I feel bad for all the animals at the shelter. There are plenty of really cute puppies that I’m sure are well-behaved and will be every bit as loved as a purebreed. But there is one question I am really mixed (heh) on.
Is a shelter dog more expensive in the long run? I know all animals from the shelter will cost less initially, as they’ll be treated and neutered for less than I could do it myself, but don’t they have a lot of unforseen health problems? Wouldn’t the risk of an animal with a surprise health problem costing a lot of money outweigh the initial investment of buying another dog from a breeder?
If you’re curious, I’m looking at English bulldogs. I’m not really dead set on one, but the little fatties are so cute. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t buy from a pet shop.
Pound puppies are an unknown. Purebred pound puppies are usually from puppy mills and have all the associated puppy mill issues. If you want a purebred, purchase from a reputable breeder.
We have a rescue mutt - but I wouldn’t adopt a rescue purebred puppy (and older dog, maybe, depending on the dog and the reason its available).
You can often find purebred dogs at shelters and rescue agencies, so if having a purebred is important to you, just look into if there is an English bulldog rescue group around your area (or check http://www.petfinder.com ). Unfortunately, there are SO many homeless pets out tehre, that you can pretty much find a homeless dog of any breed/variety you want.
Purebred dogs have often been inbred extensively to achieve the desired “breed standard”, and that often leads to a lot of genetic diseases cropping up, so there are many folks out there who believe naturally bred mutts are healthier than the purebreds are.
In any case, if you are worried about unforeseen health problems, you CAN buy health insurance for your pet (yes, they really do sell health insurance for pets nowadays).
Check into what the different plans offer and see if it sounds worthwhile to you.
I would adopt, every time. And, I have. One cat, one rabbit, three dogs. All healthy. Although all I have now are two of the dogs. The rabbit died. One dog, a chocolate lab, lived to be 15. I had to give the cat away because of my allergies. She’s fine.
There’s so many homeless animals available that I could never bring myself to pay to buy one.
I don’t know if you can generalize about pound puppies vs. puppies from breeders. Sure, I could be wrong…
I just think that you never know what’s in store for a puppy healthwise, no matter where you get it from. All you can do is take good care of it.
I wouldn’t bring the question of “which is more expensive in the long run” into it, since it’s mostly a gamble anyway. Well bred pups from reputable, responsible breeders are mostly a known factor. A good breeder will know the genetic heritage of their lines and will know the risks of various congenital diseases that may exist in the line and will have been working for generations to breed away from them. They’ll be able to tell you the things to look out for and will generally offer a money-back or replacement guarantee in a lot of circumstances. For example, my dog is a large breed mastiff-type dog. Hip displaysia is common with large breed dogs, and my breeder’s contract states if the pup shows up dysplastic by two years of age they’ll refund half the purchase price or replace the pup if my intention had been to show or breed. The other benefit to buying from a reputable breeder is that you have a lifetime help resource in terms of training questions, health questions, and so on. If something tragic happens and you ever have to give the dog up, a good breeder will take it back in a heartbeat and place it in a suitable home. Things like that.
Shelter dogs are a complete genetic crapshoot. That doesn’t mean that they’re any less wonderful companions for that.
All that having been said, there’s no guarantee that your perfectly bred, congenital-defect-free pup won’t get hit by a car and need $5k worth of orthopedic surgery, or eat a wad of string and need his guts opened up to the tune of a couple thousand dollars in emergency surgery.
I figure you should get the dog that you want, the one who’s going to be your most ideal companion. Whether that ideal companion comes in a muttley skin from the local shelter or a bulldog hide is totally up to you. I think it’s far more important to consider the personality, energy needs, grooming demands, and all the details that go into living with the dog for the next fifteen years or so.
The financial piece is important, for sure, but I think the major difference is in the initial outlay, and what happens after that is likely going to be necessary costs, whether it’s a pedigreed pooch or a mutt. Emergencies are emergencies, after all, and whatever is lurking in the genes can’t be helped after the fact. If you get a dog, you’ll have to assume that at some point or another you’re going to have to lay out a chunk of money or consider other options.
The last bit of advice I’ve got is that “English” bulldogs (I’m assuming you mean these guys) are a complete genetic trainwreck ;). They are really, really great dogs and I love 'em, but they are a stunning example of what happens when humans breed for extremes. That’s not in any way to deter you from having one, just be sure to buy from a reputable breeder and ask a lot of questions about the health histories of their dogs and what to look out for in their particular breeding lines. If they say “nothing” then run quickly in the other direction.
