How can you be sure an adopted dog is safe?

Factual Questions
1

We’re thinking of getting one soon. I know there’s no guaranees but if you get a puppy and know where it’s been raised you have a pretty good chance it won’t attack the two year old next door.

What if we rescue a six to twelve month old from the pound?

2

It’s not a guarantee, but you could look at adopting a dog from one of the rescue groups that keeps animals in “foster homes” until they are adopted. The foster family gets to know the dog, and the organization wants to make a good match for the sake of both the new owners and the pet. You can find lots of these groups listed at www.petfinder.org

I wish you many happy years with your new furry friend!

3

There are no guarantees any dog is safe. Dogs should always be supervised when around children. I learned the hard way that even a trusted dog can bite. Play it safe with kids (and adults for that matter) around dogs. Dog bites suck.

4

No matter where you get your pup, I strongly recommend training. There is a national program fostered by the American Kennel Club, called the Canine Good Citizen Program . If you go to the site, look in the column on the left, you will see Where are training classes? Wherever you live, there’s a dog club somewhere around, and most all-breed clubs (especially if there is no other dog club nearby) offer obedience training; many specialty clubs do, as well. The CGC program isn’t quite obedience; simply basic good manners. A dog who successfully completes this program will have a very good idea of what his/her place in the family is; IOW, won’t think it’s in charge of the house, or have other weird ideas. Aggressive tendencies almost certainly will be detected by the trainer (instructor), who will give you advice on how to train the dog to make it reliable anyway.

I strongly recommend it to all dog owners, even if you don’t want to go on to more training.

5

Good advice so far; since the general question is answered (you CAN’T be sure), I’ll add a little more advice, from the perspective of an animal shelter worker, on how to choose a shelter to adopt from.

Different shelters have different policies on evaluating animals for adoption. Although it may seem counterintuitive, I would advise you AGAINST no-kill shelters in general. No-kills have a strong motivation to get every single animal adopted out, regardless of how suitable they are as family pets. “Open-access” shelters (also called “kill” shelters), on the other hand, usually know that some of their animals are going to be euthanized; they therefore put only the most suitable animals out in the adoption rooms.

Note that this isn’t always true, for two reasons. First, some limited-access shelters (“no-kill”) will only take in animals that are good candidates for pethood, and will turn away all other animals. Adopting from one of these shelters might be pretty safe. Second, some open-access shelters put every animal in adoptions for a limited time-period; these would not be good places to adopt from, from a safety perspective.

I’d encourage you to shop around at different shelters, asking the following questions:

  1. Do you euthanize animals? (generally, you’re looking for a “yes” answer).
  2. How do you choose which animals are placed in adoptions? (You want them to tell you that they evaluate animals based on a variety of different factors).
  3. Do you perform temperament testing? (You want them to say “yes”, although many facilities don’t have the resources to do full temperament testing).
  4. How much history on an animal do you gather from the animal’s previous owner? (You want a lot of history).

Finally, and this is a very important step, talk to people in the know. If you have a good relationship with a veterinarian, ask them for feedbacks on shelters: they’ll know which shelters adopt out aggressive and/or sick animals. If you know some animal activists, talk with them.

Daniel