Where are my shelter puppies at?

[amn]

Seems like most people posting on here, or at least the most popular posts are always talking about some specific breed, or references to a breeder they got their dog from. In my personal life most dog owners I know adopted from a Shelter/Pound so I do find it a little odd. Absolutely no hate from me about getting a purebred dog, or one from a breeder. Ideally we would all do that because there wouldn't be stray/shelter pups

I would just love to see some of the shelter puppy stories. How did you get them, how old were they, how was the adoption process, how much did it cost you, did you have an idea about the dogs previous background, and so on.

A little background on my pup who about to be 16 weeks old:
My puppy had a horrible first 9 weeks of life being pulled from her mother too early, then being put in a kill shelter in the southern U.S, then being trucked up to the northeast, and my wife and I literally picked her up from the truck she arrived on. Her rear legs were covered in pee and she smelled horrible. Still a cutie though. We were told she is "probably" a pit/lab mix.... Well that was a lie. 71.5% APBT/AmStaff, 12.5% Great Pyrenees, 8.4% Boxer, 7.4% American Bulldog, 0% Lab lol. We were also told she has been dewormed.... well that was also a lie. She was infested with worms and giardia so we had to deal with that. Gross.

But now that she is healthy and settled in our house she has been great, very smart, learning commands, and manners very quickly! Potty training was a little rough for a while but finally it's really starting to click. Our biggest issue with potty training her is she just hates being cold so the New England winter did NOT agree with our little southern bell.

Anyway, good luck with your pup no matter where you get/got them from!

Here is my Maggie girl
Maggie!

 

[sallama]

@amn My youngest is a rescue. Our neighbor found her wandering in our neighborhood - this tiny puppy and she took her in. She contacted our local Animal Control to report the puppy and she was able to keep the puppy while Animal Control did their part to locate owners.

I live in a small town so I sort of know our Animal Control officer - first name basis Anyhow AC looked at the condition of the puppy, she was malnourished. We got her into a vet immediately to get her checked out. She was in such a poor state that even if AC found the owners, they were reluctant to return the puppy to them. Estimated age was around 10 weeks of age. We're thinking she was dumped in our neighborhood.

Unfortunately, neighbor already has her own dogs - and they aren't very dog friendly so she could not keep her and reached out to the neighborhood to see if any of us were interested. At the time I had wanted to get another dog - discussed the pros and cons with my husband. We considered that we had no health guarantees... but we are financially secure and so I anticipated that if we ran into health issues, we'd be able to manage. We don't know what trauma she may have... Fortunately we're both experienced handler and we could address challenges as they come. So we went for it!

Animal control can only hold a dog for 72 hours before releasing it to either the shelter for rehoming or a rescue organization. So when Animal Control released her, we took her in.

Adoption fees: 0$

Breed: unknown at the time!

Man we speculated breed - she had curly fur on her head and body.. maybe some poodle.. but she had black and tan markings... I guessed GSD. Our vet thought maybe cocker spaniel.. We speculated Newfie... Here's some of the first photos and videos I took when we brought her home.

We did am embark test to find out her breed mix. http://embk.me/zydeco5 I was right - mostly GSD with some lab and a little bit of golden retriever. Aka "Sheprador!"

Her road to healthy was a challenge. She had some significant GI Distress - I made them run giardia fecal tests twice to rule it out. At age 6 mos she was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplasia. We did a consult with an orthopedic specialist and decided we wanted to wait until she was fully grown before we rush into any major surgery. Instead we got her on a pain management plan, she gets joint supplements, and injections of Adequan. My heart broke as one of her hips was partially dislocated and we were uncertain of what life would look like for her quality wise. We advocated for her getting physical therapy - we did PT, Hydrotherapy, Accupuncture and Cold Laser therapy - 6 sessions total which was not too terrible at 1.3k - but they have us a discount - I think it's because they were moved by her origin story to be honest. The rehab specialist was just amazing. And we did a lot of PT work at home too. (still do!)

We delayed spay for one heat cycle - which if she had gone to a rescue or shelter they would have done early spay (for reasons I understand) and that would have been to her detriment for optimal joint health. Fortunately my vet agreed that we needed to allow her the hormones to properly develop. Got her spay as soon as she was able to following her heat cycle.

