Can't find cute dogs at the shelter?

Shohin-What a hideous puppy, how could you stand the site of him? []
 
Rolenta-Sorry for your experience. I have heard some shelters are rude. I cant believe they said that to you about your child. What jerks! I would just find another shelter if you decide to adopt. And people will ship dogs from the US to Canada  (to approved homes) as well..

I find cute dogs all the time at the shelters and rescues in my area. I can't visit them all the time because if I had my way, I'd adopt them all.
 
I think the problem is some people go visit the shelter and don't find what they want on that day and decide that shelters and rescues don't have what they want. Or they are extremely picky about unimportant things, such as color, that they are willing to pass up great dogs. Then you have those who've completely made up their mind about not getting a shelter dog, usually based on myths or one bad experience, and they come up with more excuses than a person going to jail as to why a shelter dog would not be good for them. I mean if someone is convinced that the $700 Maltipoo puppymill puppy is the right dog for them, how do you convince them that the $75 1 year old Maltese/Poodle mix sitting in the shelter can be just as good?

[]Heidi there's always Ginger Rogers from the other thread...[]

I also think it depends on where you live.. I go into the local shelter here twice a week to volunteer. Most of our dogs are bigger dogs (yes, they are cute though! We get a lot of the bigger designer breeds too, they move quick).. small dogs are few, and they're never there for more than a few hours at most.
People often ask about smaller dogs, and I find a lot of them are in a similiar situation to mine - their apartment only allows dogs under a certian weight. To make it harder, a lot of the small dogs end up having fenced yard requirements which most of the apartment people don't have. I can see why people get fusterated (I've been there), especially if they are looking for a certian breed of small dog. I try to tell people about searching for a breed rescue, or even going to a responsible breeder.. things we can help them with if they want. We do have an alert list of people that we call when we get in a smaller dog matching what they are looking for, but it is a long list...  

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The shelter I volunteer at gets both puppies and small breeds on a fairly regular basis. Yes, they do move faster than the larger and adult dogs, but much of the time it's not instantaneous. The puppies will usually stick around for a week or two before the entire litter is adopted. With the small breeds, I'm often surprised that some of them don't go faster. Usually they aren't the super-trendy Paris Hilton Accessory breeds, but they are small and very cute. I usually don't notice them that much because I tend to focus on walking the larger dogs so that the volunteers who have health problems or don't have as much dog experience can walk the smaller ones, but I do note their presence. They are there. You just have to look.

My cocker was 2 years old, from a shelter.   I had been there the week before and most of the dogs were large (Rotties, GSDs, PitBulls, etc) - since I'm so small myself (4 ft 10) I didn't think that large a dog would be a good fit.   I had fully intended on adopting a dog THAT DAY - but alas, it wasn't meant to be.  The next week the shelter called me (your regular local shelter) to tell me about the Cocker that was dropped off the night before because "the kids didn't take care of her like they promised".   Michelle was my heart dog.  I STILL marvel at how wonderful a dog found herself in a shelter.
 
Prancer is from a rescue org who brought her from a high kill shelter after she was found stray in Miami.   She's only 8 months old and a big whopping 15 lbs LOL.  And cute ?  well, look at my avatar - I'd have to say she's cute (even cuter now that the better diet has eliminated the pink staining around her eyes).   I waited one week for Prancer to turn up at the rescue - not a long time at all for a sweet little cutie pie.

I stand corrected!

I went to the shelter today to renew Tojo's license and there were two labradoodles, a chihuahua, and some puppies! There was also a gorgeous brittany spaniel, and a malinois. They looked purebred to me.

I could hardly contain myself, since we're moving out to an acreage soon. It's hard to not just say, "what the heck! I'll take 'em all!". I must resist, though. I should at least be settled in before I get another dog!

ok, that "interview" had me crying. 

my beautiful pure bred border collie was found on death row in a rural GA shelter and pulled by BC rescue.  no idea how she got there.  sweet as pie, too. 

I pulled a purebred (but not very well bred, undershot, bad rear) toy poodle boy, about 2 yrs old from a shelter for a whopping $65 which got him neutered and updated shots. 
I was doing free groomings for that shelter at the time and I just fell in love. I fostered him and screened homes and he's now living with his hu-mom and sooo spoiled.  I would see poms, shihtzus and various small breeds frequently. 

Military towns seem to have a higher number of small breed surrenders.

I do think one day (hopefully years from now) I'll wait till January at the great Christmas puppy dumping and adopt my next furbaby.  Wish I could do it now but I haven't the room

Some day...
This thread has me so sad!

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.

We have an amazing amount of rescue centers around here - you can pretty much find anything..........The one I surf is our SPCA where we got Bugsy from, they have all sorts of mixes with many, many pitt/american staff x's
Bugsy was a horrible looking pup too!

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8179398
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8179398
http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8214370
Granted, these are in rescue, not in shelters, but the rescues are more able to "spring" another cutie from a shelter every time someone adopts!!!

These dogs are in an extremely high kill shelter.

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8191275]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8191275[/link] –"Lhasadoodle "

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8106333]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8106333[/link] –"yorkie-poo”

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8079558]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8079558[/link] –corgi/Dachshund

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8093964]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8093964[/link] - Dachshund

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8093968]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8093968[/link] - pom x pug

[linkhttp://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8193647]http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=8193647[/link] –looks like a "goldendoodle” to me.
 
Maybe if they would just start charging more like the "designer breeders" do, we would have more adoptions.