How to Raise the Perfect Dog (7 page)

The Humane Society is determined to put an end to the horror of puppy mills in our lifetime, but since puppy mills are still legal in most states, the only way to do that is to make this trade in canine flesh no longer profitable for its investors. If unpurchased, the puppy in the window of an unethical pet store will eventually end up at a shelter or rescue organization once she is past her “cute” expiration date. That’s the time to adopt, if you sincerely want to help and believe you are patient and
experienced
enough to handle the many behavioral and health problems that might come along with that dog. The puppy mill “breeders” don’t profit, the pet stores don’t profit, and you will be helping go one step further toward solving the problem of puppy mills and putting them out of business forever.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BREEDER

It’s easy to avoid pet shop puppies or puppies being hocked on the Internet, but how do you tell a responsible breeder from a “backyard breeder” or a home-grown amateur? First of all, I want to say that there is nothing inherently unethical about bringing home a puppy from your neighbor’s backyard. Just know that you will probably have no guarantee at all that the puppy isn’t predisposed to chronic genetic health conditions or behavior problems. This is why, if you are an inexperienced dog owner or fear you can’t afford the possibility of long-term, expensive vet bills, I urge you not to go this route. Some backyard breeders may truly have the best intentions, but most will have little or no experience selecting for health and temperament, and they may not know anything at all about the lineage (including genetic health or behavior histories) of the puppies’ parents. Unfortunately, there are many other backyard breeders who don’t think about the dog’s welfare at all. They have little concern for the puppies they bring into the world, except to use them to make a little extra money.

If you have decided you want to go the breeder route to purchase your new puppy, it’s in your best interest to find people like Brooke or the Fosters, with high standards and excellent reputations. As their examples have shown you, a great breeder will ask you a
lot
of questions. Some of them may even seem quite personal. Don’t be shocked if the breeder asks to come to visit your home to see firsthand where the dog would live and to make sure your yard is secure. This is how seriously responsible breeders take the placement of their dogs—they do not want to contribute in any way to the growing population of abandoned and unwanted dogs in the United States! A trustworthy breeder will also be only too happy to answer any and all questions
you
may have, about the breeder, his or her practices, the dog you are thinking of buying, and the complete histories of all litters, older dogs, and their bloodlines.
Think twice about any breeder who does not freely share this kind of information with you, or acts as if you are taking up too much of his or her time
.

Purchasing a puppy from a responsible breeder will probably cost you a premium—from the high hundreds to thousands of dollars—but remember, you are not only paying for the puppy, you are paying for a buffer against costly veterinarian bills during your dog’s life, as well as a lifetime
relationship
with the person responsible for bringing the puppy into this world.

So where do you find these dream breeders? Call the Humane Society of the United States or visit their website,
www.HSUS.org
. They provide their own thorough checklist of criteria for selecting a good breeder. The American Kennel Club’s website is also an excellent resource,
www.akc.org
. Remember, many breeders specialize in raising a certain
kind
of dog, even within their specific breed expertise. In searching for Eliza, Chris and Johanna Komives made sure they had the right category of breeder for the puppy they wanted. “We did choose our breeders based on their statement that they breed for temperament,” Chris told me. “The breed standard is for a happy self-confident temperament with less aggression than other terriers. Other breeders we inquired with were more concerned with the soft coat and its color than the demeanor of the dogs.”

QUESTIONS ALL REPUTABLE BREEDERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER

• How long have you been breeding dogs?
  

• How many litters do you have every year?
  

• Why did you select these particular parents and why did you plan this litter?
  

• What are the potential health problems of this breed and what have you done to prevent such problems in your line?
  

• Do you have proof of health tests for the parents?
  

• Are the parents on the premises? If not, why not? If yes, can I meet them?
  

• Were the parents in any kind of conformation or performance events (dog shows)?
  

• What steps have you taken to properly socialize the puppies?
  

• What are you feeding the puppies and why?
  

• Do the puppies have all of their shots?
  

• Have the puppies been dewormed?
  

• Do you require a signed contract of sale?
  

• Do you offer a health guarantee?
  

ANY REPUTABLE BREEDER WILL …

• Never sell you a puppy that is less than eight weeks of age! Puppies absolutely need at least eight weeks of rearing by their canine mother before they are ready to be placed with human owners.
  

• Require you to sign a contract of sale. This contract will explain in detail the terms of the sale and what is expected of you as the new owner.
  

• Require you to have the puppy spayed or neutered before you can receive the registration papers and/or you will only be given a limited registration, which prohibits subsequent puppies from being registered with the AKC… unless you plan to breed the dog, or if specific arrangements are made otherwise.
  

• Offer a health guarantee of some kind. Some breeders will guarantee the health of the dog for life; others may guarantee the dog for a certain number of years. These health guarantees normally cover any
  genetic
  problem that prevents the dog from living a normal, healthy life.
  

• Offer to be available through the life of your dog to answer any questions you may have.
  

• Offer to help you find a new home for your dog should you ever find yourself in a situation where you can no longer keep it.
  ⁵
  

Another great option is for you to visit an official dog show. There you can meet a variety of breeders, get to know them, and see firsthand the dogs they have raised. Dog show aficionados tend to know one another, and breeders know other good breeders (they have to, in order to keep their bloodlines diverse), so even if you don’t find what you are looking for right there, you are sure to get a lot of good references. At a dog show or conformation event, you can also get a close-up experience of the adult dogs of the breed you are considering, and a better idea of whether or not it is the right breed for you.

