him run loose on our 1 acre property because he will chase anything (they're hunters) and because we have coyotes and eagles who might want to snap him up.
You will need to feed him twice a day, play with him, give him some lap time, let him out to the fenced area for potty breaks (keeping an eye on him) and then put him in his crate for the night.
We live on a beautiful island just a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle. The small town of Winslow, is where we shop and is charming, with lots of small restaurants, and all the groceries, pharmacies, movie theatres you need. If you take Merlin to town with you, you will find store owners very friendly to pets and they will usually invite him in. He tends to get a lot of attention because he is so handsome.
He does have a small dog complex, and around certain dogs, he gets fiesty and likes to act tough. I can usually predict which dogs will cause him to bark or growl when we are out for a walk, but not always. I either give him his lead so he can check the other dog out or just pick him up in my arms if I think there could be a conflict.
His nose takes him everywhere and he is not the best minder when on a leash. These days we seldom take him for walks. He's getting along in age and seems happy to sleep and visit. You have to be very firm with him to get him to not pull, in spite of hours of training to heal. Merlin was registered as a Therapy Dog when I was still teaching. He loved the kids and they loved him. Now that we are retired we have not bothered to keep up with the licensing fees, but he remains a people lover.
Our house is fairly new, with both a deck and a screened in porch. Merlin's outdoor pen area is right off the deck and you can watch him when he is in his pen area while enjoying the deck, or from our the french doors going to the deck or from the large picture windows in our living room.
Of course we have internet access and all the amenities. It's a cozy 2,400 sqft house with plenty of TV's.
You will love Bainbridge Island and if you like to hike, it is your gateway to the Olympics. The island itself has many walking trails as well. Go visit Seattle for the day.
So...what do you think?