Adopting a dog.

[WebScorpion]

So I said all that to say this. Rescue a dog. Maybe a little more conventionally than we did, but a rescued dog is a great dog.

That goes for all other pets too. Cats, Ginuea Pigs, Turtles, Hamsters, Gerbils, Ferrets, Birds, Fish, Snakes, Horses, etc. I was amazed at how many different types of pets need to be rescued.

Try PetFinder for starters.

You can try PetSmart too, and I'm sure there are more if you don't find what you want in these two places.

[zombielady]

I PMed HHF with some info, but I also wanted to post here that I have been involved in Greyhound rescue, specifically Team Greyhound Adoption of Ohio (www.teamgreyhound.com) for the past 5 years. I'd encourage anyone looking for a slightly used dog to consider a greyhound.

Greys get a bad rap because the perception is that they are so mistreated as racers that they'll never socialize. This program is different. They take dogs from the track to Ohio prisons for 3-4 months to allow the inmate-workers to help socialize them. It's a fantastic program for dogs and humans. Greys are outstanding dogs.

I have three right now.

http://www.teamgreyhound.com/available_greyhounds.htm

I worked at the Greyhound park in Dubuque, and adopted a female. She was so awesome. I got her straight from the park.

[chicoruiz]

One thing that worked for us: letting the shelter workers "scout" for you. We struck up a conversation with a shelter volunteer during a visit and established a rapport, asking her to keep her eyes open for something special. We later got a call from her saying "we have one here that's just so sweet; I can't imagine him having to be euthanized". We adopted him and he's been terrific.

[Spring~Fields]

That goes for all other pets too. Cats, Ginuea Pigs, Turtles, Hamsters, Gerbils, Ferrets, Birds, Fish, Snakes, Horses, etc. I was amazed at how many different types of pets need to be rescued.

Try PetFinder for starters.

You can try PetSmart too, and I'm sure there are more if you don't find what you want in these two places.

We used petfinders to get dogs from Columbus, Dayton and London Ohio.

[dabvu2498]

I was thinking about this thread last night.

I went out to do a little fishing at a spot about 10 miles from my home that's owned by the ODNR. Real rural area,close to the Butler-Preble County line. Nice little lake with some decent fish in it. I was planning on fishing from the bank and was on my way to my little spot, hiking through some pretty heavy cover. Came upon a beagle. Appeared to be older.

So I figured somebody was further along the bank fishing and had lost sight of their pooch. Walked on around the bank until I got to a point where the "path" vanishes. Nobody was around that way.

The dog had followed me fairly closely, so I turned around and the dog just plopped down on the ground. I cautiously approached and saw that the dog had been severely injured (I'd guess by a coyote) and had stitches running from his neck, along his right side, and almost to his groin. He had a collar, but no tags.

I had some cheese in my bag and he ate that right up. Finally convinced him to follow me out of the woods, back to the parking lot. There was an old, soggy salami sandwich that someone had dropped and he ate it right up.

If he'd gotten in the car willingly, I'd have another dog right now, but he wouldn't. So I called the PC dog warden. He's in the animal shelter in Eaton right now. If no one claims him before his "time is up" (10 days, I think), I guess I'll have one more animal in my odd little menagerie.

[Edskin]

Won't help much for those of you in Ohio......but this is THE best animal shelter I've ever seen or heard of. Got our dog from there, and we know many people who have done the same. Amazing work these people do.

http://www.petsandpeople.com/browse/petdirdogs.htm

[HumnHilghtFreel]

I figured I would update this thread. We ended up waiting awhile, but today we finally started the process of adopting a new dog.

http://www.franklincountydogs.com/dog_view.asp?id=7333

We've got to go through the adoption process, but this little guy will be in the family soon.

I'm not equipped to go to the pounds... I find myself wanting to take home every single one of them.

[MWM]

We just adopted our second dog yesterday. We adopted the first dog in February and we also got a beagle. Beagles have a hard time getting adopted some times because there's so many of them and they can be difficult to train. We love our little guy and he's been a great dog.

We've been reading recently about how black dogs have the most difficult time getting adopted because people see them as "just another black dog." They're alwasy the first to get euthanized at shelters and pounds because of this. We decided we wanted to get a black dog and we struck gold with a 60 pound one year old black lab. He's as chill a dog as I've ever seen. Nothing startles him and we spent a decent amount of time with him and our beagle. They're a very good match. He's playful when you want to play, but otherwise he just chills out. And he's incredibly obedient already. And we named him Larkin.

