06/21/2025
💯🎯👍…enough said!
I don’t get any more gratification from helping an adopted or “rescue” dog than I would from a purpose-bred dog or a purebred dog. Having helped them suit their situation better is the only goal.
Being able to guide that dog and it’s ownership into a better frame of existence is the job. My feelings about it are limited to my success and how I can improve for the next one.
I tell owners, whether their dogs were bred from the finest bloodlines, or hauled across state lines on an illicit ‘transport’ that we train the dog at our feet, not the one in our head. I am simply the conduit to nurture that relationship. My satisfaction comes in the form of having been able to help, successfully.
I don’t understand the “adopt, don’t shop” trope, and I have never supported it. The notion that one dog is somehow more deserving than another is fraught with untruths. Whether a person chooses a dog from a well-bred litter or from another source where provenance is questionable, dogs require care and affection, regardless of their pedigree. Buying a dog from a rescue or shelter is a matter of preference, it should never be an ‘only’ option.
My favorite dogs to work with are the bold, confident youngsters that are willing to try anything. They model the behavior I deliberately select for my own dogs, and the behavior I would like to see in all dogs.
My greatest successes are helping dogs that lack that quality to gain it to some degree, and live fulfilling lives without fear. Or at least, much more confidence. Fearful dogs are challenging. Whether through genetics or experience, humans made them that way.
I don’t understand the preference to have to work harder for something. I prefer an odds-on chance for success by starting with raw material that is going to make my job easier. If I personally had a choice between the purpose-bred pup that I could mold like clay, or the dog that has been passed from pillar to post, my decision favors the former.
As a trainer, I don’t have the luxury of telling people what dogs they *should* buy, I am obligated to help them where they already are. They chose their dog for a reason. My job is to help them with the dog at their feet, not the one in their head. Nor the one in my head.
The litmus test for folks is to put their prejudices aside and just train the dog in front of them. Not everyone is suited for a puppy. Not everyone has the temperament to work a dog with behavior issues. Not everybody has designs on performance events with their dogs. We are all going to be limited by our experience, our willingness to invest time or money or both, and our interests.
The dogs we own require our attention. Whether they were scraped off the streets of some third world country and brought here, purchased from a top performance breeder with the lofty ambitions of a world stage, or bought out of the transport’s trailer at some road stop on interstate 95, the owner enters an unwritten contract to care for the needs of that animal.
Be sure that you are prepared for all that entails.
