When you’re ready to own a pet, it can be exciting to find the right dog to welcome into your home. There are many different places to find puppies, including pet stores, breeders, humane societies, and nonprofit animal rescue shelters. However, if you’re trying to narrow down these options, you should consider the benefits of adoption or rescue over buying. Read on for the many advantages of adopting or rescuing a puppy or adult dog:
1. You can try fostering first
If you’re not ready to fully commit to rescuing a puppy, you can try out pet ownership by fostering first. This will give you time to see how much you enjoy owning a puppy and if it enhances the quality of your life and home. This can also allow you to make a connection and form a bond with the pet before you’re fully invested in adopting it.
2. Get a fully health-screened dog
When you adopt a pet from a shelter, you don’t have to worry about surprise health issues cropping up. All of the dogs that are available to adopt via shelters and humane societies have undergone health screenings to ensure that they are healthy. Shelters can also give you the rundown of dogs with behavioral issues, or those that don’t mesh well with other pets or children, as well as those that do.
3. Adopt from a breed-specific rescue
One of the main misconceptions about adopting a rescue dog is that you’ll end up with a mixed breed (though there’s nothing wrong with that!). Fortunately, if you’re after a specific breed, you can look to breed-specific rescues that cater to pet owners who have set their heart on the protective nature of a German Shepherd, the family-friendly Labrador Retriever, or the cute and cuddly Pomeranian, to name a few examples.
4. You won’t support puppy mills
When you rescue a puppy, you can contribute to a good cause and help out a dog that has been abandoned or surrendered for emergency reasons. On the other hand, puppy mills contribute to the overpopulation of dogs, many of which may end up in rescues. As such, if you refuse to give your money to puppy mills, you can avoid being a part of the problem. Rescuing a puppy is also known to be a lot more cost-effective and affordable compared to buying a pet outright from a puppy mill. There is also no shortage of rescue dogs that are ready to be taken home immediately, which means you don’t have to wait several months to get a new pet.
5. Get the lifetime support of a rescue
When you choose to own a rescue puppy, you can expect to receive a lot of love and attention over time—not just from your new pet, but also from the rescue organization itself. Shelters are a great resource for pet owners for a lifetime of pet ownership. As animal lovers and caregivers, they are attuned to several useful tools and resources that they can refer you to—including dog sitters, trainers, veterinarians, groomers, and more!
