Adopting a Dog: Dopers' Experiences?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ll be back in my house with a fenced in back yard soon and have been browsing several adoption sites (pounds, Craig’s List and a few breeders). Just seeing if anyone has anylessons learned on the adoption process. I’d like a female German Shepherd. A puppy would be OK, but plan A is to adopt an older dog. I have no other pets and plan to keep the dog indoors.

I suspect that many dogs get put up on Craig’s List or taken to the pound due to separation anxiety, constant escapes or aggression issues. These behaviors might not manifest in a one-time meeting either at the pound or the seller’s house. The pound sites seem to give honest reasons why the dog is there, but Craig’s List has a suspicious numbers of “we just can’t devote enough time to Rex” listings - sounds like a cop out for a problem dog. I’m not trying to be cold-hearted, but I don’t want to be suckered into a bad match by dishonest sellers. Any tips on how to adopt a good dog besides picking one based on a single twenty minute walk around the block? I’ve hear of the Volhard puppy aptitude test and the counter-arguments, too. Not sure if I trust it all that much. I plan to make a vet’s check out a prerequisite for any Craig’s List transaction.

2

I can only give you my personal experience when we have adopted our dogs. Generally I can get a pretty good idea of a dog’s disposition by the way it initially reacts to meeting me. If you come up to a doggie in the pound and he/she is friendly with tail wagging it is a pretty good bet that it’s a happy dog.

I quickly noticed dogs that were scared or had problems as we walked through the pound. They would not make eye contact, no wagging tail, seemed standoffish and such. You can really tell a lot about a dog by the way it acts upon your initial meeting.

Congrats on getting a new friend. Our newest is a Great Dane puppy that my wife got me for my 45th birthday. He is 6 months old now and growing faster than I imagined he would. One word of caution, you said that you wanted a female dog. Make sure that she is fixed as dealing with their doggie “periods” is no fun at all. Best of luck!

3

Thank you for considering a “repurposed” pet!

If you have your heart set on a German Shepherd Dog, my advice is to contact a reputable breed-specific GSD rescue group that keeps their dogs in foster homes. Fill out an application and let them match you with a dog. They know their dogs and this improves your chance of a happy match. More info on this below.

No, it’s a cop out for a problem owner.

CraigsList/Kijiji/etc.: If the person is rehoming the dog and not making money off the transaction, I have no problem with that. As a rough guide, the rehoming fee should be comparable to adoption fees at area animal shelters. You are smart to be skeptical about depending on the owner’s word as to what the dog is really like. I help out a number of rescue groups, and while most people surrendering a dog to a rescue group are pretty honest, the folks who dump their dogs at the pounds or “get rid of” them through free ads either have no idea what their dog is like or lie to conceal some health or behavioral problem that is usually not the dog’s fault.

“Dog pounds”: Public “open admissions” animal control facilities can be a good source for pets, but it depends on the facility. The city facility where I live offers for adoption only the most adoptable and adaptable pets. However, until the dogs are in a home environment, you won’t really know things about it such as house-training, counter-surfing, raiding trash cans, fear of thunderstorms, fence jumping, digging out, etc.

Animal shelters: usually private and non-profit. Some are better than others at properly assessing a dog’s personality and matching it with an adopter. The personality profiles that former owners (if known) fill out should be viewed as skeptically as the ones I mentioned above.

Breeders: if you buy a dog from a breeder, you have to research them very thoroughly to make sure they observe ethical breeding practices. Breeders should focus on improving the breed, not just making a buck. There isn’t room in this post to explain fully what that research entails, so here’s a link to get you started: The German Shepherd Dog Club of America - Ethical Breeders. The GSDCoA’s site also has info on adopting a rescued GSD.

I don’t know who’s dissing the Volhards, but I’ve read their books and magazine articles on training and “drives”. I’ve implemented many of their methods with my Dobes and had success/improved results. YMMV.

4

Missed the edit window… Forgot to add my standard rant…

The GSD as a breed is prone to certain serious inherited health problems (see the link in my earlier post). Ethical breeders screen their breeding stock and will not breed any dog that has a serious inherited health problem or is likely to pass one to its progeny.

