Going to the National Dog Show got me thinking about shelter dogs vs. those you get from a breeder.
I love dogs — pretty much all dogs — and my heart has always gone out to the ones who are unwanted. The ones who wind up at the SPCA or a similar shelter.
If you can adopt a dog who really needs a home, why would you ever go to a breeder? I’ve wondered through the years.
But seeing the various breeds at the dog show made me think: Why wouldn’t you want to go to a breeder and get exactly the kind of dog that suits you, both in temperament and appearance?
I’ve said before that I’ve always gotten my dogs from shelters.
Friends warned me through the years, “You don’t know what you’re getting when you get a shelter dog!”
Yet my dogs were easy-going and social. Never a problem.
And then came Maddie — the dog I got from a breeder.
I didn’t get a Labradoodle because they’ve suddenly become popular. I’d never even heard of a Labradoodle until Maddie.
I actually went to shelters in 3 different counties over as many months, looking for a “pound dog.”
You know what I found? Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes.
I know a dog’s personality isn’t about his breed, it’s about him as an individual. But I do think instinct, DNA, call it what you want, plays a role in shaping all dogs.
And I think Pit Bulls have that aggressive instinct a little closer to the surface than most other dogs.
Maybe I’m wrong — it doesn’t really matter. It’s the way I feel, and I know I wouldn’t be comfortable with one.
I was running out of time searching for a dog. I knew I wanted a female (not sure why, but at the time that was my thinking) and I knew I’d have her spayed. I was starting a new job in a few months and I wanted to be home when the dog was spayed. (My previous 2 dogs had attempted — one successfully, the other not — to rip out their stitches.)
So I had a time frame in which to get a puppy. And I was running out of time.
“Why don’t you go to a breeder for once?” someone said to me.
And I realized I had little choice left. So I began searching. I was certain I wanted a mixed breed, because they’d have calmer dispositions, right?
All I have to say to that now is: Look at Maddie. Then look at the hundreds of dogs at that dog show and how quiet the arena was. Mixed breeds over pure breeds? Not so sure anymore.
Anyway, my search led me to Maddie — one of a litter of 5. There were 2 females, and I asked for one of them.
I showed up at the breeder’s house, and he took me outside to a corral. Two tiny puppies came toddling out, falling all over themselves. Each one was no bigger than my foot.
One hung in the background, and the other haltingly came toward me.
There you go.
Let the mayhem begin.
“You have such a good dog!” someone told me again today on our early morning walk, as Maddie obediently sat while this woman jogged by.
“Sometimes,” I said.
Maddie wagged as I whispered, “Good girl.” Slipping her a broken piece of Milk Bone, we walked on.
We’re a work in progress, Maddie and I. And I have a feeling we always will be.
So my question is: Do you ever really know what you’re getting until you get it? Shelter vs. breeder, purebred vs. mutt. How much does any of it matter?
I don’t have the answers.
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