New Adult Dog: Fill & Download for Free

Your adult dog is being a good dog and nurturing the puppy. She is not being submissive - she is being kind.In most instances, puppies have what dog folk call “puppy privilege”. Adult dogs will be gentle with them and accept behaviour - even annoying behaviour - that they would not accept from another adult dog. They understand that puppy is a baby and doesn’t know better.Think of adult humans interacting with toddlers…same idea. Adult humans adapt their behaviour and play to match the ability of the toddler. Dogs do the same with puppies.When I bought a puppy home, my adult Sheltie immediately started adapting her play behaviour to the level that was best and safest for the puppy. She was so gentle and so considerate - it was delightful to watch.This is one of my favourite photos illustrating this. My adult dog is five. The puppy is about four months. I was playing a joint game of ‘fetch’ with the squeaky toy. My adult dog could easily grab the toy and bring it back to me ahead of the puppy. There were treats offered for return of the toy, so she had incentive to do that.But she didn’t. She held back and modified her play so the puppy could share equally in returning the toy to me. Both of them got treats.

We adopted a puppy a few years ago. We talked about an adult dog, but it just didn’t fit what we wanted.For the most part, puppies come from a breeder (or pet store) and adult dogs are rescues.Getting a rescue dog is—truly—a wonderful thing. It’s one less dog on the street or getting killed, and that’s good. (Of course, as long as I’m eating pigs—therefore still resulting in the death of animals—I can’t be too snooty about a “rescue, don’t buy!” philosophy. But, hey, every animal saved is a good thing.)The problem is that rescuing an adult dog comes with certain implications, in part due to age but mostly due to the fact that it’s a rescue.(1) We were literally not allowed to get most rescue dogs. Most dogs at rescues near us were listed as “no young children in household.” We had a nine month old baby. So, that’s off the list for us.(2) Rescue dogs may be aggressive towards children. We had a nine month old baby, who soon become a toddler. Know what little kids do? They grab fur. They pull on tails. They try to ride the dog. They grab at the dog’s food bowl. Of course they’re not allowed to do this—but an 18 month old baby is not always into following rules.A dog raised in a good situation, who sees this annoying toddler as part of the pack, will generally tolerate this sort of behavior. Eventually, if the parents don’t put a stop to it, maybe they’ll let out a well-deserved growl or bark. That’s all good.That rescue dog though? You just don’t know. It might have come from an abusive past. While it seems friendly and nice, it might well attack. I don’t want my child to suffer long-term consequences because he was playing unattended and started pestering the dog.(3) Many rescue dogs don’t do well with other dogs. We only planned to get one dog. But, if our dog couldn’t play well with other dogs, this makes boarding the dog when we travel much more difficult. It can also make going to the park, taking them on walks, and other basic activities much more difficult.(4) We had much fewer options with a rescue dog. We wanted particular things: non-shedding, smart breed, friendly family dog, medium sized, no history of health problems, etc. It’s very difficult to find a rescue dog that can fit those criteria. In many cases, you don’t even have this information (medical history, breed, etc).(5) We wanted the dog to “grow up” with us. This was more my husband’s thing than mine. He liked the idea of the dog growing up with our children. You get more time with the dog and my husband felt the dog would bond better with us.Perhaps when my kids are grown and we get a new dog, we’ll go with a young adult dog. Puppies are adorable, but I’ll trade the cuteness for skipping the housebreaking and chewing stage.But with young kids, we couldn’t really do a rescue dog. Even if we were willing to do an adult dog (compromising on #5—having the dog grow up with us), there were too many other implications. And not doing a rescue means going to a breeder, and that means a puppy.The little fur ball’s a lot of work, but she’s pretty cute too.

Yes. And, I did!Meet Chloe! I call her Chloe bear. I just got her last night. She's everything I could imagine adopting her without having met her first. Her owner and family had to adopt her out for reasons that I'll keep private. It wasn't easy because they love her so much. They knew I would be the best match for their special pet. We are both so happy and she is acclimating wonderfully to her new home and to me!I only recently lost my beloved Emma and I'm still reeling from that loss. She left an enormous hole in my heart and a quietness in this house that has left my ears ringing. Chloe is filling up that hole and although Emma is not replaceable I can begin to feel joy once more.