Can you justify getting a purebred instead of a shelter animal?

In My Humble Opinion
21

We loved our last dog, but he was something of a problem. Aggressive. Very aggressive. To the point where we couldn’t have guests over (or else we’d have to keep him in the basement, where he’d cry the entire time). Although he was fine with the family, he was NOT with others. He bit people. We were very nervous about him, and wouldn’t let him mix with others. As much as we loved him, he put a real crimp in our lifestyle, and we decided after he died that we’d buy our next dog for temperament, first and foremost.

After researching, we decided we’d get either a lab or a golden retriever, and our research also indicated a reputable breeder was the best way to go. Less health issues. More care taken to breed dogs consistent with the breed’s characteristics (in this case, temperament being the crucial one). We ended up with a blond lab, Sammy, who is the sweetest dog in the world, just as labs are advertised. He loves everyone. We have frequent parties now, and Sammy mixes with everybody. It really changed our lives, honestly.

If I had to do it again (I guess we will someday), I would in a second.

22

Getting adult dogs has really worked out for me so I think I’ll continue getting rescue dogs. Crazy Ole Bob Ranger and Gideon Louis weren’t from shelters, but were rescued by private rescuers and are very sweet if hairy boys. I went this route initially because they didn’t cost upwards of $600 each.

23

I don’t think there’s anything people have to justify if they get a purebred dog from a breeder (speaking as someone who got his first Cavalier as an abused adult from the pound and subsequently has had two more* purchased from people with a breeding pair). If you like the look and known qualities of a purebred, fine.

What I’d save at least semi-censure for are people who buy purebreds from pet shops, since these stores often get their dogs from puppy mills where animals are kept in inhumane conditions and bred far too often. Or criticize folks who don’t get their dogs/cats spayed or neutered, and contribute to the oversupply of animals who wind up being abandoned or euthanized.
Me and current beast, approaching his 15th birthday.

24

I can make the opposite argument. Assuming breeders only breed enough to meet market needs, if dudes stop buying dogs from breeders and just adopt, there’s that many less dogs.

It’s a **GOOD **thing to adopt, but it’s not bad to buy- from a reputable breeder, of course.

25

Hey Zsofia. Nice to meet a fellow westie owner.

I got kitty rather than a pound pup because I wanted to have a good idea of size temperment & shedding. I did not know I would be purchasing the Liberace of the dog world. He actually gets pissy if I take him for a walk without some girly sweater or collar.

26

Ye olde, “Put the nice guys out of business since the bad guys aren’t going to stop” approach… :wink:

27

I grew up with nothing but pound puppies (and kitties), and when I married, this continued.
When our oldest kid was about 10 and our must-chase-tennis-ball Vizsla mix was 13 and very grey, I began thinking about some other kind of dog, a mellower temperament, and that’s how we ended up with the first English Mastiff. We met a Mastiff, talked to his breeder, fell in love with the breed. We only have purchased from reputable breeders, who carefully screen their potential buyers.
I like the predictability of a purebred.
They certainly are not all carbon copies of each other, but for the first time in my life I do have some idea of what to expect.
We would like to get a buddy for our current Mastiff, who lost his dear friend last summer. When the time is right to take another dog into our lives, we might look into a Mastiff rescue. That Gentle Giants Rescue site looks awesome, but we are on the other side of the country from them.
I will probably always continue with rescued kitties. Our current cat came to us from the pinewoods.

28

We have a retired racing greyhound and a rehomed boxer (third home’s the charm I guess) so I feel like we really have the best of both worlds - needy dogs of delightful breeds found their place with us. However, I would like my next dog to be a newfie (hi-fives EJsGirl) and while rescue is an option, there are a few reasons I’d really like to go with the puppy-from-a-breeder route; health problems are bigger as the dog is bigger, so I want a dog from someone who breeds for health, especially for avoiding hip and elbow dysplasia. I’d like to take socialization and training issues in hand before the pup outweighs me. A solid temperament is of huge importance, too - I want a dog from someone who really cares about this stuff.

A breed rescue dog often is a backyard-bred or puppy mill dog, who later on needs a new home. Responsible breeders want to know if you can’t keep your (their) dog, and generally have a policy of the dog coming back to them if you can’t keep it. I don’t mind taking a gamble on a random-bred dog sometimes, but I want to be pickier this time around.

We lost our first greyhound to osteosarcoma, and I am thankful for every day we have with the 8 year old boxer, because his breed is notorious for genetic health issues. I guess I’d like to minimize the concerns next time, and simultaneously support the efforts of people who are breeding against heartbreaking genetic diseases in dogs.