You might consider a rescue, they’ll be “cheaper” in terms of the initial cost, but they aren’t going to be perfect dogs. Perfect dogs don’t usually end up in rescue. Again, that doesn’t mean they’re not wonderful companions, but as stated by the Bulldog Club of America Resuce Network :
There are a LOT of bulldogs available in rescue, and you may find your ideal pooch there. You’ll also be tapping into a great resource for bulldog help and advice.
I think when its a genetic tendancy in purebreds, you can have a much better chance of not getting the defect when you know the dog’s genetic history.
For instance, Golden Retrievers are prone to epilepsy. Reputable breeders will not breed a dog with epilepsy, nor will they breed a dog if either parent had epilepsy. Puppy mills will. So your chances of having an epileptic dog go way down if you adopt from a reputable breeder. It isn’t perfect, sometimes the gene shows up anyway - but your chances are much better.
With mutts, who knows - but a lot of people think that its harder to get two bad recessives with a mutt - i.e. lots of Goldens carry a recessive for eplipesy - but if you have a Golden/Beagle mix, the chances that the Beagle has the recessive for eplipsey are much smaller.
On rescue agencies - particularly purebred rescue - sometimes they have fairly stringent requirements that send you looking to a breeder (my sister wanted a Great Dane (prone to blindness, by the way) - the rescue agencies required an eight foot fence and several acres of yard) - and if the breeders are distant or not planning on litters in the near term or have their own requirements - you can discover the pet store puppy mill puppy looking pretty desireable.
One thing to consider about pound dogs - in general most animal shelters are incredibly Darwinian environments*. The people manning them have only limited funds, resources, space and time. As such they tend to euthanize any animal that they get that there is a question about whether they can successfully place it. This is true for gross behavioral problems, health problems and sometimes even simple overcrowding.
I think that, when considering general health concerns, there’s no reason to believe that a pound dog is going to be less healthy, on average, than a purebred dog. Especially if you’re not a well-researched expert on navigating the difference between puppy mills and reputable breeders. Having seen someone set themself up as an alleged reputable breeder I’ve become incredibly skeptical of both the small breeder as a class, and the AKC’s ability, or willingness, to police itself.
My general advice is this: Unless you’re absolutely certain that in order to enjoy your dog properly it must be a purebred**, go for the pound animal.
*I know that there are shelters that don’t euthanize, but my belief is that they are limited to very affluent areas. Most, I believe, still operate on the model I’d outlined above.
**There are several fields of canine endevour, including some certs for obedience training that require the animal to be of show quality. Or at least that was the case in the 80’s when I was looking into training our Britney to Companion Dog cert. And one reason I didn’t follow through was that, though he was a beautiful dog, he was 2 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than breed specs. Getting his show qualifications would have been nearly impossible.
I have one purebred Sheltie (Blaze) who I bought from a breeder friend, and two other dogs that are “rescues.” The Lab (Lucy) was a stray I found in the park, the other is a Bichon Frise mix (Ernie) that I bought from a family that lives down the street that simply could not take care of him.
I love them all, and I wish I could take in more. Any more I get in my life will be rescues, because I hate the fact that there are so many unwanted animals, and not enough people to take them in.
I know this is just an emotional post, and not really answering your questions of cost. I just paid to have Ernie neutered, and Lucy recently was sick. She’s better now! My point is, dogs cost money no matter where you get them! Blaze has cost a few bucks over the years too, but in general has been very healthy. He’s 11 now. Lucy is 3, and Ernie will be a year old next month. (It’s a zoo! ;))
Dogs ARE expensive - and the intial cost is nothing - just in dog food and treats its $75 a month for our puppy (don’t ask about the dog walker - I don’t want a six month old puppy crated for eight hours a day - and then all night) - course its expensive organic dog food. Add in heartworm treatment, vet trips, etc., and we have $100 a month puppy - easy. Unless you are looking at the difference between a $2000 show quality breed and a $100 already fixed rescue dog, the initial cost difference isn’t going to be significant.
In my experience, an adopted mutt from the Humane Society is far less likely to have health problems than a purebred, even if you get it from a reputable breeder. Everything I’ve read suggests that mutts are simply less prone to the sort of genetic diseases and defects that come from having a limited gene pool.
One thing you do have to be careful of with adopted and rescue dogs is making sure that you get a breed that is compatible with your lifestyle. I’ve noticed our local Humane Society tends to mostly have high energy or dominant breeds, which are fine if you can exercise or train them properly but can be a disaster if you don’t.
