a noun
The phrase "the beloved family dog" is also the subject of the sentence. The subject of a sentence is always a noun. The noun is then followed by the verb or verb phrase. In this case, it's the verb loved. Another way to check and see if a word is a noun is to put an article before it. Articles are the, a , an. These articles automatically tell you that a noun is next. Sometimes there are a few adjectives between the article and the actual noun, but the noun is there. The phrase "the beloved family dog" starts with the article the which indicates it is a noun.