Advice on choosing dog from shelter
sh_ailinger
My husband and I are just beginning to think about getting a dog, so we
took a jaunt to our ASPCA on Saturday, just to scope it out. Lots of
adorable, sad looking dogs that were so happy to see us! Anyway, this
shelter doesn't have an area for potential adopters to "get to know" the
potential adoptee out of his cage. Seems like it's pretty hard to tell enough
about how a dog reacts to you just by looking at him through the fence.
Instead of having such an area, they have a 2 week return policy -- take
the dog home, and if it doesn't work out, bring it back to return or exchange
within 2 weeks (sounds odd to talk about "exchanging" a dog....). Anyway,
I'm hoping some of you can give us some advice about good/bad things to look
for that we could possibly detect just by observing/interacting with the
dog with a fence between us. If it makes a difference, we'd both really
love a Lab/Lab mix -- saw 5 or 6 on Saturday. Our interests are just for
a wonderful pet -- not for show or competition or anything like that. Of
course we've thought of a few obvious things just from what we saw this weekend.
One dog (Lab) was absolutely hyper -- barking incessantly and jumping like
you wouldn't believe. One growled at us when we approached his pen. But
most of them were wagging their tails to beat the band and trying their
dead-level best to lick/nose/etc. through the fence. Other than generally
friendly behavior, what should we be looking for?
Kyler Laird
>Anyway, this
>shelter doesn't have an area for potential adopters to "get to know" the
>potential adoptee out of his cage. Seems like it's pretty hard to tell enough
>about how a dog reacts to you just by looking at him through the fence.
>Instead of having such an area, they have a 2 week return policy -- take
>the dog home, and if it doesn't work out, bring it back to return or exchange
>within 2 weeks (sounds odd to talk about "exchanging" a dog....).
Yes, this seems odd to me, too. Don't they ever take the dogs out of the
cages? If so, why can't you? (The shelters here have a fenced-in area
where the staff and visitors walk/play with the dogs.)
Personally, I think I might like the policy - as long as they wouldn't
mind me exchanging a dog every two weeks. (Clean them up, train them a
bit, and send them back.)
>Anyway,
>I'm hoping some of you can give us some advice about good/bad things to look
>for that we could possibly detect just by observing/interacting with the
>dog with a fence between us.
Dogs often act WAY out of character in shelter situations. I have no
good advice for this. I believe some books have pointers about picking
out puppies in this situation, though.
--kyler
P.S. My wife and I just "lost" a shelter dog. I don't know what we were
going to do with it - we're at our limit now, but we both fell hopelessly
in love with him. We finally decided just to run down and get him. We
arrived 20 minutes after closing - first week of their new hours. They
killed him that night. Situations like this are what make me so
violently pro-neuter, pro-responsible-owner. (Incidentally, Gable goes
in for castration tomorrow morning. I ordered iso. I'll give a report
on it later.)
Jon Pastor
|> good advice for this. I believe some books have pointers about picking
|> out puppies in this situation, though.
True, but I'd still be leery of a dog that showed aggressive (as opposed to
assertive) tendencies. On the other hand, a dog that is unresponsive or
subdued might respond to some attention. Fagin was the most depressed animal
I've ever seen, and took a lot of coaxing even to get him to the door of the
cage, but Katie was bouncy and very self-confident. Both of them were friendly
and agreeable.
|> P.S. My wife and I just "lost" a shelter dog. I don't know what we were
|> going to do with it - we're at our limit now, but we both fell hopelessly
|> in love with him. We finally decided just to run down and get him. We
|> arrived 20 minutes after closing - first week of their new hours. They
|> killed him that night.
This could have been us with Fagin, if my wife hadn't dragged me down to the
shelter on a Saturday morning when I had other plans. My sympathies... I can
imagine how you feel.
We would have "lost" Katie, if we hadn't dropped what we were doing and run
down to the shelter at 6 the evening we heard about her. Fortunately, this
wouldn't have been fatal -- she was a beautiful young dog, very adoptable --
but it would have been a terrible loss for us; yesterday was Katie's second
"gotcha" day (second anniversary of the day she came home with us from the
shelter), and we can't imagine life without her.
I think that if you love dogs and have a rapport with them, you should trust
your heart to lead you in the right direction. We've done that twice, and both
times it paid off big-time.
