From: dan@msen.com (Dan Sugalski)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.dogs
Subject: Re: German Shepherds for Adoption
Date: 13 Jan 1993 01:17:42 GMT
Organization: Msen, Inc. -- Ann Arbor, Michigan
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.msen.com
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Jon Krueger (jpk@Ingres.COM) wrote:
: Better yet, learn how to train, including temperment training.
: Useful regardless of where you get your dog.  Why select for
: X or hope for X when you can do something about X?

Realistically, how many people do you think will bother to do this.
Basic obedience is too much work for far too many.
Temperament testing looks at the dogs basic temperament.  Many of these
things are simply inherent in the individual.  Not a matter of training. 
One of the things that a temperament test evaluates is trainability.  Why
set yourself up for a failure by assuming that you can change something
when it is an inherent trait in the dog.  Not all dogs are suitable for
all people or all situations.  This is why you should test for and selsct
for X.  Otherwise, why should you pick out a dog at all?  By that logic,
you should just let the shelter hand you any dog at hand.  

[dysplastic puppy info]
: Sorry, can't replicate this either.  Of the Shepherds I've seen at
: shelters, none had hip dysplasia.  Of course, if one had, it probably
: wouldn't be available for adoption anyway.

Were the dogs x-rayed?  If not, you can't be sure that they weren't.
Especially in a puppy or young dog.

: A good shelter discloses everything known about the dog, good and bad,
: inherited or acquired, easy or difficult to solve.

Not at any shelter I've been to.  Most can't even identify the
breed/cross/type correctly.  The closest shelter to me seems to be fond of
cute little poems or pleas on the cage doors.  Not informative at all.

: The interview varies widely from shelter to shelter, by the way.  This
: is an area where volunteers are perhaps inappropriate.  Full time time
: staff needs to provide the professionalism and consistency.

I'll agree with that.  I've tried to volunteer BTW, but the required
training sessions aren't that common, and so far haven't fit into my
schedule on short notice.
  
: > Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world, and some people will continue
: > to dump dogs at the shelters.

: Sure.  But dogs also arrive at shelters for valid reasons, unavoidable
: tragedies.  Owner died.  Owner lost job.  Owner lost job nine months
: ago, has been unemployed since then, now must move to cheaper housing.
: Owner in jail.  Owner had heart attack.  Owner had to go to England to
: care for sick child.  And so on.

But that still isn't the majority.  Most are dogs/cats left to run free
that have gotten lost/picked up or have been thrown away.

: Of course, there's no need to add Shepherds to the planet to do this.
: Or, of course, any kind of dog, or pet.  There are plenty.  That's
: what the numbers remind us.

I'll disagree.  If I am looking for a dog for a specific reason, be it a
health guarantee, specific characteristics or traits, I will look to a
breeder.  While I agree that we need to limit the over-reproduction of
pets, I don't feel that we should eliminate all planned breeding.  To do
this ends up with a lot of unplanned, poor breedings, making for a less
healthy population overall.  

: On the other hand, simply increasing adoption will NOT solve the
: population problem.  Very small amounts of reproduction will in a few
: generations wipe out very determined amounts of adoption, and has, and
: continues to.  We've got to turn the damned thing off.  Until we do,
: we will continue to euthanize and abandon millions of dogs.

Do you want a negative population growth for pets?  This is what it sounds
like.  

Greater education as to the relative merits of AKC (or other registry)
papers and replacing "common knowledge" that mutts are healthier with
facts will help to control the population as well.  I hate it when animal
rights people promote the "fact" (as they present it) that purebred dogs
aren't healthy and that muts are better.  Any beings genetics are only as
healthy as the possibilities from its parents.  But too many people but
into mixed is better and/or papers mean breeding quality. 
 
I've seen very good results come from explainig these issues to people who
are thinking about breeding, as well as from presenting realistic
information about the possible problems of breeding.  There are some people
with whom a more informational approach works better with than simply
saying no new puppies.  

Karen