There are so many sorts of dogs, and one sort is simply not substitutable for another. If a basset hound is perfect for your lifestyle, a border collie could very well be a nightmare. I respect responsible breeders who take the wellbeing of their breed in hand. I respect shelter and rescue people enormously as well, and mixes, mutts, and ‘used dogs’ are perfectly wonderful. The only silver lining to dog lifespans being so short is that we have the opportunity to get to know several dogs over our lifetime - so there’s room enough for all sorts.

FYI about Gentle Giants, I have read of some rather unsavory stuff about their program. Their adoption fee is absurdly high - three times that of any other rescue I’ve heard of - and apparently you need to commit to feeding their own branded dog food for life. Other stuff is google-able.

29

Oh my! Pictures! We want pictures!

As for me, the only dogs I will ever have are pugs (I’ve been assimilated) and I’ve never seen one in a shelter. Heck, if I did find a pug in a shelter, chances are I’d take it just because I couldn’t bear for that lil cutey snookums pugly wugly to be all alone in a big scary shelter. Actually, now that I think about it, I feel the same about all dogs in a shelter. Which is why I stay away, I can’t possibly adopt them all.

30

I have always found my dogs at the Humane Society. About two months ago, I had to put my last dog down for medical reasons. (Very sad, you’d think it’d get easier after a while, but it never does.) I started looking for another dog, went to the Humane Societies in the metro area, went to quite a few foster dog homes, looked, looked, looked. At one foster home, one of their own personal dogs was a merle Great Dane. I saw him, thought, what the heck am I messing around with, that’s what I want. I was raised with Danes, and my husband has asked for years to get one. I always convinced him we didn’t want one, they are a great breed, but they are huge. Found a reputable breeder, waited 'til the puppy was old enough, on Friday drove 5 hours there, 5 hours home to get the dog.

Why did I change my mind from always having mutts to going with a breeder? Economics, partially. When I saw a mixed breed black lab, 5 months old, for $410, I though that was crazy. When the least expensive shelter dog was $200, anywhere, I started to reassess the premium I was paying for rescuing a dog. Yes, I know they have their shots, most are spayed or neutered, etc. But when I can get a purebred, see the parents, know the bloodline, see the environment it was in, and pay fractionally more than a shelter dog, my options and opinions change. I have never had a bad dog, mixed or otherwise. (My parents had one, but that was their own fault, not the dog’s.)
And for everyone who helped in this thread, thanks.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=403470&highlight=puppy+dahfisheroo

Cookie was a serious contender, but we ended up going with Sadie.

31

Me too, actually (although one of our family Newfs did show up through champion in the ring). Especially with big breeds, I would be very wary of an unknown bloodline.

With the Gentle Giants rescue I linked to earlier, you could at least get an accurate bill of current health on an adult dog.

Next up for us is probably a Great Dane, although I would love an Irish Wolfhound. We have been in Newfoundlands for about 10 years, but after Angus dies I don’t think I could have another one, at least not right away. They broke the mold when that dog was born.

32

My current dog is a pound hound. I found her by the “Montana Pets on the Net.” group. For $35 I got a four-year old husky who’s gentle, good with kids and cats, likes to hike and talks ALL the time.

I’ll continue to get pound hounds - I like malamutes and huskies but they are not good dogs for the casual dog owner. They can be stubborn, aggressive and very dominance oriented. That makes them hard to place sometimes.

33

Me three! Fellow westie owner.

I can’t justify getting a purebred over a shelter animal. I do donate to animal charities, but I still feel a bit guilty about it.

I’m going back and forth right now about adopting an adult dog that needs a home.

34

If you are going to a shelter you are taking in a dog who was less likely to find a home. If I am buying apples for a pie, I tend to pick the ugly ones as they are less likely to be purchased my someone else and more likely to be dumped. Some people are just looking and buy on impulse. They never buy the ugly apples and they never get dogs from a shelter.

35

I’ve only ever seen one dog with behavioral issues which was the fault of the dog, not poor training.

My mother and stepfather once bought a pure-bread Dane puppy that had something very, very wrong with him, mentally. Even medications and sessions with a dog behaviorist couldn’t help him. They eventually had to put the puppy down when he became too large and strong to physically control. They had met the parents, and the breeder seemed to be reputable with none of the other customers they spoke to reporting any sort of problems in this area. It was just a fluke of nature, it seems.

36

We also had the best of both for 2 of our (now sadly departed) dogs. One was a female St. Bernard, adult, obtained for FREE from a reputable breeder. She apparently had some sort of hormonal issue, would not conceive, but ate everything in sight. She had to be sequestered when the other dogs were fed so she would not wolf down everybody’s food. She was, obviously, a detriment to the breeder, who was only too happy to give her away to a loving family. Once she was spayed, the hormonal issues seemed to go away and she became a wonderful companion. Other than her not being a potential mother, she was in excellent health, had a fine family history and a sweet, loving temperament.

