Decided to adopt a dog - What's the best way to find your new pet? - Educational
Congratulations! You have decided to adopt a dog into your family.
Choosing your new pooch is very exciting, but it requires patience, planning and research. Whenever possible it is ideal to not act impulsively and bring home the first available dog you come across. Ensuring the you are adopting a dog from a reputable source and making the right choice based on temperament and health will ensure that you and your new pooch are a great match for each other.
Here are the options you will come across when looking for a new dog.
1. Adopt an adult dog or puppy from a rescue organization
2. Adopt a dog from a reputable breeder
3. Purchase a puppy from a back-yard breeder
4. Purchase a puppy from a pet store
So what's the best way to go about adopting a dog? Either adopting from a rescue organization or adopting from a reputable breeder. Here's why.
Rescue organizations:
There are many many wonderful rescue organizations that are there to help find loving and forever homes for the dogs they have available. This is a great way to find yourself a new best friend while helping out a dog or puppy that has found themselves in need.
With so many different organizations and dogs to choose from you are sure to be able to find the dog of your dreams!
There are purebreds, mixed breeds, adults and puppies looking for homes.
This is the best way to choose a new friend if you are not picky about having a purebred.
Please visit our 'resources' page to find a list of rescue organizations with available dogs on Vancouver Island!
Pet Store Puppies:
Many people see a puppy in a pet store and just fall in love. What they may not realize is that pet stores often purchase their supply of animals from puppy mills, brokers, or other commercial sources that breed solely for profit.
When dogs are bred purely for profit without health or temperament being considered the resulting puppies are generally inferior specimens of the breed (or breeds). This means that the puppies may or may not look or act like a typical member of the breed. This can result in temperament or health problems that the dog owner was not expecting.
The purchase price of puppies at pet stores is usually just as costly as adopting from a reputable breeder, and much more than adopting from a rescue organization. Although it is tough to see that cute puppy in the window and not take him home you would potentially be supporting the puppy mill industry.
Back-yard Breeders:
What is the difference between a reputable breeder and a back-yard breeder? A reputable breeders interest in the breed extends beyond his or her own dogs. A back-yard breeder is defined as an average pet owner that decides to breed their dogs. So what's wrong with that? Generally speaking this type of casual dog breeding occurs with the wrong motives.
Some people do this to make 'easy money'. If they are not incurring the costs of health and temperament testing as well as pre-natal care for the breeding dog then they might come out on top with a profit after the puppies have been sold. Some folks want to share the wonders of birth with their children, or maybe they feel that they have a wonderful pet and want to try to reproduce it. These motives, while possibly noble at heart, do not take into account the health or temperament of the potential puppies.
Not every dog has to be show-quality by any means, but breeding a dog that is carrying possible hereditary defects can result in repercussions.
Most people choose a specific breed based on qualities that are well-known within the breed.
For example: (this example has been borrowed from 5-star-dogs website)
- A German Shepard is hard working and protective.
- A Pug has a short muzzle and is a bit of a show-off
- A Border collie is an intelligent herder that weighs around 40 lbs.
But when someone is breeding two dogs that are below standard, the resulting puppies will have unexpected qualities in both physique and additude.
- A German Shepard that develops aggression towards anyone outside of the family.
- A Pug with an undiagnosed elongated palette that causes death during routine spay or neuter surgery.
- A Border Collie that is hyperactive, and unmanageable at 70lbs
It's not that the puppies of these breedings would not make a nice pet. It's that you are paying the purchase price to a breeder that is selling possibilities. Potentially great dogs, potentially not so great dogs. If you are paying a high purchase price you should have the luxury of knowing what to expect in your new pet.
Backyard breeders are responsible for "creating new breeds" with cute or fancy names. Unfortunately sometimes they are able to convince uninformed buyers to pay large fees for what really amounts to a mutt. Advertisements for "Doodles", "Cockapoos", "Schnoodles", "Maltipoos", "Chiweenies" etc are all over the newspapers and internet.
A well bred and proven purebred dog would NOT be sold in-tact to a home where it would be potentially bred to a dog of another breed. It would be kept by the breeder to be bred within the breed to continue to better the breed. This means that the 'purebred' dogs being used to make these new cross breeds are generally breeding a 'b-rate' purebred dog with a 'b-rate' purebred dog. Now while often crossbreeds or mutts have fewer genetic health problems because of the larger gene pool contributing to the dogs you also have less consistency in health, temperament and coat type.
These dogs generally make lovely pets, but you should not be paying a large sum for them.
A Reputable Breeder:
So what distinguishes a reputable breeder from a back-yard breeder? The main difference is that a reputable breeder does not breed for a financial profit. They do it for the betterment of the breed, for the love of dogs and for the hobby.
They very rarely make a profit any any litter of puppies because they are spending money on health and genetic testing, stud-fee's, extra food and supplementation, shots and veterinary care for the puppies etc. A responsible breeder can spend as much as $3500.00 per litter on average! Plus the breeder bears the expense of any unexpected medical emergencies that may occur during breeding or whelping.
Another big difference between a reputable breeder and a profit-based breeder is that a reputable breeder is very demanding of the buyers. They generally follow very strict criteria for placing puppies into potential homes. They would not sell a dog to a home that is not ideal.
Usually each puppy also comes with a health guarantee of some sort. If the puppy later develops a problem or defect that is covered in the guarantee offered by he breeder the breeder would provide a refund on purchase price, take back the puppy and exchange for another one or help the owner financially with the health problem. Most breeders will adopt out on a spay or neuter contract ensuring the dogs that are not of breeding quality are not bred by their new owners.
A responsible breeder will keep in contact with all adopters and ensure that they are available to help in any way they can with any temperament or training issues that arise during the life of the pet.
A reputable breeder will ensure that you and your potential pooch are a great match. You should always be allowed to see where the breeder keeps the dogs (whether it be in a kennel environment or in the breeders home).
Many reputable breeders do not breed their dogs until they have a waiting list of potential homes. This might make your search for the perfect puppy a little more drawn out than you were expecting. In many cases you will go through the adoption or screening process, be approved by the breeder to adopt a puppy, and then must wait until the next litter is expected.
Although you might want a puppy NOW, it is more important to get the RIGHT puppy even if it takes a little longer than you were expecting.
