He’s destructive, chews on everything, poops in the house…

The headline is a pretty typical description of a 3-month-old puppy, yet here at the shelter, we hear it all the time when people are surrendering a puppy that they paid thousands of dollars to own. The puppy is being a puppy. He or she needs to be trained to not chew, to not soil in the house, to not knock over lamps and furniture, and much more. How about the really difficult behaviors to train like not biting, stop barking, how to walk on a leash or, play nice with the kids or the other dog in the family? If you thought teaching a puppy to poop outside at the times you want it to poop was hard, wait until you take him for his first walk on a leash.

The point is puppies are like babies. They don’t come trained and perfect. It is your responsibility to train them. So many people purchase a puppy from a breeder for thousands of dollars and they don’t have a clue that the puppy is going to chew, poop, get into things, and more, much more. When an irresponsible adopter can’t handle the puppy, they surrender it or try to resell it. Many of these adopters are young, fairly wealthy, and without any pet experience. They don’t adopt to love an animal, they purchase to show off the type of animal they now own. They love the novelty of having this animal around to entertain them and their friends, but they don’t really care about the animal. If the animal does get to stay in the family long term, their days are numbered for the owner will easily surrender or resell without thinking twice about the animal. It’s an object to them. It’s no different than a car or a new outfit. Once they tire of the newness, they trade up to a newer and better model.

My suggestion is to not purchase or adopt an animal unless you are willing to treat it like part of your family. If you can’t do that, then don’t have a pet. That’s okay. Not everyone is a pet person and not everyone should have a pet. I would much rather see you without a pet than to hear about how you beat your dog to death or you lit your cat on fire. Let the people who will love and care for the animal adopt and in some cases, purchase from a breeder instead. Go buy your fancy car or that 24^th pair of shoes and show them off. Leave the living and breathing animals to the animal lovers, the advocates for animal welfare the people who will feed their dog before they feed themselves should it ever come to that. Don’t deprive the animal of a life, of love, of caring, of a loving home. Don’t take them home and bring them to a shelter two days later because they are destructive inside. Ever heard of a trainer? Have you ever seen Youtube? You can pretty much learn about anything on Youtube. This isn’t 1985 when there wasn’t Google or the internet.