@Hinarcia
Hey and welcome on the community forums!
I will write more about it in the future, but for time being, those two answers should be helpful.
(those are pretty long though!)
answer1
answer2
You don’t have to! It all depends on how polite do you want to be.
So if you are speaking with some person you don’t know, someone older, someone you are not close with or higher in the hierarchy (like your boss) you should use です.
When talking with friends, people from the same class, or when you are higher in the hierarchy you don’t have to use です.
(very simplified explanation)
So:
ブルフィンは犬です (talking with an unknown person, someone older, etc)
ブルフィンは犬だ (talking with friends, people from class, family, etc)
ブルフィンは犬 (talking with friends, people from class, family, etc)
ブルフィンは犬よ (talking with friends, people from class, family, etc but more feminine)
are all correct depending on the situation.
By the way, remember that directly after いadjectives you can use です but must not use だ. This is a very common mistake, even Japanese make.
この車は少し狭い。 (correct!)
この車は少し狭いです。(correct!)
この車は少し狭いだ。(wrong!)
です, in this case, doesn’t work as “to be”, but simply marks that you are using polite speech. The “to be” is included in いadjective itself.
I hope it helps!
Cheers!