For anyone considering a dog, I'd strongly encourage you to consider a black one. They're great dogs and I think they're very sleek looking as well.

Here are some pics of our little guys.

[Edskin]

MWM--

How anyone can look at the picture and not LOVE what dogs can bring to a family is beyond me. They look like best friends!!

And congrats HHF, it's always exciting to bring home a new member of the family. He looks great!!

[Redsfaithful]

Nothing startles him and we spent a decent amount of time with him and our beagle. They're a very good match. He's playful when you want to play, but otherwise he just chills out. And he's incredibly obedient already. And we named him Larkin.

Great name, my golden retriever is named Larkin. Wife and I have been talking about getting a black lab in addition for awhile now, and I hadn't ever heard that about labs having a tougher time getting adopted. I'll have to tell her that.

[vaticanplum]

Try PetFinder for starters.

I've probably wasted five years of my life on petfinder.com. It's a great site -- you can browse not only by breed but by area too, and many of them are located at shelters close by so you can go and meet them. Be warned, though, that you will really have to be firm with yourself on what you want when you go visiting a shelter, because for me anyway the mindset immediately switches from, "no, no, I'm not home enough, I don't have enough money" to "oh my god I have to save ALL of these dogs" when you see them stacked in cages three high. Many, many shelter dogs are healthy, trained dogs too, whose owners just couldn't take care of them for whatever reason, and as someone else mentioned good shelters will be honest with you about any problems and what the dogs require because they want them to go to good-fit homes.

I became severely attached to an Akita at a shleter close to my house in Brooklyn. His name was Bear, he weighed about 160 pounds, and he was the sweetest dog I've ever seen. I used to go take him for walks about once a week, and it was heartbreaking because his owner had been an elderly man who had to give him up when he went into a nursing home and couldn't care for him anymore. It broke my heart because no matter how trained and good he was, I knew that no one on earth was going to adopt a 10-year-old Akita. Give a good dog who needs one a home. There are so many of them out there.

[MWM]

Great name, my golden retriever is named Larkin. Wife and I have been talking about getting a black lab in addition for awhile now, and I hadn't ever heard that about labs having a tougher time getting adopted. I'll have to tell her that.

If you go into any humane society or pet shelter, you'll see a large percentage of the dogs are black. They're almost always the hardest to adopt out.

Here's a couple of links:

http://www.glendalehumane.org/blackdog.html

http://www.blackpearldogs.com/


Here's an excerpt from the site of the shelter we've adopted our dogs from:

"WHY SO MANY BLACK DOGS? We often hear people complain about the number of black dogs we have in our program and feel that now is the perfect time to educate the public about how hard it is for black dogs to find homes. Black or darker colored dogs, especially the larger sized ones, are often the first to get euthanized at pounds, shelters, & humane societies when space becomes an issue. People tend to overlook the black/darker dogs for the lighter colored dogs - they see darker dogs as "just another black dog" rather than as a unique individual. It doesn't matter if the dog is purebred or not - if a dog is brought to a shelter/pound/humane society and they have dark colored fur, their chance of getting adopted is very slim. This is a shame because black dogs are just as wonderful as lighter colored dogs. Please consider adopting a darker colored dog!"

[remdog]

I've never heard the 'black dog' thing before but I'm not saying it is or isn't a fact. What I do want to say is that my favorite dog of all time (and the basis of my handle here at Redszone) was a black dog (as well as a large dog since he was an afghan hound). You could not have found a sweeter, more wonderful, more well behaved or well rounded dog anywhere. So, I too, urge you to look past the steriotypes of any dog and consider the individual dog before you. If you do your homework you, and your pet, will have a love affair for the rest of your lives.

Rem

[gm]

We found a free 5 year-old male beagle on craiglist, last fall. "Cooper" can be ornery/noisy but he gets along famously with our 12 year-old male Cocker ("Ollie") and now our boys have a frisky dog to play with.

[MWM]

I love beagles. They can be incredibly annoying at times as they will do theri own ting most of the time and are consumed by their noses, but they're the sweetest dogs. They're great with kids as well.