In your adult life, where have you gotten your dogs?

I’ve never paid anything except adoption fees.

One from the shelter and the second one a few weeks ago from a pet shop. I don’t like the idea of pet shops because shelters are full of needy souls but this was a special case. I knowI should have adopted the second one from a shelter, but…..

Oh, @ZEPHYRA, don’t apologize for how you got your dog. Not adopting from a shelter is not a bad thing, abandoning an animal to a shelter, when there aren’t exigent circumstances is the bad thing.

I’ve rescued dogs, bought dogs, and had dogs left with me for awhile that turned into forever. I’ve had them from tiny puppies, and gotten a rehome at an older age.

Mostly I’m just delighted to be able to have dogs.

Agreed, @ZEPHYRA. You still saved a life.
My last 3 were from the boxer rescue in my area. I did get a puppy boxer from a breeder years ago. I’m partial to Boxers.

First one was a crossbred hound, paid $50.00 for him from a private party. The 2nd was a little shepherd/queensland heeler mix, she was a feed store, back of pickup truck freebie. Best dog I ever had. Smart as a whip, learned tricks and commands in 2 minutes flat and had a great personality.

@ZEPHYRA it doesn’t matter where you get your dog! Every adopted dog is a rescue dog. Your puppy from the pet store is just as happy to have a forever home as a dog from the pound.

One dog I would never get is a grown dog that had been surrendered and I didn’t know the reason why. I would never get a pit bull, a chow, probably not a doberman, or a husky, either. Normally I wouldn’t get a pure bred at all. Dakota was a lovely fluke.
I had one dog I had to get rid of, and I didn’t care how. It was a shepherd mix. Handsome dog. My ex got him from a coworker who had abused the dog. The guy kept him in a damn dog run, and hosed him down as punishment, or maybe just for fun. The poor dog was trapped in the run. Warning! Warning! We should NOT have gotten that dog. All the warning signs were there, but I kept trying to work past them.
After we’d had him about a year, when I was 8 months pregnant with my 3rd child, and had a toddler to boot, the dog and I had a show down. He started growling and showing his teeth, then he snapped at me.
I won that show down.
The end.

@Dutchess_III agree 100% on the adult dogs of known aggressive breeds, being adopted with little or no background history. Risky business IMO.

Yeah, that dog scared me, but I whacked the fuck out of him anyway, I was so angry. Actually I was feeling defensive for my babies and I would have whacked a grizzly bear to defend them. It was enough of a display of dominance to get me the upper hand long enough to get him out the back door away from us. When I pushed him out the back that’s when he snapped at me. I would have killed that dog if it came down to it. He sensed I wasn’t playin’.
I called animal control and a little bitty thing, a very small woman, came and got him. I felt bad for him for a moment, seeing him led away like that, but…it was absolutely the right thing to do in my circumstance.

We had Snuffy at the time and he did not play well with others. It’s was stressful for Snuffs, too.

Someone I know has the most obnoxious little Puggle, moody and unpredictable.
I hate that damn little dog. He is a foot attacker and will charge your feet and bite when you stand up. He bit my toe when I was wearing sandals a few months ago and I blasted him, square in the face with a bottle of body spray.

He ran across the room and hid behind a chair. He has not come near me again. Little fucker. LOL

@Dutchess_III What a tragic story. That beautiful dog’s behavior was the cumulative effects of abuse and neglect.

Shadow. When he was in high school, my brother adopted her from the local shelter in Rhode Island. She was the sweetest, gentlest dog ever born. My brother grew up and moved away from our mother’s home; I took-in Shadow, and we had some wonderful years together.

Callie. I adopted her from the Arlington, VA shelter. I’d miscarried twins in their 2nd trimester, and all I could do was cry and be angry that I’d awoken each morning. That same brother, who knows me so well, told me that I needed a dog. I toured the shelter and got adopted by Callie, a sickly bag-of-bones who made eye contact and wagged her tail. She literally saved my life; all my tears became laughter, and waking up was a joy (Callie would stand next to the bed, wagging her tail so hard that the entire mattress shook). We loved each for 13 years, until she passed away.

