101 Things to Know Before Getting a Dog. Susan Ewing M.
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Название: 101 Things to Know Before Getting a Dog
Автор: Susan Ewing M.
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Биология
isbn: 9781621871248
isbn:
Co-ownership contracts may mean a lower price initially and can be beneficial to both parties, but think carefully before you agree to a co-ownership. If there are conditions such as showing or breeding, are you interested in spending the time and money to show a dog? Do you want to deal with a female in season until it’s time to breed her? If something goes wrong, then what?
The bottom line is that contracts are designed to protect both parties, but you need to understand the terms. If you don’t like the terms, and you and the seller can’t agree, it’s time to look for another reputable breeder.
A Perfect Match
The breeder’s questions are not meant to prevent you from getting a dog; rather, they are a tool to make sure that you get the right dog.
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Mixed Breeds
One advantage to a mixed breed is that the initial cost will be lower. When you buy a purebred puppy from a reputable breeder, you are paying for all of the health checks and careful study that went into the breeding. You are paying for a known commodity as far as size, amount of fur, activity level, and general temperament. With a mixed breed, you may not be able to meet either parent. You won’t know if the puppy is carrying the genes for progressive blindness or whether he is predisposed to hip dysplasia.
Unless someone has intentionally bred two purebreds to create a mixed breed, like a Goldendoodle, or you know who the puppy’s parents were, there’s no way to know what a mixed-breed dog’s background is unless you have a DNA test done. Before spending some time with the dog, you won’t know if he will be protective, or love water, or have a tendency to bay at the moon.
Try to find out as much as you can about a mixed-breed puppy or dog. Rescue groups usually put their dogs in foster homes, where they are able to live in a family environment, which may include children, other dogs, or other pets. In this way, the rescue is able to learn about the dog’s traits and behavior. In shelters, volunteers are often able to tell how a dog reacts to other dogs or to cats as well as the people who visit the shelter to look at the dogs.
If you’ve fallen in love with a roly-poly puppy and you don’t care how much fur he’ll have as an adult or whether he’ll grow up to weigh 14 or 40 or 140 pounds, go ahead and follow your heart. Mixed breeds offer just as much love, fun, and companionship as any purebred can and can even enjoy most of the performance events that a purebred can.
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Pet Stores
While there may be pet stores with healthy, well-socialized puppies, most pet store stock comes from puppy mills, where the only concern is cranking out “product.” It’s best to steer clear. Besides not having any health checks and possibly being the product of tight inbreeding, many puppies end up being in the store well past the optimal time for socialization. Some may be months old before they ever even set foot on grass. You may be buying both health problems and temperament instabilities when you buy from a pet store, and most pet stores offer no guarantees and won’t take back a puppy once he’s sold. Pet-store puppies frequently cost more than healthy puppies from reputable breeders, and the pet store will not be there to answer questions and guide you like a breeder or rescue volunteer would.
Many pet supply stores, however, do open their doors to shelters and rescue groups, giving them a chance to showcase their available animals, and that’s a good way to meet several dogs of different ages, sizes, and energy levels.
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Adopting from a Shelter
Shelters are full of dogs, both purebred and mixed breed, whose original owners didn’t take the time to research what kind of dog would be best for their families. They fell in love with puppies who grew too big or too hairy or too active. If you’re actively looking for a dog, visit your local shelter on a regular basis because new dogs come in frequently. If you’re looking for a specific breed, ask if they’ll call you if they ever get that breed in. A friend of mine did just that and ended up with the Dalmatian he wanted.
While most dogs in shelters are adults, you may find puppies from time to time. The drawback to getting a mixed-breed puppy from a shelter is that, while you may be able to guess at the puppy’s lineage, you won’t really be able to tell how big or small the dog will be as an adult.
Another drawback with shelters is that your selection may be limited. Even if you’ll be perfectly happy with a mixed breed, you may still have preferences as to size, coat type, or activity level. Small, cute dogs are the first to get adopted. Black dogs are frequently last. Depending on your region, pit bulls and pit bull crosses may be in the majority at your local shelter. Pit bulls can make wonderful pets for those who want an active, strong, short-coated dog. If you’re looking for something smaller and fluffier, you may have a long wait before the dog of your dreams is at the shelter.
Look Online
Many shelters and rescue groups post dogs available for adoption on the Internet. Some popular sites are Petfinder.com, Adoptadog.com, and Petcha.com. Using these sites, you can check out adoptable dogs all across the country. Click on a dog that interests you, and you’ll get more information about that dog, including how to contact the group that has him.
Some shelters network with other area shelters to help a wider range of dogs find homes. Some shelters may also have foster homes that take in dogs to learn more about their personalities, such as whether they are good with other dogs, with cats, or with children. The shelter itself may work with the dogs to do some temperament testing and learn more about them. Our local shelter has a “test cat” that they use to determine how a dog will react to cats, but not all shelters do that. If you have small children or other pets, you need to consider this before you adopt.
Animal shelters may not have many adoption requirements, but shelters are typically overcrowded and may not know too much about the available dogs unless they’ve had volunteers spend time with the dogs. Author Caroline Coile, writing in ShowSight magazine (March 2016) says, “While many fine dogs come from shelters, it is truly a case of adopter beware. Adopters should ask about a dog’s history, reason for surrender, and, if possible, should talk to [the] former owner. Caveats such as ‘doesn’t like men/women/children’ or ‘has nipped on occasion’ or ‘must have experienced owner’ may be red flags.”
Sometimes dogs are surrendered to shelters complete with veterinary records and registration papers, if applicable, but this is not the norm. However, sometimes the shelter can find out something about the dog’s background from the person surrendering the dog.
In the Mix
Our first dog came from a shelter, and we were told that she was a St. Bernard/German Shepherd Dog mix. I think that was pretty accurate, but at that time, I didn’t realize that giant breeds like St. Bernards take about two years to fully mature. I thought that, at six months, Ginger was about as big as she’d get. I was wrong. Had I done a little research on giant breeds, I’d have known that Ginger was going to keep growing.
It didn’t СКАЧАТЬ