I love dogs! Just seeing a happy doggie walking down the street puts a smile on my face and lowers my blood pressure. I've always wanted a dog, but my sister is allergic so we never had one when I was a kid. But as an adult living on my own, I've been seriously looking into getting one.
My personal ethics dictate that as long as there are dogs in shelters, I must adopt a dog from a shelter. I consider it morally wrong to get a dog from a pet store or a breeder, thus creating demand, when there are dogs in shelters waiting for a home.
However, because I have never owned a dog, I am not a good candidate for a shelter dog. My inexperience would get me screened out from all but the lowest-maintenance dogs*, and very few low-maintenance dogs end up in a shelter.
I know the next logical step is to volunteer to walk dogs at the Humane Society, but my inexperience could still prove a problem. The Humane Society rates its dogs on a scale of Green (easiest), Yellow, Orange, and Red (hardest), and newbies can only walk Green dogs. However, the Humane Society does not necessarily have any Green dogs at any given time. I'd say the majority of the times I've looked at their site, there have been no Green dogs whatsoever. So either they'd refuse me as a dog-walker, or they'd have me doing stuff other than walking dogs, but at any rate it wouldn't be getting me any closer to having a doggie of my own!
However, suppose I threw my ethics out the window, walked down the the pet store, asked for the most adorable, floppy-eared puppy they have, and handed over my credit card. Then I could have a dog, just like that. I would be betraying my ethics, creating demand for puppy mills, and being irresponsible by getting a puppy as my first dog, but I would have a dog. And then in 10 or 15 years when the first dog passes away, I could go down to the Humane Society, tell them I have 10/15 years experience with dog ownership, and I would be far more likely to be eligible for a dog.
If I do something that I consider morally wrong, I will be considered a better candidate for adopting a dog. If I stick to my principles, I will continue to be considered unsastisfactory.
*The ideal dog for me, established in consultation with a Humane Society person: an adult, possibly a senior, who has already been house- and obedience-trained and is able to live happily in an apartment. This dog has no behavioural problems or difficult history, most likely having come to the shelter because its people couldn't take care of it due to their own health or lifestyle changes. It currently does not have any health problems or require palliative care (I am certainly willing to provide for my dog's health or palliative care, but it would be better for me to get used to having a dog - and for it to get used to having me - before dealing with complicated medical issues.) Sounds very picky, true, but some of my neighbours have successfully adopted dogs taht meet this description, so I'm not giving up hope.
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However, because I have never owned a dog, I am not a good candidate for a shelter dog. My inexperience would get me screened out from all but the lowest-maintenance dogs*, and very few low-maintenance dogs end up in a shelter.
I wonder why you have that impression. It's not accurate. Thousands - millions - of unwanted dogs end up in shelters because people do not get their dogs spayed/neutered - because people expect dogs to be not low maintenance, but maintenance free - or because of a 1,001 other reasons. But not because the dogs are high maintenance.
Shelters will place dogs to first-time dog owners. Tons of people adopt shelter dogs as their first pet - I sure did. And tons of people have zero problems with them.
In addition, what makes you think buying a dog from a breeder will make it low-maintenance? Pure-bred animals are prone to all kinds of health and behavioural issues from over breeding.
And never, under any circumstances, should you buy an animal from a retail pet store. That is supporting the least ethical and most abusive of all animal practices. You are also highly likely to get a whole lot of high-maintenance problems, because the dogs come from puppy mills.
Your concerns about your lack of experience are healthy, and understandable. There are books, videos and friends (including me) to help you.
But your concerns are a little misplaced, in my very experienced opinion. Any dog will be somewhat of a challenge, and a tremendous joy. A dog you adopt from a shelter will be no more challenge - just more joy.
I hope you will re-think this equation you've set up for yourself, and go for the shelter dog.
Feel free to ask me and others for advice along the way.
I guess I wasn't clear - I wasn't trying to say that non-shelter dogs were easier or superior, I was trying to say that a breeder or a pet store would be more likely to let me leave with one of their dogs than a shelter would.
Shelters screen you far more carefully than breeders or pet stores, and most of the dogs in the shelter at any given time need experienced owners. (That's what the dog profiles on the THS website say, at least). If I walk into the Humane Society and tell them I've never owned a dog and I live in an apartment, they aren't going to let me leave with a large dog, or a formerly-abused dog, or a dog with health issues, or a dog with obediance issues (all of which I was grouping under the category "high-maintenance")...and the list goes on and on until we're left with dogs that are small, quiet, well-trained, healthy, and can hold it until it's time for walkies (i.e. "low-maintenance.") And if a dog is small, quiet, well-trained, healthy, etc., its owner is more likely to be able to take care of it, so there are fewer dogs that fit that description in shelters. I know that a good 75% of the times I search the Humane Society website, there are no dogs whatsoever that they'd let me adopt. I know they do come up sometimes because I've met some shelter and rescue dogs whom they would probably be willing to adopt to me (except I met them after they were already adopted), but it's also quite likely that every single dog they have at any given moment will require an experienced owner.
By comparison, if I walked into a pet store and told them I've never owned a dog and I live in an apartment, they'd just check my credit card to make sure there's room, and I could walk out of there with something ridiculously irresponsible like a Bernese Mountain Dog.
And then, in 10 years, if I walked into the Humane Society and told them I'd owned a Bernese Mountain Dog for 10 years, I'd have a far better chance of being allowed to adopt one of their dogs.
I'm not actually considering getting a dog from a breeder or a pet store - I find that morally wrong, period - and I do like the idea of people who know the dog helping me figure out if we're compatible as individuals. I just find it dreadfully ironic that doing the wrong thing is so much easier, and that shelters would be more willing to adopt to me after I'd thrown my ethics out the window.
It's like if you got pregnant when you were a teenager, and suddenly society started treating you with respect because you're a parent, while treating your peers who don't have kids like bratty little adolescent delinquants.
What you're describing is like what adoptive parents face. Anyone can have a baby biologically. But if you try to adopt a baby, you have to prove you are worthy, will be good parents, have a lot of money, etc.
If it's any help to you, I got my first dog from a shelter, with no previous experience, and I know lots of other people who have.
But it could be that there are many more unwanted dogs in shelters in the US as compared to Canada. There are so many, that's it not very hard to find one that fits your needs, and s/he, yours. Maybe in Canada the situation is not as dire so the shelters can be more choosy.
I agree with you about breeders and pet stores.
Good luck! If you do get a pup, please let me know. :)
I don't know if it's a Canadian thing that the shelters are choosier, or if it's just a Toronto Humane Society thing. I've heard them described as more protective of their animals than other shelters, but I don't have experience with a wide range of shelters or anything.
However, I have recently discovered Dogster, which only has a few adoptable dogs at any given time, but the adoptable dogs they do have seem much more suited to a first-time owner than THS's dogs. My grandmother gets her dogs from the SPCA in the Ontario community where she lives, and I think I could easily handle any of the adult dogs she's gotten from them. So maybe THS is more a place that people send their dogs as a last resort? I think I have to find out more about how various adoption options work.
If it's any help to you, I got my first dog from a shelter, with no previous experience, and I know lots of other people who have.
That is very reassuring, thanks.
I love Dogster. All my dogs are on that site. :)
Good luck!
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