Sadie. Another shelter rescue. Husband really wanted a dog, and I was on board. Sadie had been saved by a West Virginia rescue group with a court order to remove her from a brutal situation. We met her, it was love at first sight, and we’re blissful 5 years later. She’s a loving delight.

We got Waffles from a breeder, and never got the paperwork promised.
We got Freckles from my sister’s father in law. He was moved to a home, and couldn’t bring the dog.
Our next dog will be a rescue.

Never had a whole dog before.

All of our dogs are mutts. Dad would pick them up from dump yards or his friend’s place near the river.

@Dutchess_III: Your Dakota was very lucky not to have been put down as a puppy, give her an extra pat for staying alive!

The only one I’ve had in the last 20 years or so, was a Heinz 57 that my son got for free from one of his friends. We named her Flame, because the day we picked her up, when we took her out in the yard the sunlight gave the appearance of a flame of fire running thru her fur. When she passed on, I was never able to bring myself to get another dog. Cats, a few. But Flame can’t be replaced.

My parents were sad when our George passed away too. Mom was never too close to him, but she didn’t want another dog for a while.

Dog 1: Was free from a woman with too many kids and too many dogs and a hubby who just started a cross-state trucking job. She was happy to give some away (maybe even a kid) — so we chose the Basset Hound.

Dog 2: We found literally on the street, late at night, in the rain. Couldn’t find the owner, so we kept him. He was a Yorkie with some medical issues.

Dog 3: We actually paid for from a local groomer/part-time breeder because I fell in love with one of her “brothers” owned by a coworker. She’s a Havanese.

One from a shelter and one from a “free to good home” ad in the paper.

We had a beagle for a while when I was growing up. She was a hunting dog my dad got from a friend.

My in-laws have gotten all but one of their dogs from a cocker spaniel breeder. Three out of four of them had serious health problems. One dog came from my MIL’s co-worker who decided she didn’t want the dog any longer. He’s a “designer dog” – a yorkie-poo – and he has kidney problems. He is, however, the smartest and best behaved dog they have ever had.

@Love_my_doggie what a tragic story about your twins. I am so, so sorry. What a heart break.
Yeah, I was willing to take a chance on that dog. I thought maybe some TLC would carry him back, but in the end I just couldn’t risk it, not with little ones that were at eye level with him.

@canidmajor, Dakota was grown, about 2, when the guy decided he didn’t want her anymore. Rick swears the guy was going to take her out and shoot her, but I just don’t know how that could even be possible.
With all the attack “training” he put her through, it’s a miracle that she came through so unscathed, apparently. It was a rough two weeks in the beginning. She was shocked to be scolded for behaviors that had earned approval for her in the past (threatening other dogs, for example.) When she realized all we wanted from her was her just the way she was, and to be kind, not an angry red neck, her head gradually came up and a light came into her eyes to replace the fear and uncertainty that was there before.
She’s just a miracle.

^^^ Thank you for your kind words, V.

In your own situation, you certainly had to put the children first. Wouldn’t it be nice if every story could have a happy ending? Sometimes, we need to reach for the next best ending.

No, @Dutchess_III, I meant that if she is purebred, as you say, it used to be common to put down the puppies in a litter that didn’t conform to the breed standards. Her color would have ensured that she was culled.

We’ll she supposedly came from a long line of vicious guard dogs
She was bred and sold for that, not to be a show dog.

The guy told us she was purebred. I see nothing in her to suggest otherwise. But it totally does not matter. All my grandkids are different colors too. ;)

Just curious, @Dutchess_III, if “it totally does not matter” then why do you mention it so very often?

