Margaret Tyler
Posted : 4/19/2007 9:09:30 PM
ORIGINAL: mudpuppy
In many areas it's practically impossible to find a young puppy, as in under 4 months old, at shelters. And what people think they want is young puppies, thus the large number of people who resort to pet store and online puppy mill and BYB purchases. What most people actually NEED are adult dogs, three years and older. Pups are a nightmare for most people. But people fall for the cute little things.
I'd say around 80% of the shelter inmates we have around here are large-breed adolescents- dumped when they stop being cute puppies and start being large destructive obnoxious untrained ill-behaved adolescents. People tolerate bad behavior in small dogs more than large dogs, explaining why it's the larger breeds who tend to get dumped when they go through that difficult adolescent phase.
Around here they've started importing young puppies from kill shelters in other areas to try to meet the demand for puppies.
You are so right. This is why I see so many labradoodle puppies around 8 months old. Not to offend anyone, but most people who purchase labradoodles are not well informed about dogs. They are looking for something to brag about. So they get this "designer" posh puppy and then the poor confussed, untrained thing jumps on their toddler and they take it to the shelter because "it's too hyper"
I have to admit that I live in a wealthy community, which is probably why our county pound has so many cute little dogs and labradoodles.
And by the way Tashakota, lovely story.