And absolutely take a dog training class. It’s for you, not the dog – it’s really easy to anthropomorphize your dog and unknowingly put them in charge of the family pack, which can result in behavioral problems.
My adopted puppy came from the shelter fixed, microchipped, vaccinated up to where he was supposed to be at that age, and very healthy and happy. It was a great place, though the application that we filled out was so detailed that we actually got kind of scared that they were going to turn us down. He cost us a little more than I’d expected from a shelter (about $200 I think?), but I doubt that it even covered their cost for all of the vet visits (which we received a detailed listing of since birth).
On the other hand, while hunting for the perfect dog, we went to a bunch of shelters where we wanted to take them all home, if only to get them out of that horrible place! I doubt that he would have been healthy, much less fixed and vaccinated, coming from one of those.
I would adopt, but make sure that you pick from where carefully.
BTW, our dog trainer gave us a substantial discount for adopting instead of buying from a breeder.
I heartily second OtakuLoki on the Darwinian nature of most shelters, Dolores Reborn on the desperate needs of the shelter population, and everything Giraffe said. Invest in training early!
Oh - one other thought - an excellent source of good, healthy, well-behaved dogs are greyhound rescue associations. If a greyhound is a dog that you might like, (They’re rather active, needing a lot of exercise, and not good guard dogs, so if those are things that might not suit your desire for a dog, skip this.) it’s an excellent way to get a purebred dog cheaply, and do a good deed, too. Everything I said about shelters in general goes squared when dealing with former racing dogs.
It’s not that I believe that greyhounds, in general, are necessarily excellent pet material. Rather that the rescue operations are so overwhelmed with two to three year old dogs who aren’t fit for racing anymore that they can only put forth the effort to try to place the very best of the dogs.
They are excellent pets, though - if they’re what you want, and if you understand that they may need unusual sorts of acclimating at first; ours needed to learn to climb stairs, for instance. We’re on our second 'hound now, and she is holding down the sofa with the third-hand boxer.
I’d like to suggest that greyhounds are not particularly active dogs - generally quite the contrary, indoors. About 5 minutes of zooming, 3 times a week or so, outside, are all it takes to ensure a comatose dog-shaped lump inside the house the rest of the time. They are not free of health issues though; while their racing purpose does excuse them from having hip dysplasia, osteosarcoma often claims older hounds (as it did our first guy). They also have a tendency to low thyroid (cheap and easy to treat, though). Our current girl has the not-uncommon bad teeth, and her next dental will remove quite a few.
I mentioned our boxer, also; they are also notorious for health issues, including cancers and heart problems. So far, knock wood, he’s alright, despite an issue with overgrown gum tissue. He too is a ‘rescue’, we are his third home and he comes from a puppy mill pet store background.
Our next dog will be a newfoundland from a responsible breeder. I’ve put a lot of thought into this, since most of our animals have come from needy backgrounds, and finding the right breeder takes care and thought. But I feel my reasons are sound. For one thing, there’s more to the newf than looks; their famous gentle temperament is an important part of their breed standard, and a major part of their appeal to me. There is no reason for a puppy miller to take the temperament into account, they only want to sell pretty puppies. But the gentleness is very important to me, especially in a 150+ lbs dog. A second concern is the fact that any health problem in a giant breed is going to be magnified - as is the vet bill for treating it. So it is prudent to seek the most careful breeder who is ensuring to the best of her ability a healthy dog. Thirdly, I have never had a giant breed dog before. I’d like to know its background, I’d like to choose his diet and make sure that in his puppy months, while his bones are developing so quickly, he is not engaging in activity that will result in joint damage down the road. I’d also like to get him somewhat trained before he outweighs me, and make sure that he is socialized or acclimated to anything he might encounter here: other dogs, children, strangers, goats, horses, llamas, sheep and alpacas and poultry birds, motorcycles, bicycles, and so on.
I know plenty of people adopt newfs and have no problem with this stuff. I will be one of those people in the future! But to get my feet wet, I want a puppy from a breeder.
So I guess that’s my longwinded way of saying, figure out what you want, and determine that way which course best meets your needs. I would love to have an english bulldog in the future - I often admire them on Petfinder. I would have no qualms with adopting one; I have not researched them extensively, but I know I like their temperament, and I have the sense that by the time they are up for adoption, any of their health issues would have already become apparent; they seem like structural issues mostly? And I think it’s probably wise to have an emergency fund of a couple thousand dollars anyhow, if something were to happen.
