Adopting A Labrador Retriever From The Animal Shelter (1): Why Were These Wonderful Family Dogs Given Up?
An adolescent dog is a hard sell for
adoption, even if they are the types of pets considered to be ideal for family
living, such as the Labrador Retriever. And when people do make the commitment
to bring home a large, enthusiastic canine that hasn't learned any manners yet,
regret may set in quickly.
You see these types of dogs in shelters all
of the time because, in the outside world, people see other family-oriented
dogs that are calm and sweet and think they naturally come that way. They don't
realize how much time it takes to get these dogs to that point, and they give
up because the drive and the high energy level is more than they are willing or
able to deal with.
Many otherwise well-behaved dogs act wildly
in shelters, not because they are always that way, but because of their
situation. When you adopt a dog from a shelter, what you see isn't always what
you get. If the dog is wild and jumping up, it could be crying out saying, “Hey,
look at me! I'm a friendly dog! Pick me, Pick me!”
On the reverse behavior, if you see a dog
that is really quiet, it could just be overcome by the noise and all the
changes it has just experienced.
A Dog To Be Admired
Decorate your home with these great lab products
Winter Fun Skiing Labradors Table Lamps by HappyLabradors
View more Labrador Lamp-In-A-Box Lamp at zazzle.com
Why Are These Popular Dogs There In The First Place?
Popular family dogs you can find in the
shelter may have been dropped off because many families found that they could
not tolerate the typical behaviors that came up, such as the incessant need to
chew and an energy level that sometimes seems unquenchable.
Dogs bred for fieldwork (hunting) can have
even more energy and drive than other breeds. Their exercise needs may seem
impossible to meet, so many of these guys and gals end up in animal shelters or
in rescue groups without ever having had any training.
Constantly shifting from one home to
another and having to endure long periods of confinement in small spaces can
make inappropriate behavior even worse, simple because the dog isn't getting
the exercise or attention it craves.
When an adolescent or adult dog has never
received any formal obedience training, he may seem incorrigible, and that's
not what people expect from an adult family-type dog. Take the Labrador
Retriever as the perfect example – one major reason why people adopt adult Labs
is to avoid a lot of the work that comes with a puppy.
These people have heard that adult Labs are
calm and they think this adult dog will be no problem at all. But if the Lab
was never trained, you can have real problems, such as a Lab that has never
learned to stop the habit of puppy mouthing or jumping on people. It's one
thing for a puppy to do those things but when a large adult dog does them,
somebody could get hurt.
No comments:
Post a Comment