FINDING A RESCUE ORGANIZATION

If you think you know the breed of puppy you are seeking but really want to give an abandoned dog a home, and if you don’t think you can swing the premium prices charged by a top-notch breeder, you have the option of contacting a breed-specific rescue organization, like the Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue, our friends who brought us Blizzard, or like Daphneyland, a rescue organization for basset hounds that helped us out for the production of my video
Your New Dog: The First Day and Beyond
.

Dogs arrive at rescue groups for a variety of reasons: sometimes they are dogs that were lost or abandoned; sometimes they are dogs that were returned to a shelter or kennel because of behavioral or health problems; and sometimes they are dogs whose owners had legitimate reasons for relinquishing them, such as a change in life circumstance or a death in the family. Reputable rescue groups are diligent about obtaining any needed veterinary care for their animals. They spay and neuter the dogs that arrive there, and often even go the extra mile by working to rehabilitate dogs with behavioral issues. A number of the cases I have handled have come to me from rescue establishments that were having trouble rehoming a dog with problems. My wife and I started the nonprofit Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation in part to give financial aid, training, education, and other support to these essential groups. Great rescue organizations are not in it for the money; they are nonprofit groups. Like great breeders, the people who run them genuinely care about dogs and are actively doing something to help solve the problem of dog overpopulation. They are often staffed primarily by volunteers, and any fees they charge are usually marked as donations that go right back into the many costs involved in rescuing and caring for their animals.

A reality check: puppies that come into rescue groups are usually snapped up as soon as they come in, but you can always get your name on a waiting list, so you can be contacted immediately when any new puppies arrive.

Just as with finding the right breeder, you should be diligent in your choice of rescue organizations. The first thing you should do is check business records to confirm a rescue group’s nonprofit status and to make sure the group is not a front for a puppy mill, a backyard breeder, or simply people trying to make a little extra money from “animal hoarding,” a pathological behavior that can often be a danger to the public health. The Humane Society of the United States is the best clearinghouse for finding a reputable group in your area. Pet-finder and Pets911 are also excellent resources.

A REPUTABLE RESCUE ORGANIZATION WILL …

• Have 501c3 (nonprofit) status, or be in the process of applying for it.
  

• Provide preadoption veterinary care for and spay and neuter all dogs older than six months.
  

• Present a clean, sanitary facility and healthy, well-fed animals.
  

• Be knowledgeable about all the dogs in its rescue and have completed some form of temperament testing to ensure it will be matching its dogs with compatible owners.
  

• Ask you detailed questions (though probably not quite as many as a breeder) about your lifestyle, environment, experience with dogs, and ability to provide for the dog. Some organizations, like some breeders, may insist on a home visit.
  

• Offer to take back or help rehome its animals if an adopter can no longer care for them. This is usually a stipulation in the adoption contract.
  

• Provide you with any available health records and other pertinent history of the animal you are adopting.
  

FINDING YOUR PUPPY AT A SHELTER

Rescuing a dog from a shelter is an admirable endeavor, one that I always support and encourage. If you are confident enough in your ability to accept all the “unknowns” in a dog’s background, there is no reason in the world why you should not do so. Most of the dogs at a shelter or pound are adult or adolescent dogs, usually of mixed-breed origins. Some of the dogs at a shelter that appear to be “purebred” may well have puppy mill origins; pet stores have no use for puppy mill puppies when they outgrow their “cuteness” phase, so they often end up in shelters. On occasion a pregnant or nursing bitch is brought into a shelter. At other times animal control will clear out the puppies produced in a hoarding situation, or have to take in puppies due to their abandonment in a death, a move, an eviction, or a foreclosure. To find a puppy at a shelter in your area, go early and get your name on a waiting list.

The Humane Society of the United States provides us with guidelines for discerning whether your local shelter meets the minimum acceptable standards:

ANY RESPONSIBLE ANIMAL SHELTER SHOULD …

• Accept every animal, or partner with another local shelter or facility that does.
  

• Accept surrendered animals without charging a mandatory fee.
  

• Maintain a clean, comfortable, safe, and healthy environment for each animal.
  

• If applicable, hold stray animals for a minimum of five operating days, including Saturdays.
  

• Screen prospective adopters using established adoption standards.
  

• Use sodium pentobarbital administered by well-trained, compassionate individuals when euthanasia is necessary.
  

• Spay or neuter all animals at the time of adoption, or require adopters to get their animals sterilized soon after placement and follow up to ensure compliance.
  ⁶
  

Penny Dunn, director of the Washburn County Area Humane Society in Spooner, Wisconsin, spoke to us about her criterion for accepting puppies at her shelter. “We’ll gladly take in any and all breeds. But the number one thing we do is ask the person who wants to bring in the puppies to have the momma dog spayed first. Every now and then someone will find one or two individual puppies and bring them in, but the reality of the situation is that most of the time people know exactly where the puppies came from and we all have to work together to prevent any future unwanted animals.”

We’ll talk more about spaying and neutering in Chapter 9.

SETTLING ON A BREED

When President Barack Obama was elected to our country’s highest office, he was faced with a dilemma. He was going to have to make good on a campaign promise—made not to the American people but to his two daughters, Malia and Sasha—to adopt a puppy after the election chaos was over. For weeks on end, the news media was obsessed with the still-hypothetical Obama puppy. On Sunday-morning talk shows, pundits from both political parties debated the merits of one breed over another. What is the ideal presidential dog? Which breed would be most compatible with Malia’s allergies? Breeders and dog lovers all across the United States sent the White House thousands of missives, filled with photos of potential puppies, and reams and reams of unsolicited advice.