What should I know before getting a puppy?

[Tranquilis]

@purplehorseshoe

Creating a separate post to recommend the OP watch a couple episodes of “The Dog Whisperer” on Nat’l Geographic. Or the similar shows on Animal Planet or the other channels. Any of the ones where they show unruly dogs and then work with their owners - who created the problem in the 1st place for the most part - to remedy the situation.

Sometimes it can help a decision-making process to witness the potential worst-case scenario and then work backwards from there.

Good advice. I’m not fond of Milan - His techniques are only narrowly applicable, IMO, but his show will most certainly show you the worst, and how things got that bad. Always useful to know where some of the deeper pitfalls are located!

Plus it’s a handy way to absorb basic lessons about discipline (what works, what doesn’t) and how to communicate with your dog.
And on that note, if you do get a dog, pleasepleaseplease don’t become one of those people who gives commands in full sentences (“Now you please sit down right here, okay?” Dude, it’s “sit”) or in inappropriate tones. I know someone who tries to discipline her young dog when she jumps up on people by singing “nonononono” in the sweetest tone imaginable, almost *cooing *at the dog. Who does not, naturally, listen. Drives me up the friggin’ wall, it does.

Yeah, I hear ya. And that crooning tone is actually a reward tone to most dogs.

I usually preface my commands by the dog’s name - With multiple dogs, I want the dog I’m talking to, to be the one responding. But nothing more complicated than that.

I will sometimes talk to my dogs when I’m ‘setting mood’ with them - Not a command that I expect them to respond to, but to give them the idea of my emotional state (or my pretend emotional state, more often). When Suka tries to bully Dakota, I’ll talk fiercely to her. She doesn’t understand any of the words, or at least not in that context, but she gets the message “Ooops! I’m not the Alpha here. He is!” and ceases to try to throw her weight around.

Likewise, if we’re walking through the park, and I see a potential distractor, I’ll talk to her calmly, to get her in the idea that everything is as it should be, and that everything is cool.

[purplehorseshoe]

:: minor hijack, I’m sorry::

Tranquilis, the word “suka” in Polish means “bitch.” Both senses like we have: a female unspayed dog, and the insult. Is that why you chose the name? Or is it the world’s neatest coincidence?

:: /minor hijack::

Very nice description of the difference between a shelter and a rescue, by the way. Am tucking some of your points away in my brain for future reference.

Hey, OP, does your townhome have an HOA? What rules are there about pets? (Other than that they’re allowed.) Some places have size/weight limits or other restrictions.

Also, OP: it’s not just a dog/cat binary option. There are a lot of other potential types of pets out there, many of which will also be happy to greet you when you get home. (Hermit crabs, I have found, do not.)

[Tranquilis]

@purplehorseshoe

:: minor hijack, I’m sorry::

Tranquilis, the word “suka” in Polish means “bitch.” Both senses like we have: a female unspayed dog, and the insult. Is that why you chose the name? Or is it the world’s neatest coincidence?

:: /minor hijack::

Most people miss that. It’s the same in Russian, too,

World’s neatest coincidence, carried forward malace afterthought.

Suka’s a rescue, and came to me named that way, but looking at her medical records going back some eight years, I can see that her name progressively morphed from Sookie to Suka as she was bounced from household to household. Coming from a place with lots of Russian place names (Alaska), and being literally a bitch, I kept the name - It suits my personal sense of humor. As time went on, and her personality emerged, it’s become abundantly clear that she is more than a little bit of a bitchy bitch, too. So - I continue to keep the name for her. People look at me funny when I tell her “Suka! Stop being such a suka!”

She is, BTW, a really great dog - A jackpot dog - for me. Not a perfect dog for many people, but for me, che could hardly be better.

[AuntiePam]

@purplehorseshoe

I know someone who tries to discipline her young dog when she jumps up on people by singing “nonononono” in the sweetest tone imaginable, almost *cooing *at the dog. Who does not, naturally, listen. Drives me up the friggin’ wall, it does.

