Adopt a Rescue Dog and You Will Have a Friend For Life

     With shelters filling up and stray dogs on the rise, adopting a rescue dog is the conscious choice to make. Adopting a rescue dog gives the dog a new lease on life, as without adoption many dogs in shelters face a grim future. Finding local rescue organizations is easy, as dog shelters are numerous and allow adoptions and there are many groups that specialize in re-homing dogs. Ask anyone who has adopted a rescue dog and you will hear overwhelmingly how glad they are to have taken that step. Rescue dogs seem to know you saved them from doom and they become loyal friends.

A common misconception is that rescue dogs are somehow broken and won't make good pets. In truth, rescue dogs end up being rescue dogs for a variety of reasons. Their owners may have moved, and the new home may be unsuitable for dogs. Perhaps their previous owners had a child, and were unsure if it was a good idea to keep a large dog around a newborn baby. Maybe their owners decided that dog ownership wasn't for them and decided to give up the dog or release it onto the street, or maybe their owners lost their jobs or found themselves unable to afford to care for their dog. In any case, you can't simply assume that rescue dogs would be unfit for adoption or have bad behavior, whether directed towards their owners or towards other animals. Rescue dogs are capable of being just as much of a lovable family pet as a dog reared from puppyhood. For those still leery of adopting a rescue dog with an unknown past, there are often opportunities to adopt puppies as well.

There are many organizations that you can adopt rescue dogs from. Shelters are always an option. Adopting a dog from a shelter means that you are potentially saving it from dying via lethal injection and are instead giving it a loving home. Other organizations exist, such as greyhound rescue organizations that specialize in re-homing greyhound racing dogs after they have become too old to race. In any case, adopting a rescue dog is a great alternative to purchasing a puppy in that you are giving a future to a dog that otherwise has none.

You should bring an adopted rescue dog to the veterinarian as soon as possible. You may have access to vaccination papers and the dog's medical history or you may not, depending on its previous owners. Many shelters vaccinate and spay or neuter all incoming dogs as a matter of course. A veterinarian will also likely want a fecal sample from the adopted dog in order to check for intestinal parasites, and may draw a blood sample to check for heartworms. A veterinarian can help you ascertain whether or not your adopted rescue dog has any outstanding health problems and can warn you about what problems are likely to occur in the future, depending on breed.