Sigrid, a friend of mine asked me this the other day. She lives in South Africa and is the proud owner of a shelter dog called Shadow. I live in Norway and here we don't have shelters. There is an organization here called "dyrebeskyttelsen" (translates to something like "animal protection organization") and they re-home dogs, but they only have the ad for the dog on their website and the dogs are still in there old homes while waiting to get adopted. The reason why we don't have shelters is that we don't have stray dogs in Norway. And we don't have dogs roaming around, not that dogs are roaming around everywhere in South Africa or United States either, but in Norway there are NO stray dogs at all. Neither do we have many unwanted puppies born every year. There are of course some (irresponsible) "breeders" of mix and pure breed dogs that breed their dogs without thinking about finding them good homes. These dogs are usually sold cheap, some are in no doubt put down, and many of them sadly get re-homed many times during their life. The re-homing of dogs in Norway is a "private affair". The ad for the dog is put online by the owner, the owner (hopefully) gets some replies, the old owner and the new owner meet and the dog is handed over. There are no shelters involved.
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| Shadow as a puppy. Photo: Sigrid |
So then you can ask me: Why don't I adopt one of those dogs in need of a home?
Well, that is more tricky.. My first thought is that I don't want to support the irresponsible breeders by taking in one of those dogs, and thus enabling these breeders to keep on what they are doing. But of course it isn't the dogs fault that the breeder is irresponsible. And also, unforeseen things can happen. A lot of dogs are re-homed for reasons like illness in the family or allergies. One of those dogs surely are OK to adopt, many even come from good breeders and homes. I guess I would only adopt a dog like that if it was the breeder that tried to find the dog a new home. That is a sure sign that the breeder is serious and really wants what is best for the dog. You seldom, if ever, see this happen for mix breed dogs. The breeders of those dogs usually didn't think it through before letting their dog have puppies, and they certainly have no intention to take responsibility for the puppies once they have left for their new homes.
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| Shadow in the pool. Photo: Sigrid |
I think if I lived in a country like the United States or South Africa, where I know that no one benefits from me taking in a shelter dog (except the rescue organization and of course the dog), I would definitely adopt one. But here in Norway, where I know some people make a lucrative business of irresponsible breeding, I don't want a mix breed dog or a dog that is re-homed several times, since they likely come from such a breeder. It is a bit like buying a puppy from a "puppy mill" in the United States. No one questions that that is a bad idea, right?
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| Shadow on the couch. |
And then we have another reason: I want an 8-9 weeks old puppy. Not a adult or adolescent dog. The reason for this is that the sooner you get the little critter the easier it is to shape it into the kind of dog you want. There is a thin window for socialization when the puppy is between 8-12 weeks old (or 16 weeks, depending on the source, the truth is probably that this varies for different dogs), and the things it experiences during this time is what it will view as "normal". If you get the dog after this age, it is much more likely to develop problematic behaviors and might have a harder time acclimatizing to your way of living, of course depending on what experiences it has made before you got it. But as I said in the blog post about socialization [link] it is never too late, it will just take more time. Thing is, I don't want to make it harder than it has to be for myself, not at this point in my life. And dogs that are re-homed in Norway are always older than 12 weeks, before that you basically buy them directly from the breeder, and I've already been through the problem of supporting irresponsible breeders.
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| Shadow as a puppy. Photo: Sigrid |
So I'm just gonna keep on waiting for "my" puppy to be born at the Danish Swedish farmdog breeder in Sweden. I definitely feel good about supporting a breeder as serious as she is, that informed me about hereditary diseases in the breed (and yes, there are hereditary diseases in all dog breeds) and told me what to keep in mind when looking at dogs from different blood lines within the breed. For I have all intentions of becoming a serious breeder myself, that knows what the genetic history of my dogs are and that only breed from animals that are healthy. And almost more important than that, I will take responsibility for all pups born under my care and find them good homes.
Below is a link to a documentary about shelter dogs in the United States, we are lucky there are so many people with big hearts in the world.
Documentary about rescue dogs in the United States.
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