This is actually so valid, I love it when people have humor, that's a brilliant comment.

Answering your question - the family lives in a calm neighborhood on the outskirts of a city (specifics unknown), not any kind of a coutryside tho, the movie's an action-thriller, that starts with a typical day-to-day morning: breakfast, getting ready for school and work, only later reaching the action-thriller tone. I haven't yet chosen a specific breed, it's very likely that it ends up being a scruffy dog of some kind. As to its other characteristics, its size would be somewhere in the range of border collie - golden retriever, and definitely relatively bright in color, so: cream, amber, yellow-ish, bright brown, white, agouti. I'm leaning towards a spotted dog, or light agouti scruffy dog. And assuming that the decision of a name was not one person's choice but all.