If you’re interested in adding a furry friend to your family or finding the perfect companion, you should! I grew up with all different kinds of pets and I believe they helped me learn responsibility and they were some of my first best friends. However, adding a dog or cat into your life is a big commitment. There are many steps to help prepare yourself for adding another living creature into your life, and the first and most important step is to do your research.
When looking for a pet, many people go to pet stores or breeders to buy from. This is why I say, Do Not Buy A Dog. Buying a dog from a breeder or a pet store is a terrible idea. Breeders that say they breed ‘purebred’ don’t really have an idea if it is purebred or not in most cases, and most of the time, the dogs they use to breed are some sort of mix. If you do find a purebred however, there are many health issues that can come along with it.
Different dog breeds have different hereditary issues that can happen over time; hip dysplasia, bloating, and knee dislocation are just some of the commonly inherited health issues. These issues are easier to track down and lessen the damages, because they are known issues. In puppy mills, however, there is no good way of knowing if a dog is sick or not, and they don’t really care to find out, either.
Puppy mills are even worse than individual breeders. There are some breeders that do breed their dogs to be as healthy as they can, and get routine checkups, but this is not the case for puppy mills. Puppy mills are dog breeding fiends that focus on making profit from their sales. They pay little to no attention to the health and wellness of their animals and over breed them. This leads many dogs to be born ill and causes the mothers who are over bred to become sick, too.
The puppies are then ripped from their mothers and sold to stores or to people directly. This is detrimental to both the mother and puppies, because a puppy is generally supposed to stay with their mom and siblings for at least eight weeks. Puppy mills breed about 2 million puppies a year, and they are kept in dirty, unsanitary conditions. That is not the way a puppy should be brought into the world.
If you are interested in adding a dog or cat into your life, go for it! Research the kind of dog you would want, and see if the temperament and lifestyle would fit with yours. There are thousands of rescue groups all around that have amazing dogs, and many are breed-specific. The people that work with rescue groups are also usually very kind, and very willing to help you out in finding the right pet! I completely support you in your dreams to get a dog, but please, adopt, don’t shop!