My husband does this with our puppy! Puppy will jump on his lap and start nipping at his fingers, and my husband says “Nooooo” in a tone of voice more appropriate for telling a hooker the handcuffs are too tight. Same with the long explanatory sentences. “Do you wanna go outside and go potty?” “Stop chasing the kitty – kitty doesn’t wanna play.” “Come here and give me a hug.” “Can you shake hands?” :rolleyes: It’s NO, potty, STOP, hug, shake.

She’ll be 4 months old next week. She’ll sit on command (if asked when she’s fairly calm), and she responds to Come if we have a treat. She finally stopped chasing the cat, but that was because the cat finally figured out that if he didn’t run, puppy wouldn’t chase. We have to keep the bathroom doors closed so she won’t eat the toilet paper, but she can get a pistachio nut out of its shell.

Sorry for the hijack, but if we’d known how much work this puppy would be, we might not have taken her. It’s like having a new baby, only with teeth and claws. Forget about sleeping in, or leaving stuff within reach. No furniture damage (yet) but one of us is home almost all the time.

[Zsofia]

I think some of that “shelter/rescue” stuff is a little offensive - there are government-run animal control shelters, and then there are private no-kill shelters who make every effort to operate in the animals’ best interests. There are good and bad examples of all types, but to lump all shelters in with “worse than rescues” is silly - a lot of rescues don’t seem at all interested in finding pets actual homes, as this thread has indicated. It’s one thing to ask for a vet reference, and quite another to demand a home visit to adopt a cat. Cats are overflowing onto the street, I had one already and a vet who would vouch for me, and you want a home visit and a pay stub? Hell no, we went to the city shelter where we’d actually be saving a cat. There are a lot of rescues that are more like those antique shops where nothing is actually for sale because the owners can’t bear to part with it. It’s never in an animal’s best interest to not ever find a loving home because the rescue is too picky.

We went to a private no-kill shelter to adopt Captain, not a “rescue”. The staff were extremely knowledgeable about each dog and picked him out on the first try after hearing what I wanted in a dog. He’s the best dog I’ve ever had. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have gone to the city shelter for dogs, because while they’re a good place to adopt a cat, you can’t tell a thing about the dogs. They’re kept in a concrete room with cages and when anybody opens the door they all start barking their heads off and never stop - they could all be murderers or sweet pets and you’d never know. I’d LIKE to have adopted there and saved a life, but it didn’t work for us.

ETA - if you get a used dog, you also get the warm self-congratulating feeling that you saved it. People for some reason think you’re a big hero or something. S’nice.

[Hanna]

I have heard that some unscrupulous breeders have been calling themselves a “rescue” when they are really just trying to get some money out of purebred puppies they have bred themselves - and couldn’t sell during the cute 6-8 week phase. So check any rescue out carefully to make sure they are legit.

I have a puppy now. Puppies are a heck of a lot of work. I know it will all be worth it in the long run, but if I ever get another dog it will be an adult. Sometimes I get so frustrated with my puppy, but I can’t do anything about it because he is just a baby.

[Tranquilis]

@Boscibo

I have heard that some unscrupulous breeders have been calling themselves a “rescue” when they are really just trying to get some money out of purebred puppies they have bred themselves - and couldn’t sell during the cute 6-8 week phase. So check any rescue out carefully to make sure they are legit.

Sadly, this is true.

It’s a scam, and fortunately a fairly rare one, but there was just a horrible case down south where that exact situation was happening - A puppymiller working with a series of ‘feeder breeders’ was playing off as a rescue. He’s been busted several times previously, and was just recently raided again, with a LOT of seizures. Due dilligence is still required, no matter what the label on teh business.

Zsofia, you’ll note what I said about the better-run shelters? The best shelters do indeed approach being rescue (though at that point, calling them shelters is kinda inaccurate). Now I suggest you go get behind the scenes at real rescue operation, and see the difference between a typical shelter, and a typical rescue. I’ll bet you a case of beer you won’t be offended any longer. Basically, a selter is a warehouse, and a rescue is a rehabilitation-and-placement operation. Whatever the label on the door, you’ll know which type of operation it is by how they do business.