Please do not buy a dog from someone who says they don’t test their stock for those health problems “because my dogs are free of” those diseases. These breeders are either woefully ignorant or dishonest.

Also, please don’t buy from breeders who denigrate showing or trialing dogs. They’ll say the show world is filled with arrogant, hyper-competitive snobs and that they just want to produce “nice family pets”. There are many nice family pet dogs languishing in dog pounds, animal shelters and in rescue that need new homes. We don’t need clueless breeders producing any more.

I’m getting off my soapbox now. JMO and thanks for reading it.

5

If you’ve never had a dog before, I would recommend an older dog. Puppies can be…well, let’s just say there’s a reason they are sooooo cute. You will need to spend a lot of time to properly socialize the puppy. It doesn’t have to be an elderly dog.

Older dogs will be potty-trained and neutered. If not, that’s kind of a red flag.

There are usually a lot of very nice older dogs at pounds and other rescue places. Breed-specific rescues are good, too–they know all about the typical characteristics of their breed, and the animals are often in home-based foster care rather than in kennels.

Going to the pound is like the third great lie: “Yeah, I’m just gonna look at what they have. Not gonna decide on one today.” Right.

6

Thanks very much for the great answers. This is the info that I couldn’t find in my online research. I plan to have the dog neutered and microchipped. Not sure about pet health insurance yet. I know hip displasia is something to look out for in GSDs.

There seems to be a lot of GSD breeders not in it to make a buck, per se, but since the demand for working dogs is so high, there’s got to be a bit of business interest there . I’m hoping it’s balanced by the good business sense of producing quality dogs.

I’ve also considered starting off as a foster owner. That could gain me some owner experience and help out the local shelter.

7

Oh, since it is your first time as a dog owner please let me suggest that you use the crate training method. I am not sure how well received that my suggestion will be here, but it has worked great for us. We use a very large crate that is “see through” on all sides so our “babies” don’t feel like they are in jail. They are for the most part only crated when we leave or when we have just done something like mopped the floor. The crate will save you from coming home and finding your shoes, couch and tv remotes from being eaten and destroyed. Our dogs actually love their “home” and will at times go in them even though they don’t have to. We leave the door open during the day and it seems as if they prefer to lie in there sometimes (although Gunner the Great Dane’s favorite spot is taking up the majority of the couch!).

Just a thought, but I have raised pups with and without a crate (or kennel, whichever word you prefer) and it seems that using the crate is much much easier on both owner and doggie.

8

GSDs aren’t my breed, so I don’t know what the general market is like. While there are breeders who take great pride in producing healthy, temperamentally sound dogs with dispositions you can live with, whenever money is involved, there will be those who exploit their animals and rip off their clients. Protect yourself and do your due diligene by researching breeders thoroughly.

If you decide to buy from a breeder, check with the GSD rescue group closest to that breeder. They can tell you if they’ve heard things such as: the breeder dumping dogs at the pound; not matching the right dog to a buyer, resulting in unhappy buyers getting rid of their dogs; not taking back dogs they’ve produced; whether the rescue has seen many temperamentally unsound dogs being produced by the breeder; and other unethical behavior.

This is a great way to get started in a breed. Rescue groups always need good, safe foster homes for their dogs (and cats, birds, horses, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, reptiles, pot-bellied pigs, sugar gliders, chinchillas…)

9

I have never really adopted a dog, but at closely tied to the dog world. One of the best sources for dogs with a predictable personality is the rescue dogs. These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them. You may find a rescue near you starting at Dog Breeds - Types Of Dogs - American Kennel Club The rescues charge a fee to help cover their expenses, but is much less than the price of a puppy plus all its medical expenses the first year.

There is a lot of lip service among breeders about doing health checks and bad mouthing puppies from other sources. Talk to vets. They know who breeds their dogs and who does health checks. It turns out those doing hip x-Rays are few and far between. Anybody wanting to check if a breeder really did have the hip X-rays done can go to http://www.offa.org/search.html

Sadly, many owners get puppies they hardly have a chance with from so called reputable breeders, or at least in the view of the trainers they go to for help, http://www.apdt.com/veterinary/assets/pdf/Silvani_JF05.pdf

Oh, check www.petfinders.com too.

