It’s hard, but when we are on the hunt for our perfect dog, we can’t let love blind us. I am as guilty as anyone of totally drooling over certain breeds of dogs. Some of them are heart-stoppingly supermodel gorgeous and others are irresistibly adorable. We can’t help but be attracted to the appearance of certain dogs, and in some cases are literally flooded with a cascade of the nurturing hormone oxytocin when we see their big eyes and squishy baby faces. Despite these understandable natural reactions, we have to ask ourselves the tough question: Are we pursuing the right type of dog for our lifestyle and personality, no matter how amazingly cute his little face is? We could be disastrously incompatible. We might want a social butterfly and end up with a suspicious and protective introvert. We might want a quiet companion for our children and end up with a total circus in our living room.

Also, if we are to live with them successfully, we can’t afford to ignore the genetics of the dogs we already have and love in our homes. We have to remember that most breeds of dogs were designed to be a specific tool for a specific job—not to be our pet.

Most dog breeds we see today are the result of this utilitarian history; and the relationship between their form and function is inseparable. The appearance of these working dogs is tied to the behavioral jobs for which they were bred. Preserving breeds and their standards means keeping the behavioral DNA that created them in the first place. But few of us actually want all of those traits anymore. Most of us just want a buddy.

Thankfully, we can find out what our dog was made to do; then he can be appreciated for all of those natural instincts and be our buddy at the same time. We can get to the bottom of our dog’s DNA as it is most likely to affect us, and make better decisions about the dogs we choose and how we live with them.

You don’t have to become an expert on the hundreds of dog breeds, either. You just have to know about the ten primary genetic breed groups—and the one your dog belongs to—in order to be on top of your game. Unlike the traditional organization of breeds provided by kennel clubs, this groundbreaking, simple ten group system I created follows modern phylogenetic mapping of the canine genome, organizing all of the dog breeds into their original working professions.