How To Choose A Dog For YOU?

Choosing a dog is a decision too often made too lightly. Puppies are cute and lovely when they are small, helpless, sweet and fluffy. When they grow up they are dogs, not puppies.

Dogs are not accessories to the newest fashion fad. They are living, breathing, sensing, intelligent beings that should be treated with respect.

When you adopt a dog you absolutely must be aware that the dog will stay with you for many years to come as a friend and companion to you and your family. Therefore making the decision to adopt a dog should be done with exactly the same amount of attention and concern as making a decision to get married or not, to have children or not or any other decision that is committing and requires dedication and responsibility.

It is unfortunately too often that dogs are adopted for all the wrong reasons such as the fact that they are “cute” or “fashionable” and not for their characteristics. This in turn creates situations where dogs are dumped to shelters, kennels or returned to the pet stores and as it goes, every time this happens a dog is viewed as slightly more un-adoptable. If a dog is returned more then once or several times they become more likely to be euthanized.

The truth is, if we were euthanizing people for their “likability” or lack there of “in the eye of the adopter”, we would be justly viewed and treated as criminals. Bot the euthanizers and the adopters. Possibly, considering this view would help in educating people who are adopting dogs for inappropriate reasons.

Selecting a dog needs to be a task in which you will take some time to self reflect. Just picking a dog because they are a breed that you like to look at is, again, not a very good way to approach the decision process.

You have to ask yourself who you are and what you are like. If you are a “couch potato” and not likely to run a marathon worth of miles every week it is likely that having a high energy dog would be a challenge for you. More so, it would be a challenge for the dog as well. Thus it is your job to be realistic and truthful to yourself and pick a dog breed that will match your own energy level. If you are not a runner don’t get a runner dog because they will run you up the walls. The repercussions of making the wrong “energy levels” decision can be quite serious for both the human and the dog so take into consideration how your own energy should affect your decision.

In all this, you must know that a dog breed does not mean that we are able to pre-determine the dog’s personality, but once you have identified what you are like and what your energy levels are like, you should begin doing some research. While you can’t pick out a personality, in the most general sense, dog breeds are known for their general pre-dispositions. Doing the pre-informative research will be of great help when you are seeking out the dog that is the right match for you.

If you make a decision to check out dog shelters and to offer a home to a dog that needs it you should have in mind that appraising the dog and their energy levels in a dog shelter will not be a simple task. A human in a cage gets frustrated and edgy and the same holds true for a dog which is an active and social being. Considering that shelters can be tense in gauging the dog it may be useful to have a professional at hand to help you with it.

The rescue staff at the shelter can also be of great help. These people are not concerned with getting the dog out of the shelter at earliest convenience and at just any cost. They rescued the dog and they have no desire to un-rescue it by giving it away to a NON matching adopter. It works for the dog you and the rescuer to find the right dog for the right person, otherwise the dog gets returned and no one wins. Bottom line, you can be reasonably confident that they will give you useful and straight forward dog history as they know it.

There is a number of things it may help to ask them so to help you in understanding what you need to know here are some of the questions you could ask:

• What the dog is like? – Expect a generic but revealing answer.
• How they get along with the staff?
• How they get along with other dogs?
• How do they act at mealtimes?
• What are they like when people come to view other dogs?

Answers to these and alike questions will give you a better idea of what the dog would be like with you and your family at your home.

You can also ask the staff if they will let you take a dog for a walk. Say,, a “test walk”. You can take the dog for a brief walk around the shelter which can give you an opportunity to see how you two get along, what the dog’s underlying temperament is like and how your energies come together. This will also allow you to free the dog of the frustration and energy build-up due to being caged and you’ll be able to see and sense the truer nature of the dog.

Finally, if at the shelter, it is important that you leave your emotions at the door. Shelters are a display of cruel reality of abandoned dogs and for most people walking in is a heart breaking experience making you want to adopt and save all of them, and those that are not there yet, at once.

For the sake of the dog you chose and your sake and of your family, you can’t afford to choose a dog on the bases of becoming emotional and sorrowful. The match has to be good, otherwise the adoption is not going to be successful and will cause more grief down the road.

Stay open minded, patient and do your research and you will find a dog that is good for you and that you are good for too.