So I am going to get a dog, hopefully within the next year. I’m beyond excited. All I have to do is move into a more dog-suitable house, but that is at the top of my list of priorities.
I have no breed loyalties, I just want one that’s medium-sized or larger, and is not an asshole.
I’ve always imagined getting one from the Humane Society. I have a number of friends who have done this with great success. (A small sample size, to be sure, but still a 100% success rate.)
Now, I have a friend who breeds CKC-registered yellow labs. They are beautiful, friendly, delightful, healthy dogs, and the friend is very wise in all things dog-related (as well as being the most reputable breeder imaginable).
She wants me to have one of their puppies. Partly because she wants them to go to good homes (and she would be happy to work out a payment plan if cost is an issue), but also because she has heard horror stories about pound puppies and she wants me to get the right dog for me.
I have always had dogs growing up but I’ve never had one of my own before, so I kind of feel that it would be nice to have a (as much as possible) guaranteed friendly, healthy one. But at the same time I would love to rescue one from the pound (or a breed rescue … but I would have to start another thread to figure out which breed!), and I know that her little labs won’t have any trouble finding homes.
Any advice? Any pound puppy stories to share, happy or horrifying?
Labs are great dogs - one of my favorite breeds. However, if you are going to be looking for a medium-to-large dog, you can literally save a dogs life by getting one from the pound. A lot of the information I read when I worked for the Humane Society stated that “large, black mixed breed dogs” are the hardest to find homes for. Lots of these dogs are lab mixes.
Go to the humane society. It’ll be cheaper than a pure-bred, and like Snakescatlady mentions, you’ll be saving a doggy’s life. Literally.
I got my dog from the pound. She’s a Chow mix, and the sweetest, most obedient, loyal, loving dog you’ll ever hope to meet. She was weird at first. She was a stray, so she was not at all social and not at all housebroken. It took a while to housebreak her and socialize her, but it was worth every second. I honestly feel like she knows that I saved her and thanks me every day. I can’t imagine a dog more sweet or more loyal.
Go to the pound. They’ll let you play with the dogs a bit before you choose one, and often times will know a bit of history on them. You’ll feel good about yourself after saving one.
Go to the pound. Rescue animals are 99.99999% of the time grateful for life that you rescued them from the pound. Also, you can get one already house broken and you will know that they have a specific temperament or personality quirk. There is no way of knowing what a puppy will grow into. If your friend is worried about finding homes for puppies, they shouldn’t’ve bred their dogs. Pay $50 at the pound, put the other $450 that you didn’t spend on a lab into an emergency fund for if the dog gets ill or injured and you will be a very responsible pet owner.
We drove down to New Jersey several years ago to rescue our Weimaramer (Chance) from a shelter. He is breathtakingly beautiful (I don’t have a picture posted online but, he looks like this. From the instant we got him he’s has been a complete love and has fit seamlessly into our household.
He’s extremely gentle, he even lets our little Pekingese (Delilah), who arrived in the house after him, hijack his food bowl while he’s trying to eat. He just backs off until she’s done then continues eating.
It a great feeling to give a home to a gentle and loving dog.
My favorite critters (cats and dogs) have ALL been rescues of one sort or another. If you really want a lab, and labs are just about my favorite dogs, I can promise you there will be labs or lab mixes at the pound. I would only go to a breeder if I was looking to get into showing dogs, not for a pet. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to, but I don’t want to deal with puppyhood and there’s a LOT of dogs out there that need homes.
I got my 2nd dog at a pound and he is great! He was already trained and he grew into a very loving dog. We’ve had him for over 10 years now. Get one from the pound! You’ll be saving a life! And mutts are cuter, I think, since they’ll have unique characteristics.
Thanks everyone! Now my doggie cravings are really getting bad …
Points of clarification: I do not have any loyalty towards labs. I am being offered a purebred lab, unbidden. All things being equal I’d probably lean more towards something that wouldn’t eat everything within reach. (Her labs are the only ones I have ever met without weight problems, and they live on a farm. I don’t think I could avoid having a fat lab in the city.)
Also, my friend is not worried about her pups finding homes. She just likes to make sure they find good homes, which is something any responsible breeder should do.
Good point about the puppyhood. Puppies are adorable but an awful lot of work. It would be nice to get a ready-made adult dog, fewer worries about chewing and housebreaking and so on.
I’m so happy to have my suspicion confirmed that pound rescues work out so well! Maybe my friend is just exhibiting purebred-breeder-anti-pound-puppy bias.
My father got both of his pure-bred black labs at the pound. The first one (Shadow) was an adult, but still young (3-ish, IIRC) and fully trained (didn’t bark, stayed just on the other side of the entry to the kitchen during meals, followed all kinds of commands, etc.) and his current one (Midnight) was just a little puppy. Wonderful, wonderful dogs, neither of which had any pound-related health problems at all. Definitely, go to the pound.
