A recent Facebook comment on a friend's post:
I have a gal that is looking for a pup. She just called today. Male/female.
It's a completely harmless post, but the "looking for a pup" line that we hear so often is always a small irritation with me.
You see, people are NOT going to get a pup.
They are going to get a DOG, and that dog will live for 10 to 15 years during which time it will bark, dig, shit, pee, eat, ruin a few things, maybe cost a lot of money, and be pretty damn inconvenient at times.
If folks who are looking for a pet will not even consider a dog in rescue, perhaps we need to explain to them that they really do not deserve a pup from us.
Seriously, let's make this a test to see if a prospective client really deserves one of our special dogs.
Because if they do, then a dog in rescue probably deserves them too.
I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but too many dogs are screaming for homes and dying when they cannot find them.
Let's talk about that a little more, and let's make sure we all have a link to rescue on our web sites and blogs as well. After all, no one wants to be seen as a "hump and dump" dog breeder do they?
Let's also post an occasional "dog available at local shelter" note on Faceboook while we are at it.
Let's stand for the dogs and not just for the puppies.
And let's explain to all that NO ONE is ever going to get a puppy from us; they are going to get a DOG that will bark, dig, shit, pee, eat, ruin a few things, maybe cost a lot of money over the next 10 to 15 years.
Are they ready for that? Are they sure?
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2 comments:
Many people think that getting a dog from a shelter is simply getting choosing to take another persons problem. This is a bad assumption.
Every dog I had growing up (and we had a few) came "from the pound". I was not even aware when I was little that folks did it any other way. The dogs we had were wonderful companions that were well behaved and happy.
The overwhelming majority of dogs at the shelter are there because their owners did not understand or did not have time for dog ownership.
Go get one there, you can always take it back and you will get to skip all the middle of the night walks with a new puppy.
I support what you say here entirely.
Many many moons ago, I spent some time in Denmark and being generally dog mad, naturally tuned into the scene. The Kennel Club there had a very interesting series of programmes on dogs and the ethics of buying, selling and keeping them. The one criterion given by the Kennel Club as to a good breeder? One who has regard for the life of his animal. Nothing else. It seemed overly simplistic, but the more I thought about it, the more true it is: if you don't care about the quality of life your dogs will enjoy, then you'll breed dogs that are doomed to suffer. If you don't care about the quality of life your dog you'll care who you sell to and what happens to them once they're out of sight.
One of the breeders highlighted bred Newfoundlands. Her screening criteria again seemed excessively simple. When a family came over to coo over puppies, she'd take one of her adult dogs and show them how to feed and groom it and answer any questions. Inevitably, they'd be insistent that they still wanted a puppy and she'd go, 'Go sleep on it. If you still want one the next day, then I'll sell you one.' Lots of people didn't come back. She took dogs back any time, unconditionally and in twenty five years had one return.
Despite being about selling the idea of pure-bred dogs and being mostly about showing, the Danish kennel club isn't quite as blind as the AKC or KC. I was surprised to pick up an approved all-breed book and read some quite scathing assessments of some dog breeds. E.g. this excerpt from the bulldog "...the former muscle-bound dog with the lightning fast reactions was 'developed' into a crippled, overweight monster with breathing difficulties, one barely able to breed naturally, beset with a multitude of illnesses." (this is from 1992) It was also very strong on discouraging people from buying working or hunting dogs as pets e.g. from the jadtterrier: "The jagtterrier will and MUST work. It is unthinkable to keep this loveable chap as a mere pet or watch dog."
The kennel club website is a hoot: the first thing you see when you click on 'buying a dog' is a big ad for a DVD 'Should You Get a Dog?' (actually, a more accurate translation would be: Ought you have a dog at all?). Explaining that 12,000 healthy dogs a year get put down mostly because people don't appreciate just how much trouble a dog can be, the DVD sells for the princely sum of 50 kroner ($8.40) or it can be streamed free of charge.
We could do with more unselling of dogs, as you say.
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