Glad to talk this over with you. Thanks for flagging this or I might have missed your post.

I would probably start off with a new puppy since the need you have is to connect & I have found that can work best to start with when you get a puppy (you can always add a rescue to the mix when you have established your relationship with your puppy & when it is older & bonded to you) However along those lines I had problems having the same quality time for all the dogs I had & Leo was the one with the bond to me so he was always with me. I think JoGI would have had a similar bond because now that Leo is gone JoGI is connecting with me but we just don't have the lifetime connection though I have loved him since he was born.

With my eskies I have found that the males are much more connecting than the females. Would be interesting to see what the breeder thinks about the breed you are thinking of getting.

With a new litter it is hard to know personalities until after they open their eyes though you can observe the ones that push past the others to get to mom's milk. After eyes are open some tend to be more interested in people than others though this breeder sounds like a hands on breeder that works with handling each puppy.

A lot of a dog's personality they are born with BUT a lot is the quality time we spend with them after we bring them home. Leo was the only male in his Christmas litter & no one wanted a male so we ended up with him. I remember thinking how lonely he must feel after all his litter mates were gone.....so he came up to my bedroom with me & we spent every minute together. I even have a picture of him with me feeding him a string of spaghetti from my bowl. We shared everything & he was with me constantly from that point on. He traveled everywhere with me & that strengthened the bond. So it is a combination of nature & nurture for dogs too.

I agree that training is very important BUT again, my first eskie (Excell) was trained & we spent hours practicing & even showing, then went on to just having fun with agility classes. The interesting thing was that I never trained Leo & I had a more special connection with him than I ever had with Excell. My love was equal but the bond wasn't. Lol....both would still come when I called if they didn't have something else on their mind (training ir no training) I know the bond connection with Leo came with all the time together.....& he had a heart that honestly you can't just see or pick out in a litter of puppies but I think develops at home together.

When I moved to my farm with Leo alone for the first 6 months, he just wanted to explore. I let him mostly until I caught him thinking that chasing my neighbors cows was a fun thing to do. That ended his freedom to explore freely. His freedom was then limited to wandering on a long leash when we took walks through my woods. I couldn't fence him in because there wasn't a fence he couldn't climb over. Something one never knows until it happens. None of my other eskies were like that.

Please ask questions because I could go on with things I have experienced & learned but thought the highlights of what I have experienced (at least with my breed) might give some insights