Michael David Jones
This is difficult. It's very had to tell much about a dog's behavior
when it's in a small fenced area. Dogs that have been there a while
(more than a couple of days) may become territorial. The problem is that
the less territory a dog has, the more he feels compelled to "defend"
it. Also, dogs that don't get a lot of exercise and/or human contact may
appear very "hyper" for a while upon meeting people.
That said, here are some GENERAL things to look for.
1. Has the dog soiled its pen? If so, it may not be housebroken. This is
not a major problem, but it can be an unpleasant surprise if you don't
discover it until you get the dog home. The routine of the shelter can
make a *big* difference here. If they don't let the dogs out often
enough, most of the pens may be soiled.
2. If a dog acts aggressive (growling, etc), but you like the looks of
it otherwise, try crouching down in front of the pen and talking to him
in a friendly voice. If he drops the aggressive position, then he's
probably (and I want to stress again that these are *GENERAL* ideas) not
really an aggressive dog, just suffering from being kept in too small an
area.
3. Hyper dogs are really tough to judge. Most of them will calm down
within a half-hour or so of being out of their cage and with people.
Mike Jones | jon...@rpi.edu
We all know that cats land on their feet if you throw them up in the
air. And we know that the buttered side of the bread always falls
face down. So what happens when you butter the back of a cat? Does it
stick to the ceiling?
- Meesh Hell
Diane Bassett
I also encourage you to try other shelters in your area (here in the
Bay Area we have at least 8 shelters within reasonable driving distance
of each other). Or call them in advance to see if they have a
"get acquainted" area. I don't recommend taking the dog home to see if
you can judge its basic temperment. But 30 minutes in a get-acquainted
area gives you a lot of info.
As a last resort, you could be asked to be allowed into the actual
kennel/dog run. As a volunteer, I go into the kennel frequently to
give some TLC to a dog when I have a free minute.
Jon Krueger
> My husband and I are just beginning to think about getting a dog, so we
> took a jaunt to our ASPCA on Saturday, just to scope it out. Lots of
> adorable, sad looking dogs that were so happy to see us! Anyway, this
> shelter doesn't have an area for potential adopters to "get to know" the
> potential adoptee out of his cage.
Right, some shelters don't. We don't. So instead we just let the
potential adoptor try the dog on leash outside. Ask your local
shelter to arrange this. I certainly agree that:
> it's pretty hard to tell enough about how a dog reacts to you
> just by looking at him through the fence.
I'm not so hot on the idea of
> a 2 week return policy -- take the dog home, and if it doesn't
> work out, bring it back to return or exchange within 2 weeks
> (sounds odd to talk about "exchanging" a dog....).
Yes, it does sound odd. Also sounds hard on owner and dog when
returns or "exchanges" occur. I think many such incidents could
be avoided by thirty minutes of trying the dog on leash instead.
> good/bad things to look for that we could possibly detect just
> by observing/interacting with the dog with a fence between us.
Good: urinates/defecates in one area of cage, away from food and
where he sleeps: indicates he's housebroken. Good: shows
interest in people, comes up to lick your hand, accept treat from
you. Limit on this test: dog is probably used to lots of people
walking by his cage all day, possibly for many days; yet another
reason you need to try him outside. Good: dog doesn't react badly
to a particular sort of people: men, women, children. Bad:
growling, aggressive displays. Of course, if he's bitten someone,
chances are he won't be available for adoption anyway. Good:
tail wagging, licking.
Not necessarily bad: barking and jumping; in the cage this may be
totally atypical behavior. Really you don't know until you've
walked him for a while, let him get his energy out, get back to
more typical behavior.
Check everything that's written about the dog on its card.
Ask the staff and volunteers to tell you about the dogs.
They usually have spent time with each dog. Listen carefully
and ask follow-up questions.
Also remember that choosing carefully isn't the only thing
you do to make it a success; it's the first thing. Your
training and handling after adoption makes a big difference.
Start for example with crate training. A "good dog" that
you don't crate train will probably present more problems than
another dog that you do crate train.
> If it makes a difference, we'd both really love a Lab/Lab mix
> -- saw 5 or 6 on Saturday. Our interests are just for a wonderful
> pet -- not for show or competition or anything like that.
Then you shall be satisfied. And you shall save a dog while
you're at it. And you shall have a friend for life.
-- Jon
--
Jon Krueger j...@ingres.com