Zydeco is doing ridiculously well now - like her quality of life is over the top.. no longer on pain management - still on supplements and adequan injections for maintenance. Our vet basically said no need for surgery unless she starts showing symptoms or pain.

Here's Zydeco all grown up

That's our rescue story

 

[st333333]

@sallama Holy canolli that tail is magnificent!

 

[sallama]

@st333333 It's the golden in her lol She's also got the chewbacca arms.

I love her tail. I love a nice fluffy flag. It's one of the things I also love about my toller.

Team floof ftw!

 

[walkwithme]

@sallama Our long haired gsd has a big fluffy tail, so maybe it's the shepherd part of her too.

 

[sallama]

@walkwithme Possibly! I've seen some of her relative matches and they're all short hair. She's got the silky fur of a golden for sure. Most of her behaviors are GSD. Loves retrieving and water. Gets her derp from the lab for sure lol

 

[walkwithme]

@sallama OMG she's gorgeous. So adorable in those puppy pictures and videos. And she's definitely a sheprador in looks. Beautiful and she looks so happy.

 

[kelster]

@sallama I love her name, too.

 

[sallama]

@kelster Thanks! Our two cats were Whiskey and Tango.. and we planned to get a Foxtrot since we named the cats. So for a while we were WTF!

So when Zydeco came along, I thought.. well Tango and Foxtrot are music/dances so... Zydeco fits that theme (I'm ethnically a creole/cajun) and you can't have music and dance without some Whiskey

We also call her Zz for short... when she was little she looked like a little black bear so we also called her Z-bear

 

[amn]

@sallama Thank you for sharing, and for making sure this thread doesn't break down into an adopt or buy argument! I'm so happy your pup found their forever home!

 

[guyfromnorway]

@amn This time last year my beautiful best friend/soul mate died suddenly. We were in the car on the way to the emergency vet. I was utterly heart broken and didn’t think I’d be ready for a new dog any time soon.

But at the end of last summer I started to get that itch. Is a house a home without a dog? And I dug around on Craigslist (so many dishonest people!) and kept an eye on the available dogs at various local shelters. I knew I wanted a smaller dog (dealing with a 60lb dog after surgery was awful) and I wasnt sold on the idea of a puppy. The stars aligned mid-August and my husband had the day off during the week so we went to the SPCA shelter. This shelter moves animals at volume! One of the dogs I had been considering was there for only a few days before getting adopted by someone else. They only had a handful of dogs when we got there and only one smaller dog.

She was a crusty, dingy white poodle mix which is like my least favorite kind of dog. And she was old. She was recovering from dental surgery to remove most her teeth, she had a heart murmur, a big mass on her spleen, and kidney disease. I hadn’t planned on being hospice care but I also knew if I walked away I would never forgive myself. We got to see her in a meeting room and she perked up and bounced around. That made me feel better. Because of her age, she would have been free but we gave them puppy money anyway. The adoption process was pretty easy, fill in some forms, pay the fee, take a pic for the wall and home.

So we bring her home and she’s just kinda there. I spent the first night just talking to her and giving her very gentle pets because she seemed so very fragile. It took me about 48 hours to fall in love with her. Her missing teeth don’t slow her down, her kidney function is normal now, the mass apparently isn’t cancer cause she’s perfectly fine. The heart murmur is more serious than anticipated but we can’t do much about it. She takes her meds like a champ.

And she is so fucking goofy. In my mind she’s a legal secretary in a busy firm and everyone depends on her and she hustles about her business. It’s hilarious. Flora has shit to do and that judge needs these papers! Tippy tippy tap, tippy tippy tap! When she’s excited she rubs her face on stuff and likes to steal my husbands seat on the couch. She sleeps with us and always comes up for a cuddle between us before going to sleep against someone‘s butt. She experienced her first snow this winter and learned immediately that when her paws are too cold, she just needs to look at me and lift one and I will carry her home.

I will never stop watching her while she sleeps to make sure she’s still breathing. I genuinely didn’t think I could love like this again. I also don’t take my time with her for granted. Am I reading something but shes asking for attention? The five minutes I give her are five I’m going to be glad I did when she’s gone. I wish I had appreciated the short time we have with them with my last dog. Part of it was just not being able to imagine life without her and so I definitely didn’t take every chance to throw a ball or rub a tummy.