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Pine Fresh Scent, see this article from slate.com, posted last week:
Animal rescue: Want to adopt a dog or cat? Prepare for an inquisition.
“No Pet For You–Want to adopt a dog or cat? Prepare for an inquisition at the animal rescue.”

You might want to avoid a situation in which you’re presumed guilty and must endure a torturous process to prove your innocence.

11

Here’s my anecdote. Take from it what you will. We were probably just lucky.

We went to a local shelter with our kids. We walked among the cages. it was chaotic. Many dogs were barking and yapping and jumping against the door as we walked by. We saw one black lab mix who was sitting in his cage calmly and alertly. We took that as a good sign.

If I remember correctly, the sign indicated he had been brought in that day. I think it had the date on it, not a generic “today”). Seven years old. (“Owner said fiancee does not want a dog.”)

We took him for a walk in the little yard with the kids. He was calm and friendly. We decided to take him.

Seven years now and he is still going strong, if older. He was well trained: never takes food off the table, doesn’t bite. Does a little bow when we dish up his food.

So, my two takeaways from this are: if you can find a dog in the shelter who “keeps his head while all around him are losing theirs,” that could be a very good sign; and if you can find a dog who has not been in the shelter environment for very long, that also can be helpful.

12

Moved from GQ to IMHO.

samclem

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Here’s the story with our baby. And he’s over 150 lbs. now. He GREW! :smiley: And I just noticed I didn’t mention that he’s a German Shepherd.

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Pine Fresh, the thing to keep in mind is that dogs, even though they are better than people, may still have problems. When you take in an older dog it may have adjustment problems, and you never know how any particular dog will turn out, even if you take him in as a puppy. If you have no experience with a canine BFF, I’d suggest get some first. Find friends or family that have a dog you can spend time with, perhaps dog-sitting for a while. Even though dogs are far more capable of self-sufficiency than humans, they get lazy and spoiled quickly, and will con you into doing everything for them. And since they are smarter than you, you’ll fall for it. So get some experience before jumping into the deep end. Also note, a large dog like a shepherd will eat a lot, and dogs have to get shots and checkups that are getting expensive these days. And despite the way some humans treat their betters, you can’t just leave them alone for long periods of time. They are members of your family and deserve to be included in as much of family life as possible. It’s tough because society discriminates against dogs. They aren’t allowed in restaurants, even though people who put ketchup on chicken are.

15

Nashiitashii and I have three adopted dogs. One from a no-kill rescue, one from the internet, and one from the pound. Having done all the different methods I can only give you the benefit of my experience; yours will vary.

No-kill and breed specific rescues: These people are very dedicated. They tend to foster the dogs properly in a home setting and try to do the grunt work of basic training to make the animals more adoptable. They are good resource if you truly have your heart set on a specific breed as opposed to a mixed breed. On the bad side though, they tend to be slow to respond, drag out the process for an inordinate amount of time, insist on a lot of intrusive visits, background checks, and tend to be very expensive to adopt from. They also tend to have a higher percentage of animals with physical or emotional issues. When adopting our third dog we quickly lost all patience with the breed rescues in our area after several weeks of nonsense and went to the pound instead. Our first mixed breed dog was adopted from a no-kill group that was having an adopt-a-thon at the local petsmart. She is a wonderful dog and came potty trained.

Our Internet dog is special needs. We got her for free off of freecycle, and she needed a bit of medical attention for starvation and sterilization. After that though she has been the sweetest animal I have ever owned. Despite her slight retardation, she listens well and with her helper dog she is excellent and unafraid. Don’t be shy with people on the internet. ask them bluntly if the dog has behavioral issues. This can be the fastest and cheapest way to add a new member of your family.

Our newest and youngest came from the pound. He was a stray, but so far has been a perfect little gentleman. He was neutered and is being treated for his heartworm at the expense of the pound. Unlike many breed rescues or internet dogs, our shelter will provide continuing medical care at no cost until the conditions the animal arrived with have been cleared up. That is not to be sniffed at.

