Choosing A Pet Dog

Background on dogs as pets: Dogs have been one of man’s
favourite domestic pets for thousands of years. There are well
over 400 species of dogs and just like human beings, different
breeds of dogs come with varying character traits. When choosing
a dog as a pet, choose a dog with the future in mind, not only
with regard to their present and future character traits but
with very many other important things factored in too.

First And Foremost Is Your Dog’s Health: According to
OhMiDog.com, Oprah Winfrey lost one of her Cocker Spaniel pet
dogs to the parvovirus, a killer and highly infectious disease.
The Canine parvovirus as it is known is not the only deadly
disease dogs are prone to so it is extremely vital to keep your
dog’s health and safety in mind by registering with a good vet
doctor in your local area and making sure you take your dog in
for any important vaccinations and regular health checks. Once
they become your friend (or your best friend and part of the
family), it is often very painful to lose a pet dog, for some
people, losing their dogs is similar to losing a human friend, so
if you own a pet dog or plan to own a dog as a pet, make their
good health a priority.

America’s First Dog: It’s not all doom and gloom to own a pet
dog. That becomes even clearer when you see President Barrack
Obama running along the White House corridors of power with his
dog friend �Bo’, now the world’s most famous Portuguese water
dog thanks to its status as �America’s First Dog�. Obama loves
his pet dog so much that worldwide news reports quote him as
having said jokingly �I finally got a friend. It took a while�.
According to those reports, Obama was referring to the
historical quote about dogs by former President Harry Truman
when he said �If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog�.

Dog’s Are Obviously One Of Man’s Best Friends: While dogs are
not the only pets loved by humans or that love humans, they are
probably the most likely to win the permanent status of �Man’s
best friend� and not only because that is an old saying but
because for many centuries, dogs have been a part of man’s
domestic life in one way or the other. According to some archaeological
studies, dogs have been close to man for over 12,000 years and they
are the oldest recorded domesticated animal known to man with
cattle and reindeer pulling up the rear.

Acquiring a pet dog: According to a paper by Vladimir Dinets at
the University of Miami, dogs have �association with humans on
all continents (except the Antarctic [where they are banned])�.
So unless you live in the Antarctic, it should be relatively
easy to acquire a pet dog or puppy. The cost to acquire a dog or
puppy of your own will vary between free and very expensive
depending on your location and the breed of dog you want. One of
the most expensive breeds of dog is the bulldog and which cost as
much as $2,000 to acquire. Whatever it costs you to acquire a dog,
keep this in mind, dogs, like many other pets, require your time
(and in some cases money) to care for them. So, unless you’re
willing to spend the required amount of time and/or money to
care for your pet dog or puppy, it may be better to simply let
sleeping dogs lie.