How to Adopt The Right Dog- Part 1

When getting a new dog, many people have questions as to if they are making the right decisions.  There are many consequences we must take into consideration, and uncertainty may lead to a bad decision.  Getting the wrong dog could mean a very unhappy pet, or even being dissatisfied with your relationship with your dog, which is entirely preventable if you do adequate research before adopting.  Here are some good questions to ask yourself when considering getting a dog to see what decision suits your lifestyle to help you in your voyage to obtain a new family member.

Size- What size dog are you looking for? When you think about this, consider the size of your home.  Additionally, if you have children, what size would be ideal for their well being? Do you have a small yard or a big yard? Where would they stay?  Determining the size you are looking for will help you narrow down breeds.

Shedding- If you have ever been to an unkempt house in which the owner has a heavily shedding dog, you know that it looks like chaos.  When people don’t have the time to clean up dog hair, their house becomes a mess because dog hair magically sticks to everything.  Furniture, carpet, clothes and anything in the house that isn’t tile is an absolute hair magnet, and it’s not that easy to clean.  If you have ten extra minutes a day to brush your dog, go for the shedding dog! Just make sure that excess hair isn’t something that will get out of hand quickly.

Family- If you have a family, ask them what kind of dog they want.  Take their offers into consideration and do some research!  If you have small children, a hyper dog (no matter big or small) is a bad idea.  Don’t judge dogs solely based on size because some larger dogs are actually calmer and more docile towards children, while small yippy dogs can be a real handful.

Breeds-  When looking at breeds consider all the aspects of that type of dogs general personality.  Will the dog have to go through dog training? What is their activity level? Are they natural escape artists? Look at some blogs from people who have the specific breed and see what they personally think of the dogs you are looking at.  Opinions from others are often very helpful in decision making.  One of the easiest ways to see what a dog is truly like is to see what their specific breed was bred for.  Dogs breeds were created for hundreds of different purposes, so what is your dog’s specialty?

For more information comment below or contact our Scottsdale dog training offices at www.totaldog.com