Getting a Dog, part III

This is the third in a series of articles on Getting a Dog. All articles are linked from the menu on the right, in the Articles section.

Getting a Dog - Part III
Puppy or Adult?

Many (if not most) first-time dog owners don’t consider this question at all. Of course, your first dog should be a puppy, right? After all, it’s difficult to resist those cute little puppy-dog eyes, the little round puppy bellies, and the sweet tiny paw pads. But that’s not why most people actually get puppies. Ask puppy buyers why they’ve decided to get a puppy instead of an adult, and most will give you one of these two reasons:

• Puppies bond with their owners much better than adult dogs do. It’s difficult to bond with a dog that has come to you through a rescue or shelter, or with any older dog.
  
  
• Puppies are much easier to train. Adult dogs usually come with issues that have to be fixed, and their advanced age makes them difficult to re-train correctly because they can no longer learn as well as a pup. After all, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
  

The problem with those reasons is that they are myths, not facts.

• Dogs can bond with their owners at any age. Ask anyone who has an adult shelter rescue, and most people will tell you that their dog is a “Velcro dog”, he is never happier than when he is with his person.
  
  
• Dogs can be trained at any age. Dogs are just as smart at 8 years old as they are at 8 weeks, and have the same capacity to learn.
  

That said, there are advantages and disadvantages to adopting a dog at any of his life stages, whether it’s puppies or adults, or even seniors.


Great (and not so great) things about Puppies

The most wonderful thing about puppies is probably that they are puppies.

When you get a puppy, you are usually the puppy’s very first owner, and you usually get a lot of information about your new dog – especially if you buy the puppy from a breeder who can provide you with his pedigree and lets you see his dam (mother) and sire (father).

Your puppy won’t have picked up any bad habits yet. He most likely won’t have had any bad experiences with humans or other dogs. In short, he gets to be your baby and you get to teach him everything as he grows up with you and your family.

On the other hand, and make absolutely no mistake about this, puppies are a lot of work. A puppy is the canine equivalent of a human baby. Your new pup will need to be fed and cleaned. He will need to be taught not to chew on the furniture, pull your hair, or bite the cat. Unlike a human baby, your puppy won’t need to be changed, but he will need to go outside to potty every few hours - rain or shine, day or night – until he is old enough to “hold it”.

Your puppy will howl at night, bite you for attention, annoy your other pets and your guests, and run away from you outside unless he’s tethered to you by a leash. He will also bite, and bite a lot. Young puppies explore primarily with their mouths and their needle-sharp puppy teeth are nothing to scoff at.

Raising a puppy is a whole lot like parenting a puppy. It requires patience and it requires knowledge. Training a puppy is not rocket science, but it’s also not as easy as most people think.


Great (and not so great) things about Adult Dogs

Most of the time when we bring an adult dog into our lives, what we get is an instant companion. Older dogs can be adopted from a rescue or shelter, but they can also come from a breeder or someone who has to rehome their dog and is advertising him in a newspaper.

Most older dogs will be calmer and demand less of our time than pups do. They are generally housetrained and don’t need to be taken out as often. They’ll be able to calmly spend the day at home, in a crate or out, while we are at work – without eating the kitchen table or peeing on the sofa.

Most older dogs have already seen and experienced quite a lot. They may be used to riding in the car, meeting other dogs, or interacting with people. They may be much calmer with new experiences than a young puppy, because they have already learned that a new experience can be a good thing.

With an older dog, “what you see is what you get” applies. There won’t be any guessing as to what the dog will look like when he’s done growing, or how large he’ll get. You will also get a good idea of the dog’s temperament since he is past that butt-headed teenage stage and has settled into his adult personality.

On the other hand, an adult dog may come to you with a lot of issues.

The majority of dogs surrendered to shelters and rescues were dumped not because they are bad dogs, but because their owners never gave them any kind of training, so the dog really does not know that it’s wrong to tear up the house or bark at the neighbor’s cat.

Some of the adult dogs that are available for adoption may have come from homes where they were abused or neglected, and may be frightened of some people, or shy around other dogs. They may not have been exposed to other dogs or other pets before, and they may have never been around kids.


Making your Choice

Without a doubt, there are many positive points to be made about bringing a puppy into your home, just like there are many positive points about getting an adult dog. At the same time, there are negative points for both.

Obviously, I encourage the adoption of adult dogs. The majority of dogs that I have fostered, as well as my own dog, came to me as adult dogs. I’ve found that most adult dogs at shelters and for adoption will be between the ages of two and five, which is the prime of a dog’s life and means they’ll have many good years to go.

My advice for future dog owners is this:

If you are going to be a first-time dog owner, I would seriously consider adopting an older dog for several different reasons:

First, adult dogs are less work than puppies. An adult will still require exercise and training, but you won’t have to get up every few hours to take him out to potty. Most of us have jobs that keep us away from home for 8 hours or more during the day. Would your job let you come home mid-day to let your puppy outside? Or would an older dog who can hold it until you get home possibly be a better match for your home?

Second, an adult dog will be much easier to match to your lifestyle. When you get an adult dog from a reputable rescue or breeder (we will talk about what makes them reputable a little later), they will attempt to find the best dog for your situation, taking into account, for example, how many hours a day the dog would be home alone. They will also not place a dog in a home with cats or young children unless they know the dog would do well with them.

The reason reputable rescues and breeders know the dogs they are placing so well is that they spend a lot of time with them. Most breeders keep their dogs in their homes, not in an outdoor kennel facility where the dog wouldn’t have much human contact. Most rescues keep their dogs in foster homes, which are provided by experienced pet owners who usually have pets and children of their own, in addition to their foster dogs.

Like I said, this would be my personal recommendation. I don’t fault anyone for wanting to get a puppy. Puppies are hard to resist. But I want you to be aware that puppies are a lot of work and that they are very unpredictable. Until a puppy is fully grown, you will never be able to tell whether the pup is going to be a specific size, coloration, or temperament.

There is one more great thing about adopting an adult dog: when you adopt an adult from a shelter or rescue you are quite literally, directly or indirectly, saving a dog from being put to sleep. In a country where four million dogs are killed in shelters every year because there are no homes for them, that may not make a big difference, but if more people did it, it could.

to be continued