Every year roughly 6.5 million dogs and cats enter shelters, about 25% of this get adopted, 10% find their way back to their actual owner and sadly the rest are euthanized. Most of these statistics would be much lower if only we did a better job as their caretakers. Properly socializing and training these pets while young! Doing this alone would ensure that the pet was one that everyone could enjoy and wanted to keep.
Dogs aren’t born with bad behaviors in their DNA- bad behavior is learned though neglect, mistreatment or simply not having the knowledge to do the right things during the impressionable stages of the animal’s life. So you got a puppy and a few months later you have had to replace all of your shoes, rugs and even replace your carpet because of the constant potty accidents in the house, it barks non-stop, jumps on and knocks the kids down, counter surfs. What do you do?
Many owners will rehome that puppy, drop it off at the shelter or leave it on a country road. A better solution would be to train that puppy from puppyhood. To put in the effort in the early days of bringing that puppy home. To have a puppy class picked out before you ever pick up that cute puppy and to be sure that your puppy can start attending puppy socialization and training classes the week he comes home- not a month or two later.
You and your puppy need to plan on spending the first year training. We don’t send our children to kindergarten and expect them to come home educated and ready to run major corporations or do brain surgery therefor we need to be ready to commit to working with that puppy, attending puppy socialization classes, a novice obedience and even advanced obedience, Canine Good Citizen courses and certifications all during the first year of life!
You may have no intention of abandoning your Australian Labradoodle, you probably won’t do that. But you do still need to help your new puppy become a dog that you want to live with for 15 years. I can give you a great puppy but you have to make it a great dog.