Since you asked, I will tell you my opinion of purebred dogs (note - not breeders, but the dogs themselves). I do not support the pure breeding of companion animals. Labs aren’t the worst example, but there are many varieties of dogs that, in my opinion, should not exist, period. There is an optimal body type for dogs, and many breeds are so far from it that they wouldn’t survive without human intervention (or lead a miserable existence), and I just don’t think that’s right.
If I were getting a dog, I would probably get an adolescent from the Humane Society, as close to the optimal dog body-type as possible.
Exactly. I have a friend who’s active in dog rescue, and she strongly recommends fully-grown (i.e. 2 years or older) dogs for “beginners” like you and me. And fully grown dogs are adorable too, especially your own.
I ended up adopting two dogs from the pound, both slightly younger than 2 years (one between 12 and 18 months, the other between 18 and 24 months, both by the vet’s estimate). They are both wonderful dogs.
Oh, I think it would be doable. We live in a condo and our neighbors have a chocolate lab with no weight problem. The one with the weight problem is the border collie.
Seeing that everybody has been raving about dog from the pound, I have to put in a bad dog experience. My cousins got their dog from the pound. He is a complete mixture so I can’t be breed specific (he is a smaller dog though)
He has been impossible to train and the moodiest dog ever. I think he is part cat Wait I take that back, you can train a cat to some degree.
For example he will curl up on your lap and after a few minutes even though nothing has changed he will start to growl at you, show his teeth and retreat under the coffee table. After that if anybody says his name he will then start to flip out barking and growling.
He hates the sound of my cousins’ voice and whenever she talks, he starts to growl at her.
He does not get along with other dogs at all.
Even after they neutered him nothing changed (sometimes that helps)
IMHO it is a matter of time before somebody visits and doesn’t know that under the coffee table means if you acknowledge his existence he will become a mini Cujo, and someone is going to get bit.
FYI this is not their first dog, the previous one was a sweetheart
We once had a purebred Lab. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Unfortunately, she had been bred for looks, not for temperament. I much prefer street dogs. They are often hardier than pedigreed pups, and they can be every bit as beautiful, affectionate, and intelligent as their aristocratic cousins.
All three of our beloved pooches were “rescue” dogs. This adorable guy was just hours away from being euthanized.
I’m glad to hear you’re considering a pound dog, and an adult. Those dogs can be so hard to place, and it breaks the hearts of the staff of the shelters. You can visit different shelters and who knows - you might fall in love at first sight!
I don’t mean to rag on your friends, but 99% of problems with dogs comes from poor training. They may be great people, they might just not know how to deal with a dominant dog.
Some dogs need firmer training than others, but unless the dog has mental problems, you can almost always fix behavioral issues. If your friends were used to an easily-trained, placid dog, they might not have been prepared for having a dog with a more dominant personality. You can’t train all dogs in the same way.
They could still change this dog. They need to get into a good training program with a trainer who understands termpermental dogs and how to deal with them. The sooner they do this, the better.
When selecting a puppy, you should always do a dominance check, along with other personality tests . You can find lists of the kinds of aptitude/personality tests you should do on the internet. The dominance test is simple: gently push the puppy down onto his back and hold him there. A timid puppy will give up the struggle immediately. A puppy of medium temperment willl struggle for a moment and then surrender. A dominant puppy won’t give up.
That’s not to say one should never get a dominant puppy-- they just require more work in training than dogs of medium temperment. Unless you’re prepared to put in the time and effort it will take to produce a well-adjusted, friendly dog, you should probably look for a different puppy.
I have never researched the science to back this up so take it as you wish.
I decided a while ago I will never again own a purebred dog. They just seem to have a more limited lifespan and lots more wierd medical problems that I attribute to inbreeding. Particulary large dogs seem to have an abundance of bad things in genes that should be recessive, but are prevalent in the breed. Go for the pound pup.
Plus it enables people to start conversations on what mix it is.
Since you don’t have an attachment to any particular breed, then the pound sounds like the way to go for you, though there are of course risks. We adopted our Corgi from a breed rescue organization. While I don’t regret taking him in at all, it’s been a challenge at times. He’s a sweetheart, but we suspect he was mistreated in a previous home–we’re his third–and have had to do a lot of work to overcome his issues. We’ve been to a behaviorist and he’s currently on fluoxetine (Prozac) for his anxiety while we work on retraining some of his problem behaviors. It’s just something to be aware of as a possibility, since you may know nothing about where the dog came from–but if you can give a nice dog a forever home, it’s all worth it.
Wait I take that back, you can train a cat to some degree.