I don’t really have much to say here, except I’ve always adopted my dogs from the Humane Society or other rescue groups. In fact, there is a very good group in my area that rescues dogs and cats from the county shelter and fosters them in homes until they are adopted. And my dogs have all been healthy and have turned out very well-adjusted and well-behaved. But I have no problems with responsible breeders who are dedicated to breeding healthy purebred animals either. They do care about getting an animal with the proper owner, maybe even more so than the shelters. I just want to say please do not buy your dog from a pet store whose animals come from so-called “puppy mills.” Those places are really all about profit and turnover more than the welfare of the animals. They just want your money and don’t care what happens to the animal once it is sold.
I used to work for a humane society, so I’m a bit biased :). Some notes:
First, “humane society” is not a franchise, it’s a description. It’s equivalent to “cafe,” not “Starbucks.” Just because a place calls itself humane society doesn’t make it reputable or trustworthy. There are phenomenally good ones out there (like the one I worked for), and there are nasty awful ones. If you go with a shelter, pay attention to the place you go! Look for cleanliness, knowledgeable employees, healthy-looking animals. Find out if the animals have seen a vet, what shots they’ve had, whether they’ve already been sterilized. IMO, an ideal situation is where an animal is vaccinated within 24 hours of entering the shelter (to minimize the chances of catching a disease while at the shelter), and altered before entering adoptions (so that the animal has already recovered from the surgery). The animal should be treated against fleas as well. Obviously some of this is dependant on the age of the animal, but that’s what I’d want to look for.
In our shelter at least, small dogs came in more rarely and got adopted very quickly. If you are considering a small dog, stake out a position on their website and watch; as soon as a dog you’re interested in comes through, hie ye down to the shelter.
One problem with adopting from a shelter, to be perfectly honest, is that it’s very difficult to ascertain an animal’s personality while there, especially if it’s an old building. That’s because older shelters tend to crowd the animals together in cement rooms that bounce sound back and forth and have poor ventilation enabling smells to travel easily; this can be extremely stressful for an animal, and may throw its behavior completely out of whack. Adopting from a newer shelter with modern air flow and sound baffles can make a big difference; otherwise, try to get the animal somewhere quiet where you can evaluate its personality better.
Just as you need to choose a breeder carefully, you need to choose a shelter carefully. Would you be willing to drive a couple hours to go to the perfect breeder? Then be willing to make the same trip for the perfect shelter. It’s worth doing, in my opinion: you get a wonderful companion, and you save a life.
A small note: depending on your county shelter, they may get really irritated at hearing of groups who “rescue” animals from them. In some sense it’s PC nonsense, sure, but the folks at shelters can be really dedicated to helping animals out, and it can kinda bruise their morale to suggest that the animals there (especially the animals that have made it to adoptions, at shelters that have no time limit on those in adoptions) are in need of rescue.
I’ll second that bulldogs are a genetic mess- breathing problems being the first thing that comes to mind. Heart problems, they can get yeast infections in their wrinkles, other skin problems. I’ve got a friend who has worked and volunteered at shelters and rescues, who’s studying ecology & conservation with a minor in zoology, and English bulldogs are the breed he most often mentions when he discussing problems with purebred dogs.
There are usually lots of bully breed* mixes at shelters and rescues, so if that’s the sort of dog you like (they are really cute) you wouldn’t have much trouble finding one that you think is adorable, but probably won’t be prone to the health problems of a purebred. Kennel cough would be the only health problem that’s directly shelter-related (as opposed to a genetic problem), but it’s not a big deal and easily treated. In fact, my friend found a bull terrier (think Spuds MacKenzie) at animal control, and that was her only problem.
My friend actually says that English Staffordshires are generally healthier and if you wanted a purebred, he’d go for that rather than an English bulldog. But it would be more expensive and probably a little harder to get in the states.
I’d go with a mutt from the shelter, but if you do really want a purebred, English bulldogs have a lot of problems.
*you should consider the temperament- bully breeds can be very stubborn and energetic, and can be a bit difficult to train.
I have two friends with bull mastiffs and they both agree they’re highly intelligent and very easy to train. I had my heart set on an english bulldog, as their little face-wrinkles are adorable, and a pug really is a nightmare health-wise. It sucks to hear the bulldogs have so many problems; I thought they might be fine.
I need a dog that can stay in an apartment. Barkers are out of the question (why I was so excited about the bulldog) and I don’t really want anything that’s high-energy. Lazy and fat is my kind of doggy, and smart if I can get it.