One thing with big dogs like the Saints is that their temperament is not fully mature for about 2 years. Up until then you really don’t know what they will be like. Very rarely, a Saint will turn “rough” regardless of good treatment and training. If that happens you have zero choice other than euthanasia, since a nasty-tempered 175-pound animal cannot be tolerated. When you know the parents of the puppies to be gentle, you have less chance of this occurrence.

We also obtained a pure-bred adult Weimaraner whose owners were for some reason I can’t remember unable to keep him. It had nothing to do with the dog himself, and again we had a known quantity, a fully-immunized, healthy and gentle companion.

37

Absolutely. My wife, myself and my son are all highly allergic to dogs and cats so we were limited in breed choices. As much as we would love to adopt from a pound, there was no way of knowing if the dog was a mix that could trigger asthma attacks. We looked at many breeds and settled on a Bichon Frise (or Bitchy Frizzy as we affectionately call the breed). No shedding, easy temper, great with kids and fun. Besides I couldn’t find a chinese crested cute. Especially after seeing how some of them age.
It breaks my heart to see dogs at pounds and everyone I know with a rescued dog has been thrilled but it is not to be for us. And hairless cats just look weird.

38

We were looking around for a dog a few years ago and we looked in every shelter in Toronto. Bear in mind that’s a BIG city.

We didn’t see a single suitable dog, not one. We wanted a small dog, and the shelters had nothing but big dogs, almost all of them pit bulls, rotteweilers, mastiffs, or some other huge, mean looking dog. We saw two small dogs the entire time and both were already spoken for.

39

I’ll fess up to having purebred cats (two purchased, the other two rescued*). We had a bad experience with shelter cats who turned out to have behavioral issues and expensive health problems to boot. When mine died, we decided that maybe it was like dogs, and we would get some predictability with a purebred cat. We chose an uncommon breed we found interesting, fairly close to the wild, and a breeder who bred for health and tempermant before looks-- which is pretty rare for cat breeders. They are Turkish Vans. We got a pair of brothers.

Somedays I do feel guilty. However, to be honest-- they are the greatest cats I’ve ever met. They are freakishly smart, entertaining, friendly (well socialized from a very tiny age). . . exactly as advertised. And all four of them are like that. They love to visit the vet (the two we trained from kittenhood will stand still on the table for him). They adore people, and have been through three moves, numerous roomates, furniture and litterbox rearangement, and an airplane trip without batting an eyelash. They are fairly trainable. Most of the things people hate about cats they just don’t have or do.

They’re like cats for dog people (I’m a dog person). Would I do it again? I don’t know. I don’t think I want any other kind of cat, so it’s not like I’d be getting one from the shelter anyway. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten one back when we got the Vans. They are rare enough that you don’t see them in shelters.

(Though having your cat cannonball into the tub while you’re trying to take a bath gets old fast)

*a breeder turned collector and just let her cats breed like mad, ending up with 111 in a small house that was raided by the local SPCA. We were part of an impromptu breed rescue formed to find homes for these fairly rare cats before they were put down. We took two as “temporary” fosters. . . 3 years ago)

40

We have purebred cats (4 of them–two female Russian Blues and two male Singapuras). All four are fixed. We got them from reputable breeders, for a few reasons: first, we love the personalities of the breeds (Both are known for beeing sweet, loving, intelligent, and low-maintenance, though Sings, especially when young, are quite a bit more energetic). Second, we love they way they look. And third and most importantly, we wanted to know what we were getting. All of these cats were raised in loving homes by loving families. They were socialized from kittenhood to use their litterbox, get along with people and other cats, and generally be an easy fit into a household.

That’s not to say that shelter cats can’t be every bit as good a fit, but it’s a bit more of a gamble. We had a bad experience with a previous (non-purebred) cat years ago (he wasn’t a shelter cat, but the people we got him from didn’t socialize him well, he had many issues including litterbox problems, and these, plus the fact that the spouse was allergic and hadn’t started treatments yet, made us have to find him another home. We weren’t happy about this, since we were attached to the little guy by then, but we didn’t have too many options).

Our fifth cat is a good compromise–she’s not a shelter cat, but she was a foundling who was raised by one of the techs at our vet’s, who found her and her siblings orphaned near a road. She is every bit as sweet, loving, and well socialized as our purebreds (and every bit as pretty!–she’s a brown tabby). We love them all equally and they’re all happy healthy cats.