How to choose a dog in a shelter? Rules to help you!

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You firmly decided to take the dog from the shelter, came there and were taken aback: there are so many around pleading eyes! There would be an opportunity - they would take everyone, but only one can be made happy ... How do you choose a dog in a shelter?

In the photo: dogs in the shelter

There are several rules that will help you navigate and not regret subsequently about your choice.

One of the most important criteria when choosing a dog, including from a shelter, is temperament and character. If your hobby is watching a reality show on TV, and the dog begins to demand a five-hour active walk, you are unlikely to be happy, besides, it is likely that the dog will begin to make adjustments to your interior from boredom. And vice versa - if you dream of joint marathon races, you should not take a dog that clearly does not meet your sporting ambitions. Think in advance what you want from the dog, and only then, armed with this knowledge, go to choose a pet.
Evaluate your dog’s health and abilities. In any case, the dog from the shelter should be shown to the veterinarian as soon as possible, since the health status of the new pet can hardly be assessed “by eye”, and shelters do not always have the opportunity to use the services of a veterinarian. But serious illnesses are usually immediately known. You can take a dog, which obviously requires complex and expensive treatment or significant costs to maintain an acceptable quality of life, if we are talking about a dog with a disability, but in this case, soberly assess your capabilities - and not just financial ones. Do you have enough moral strength every day to look at a creature that is inaccessible to many of the joys of life?
Think with whom it will be more comfortable with you: with a puppy, an adult dog, or maybe with an elderly wise dog? Each option has its pros and cons. A puppy is an opportunity to raise a dream dog, but the process of education will require a lot of time and effort. An adult dog can do something (for example, it can be accustomed to cleanliness), but it may show some not very pleasant behavior, which can be quite difficult to correct. You can give an elderly dog a happy sunset in life, but you will have to prepare for the fact that you will have to leave your four-legged friend earlier than if you take a young dog.
Is dog size important to you? If with purebred dogs everything is more or less predictable, then how big the puppy of a mutt from unknown parents will grow is very difficult to predict. So if size matters, choose a teenager or adult dog. By the way, the size of the dog does not have a direct connection with how much space it will occupy at home. It happens that a large dog lies quietly in its corner, and it can not be seen or heard, and a tiny dog manages to fall under your feet every second, wherever you go.
Pay attention to appearance. Beauty is a subjective concept: some people like bulldogs, while others are younger from terriers or “wolf-like” huskies, and among mestizos the variety of types is much wider than among purebred dogs. So there is always the opportunity to choose the one that you like.

In the photo: a dog in a shelter

If you choose a dog that does not suit you or your family, you can make everyone unhappy: both the animal and people. It’s not a fact that you will be able to change the pet “for yourself”, but people themselves are not often ready to change in order to correspond to a new member of the family and provide him with a comfortable life.

But there are exceptions. Sometimes people who get a dog that’s not quite suitable, but to which “love at first sight” has arisen, change their lifestyle, study dog training to help the dog cope with problems, become veterinary specialists ... and live happily in the company of a new friend.

Nevertheless, the main thing is to correctly evaluate one's own strengths.