How the matcher works
You answer nine questions about the home a dog would actually join: the space it offers, the hours it stands empty, who lives there, and how much coat, noise and exercise you are truly prepared for. Your answers score each of the thirty breeds in the matcher on the traits you stated a preference for, and nothing else enters the sum.
What the shortlist tells you
Every breed on your shortlist carries a fit percentage, the traits where you and the breed agree, and the traits where you differ. The differences are printed as plainly as the matches, because that is where second thoughts come from. Where the table holds no settled value for a trait, the cell counts as neutral — never as a penalty.
How the table was checked
Two authors filled the same fixed table independently, neither seeing the other’s sheet. Of 288 cells, 275 agreed outright; nine adjacent calls kept the milder claim; and four genuine splits were dropped rather than fudged, which is why two breeds sit outside the matcher.
The register
The register lists 32 breeds and the matcher draws on 30 of them. Each breed has its own page turning the ratings into ordinary prose, and the two breeds outside the matcher say so on their pages, and say why. Read a sheet, then go and meet a dog. A sheet describes a breed; you will be living with an individual.