One of my current dogs is a rescue (who was listed on petfinder, although that's not how I found him) who we adopted at 5, and I constantly use him as an example of why it can be really awesome to adopt an older dog rather than getting a puppy.
Sure, he has his problems, but they're very manageable (mostly, he gets confused sometimes when he's not sure what's going on and just sits. If you put a leash on him, he cooperates.) On the plus side, he was housebroken from the day he came home, he walks politely on the leash and quickly learned off-leash manners, he doesn't chew up and destroy things, he's fantastic at riding in the car and going on trips, and while he enjoys playing, he doesn't need attention Every Second Of The Day - he's perfectly happy to lie down next to me while I work on homework on my laptop or watch TV with my mom. (He actually watches the TV, it's hilarious.)
The thing about him, though, was that in the shelter he really didn't look like much. I just put him on the list of dogs to visit because I always visit with the larger dogs because they often are the ones that have trouble finding homes, and Pirate is black with rotti-markings, and looked just run down and depressed and awful, so he wasn't going anywhere. (They actually thought he was 10, between his bad teeth and how stressed he looked.) As soon as he got into the visiting room and away from the kennels and could be one-on-one, he perked right up and after about two weeks at home with us, he looked like a different dog. (We actually took him back for a visit after about six weeks, and they were astounded.)
He's really friendly, particularly with kids, so whenever we're out and about and people come up to him I try to tell them a bit about him and push the idea of adopting and looking at the older dogs. :)
(We do have a purebred also, but she's from a proper local breeder whose husband worked with my mom - only one female that she'd breed, lots of research into finding an appropriate male, time spent making sure both parents had something to their credit besides being able to make babies, etc. The purchase contract also had a return clause in it stating the breeder would ALWAYS take the dogs back, for any reason, etc. My mom really had her heart set on a cocker spaniel, so.) (Foxy is also hunting-line cocker, rather than the typical show-line cocker, which means she's a scarily smart little cookie. You can actually see in her the traits which spaniels were originally bred to develop.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-02-24 10:16 pm (UTC)Sure, he has his problems, but they're very manageable (mostly, he gets confused sometimes when he's not sure what's going on and just sits. If you put a leash on him, he cooperates.) On the plus side, he was housebroken from the day he came home, he walks politely on the leash and quickly learned off-leash manners, he doesn't chew up and destroy things, he's fantastic at riding in the car and going on trips, and while he enjoys playing, he doesn't need attention Every Second Of The Day - he's perfectly happy to lie down next to me while I work on homework on my laptop or watch TV with my mom. (He actually watches the TV, it's hilarious.)
The thing about him, though, was that in the shelter he really didn't look like much. I just put him on the list of dogs to visit because I always visit with the larger dogs because they often are the ones that have trouble finding homes, and Pirate is black with rotti-markings, and looked just run down and depressed and awful, so he wasn't going anywhere. (They actually thought he was 10, between his bad teeth and how stressed he looked.) As soon as he got into the visiting room and away from the kennels and could be one-on-one, he perked right up and after about two weeks at home with us, he looked like a different dog. (We actually took him back for a visit after about six weeks, and they were astounded.)
He's really friendly, particularly with kids, so whenever we're out and about and people come up to him I try to tell them a bit about him and push the idea of adopting and looking at the older dogs. :)
(We do have a purebred also, but she's from a proper local breeder whose husband worked with my mom - only one female that she'd breed, lots of research into finding an appropriate male, time spent making sure both parents had something to their credit besides being able to make babies, etc. The purchase contract also had a return clause in it stating the breeder would ALWAYS take the dogs back, for any reason, etc. My mom really had her heart set on a cocker spaniel, so.) (Foxy is also hunting-line cocker, rather than the typical show-line cocker, which means she's a scarily smart little cookie. You can actually see in her the traits which spaniels were originally bred to develop.)