Questions about dog adoption

[josie89]

Some shelters do temperament evaluations. That helps you know more about what you're getting into. We got a border collie/shephard mix as an adult and had him 14 yrs. Couldn't ask for a better dog. Three years ago we got a 6-yr-old Peke off Petfinder. Also a good dog. It's like they really appreciate having a home. A lot of these dogs are house trained. Makes me sick how people get tired of the pet and toss them away.

 

[Akane]

It sounds as if you are determined to get a dog from a shelter. Mostly, the best dogs go to new owners first thing on a Monday morning. (It's kindof like going to the store when they have a big sale.)
HOWEVER, **sigh**, if you won't look for a puppy locally or on the net--people sell mixed breeds, too, you know, like how I got my other dog--this is what to look for at a shelter

This sounds like you are a bit against shelter dogs and I see a lot of misinformation in your post. The absolute last thing I would ever do and I would probably stop talking to anyone who did it and didn't see the error of it immediately is go looking for some idiot selling mixed breeds for money particularly in online classified ads. If it's a real accident where the person entirely planned to spay/neuter their dog and didn't get it done for some good reason plus they had done everything logically possible to contain it and it escaped to breed then I would take a mixed breed pup for a very small fee. Another exception is someone I know who responsibly breeds great pyrenese and lives next to someone that responsibly breeds akbash. One of the akbash males managed to escape his pen while the owner was on vacation and get into the pen with the pyrenese female. Otherwise anyone charging $100s for a mixed breed is dishonest in my opinion. Anyone purposely breeding mixed breeds should be shot unless they've gone through even more than the good breeders that are breeding purebreds because the mixing of different traits results in even less predictability than normal breeding circumstances. Breeds should only be crossed when the person has a very specific goal in mind, both dogs are exceptional examples of their breed and those goals, and the person has plenty of experience already. Otherwise you are just making mutts.

As for finding a breeder pup I might start on the internet but I would never ever rely on classifieds sites or similar to find a breeder. I would suggest starting with a registry or club and talking to the breeders they have listed online to find someone with puppies in your price range who is still responsible. Any dogs being purposely bred should have complete health testing and a known genetic background as well as being of excellent temperament. I make no exceptions on that. Preferably the breeder should also not breed any female more than twice in it's lifetime and should not have more litters than they can spend time with each puppy and dog individually every day. I make very minor exceptions on those last 2 providing everything else is better than good. Be wary of any breeder that has to rely on classified ads to sell their dogs. Most who have good quality dogs and breed responsibly have a waiting list for their puppies or at minimum many contacts with others who like that breed to find buyers for their pups.

I do have 2 purebred akc registered dogs so I have gone the route of finding good breeders. We also have had all shelter dogs prior to this and like I said I'm now doing fostering for a breed rescue and looking to adopt if the right dog comes along from there. I've dealt with many of the possible sources you can get a dog from.

As for more dogs going to homes on monday it may depend on your location but that's not even close to true in my experience here. For one even breed rescues have a 24hr waiting period and many shelters have a week long waiting period (this I don't actually agree with). Second many people go look at dogs over weekends not week days. Majority of meeting times we've set up have been on Friday-Sunday and monday or tuesday is actually a slow time both for the fosters and the shelter I do dog training classes at. Even if there are days that more people come it doesn't mean there are days that have fewer dogs. Aside from breeder and puppy mill seizures the number of dogs that need to go into the shelter or foster homes is usually greater than the number being adopted so there is never a day where the shelter or rescue has fewer animals than any other day. Unfortunately there are only days where they end up with more than any other day and cages have to be crammed into hallways while they send out emails and phone calls to anyone and everyone looking for fosters and other shelters or rescues that can take in the excess so they don't have to pts or turn them away.​

 

[fowltemptress]

Thank you for the replies. I've sent my in-laws the link to this thread so that they can view your experiences for themselves. They're very excited. Last visit they made I checked to see that our dogs were still here, his father wants a dog so bad.

I was looking up some rescues out of curiosity, to see if I might want to go that route for my next dog . . . wow. The applications all seem very nosy and the adoption fee for even an older, special needs, or mutt is only a couple hundred dollars less than if I went to get one from a reputable breeder. Granted, my particular breed of dog that I like isn't as high priced as say, bull dogs or something like that, so maybe it's worth it for people who prefer the pricier breeds, but yeesh. I'd much rather pay the extra few hundred bucks and know what I'm getting. Are all rescues like the ones I'm finding? The shelter I worked at seemed more reasonable, but of course they didn't specialize in a certain breed. The money, application, and home check is no object to my SO's parents, but I'm just not seeing any incentive to adopt when they charge an arm and a leg anyway. I can understand the snooping a bit, because several of the dogs look to have had hard lives and they're wanting to be careful that they never have to go through that again, but some of them seem bound and determined to make sure you're willing to keep the poor dog in a plastic bubble to protect it from the world . . . and of course they can always turn you down, which would eat me alive with worry. I'm glad other people are happy with adoption, but I couldn't do it. Thanks again for all the great replies, and it's so nice to hear about all the dogs who have found happy homes.

 

[luvarabhorses]

When I said rescues I meant the SPCA. In Maryland it was $100. In Delaware,SPCA, my last dog was $20 because it was older, already fixed and had all of it's shots.

In Arkansas, the SPCA charges $40 I think.

The rescues do tend to ask a lot of questions but I think you can get those dogs and be in a different state.

Hope it goes great!!!!