So...my family and I are looking for a new addition.
We have three children in our family (7, 5, and 10 months) and my wife also has three cats.
We live in Somerville, New Jersey, and we have a pretty large yard, but no fence.
My wife has never owned a dog, and I haven't had a dog in about 15 years, but we are really excited about a new companion. We put a moderately active family, and love going for long walks in our neighborhood.
We have been looking on Pet Finder, for about 3 weeks, with no luck. We’ve put it a decent amount of applications, but we keep either missing out, or not being a match due to the kids, cats, or fence. We may end up just walking into a shelter and taking a look.
We want to adopt and adult dog, because people only adopt puppies, and we want to give an adult dog a nice home. We don’t have a preference male or female. We’d like a mutt, but looking for a medium sized dog, potentially mix with either beagle, lab, Australian cattle dog, or some sort of hound.
Any tips, info, or advice?
Thanks in advance!
Regarding the fence, I've seen places that have an electric border to yards that dont have a fence. That may be an option for ya
Other than that, no complaints, just wished lifespan was longer.
Quick advice is to understand that you won't see a new dog's personality for maybe 2 weeks or more. Especially if the dog has been fostered. It may not realize for a while that it is in its new forever home, that it belongs.
At first the dog may be friendly, may be fearful; may be shy, may be outgoing; may be perfectly behaved, may be destructive. Just be patient and keep working with the dog and see how things go. In about a month your dog will be comfortable with the change and let it's true personality come out. In other words, don't worry too much if things don't go well at first - assuming no serious issues are evident. Also don't become overconfident at first if things "seem" to be going great.
I had a dog that for the first few months was fairly calm and friendly but after that gradually became more and more protective and aggressive. I guess once she became confident that we were her permanent family she decided it was now her job to defend us.
One other piece of advice, when you get a dog, talk to it a lot. Not baby talk or doggie talk, talk to it just like you would a 2 or 3 year old child. Give it information about it's world. Use simple and consistent vocabulary. Accompany your words with clear body language and actions. Never use a word for more than one meaning (esp 'down' or 'off', decide how that word is used and stick with that).
You will be amazed how easily your dog can learn your "language" and start acting in sync with you.
Amen to that. One of the great tragedies of our existence.
Amen to that. One of the great tragedies of our existence.
Sometimes going in for a mature dog, while noble, has some baggage. Are you concerned about the work it takes for a younger animal?
I would start with some breeds that are good with young kids, doodles, golden, collie and look for mixes of that ilk or contact the rescue sites for those breeds which often foster mixes.
Good luck!
Not a perfect girl, but a great companion and fought cancer for 2 years.
We lost our second dog last month. Both were buddies for 13 years.
Ive always had a dog, always worth it to me ...Good luck.
She ended up getting cancer in 2019 and in spite of surgery surprised us and ended up getting sick and in the ER Easter weekend of 2020. We had a miserable Easter Sunday as she was peacefully euthanized at hour home on Easter Sunday last year.
We ended up adopting Winnie May 2020. I reached out to my contacts in the volunteer community. We had a 5 month old daughter at that point and with all of our issues with Lexi we really wanted to find a dog we could adopt that would be great with our daughter. We were referred to a local rescue coordinator who knew our situation. She said Winnie was a “bomb proof dog.” She had been fostered with other dogs and had done great .
Fast forward a year later and Winnie is the best dog I could possibly ask for. She’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever met. She and my one and a half year old daughter are best friends. Winnie is the most patient dog I’ve ever encountered. Our daughter is all over her and Winnie is as cool as a cucumber.
My recommendation would be to find someone fostering a dog. Interview them and find out how the dog is in terms of temperament, their background, how they do with kids/other animals.
Im the worlds biggest proponent of adoption. Shelter dogs are the best. But I know that dogs straight out of the shelter can be a wild card. IMO with a dog from a foster that has been in a home you get the best of both worlds. Good luck and good for you for adopting
We decided to foster a dog as a trial to make sure my family's allergies would be ok with a dog and to see if my kids would take ownership (not going to say where that ended up).
Anyway, my local humane society lets you foster sick dogs. We brought one home that had kennel cough and he was the best temperment in a dog that my wife ever experienced. I had never planned a keeping the foster but we did end up adopting after a week as they only allowed us to keep it until the kennel cough was gone.
If you are allowed to foster before adopting I would highly recommend it. I think another poster mentioned that you may not see the dogs true personality for a couple of weeks. The dog didn't bark at all in the week that we had it. It still has a great temperment among people but does bark when someone is on our property and he doesn't know it. It is also aggressive with some other dogs when walking.
All in all, I would highly recommend it.
The freakin dog (60 lbs.) would bite any house guest they had. Bit my dad in the freakin stomach! Bit my mom. I went over to watch a Giants game and it tried to bite me but I pulled my hand away in time.
They had to medicate the thing, put up all sorts of fencing, had special dog walkers... finally it bit one too many people and they had to put it down, which traumatized the kids. But really, the dog was just vicious and crazy and would have bitten one or both of the kids at some point... or worse.
So yeah, don't be a martyr when you adopt a dog.
We rescued a 1.5 year old (which is considered an adult dog) 6 and a half years ago and she is the sweetest, most easy going, loving, and loyal pet you could find. She was crate trained and housebroken from day 1, so it was easy for us, and I know that's not always the case.
With rescues often they don't know the dogs backrgound. And this dog (the now 8 year old) they did know - she had puppies and the owners in Alabama couldn't take care of the puppies so the Alabama shelter the one in MA works with said we'll take the puppies but we have to take the mom too. So we got the mom.
She was not our first attempt at a rescue though, we had two failed attempts. One a puppy that one of my kids had an allergy to, and the other a 1 year old who was homeless his first year of life and had what they call bite inhibition that could not be trained out of him. He bit most of the neighborhood kids - not so they needed medical treatment, but broke skin - and my kids were scared of him. It was never malicious with him, but dogs communicate with their mouth, so if he wanted attention that's how he would try and get it.
It was heart breaking for my kids to have to bring both dogs back, but it has to be a good fit.
We just rescued a 12 week old puppy (I posted a thread on this a month or so ago). and he is awesome, but a lot of work.
When the pandemic hit the number of households adopting dogs skyrocketed so the need for fosters in many areas has been dramatically reduced, but I like the idea, I just don't think they will "let" you foster (or in your case more like try before you buy) but almost every shelter/rescue I've been involved with has a 7-day orientation policy where if you determine the dog isn't fit you bring it back. no questions.
I think they try and avoid this because it's probably a lot of stress on the dog, but overall best fit for you and the dog is most important.
Good luck.
You may also want to look at rescue leagues for a particular type of dog.
I think lab or poodle mixes make good combos.
Try fostering first. They'll just let you keep him/her once ya have it
You should probably go to AKC page so you will have an idea if the dog's and your family's characteristics are a good fit.
Go to a rescue with a solid rep so you have some idea of dog's history
We adopted one, and while she's not without some things to work on due to her life as a pregnant stray, she's been super sweet with children and even puppies (not so much small dogs in general though, story for another day).
Definitely adopt something that works for you and your family, but its an often underlooked group of dogs, imo.
Good luck!
Having a dog without a fenced yard is a pain. Otherwise you have to be there with them every time they want to go out or do their business.