Super Puppy Dog

“Puppy Mills” - That two-word phrase conjures up a bad feeling in most of us, and a few questions. Is it possible, there are good puppy mills or breeders, as well as bad ones we often see on TV or read about? Should you buy from a large-scale, commercial dog breeder or an independent breeder? Should you avoid buying? Should you adopt a new puppy or dog, instead? In this new five-part series, we’ll consider some of the answers to those questions and offer a few helpful tips.

Let’s look at adopting first. When you’re ready for your new puppy or dog, where do you go to adopt?

Depending on where you live, city and county animal shelters. These shelters usually have dozens of puppies and dogs. A quick Google or Yahoo of “animal shelter,” along with the name of your county or city, should produce a local list of adoption option for you. A similar online search may help you locate a nonprofit dog rescue group near you, also. Your local yellow and white pages should list a shelter or rescue group under “Pets” or your government listings.

Sheltered and rescued pets come in all mixes and pure breeds, but they all have one thing in common. They need a home, maybe yours. Many have been rescued from being irresponsibly abandoned, or their owners have responsibly given them up due to life changes, or these pooches were lost and their owners couldn’t be located if there was no dog license or collar.

Reasons to adopt are mainly these: There are more puppies and dogs than there are loving homes. So “buying new” doesn’t help this problem, it only adds to it. Second, if you instead adopt from an animal shelter or dog rescue group, then there’s less demand to tempt commercial puppy breeders, especially the bad ones out there, to continue pumping out puppies or even to enter the market (to them) if it’s not growing.

Of course there are responsible puppy breeders. We shouldn’t paint all breeders, large or small, with the same “puppy mill” brush stroke. And adopting a sheltered or rescued dog just isn’t for everyone’s preferences, either. So we’ll talk about buying from puppy breeders in Part 2.