 

[showtime2507]

@amn Mine turns 1 this month. She and her littermates were found in a cornfield last February. Mom didn't make it and 2 of her littermates were lost to the cold. It was her and 3 of her siblings that were rescued.

We got her at the end of March last year at about 10 weeks old. We were also told she was probably a "lab mix". DNA test showed she is a good percentage of Great Pyrenees... and her pyr paw talents just cement that fact. That and the fact she is now lovingly referred to as a house moose.

It was like a 10 page adoption application for her. Well worth it though. I still keep in contact with her original foster family and send them pictures every few months. We've had almost no health issues so far, she is not a fan of the cold though. Potty time is a race for her if it is cold out. I don't know if that is because of her start in life or because she is a priss and we live a warm climate.

 

[christopherb]

@amn I have a stunning, sweet, smart, loving rescue dog with a shocking breed mix who was a regular ol' stray here in California with his sisters. We love him, but we feel we got very lucky with him, and he has a lot of challenges. He's leash reactive, undersocialized, and very anxious. His canine teeth were snapped off from living in a cage long-term. Over a year of force-free training and some Prozac later, and he's doing really well.

He was $300 from a breed rescue in NorCal and came neutered and vaccinated with deworming medication, a week of food, a collar and leash, and normally would have come with a muzzle too but they forgot to put it in the bag. Pretty good deal. He was transferred to the rescue from a limited admission/no-kill shelter which pulled him from an open admission shelter. He didn't get adopted at either shelter and was sent to the breed rescue based on his suspected breed. We adopted him before his DNA came back.

I'm also getting a puppy from a reputable breeder in May. You can do both! I might rescue again in the future but I'm just not prepared to go through this again. I love my dog but it's been really hard. I want to try having a dog that's been set up for success as much as possible instead of another one that had the cards stacked against him. He only turned out as well as he did because he truly has an amazing base temperament. If it was ethical to breed this mix I'd be all over it to get a second one (and might look into it someday through the Doberman Preservation Project).

 

[sallama]

@christopherb according to embark our two have 1.2% Shared DNA - from the golden retriever part it seems. We're distant family

 

[christopherb]

@sallama Hah! Very distant indeed.

 

[kelster]

@christopherb Yup, we have two; an older poodle (looks 100% poodle and we treat him as such, grooming wise) that we got as a young adult from the shelter and we just got a very well-bred poodle puppy. You can definitely do both!

 

[danial]

@christopherb That’s so weird, Pogo is the second Doberman-Saluki mix I’ve seen on Reddit today. Is he from Central California by chance? He is gorgeous!

 

[christopherb]

@danial Lol, double check the poster wherever else you saw him, it's probably just me but on another subreddit. Yes, he's from Central CA along with his two sisters.

If it wasn't Pogo you saw...lmk, because I'm still trying to track down two of his siblings that I've been made aware of via DNA test but am unable to contact.

 

[amoskaeg]

@amn I found my puppy. We get a lot of abandoned hunting dogs in my area so hounds and hound mixes running at large are unfortunately a regular occurrence. I actually have a standing offer that anyone considering abandoning a dog can simply give them to me and I will immediately lose their info and take the "stray" I "found" to the shelter to save myself the step of pulling over and catching them after they've been dumped. But he had a collar with a phone number scribbled on it and our local shelter is bursting at the seams so I hung onto him when the owner said he would call me about picking him up after work. He said he had been digging out of his pen, and I secretly hoped I would not have to give him back just to be locked up in a run again. The guy never called back, and I started counting the days until he was legally abandoned. He has been the best dog, but I can see why he wouldn't be a good fit in a "home" where he was always bored and lonely in a small space. He is a curious, busy little guy who wants to be in the middle of everything and wouldn't have tolerated being penned well (as evidenced by his apparent habit of escaping, which he has never considered here even though he has 24/7 outside access via dog door).

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@amoskaeg Counting the days is so hard. But if they didn't come forward the first few weeks I kinda figure they aren't going to.