November is Shelter Dog Month

The month of November is "Shelter Dog" month, a time when I have a great excuse to extol the virtues of shelter dogs. Not that I need an excuse, as I have become such a supporter of my local shelter since adopting a little more than a year ago.

By the way, those of you who know me in my real life and who read this blog, can skip past this post. Really. It won't hurt my feelings. I know you hear enough about this from me on a regular basis.

But for the rest of you, meet Radley (as in Boo Radley). I adopted him just over a year ago. Before adopting him, I had some real misperceptions about shelter dogs. I'll list them to save time.

1. Shelter dogs had something "wrong" with them. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in a shelter.
2. Shelter dogs would be ill-behaved and hard to train. Time spent in the shelter would somehow affect their behavior negatively and permanently.

3. Unlike adopting a puppy, which you raise practically from day 1, an adult dog would come with "issues."

All of these assumptions are absolutely wrong. There's nothing wrong with shelter dogs, but maybe there was something wrong with the people he/she previously lived with. Some people just don't take the responsiblity of owning a pet seriously and will simply discard a pet when it becomes inconvenient.

Shelter dogs, especially adult dogs, are some of the most loving, well-behaved and grateful - yes grateful- dogs you'll ever encounter. I raised my pedigree dog Scout from puppyhood and Radley is much better behaved than Scout (and what does that say about my dog training skills?!?).

Puppies are only puppies for a short time. Why go through potty training, obedience training, long nights of puppy crying, and the dreaded teething/chewing phase? Adult dogs are already past all that and just as cute, charming, funny, and loving as a puppy.

I know that I am the third home for Radley, a Welsh Corgi-Australian Shepherd mix. For the life of me, I can't understand why anyone would ever give him up. He's sweet, loyal, friendly, well-behaved, great with the kids, wonderful with my other dog, and a great companion.

Adopt a shelter dog and you'll be adopting a lifelong friend!