[Dangerosa]

@Tranquilis

There is a big difference bewteen a Rescue and an Animal Control shelter. They key differences is that Rescues are run for the benefit of the dogs, whilst the shelters are run for the convenience of people.

Rescues put prolonged work into the dogs, and are generally staffed by breed-knowledgable volunteers. They work very hard to identify all serious issues with each dog and correct them, be they health or behavioral. They catalogue the dog’s personality traits, and sort through their stacks of applications, trying to make not a placement, but a correct placement. This is all hard work. If there’s an adoption failure, they have to start over, if not quite from the begining. They don’t want adoption failures. They don’t want to see the dog surrendered back to them, or to another rescue, or (heaven forbid!) to a shelter. So they set the entry barrier high, and they take close and personal interest in you, your character, your abilities, and your resoucres. If you don’t measure up, or are unwilling to cooperate, well, there are other people whom do and/or will.

Don’t be insulted by this fact - Rescues work for the dog’s benefit. They consider it their duty to the dog to place it in a home that is proper. Along the way, they actually wind up serving the people, too, in that a properly-placed dog is one that will fit into its new home and family neatly and with a minimum of fuss.

Don’t be too shocked by the inquiry into your finances, either. It’s a rare organization that goes to quite the level you report, but financial distress is a common enough reason for surrender. I personally have met and handled a number of dogs that were surrendered into Rescue because their owners were faced with vet bills they could not afford, including one unfortunate pup whom had both front legs in casts - He legs had suffered multiple open fractures and were partially de-gloved when he was hit by a car - Why was he hit? Becaue his owners didn’t have a fence - A home visit before they’d been allowed to buy him would’ve disclosed this - That’s one of the reasons Rescues do home visits. Why did they surrender him? Because if they hadn’t, he’d have been put down - There was no way in hell they could pay his bills. Happily, he eventually made a complete recovery, but we’d be damned to hell before we’d put that much work, money, and love into a dog and NOT check out his prospective adopters very carefully!

Shelters, OTOH, are basically warehouses for unclaimed pets. Some are better, some are worse, and the very best begin to come close to a Rescue, but most do not. You basically pay your money and takes your chances with most shelters. This is not tos say that every Rescue is a well-run operation - indeed, there are some very poorly run Rescues. It’s up to you which way to go - there are some very fine dogs in Shelters, but you need to know more, yourself, to pick them out on you own. Or, you can spin the wheel of fortune, and hope to come out a winner.

There is a LOT of variation in rescues. The rescue we got our dog from was not exactly staffed by breed knowledgeable volunteers - but then, they aren’t a breed rescue - they were a rescue who rescued anyone - including mutts…we “rescued” our rescue puppy from a foster home that had four dogs (two of her own, two rescue), two cats, three children in diapers, one seven years old and low functioning autistic. I wouldn’t raise rats in that house. The woman had a great love of animals, but was in way over her head.

[Tranquilis]

@Tranquilis

Sadly, this is true.

It’s a scam, and fortunately a fairly rare one, but there was just a horrible case down south where that exact situation was happening - A puppymiller working with a series of ‘feeder breeders’ was playing off as a rescue. He’s been busted several times previously, and was just recently raided again, with a LOT of seizures.

Looks like my rescue will be catching at least ten dogs from this seizure - maybe more.

[Hanna]

I have a shelter dog and I’m having a heck of a time housetraining him. He hates the crate and pees in it - because that is what he knows. In the shelter he had to be in a kennel during the day and do his business in there and he learned to sleep where he went potty. At night the puppies were put in smaller airline type kennels, and left in there for who knows how long. So trying to get him even crate trained is turning out to be an ordeal. And as far as shelters go the one I got him from is pretty decent, I feel.

But, he is making a little progress. I found him on Petfinder and just fell in love with his cuteness. When I went to meet him I fell in love with his friendliness. But he is a stubborn little thing.