Puppy or Rescue Dog

A while back someone asked me what my opinion was for getting a new member of the pack, should they get a puppy, or a rescue dog. I'm sorry, but I can't remember who asked and as time is of the essence during blogathon, I'm not even bothering to look.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the most important thing is making sure that the current dogs in the house have the final say on who gets to stay. After all, you wouldn't allow some stranger in your house that ate all of your food, left their crap laying all over the house, and drank out of the toilet, so why should your pups be stuck with a rude stranger if they didn't like them. Ok, the toilet drinking is ok with us dogs, but humans seem to have some strange phobia about drinking out of a perfectly good drinking bowl and instead using it for their potty things. Hey, it rinses itself out, its clean, go ahead and drink out of it!

Humans also have some strange misconception about rescue dogs or shelter dogs. They seem to think that rescue dogs have some sort of problem with them, after all, why would a perfectly good dog be in a shelter and not in a loving home? Well, humans are funny and they like the idea of having a dog, but then realize that caring for a living thing requires time, patience, and giving up some of their selfish needs in order to take care of the dog. Therefore, most of the time a dog is in a shelter mainly because humans "don't have time". They use other excuses to make it sound as though they're not selfish and lazy like "allergies", or "don't match the carpet", or "can't control". A dog in a rescue doesn't necessarily mean the dog has a problem, its most likely that their only problem was a human that couldn't give back the same unconditional love as the dog gave to them in the short time they were with that human.

Rescue dogs are generally kept in foster homes, so if you're a bit leery about getting a dog from a shelter, the next best place to look is a rescue. The foster homes get to know the dog, trains them to learn the house rules like: don't pee on the expensive furniture, don't shred the expensive furniture, and how to stretch out to your total length to steal all of the bed. Those foster homes will be able to tell you whether the dog they're fostering is right for your pack or home.

Puppies are cool too though, but typically if you haven't had a puppy in a long time or ever... be prepared for the nightmare that is having a puppy. Having been a puppy myself, I can tell you that the entire being of a puppy in a new home is to drive humans stark raving insane and deprive them of sleep. We will get into EVERYTHING no matter how prepared and "puppy-proofed" you think your home is, we will crawl under the bed and make you crawl under to come get us, we'll get into horrible things that you thought were put up and freak you out, we'll squeeze through the tiniest cracks in fences, we'll escape from collars that you thought were tight enough, and most of all... we'll pee and poo on your expensive rugs. Because WE ARE PUPPIES! We're cute for a reason: so humans will look at the nice steaming pile of poo on their brand new expensive rug and go "ooooh, you're so cute".

Another reason to get a puppy over a rescue dog (unless you can find a rescue puppy, but those go quick, quick like "Tickle me til I puke Elmo" at Christmas quick) is if you need a puppy to grow up with one of the furry little eatable critters you may already have in your house. Northern Breed dogs are especially prey driven, so maybe there isn't a rescue or shelter dog that has grown up and learned not to eat other members of the household, so getting a puppy when its young, you can typically teach it what is and isn't off limits as far as eatables in the home. Granted, and I want to add this disclaimer: no matter how well you train your puppy not to eat loved little furry non-northern breed family members, there is always the risk that something will happen, so all precautions need to be taken to make sure that all little furry non-northern breed family members are kept safe from curious and playful northern breeds.

Now, if you'll excuse me, its noon, and its time for lunch.

Meeshka
(I hope there's something special planned for lunch)