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Dog Rescue and Dog Adoption (part 1)
Prospective dog buyers should consider rescuing and adopting an adult dog. When you and your family adopt an adult dog you will be embarking on a rewarding experience that not only saves a dog’s life but also results in gaining a loving new family member.
A. Advantages and Disadvantages of Adoption
There are advantages and disadvantages to adopting an adult dog compared to buying a new puppy. On the plus side, you know what your dog is going to look like when it grows older. Your rescued adult dog has probably been housetrained and may even have had some obedience training. Most adult dogs will bond fairly quickly with their new family and will require less patience and energy to train than socializing and training a new puppy.
On the negative side, you may be getting someone else’s problems by rescuing a dog that has been poorly socialized and trained. This might mean that you have to do a significant amount of socialization and re-training to re-house break and overcome problems like separation anxiety, dislike of children or fear of strangers.
B. Why Dogs Are Put Up For Adoption
People abandon, take their dogs to animal shelters or put up their dogs for adoption for a number of reasons. Sometimes circumstances change and owners die, lose their houses, move out of country or get a divorce. More often owners acquired the wrong dog for their lifestyle and find they can’t cope with their dog’s requirements. Many owners didn’t train and socialize their puppies properly and then find they can’t cope with the resulting unruly behavior. The good news is that it is never too late to retrain and correct an adult dog’s behavior and problems. The old adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” was not at all correct. However you can’t change a dog’s inherited characteristics and turn a very active dog into a ‘couch potato’.
C. Research Requirements
You must decide on what type of adult dog you and your family want and make sure that that breed’s temperament suits your lifestyle. Some do’s and don’ts are:
1. Don’t do the same thing that resulted in the most dogs being put up for adoption, and rescue a dog that doesn’t fit your lifestyle.
2. Don’t go to an animal shelter or breed rescue organization and acquire the best looking or cutest dog.
3. Don’t pick a dog breed because it was the one your family owned when you were a child.
4. Do the research necessary to choose a dog that will be suited to your lifestyle. You never want to force the dog to change its inherited behavior characteristics to adapt to your lifestyle. Remember this is why many dogs end up in shelters and breed rescue organizations.
5. Do review our directory of breed of dogs to help you decide what kind of a dog you want. This directory will provide you with lots of information on each dog breed’s likelihood to tolerate children, and the breed’s exercise and grooming requirements. It will also provide information on which breeds are best for people with allergies and which breeds are heavy shedders.
D. Physical Characteristics
You and your family must decide on what type of dog you want to enjoy for the next 10 plus years of your lives. You will need to decide on what physical attributes you want in your adopted dog.
1. The size of your dog is important because the size of your home and yard may be a limiting factor. A very small apartment may not be suitable for a large dog. However more important than size is a dog’s energy and activity level. If you are not an active person and you do not have an active family that enjoys long daily walks or jogging with your dog, then don’t acquire an energetic dog.
2. The sexual characteristics are a consideration because there are more male dogs available for adoption. Male dogs can be more aggressive and active during their adolescence. Owners who didn’t take the time to socialize and train them properly when they were puppies now find that they can’t cope with the resulting behavior. Many of the larger animal shelters will spay and neuter their dogs to stop uncontrolled reproduction. Unless you are going to breed your dog it should be neutered. This is usually a good thing because neutered animals will be easier to manage.
3. Coat type can be a consideration for your climate conditions and also for the time and/or money you want to spend maintaining the dog’s coat. Some dogs like the Alaskan Malamute, the Boxer, and the French Bulldog do not like hot and humid conditions. Some dogs are heavy shedders which can really bother fastidious housekeepers. Some breeds need a lot of grooming and this will require either a lot of effort on your part or money to pay someone else to keep their coats under control.
4. The age of the dog you want is important because most dogs that end up in shelters are usually younger dogs between one and two years old. Owners will abandon or take their young dogs to shelters after they have outgrown their cute puppy stage and the owners can’t cope with their poorly trained dogs. However you may want an older dog that will be less active and can probably adjust better to being left alone while his owners are out the house. Don’t worry about retraining an older dog; it may just take a little more time and patience.
E. Breed Characteristics
You will also need to decide on what breed or dominant crossbreed characteristics are important to you and your family. If you decide that you want a mixed breed dog then you can jump ahead to Section G on ‘Choosing a Dog’. However if you want to know the likely physical and behavioral characteristics of your dog, then you should try and find a purebred dog or at least a crossbreed with predictable breed characteristics. Your can visit our directory of breed of dogs to identify the physical and behavioral characteristics that are important to your and your family. This site will allow you to look at a dog’s breed-related characteristics and help answer the following questions.
The various kennel clubs have assigned breeds to groups according to the purpose for which they were developed. Some breed characteristics are common across groups. Sighthounds have traits in common as do Terriers and Toys. The seven groups that are used by the American Kennel Club are explained and discussed in our article “Dog Breed Classification”.
"On To Part 2 of Dog Rescue and Dog Adoption"
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