How should I acquire a puppy?

In My Humble Opinion
21

My sister has adopted a lot of previously abused dogs. The best german shepherd in the world (according to her vet) was a previously abused dog. But the dog was also kinda neurotic. I dog sat for a long weekend, and she wouldn’t eat the whole time I had her. I microwaved the food, added broth, all the stuff my sister recommended. (And it was her regular food, that my sister delivered with the dog.) She was just too anxious away from her people, and probably afraid bad things would happen to her again.

All of her abused dogs have had issues. I mean, they’ve also been great dogs, but it’s a lot more work than starting with a puppy. I suppose a dog that’s surrendered because its owner has to move to a nursing home or something is probably easier than an abused dog. But they tend to still pine for their beloved first master.

The other problem with older dogs is that they die so soon. My sister is grieving her dog an awfully large fraction of the time. She takes fabulous care of them, but dogs just don’t live all that long.

22

That varies regionally. My brother has had to import dogs from out of state, because the dogs disappear so fast from the local shelters. Most of my sister’s abused dogs have been from out-of-state, too, although they had already been moved here, because we have shelters willing to deal with that kind of thing. My coworker spent 6 weeks not finding a dog, and finally found a breeder – and that fell through, because not all the puppies survived birth. He is now waiting for puppies from an out-of-state breeder to be old enough to move.

I’m in the northeast. Our “spay and neuter your pet” culture has worked. We have no stray dogs. (And even cats are less abundant than a few years ago.)