What You Need To Know About Adopting A Dog
From The Humane Society or Pound

Used Dog - Free to Good Home
Shari L. Coxford © 1999


We often hesitate to adopt a dog from the Humane Society because 
we figure we don't know what we're getting into adopting 
somebody else's used dog. We assume that if the dog is at the 
pound, there must be a reason. He chews up your smelly shoes, 
he pees on Aunt Molly when she comes to visit, he rummages 
through the trash.... there must be something really wrong for 
the dog to be at the pound.

But that's the big myth. In fact, adopting a dog from the 
pound, they often have some kind of record about the dog. Any 
training he's had, whether he's been an outdoor or indoor dog, 
plus they've spent a few days around him and knows if he's 
friendly, aggressive, fearful, etc. Dogs don't just appear on 
their doorstep. People turn them in, and in doing so, they fill 
out a fact sheet about the dog.

My very first dog was a dog pound special. She was a year and a 
half old, and knowing nothing about dogs, boy was it a tough 
choice! I didn't want to train a dog from scratch, so I didn't 
want a puppy. I wanted the dog to at least be housebroken and 
maybe sit or lay down on command. 

According to their records, Gypsy was housebroken, knew SIT, and 
preferred the outdoors. I liked what I saw in her eyes. They 
were calm. She wasn't jumping around and barking like the other 
dogs. There was no sign of aggression or fear. She sat calmly, 
looking at me with a question mark in her eyes.

Today her eyes are full of joy and laughter and love. And the 
question mark is in my eyes. Because I don't understand how she 
came to be abandoned by two different families. Somebody, 
somewhere, spent a lot of time with this dog. And it shows. 
She knew a lot more when I adopted her than just SIT. She's 
about the closest thing to the perfect dog that I could ever 
imagine, and it baffles me utterly that anyone would have gotten 
rid of her. And to think how close she was to the gas chamber. 
She'd been there for a week already, and I don't know the time 
limit they try finding a new home before the axe falls, but I 
don't think it's much more than a week.

Obviously not all pound dogs are going to be as perfect as 
Gypsy. And she's got her quirks, as do all of us. But the 
moral of the story is, never to assume that just because 
somebody dumped the dog, that there's something wrong with the 
dog. Maybe it's the owner that was the problem.


Shari Coxford is a freelance writer and founder of the
All Free Spot freebies web site, which offers free
pet goodies for your pets at: 
http://www.allfreespot.com/freepet.html Free Pet Goodies



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