I’ve never owned a dog. If I did get one I would go to a shelter most likely. I definitely wouldn’t be obsessed with it being pure bred, and I wouldn’t want to pay hundreds of dollars, and I like the idea of rescuing a dog from being euthanized. We had cats when I was a kid. One from a shelter and two strays.

Pet stores are bad in the sense that many of them get their dogs from puppy mills, and many of those mills are horribly abusive. The more you buy, the more they will produce. Not that I judge anyone for buying a pet at a pet store, I’m just giving information. I’m sure some of the food I eat is from animals that are mistreated, I try not to think about it too much—selective head in the sand.

Gotta say, when I first saw this question I read it as: “In your adult life, where have you gotten your drugs?”

Maybe a state of mind thing.

Thank you all for showing me that perspective. What made me feel guilty was that the bought dog would definitely have had a chance to be given a home whereas most shelter dogs have fewer chances. Nevertheless I agree that it’s an honor to have them no matter where they come from.

Beautiful thread this with so much feeling on all levels. Very heartwarming – lovely answers.

Our last three dogs, which covers the last 25 years were as follows:

Aggie :Texas Gutter Hound, given to us as a puppy by my BIL. He got it from a friend whose dog had several pups he was trying to give away. She was a beautiful reddish gold color with a white blaze on her face and white socks. We were told she had a lot of collie in her and from her size, shape, actions and focus came to believe it was border collie.

Skye: female BC bought from a rancher who used them to move sheep. Classic border collie in temperament and actions; that is, extremely OCD combined with a high level of intelligence, intuition and problem solving skills. She was my sons companion throughout his childhood. He worked with her every day. She was well trained, obedient and went everywhere with him.

Ayre: male BC acquired as a companion for Skye several years after we got her and my son had moved away from home. Came from working cow dog stock. Similar in temperament to her but much more bullish in attitude which came from descending from a line that moved cattle and not sheep. Not nearly as OCD as Skye but would still have been on meds had he been human. We lost Ayre last year. He had whatever the doggie equivalent to a stroke is. He was 16 years old and I had to take him in to the vet on his birthday; Cinco de Mayo. It was difficult and we have not given much serious thought to another dog yet.

Fortunately my daughter has two that give us our canine fix on a regular basis. Both of hers were pups of strays dropped off out in the country where my son lives. One is a slender dog with large, oversized pointed ears and a German Shepherd coloration. The other is obviously got a lot of bluetick hound in her. She looks like her momma but we have no idea what the father was.

For some reason people think the best thing to do with a pregnant dog you don’t want is to dump it in the countryside. Most times all this does is ensure the puppies will die and prolong the suffering of the poor female through starvation, disease or getting shot for harassing domestic stock whether out of hunger or fear. If they are lucky it is a clean kill. People living outside of town already have several dogs that, most likely, they have adopted from previous dumps and cannot afford to take on any more.

I guess people think the dogs will somehow make it in the country. I don’t know if they’re being compassionate (in their mind) or just stupid.

Dutchess is a BC (we think. No clue who the father is.) When Rick and I saw a segment on how smart they are, we looked at each other, then looked at Yupid (as we have affectionately called her since she was a baby) lying on the floor, noisly biting her nails and thumping her tail, and just laughed. She is so damn OCD and hyper, but she really WANTS to please us.
But you know, I see these flashes of intelligence in her that give me pause. Just last weekend I walked her down to the lake to meet my son and the kids who were already down there swimming.
On the way back 3 year old Zoey wanted to hold the leash. I said, “Um, OK.” I hesitated because Dutchess can be awful squirrely, and I didn’t want Zoey pulled off her feet.
It took Dutchess a moment to process that it wasn’t me holding the leash. It was little Zoey. I was walking just ahead of them….and Dutchess immediately heeled to me. We’ve never trained her to heel. But she sedately walked with me, head almost touching my calf, all the way back to camp. She doesn’t do that when I walk her. She’s all over, as far as the leash will let her go,sometimes yanking. She didn’t yank once when Zoey was walking her.
It was REALLY interesting.