Generally, you should consider adopting a young adult or adolescent dog that has completed potty training and basic obedience. If you have your heart set on GSD, you will need to complete further obedience and canine good citizen courses if you want to take your buddy anywhere at all. Lots of places are enacting breed bans and GSDs are right at the top of the list after pittys and rottys.

16

Our experience with adopting came at the local animal shelter. They were up front about her previous abuse history and what we could expect.

The dog (a middle-aged Cavalier King Charles spaniel) was a bit shy at first but turned out to be a fine dog.

I’d put more faith in what a shelter told you than a private owner. The shelter has a reputation to think about and they don’t want to see a dog returned because of problems they didn’t share with you.

17

Let’s see - all three GSD’s I’ve owned have come from high-kill pounds. Mike was neurotic and had separation anxiety, but was the sweetest, most loving dog. However, I had to put burglar-proof locks on all my windows because he’d work at them until he got them unlocked and raised, then would go outside to visit the neighborhood. I lost him due to a mix of old age and veterinary incompetence. My two current shepherds are Andy and Wylie. Andy is 4 and last year had to have surgery for a torn CCL, but his hips are good. Wylie is three and has just been diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia.

My other dogs - Maggie is a standard poodle who was rejected from her first to homes for being a puppy. The breeder gave her to me. She’s an absolutely wonderful dog. Pat is an English Setter picked up at the local high-kill pound. A lost hunting dog, he’s happy as long as he has a bed and a food bowl. Sophie is a giant schnauzer mix, an accidental breeding between a giant schnauzer bitch and a travelin’ dog. I got her at 4 months from Craigslist. Jake is a doberman. I got him off Craigslist. A guy was moving and only wanted to take one of his dogs. He had some issues at first, I think he was bullied by the other dog, but he’s adapted well to being a farm dog.

StG

18

I should have mentioned before that Blackjack, the Best Dog Ever, is already my best friend, any other dog you find will be second rate next to him.

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Again, thanks. I always enjoy taking care of friends’ pets and don’t want to rush into anything that would be detrimental to the dog. I’ve heard many pounds allow volunteers to walk the dogs and socialize the cats. I’m going to check that option out too before I make any concrete decisions. I knew a couple who volunteered at the pound in the city I’m going back to and thought that was the coolest thing.

20

We adopted our dog from a rescue. The rescue just happened to be one that I was on the Board of at the time, so I knew a lot about the process and what to expect. While involved with this rescue, I had attended a couple of seminars with a local behaviorist and she taught us how to properly temperament test a dog. I was the one who temperament tested the dog I eventually adopted.

My dog is a chow/lab mix who was given up because of a lack of time and effort on the owners part. Her original owner died and the dog went to the daughter and her family. They didn’t walk her or really pay much attention to her and didn’t want to handle the responsibility. We got a call from the family because they wanted to re-home the dog. They filled out our questionnaire and I went and met her with another person in the rescue. I totally expected and out of control, wild, young lab. What I got was something else. She was the most awesome dog I ever temperament tested. Passed with flying colors. I had a foster home set-up for her, but called them and said I would find another dog for them, this one was going home with me. I took her home, told my husband that she was a foster, but I really thought she was the one we should keep. The owner had transferred ownership to the rescue, so I couldn’t just take her, we had to formally apply for adoption.

Once she got settled in we figured out that this dog was well trained and very eager to please. Knows standard commands and was very well behaved when she was given some time to get rid of her excess energy. Loves most dogs, cats, all people, babies and kids. She is a little funny around black people who are scared of dogs., but apparently that is not uncommon from what other dog owners have told me.

I have taken her to agility classes and we did a couple of obedience classes as well. She loved them. When I was doing educational outreach about rescue, she was my “prop”. I knew I could let her loose in a sea of children and she would just lay there and revel in the attention. I knew I could take her anywhere and she would adapt. She’s been a great companion, she’s a bit older and a lot slower, but still such an awesome dog.

tl;dr-You can find really great dogs in rescue, they do exist.