Choosing the Right Shelter Dog for Your Family

Posted Sep 23, 2016 in Guides

Picking the right dog for your family can be a challenging task, especially when you’re adopting from a shelter. There are a lot of factors you must take into account before you take your new furry friend home. Here are some our tips for choosing the best dog for your family!

Do Your Research

Figure out what you want and need in a dog. If you are very active or want a dog that will love to go on walks and runs with you, an energetic puppy or newer dog is probably for you. If that’s not what you want, there are definitely older and less active dogs that also need adopting.

Time

Take into account how much time you have to devote to housetraining and other tasks that come along with training a new puppy. It is a lot of hard work, but if you’re willing to put in the time and energy, a puppy will be great in your family. If you don’t have the time, look into older dogs.

Observe The Dogs

Here are some characteristics of friendly dogs:

A friendly dog WILL…

• Press themselves against the front of the kennel
• Wag their tail low and loose
• Bark in an excited, happy way
• Have squinty eyes and an open mouth

A friendly dog WON’T…

• Stand rigid
• Charge to the front of the kennel
• Bark deeply
• Ignore you

Get a Trainer

Consider hiring a trainer to come with you to the shelter to perform a behavior evaluation on the dogs you like. You need to know what you’re getting into if a dog does have some behavior issues. A trainer should observe the dog’s body language, how they respond to being touched, how rough or gentle they are when playing, and many other aspects of the dog’s behavior.

Be sure to keep in mind all of these things when searching for the newest member of your family! It may take a while, but eventually you’ll find the perfect dog for you!