We just got a puppy at Christmas time.....and NO, we weren't buying a puppy for a small child, he was for us. I'm 63 and my wife is 65. Anyway, back on topic. We were looking for a dog that would be a wonderful companion dog, smart, didn't shed, small, and absolutely loved being with his "people". I'm telling you, we spent weeks looking at different breeds on the internet and reading about their traits and their pros and cons and finally came up with one that neither of us had heard of before.....an American Manchester Terrier Toy. The Manchesters come in two different varieties.....the Standard...which will be approx. 23-24 lb and stand approx. 16-17 inches at the front shoulder, and the Toy....which will grow to approx. 12 lbs and stand 11-12 inches at the front shoulder. Both of them are Black and Tan coloring and to my knowledge there is no other color variations. The toy will have naturally erect ears as it grows out of being a puppy, whereas the Standard will have button ears. That's the only difference between the two varieties ......ears and size.
We got ours when he was 10 weeks old and he is now just over 7 months. He is incredibly smart and easily trained (just a slight stubborn streak on a few things, but could be because he's still a pup), and talk about a loyal and loving dog that wants to be with his people....OMG. If either one of us is sitting, he wants to be close and just absolutely loves being with us. It is getting very warm here and I've yet to see more than a few hairs (shorthair dog BTW) and almost zero shedding.
You can read about them for yourself, but they have a storied history going all the way back into the 1500's in Europe. They are beautiful dogs, but sometimes not really easy to find one available. Since they were cross bred with a Whippet back in the 1800's, they are slim and Faasst, with a big chest. Back then, they were just called "Black and Tans", and have evolved to the current day Standard and Toy American Manchester Terrier.
Holler at me if you would like some more info on them. I know there are several breeders out in California, as we were doing basically a nationwide search for a male Toy when we were looking for ours.