Are You Qualified?

Before getting a dog, it is important to understand the kind of lifestyle that a happy, healthy dog requires and to be certain that you are capable of providing whatever is necessary. To be fair and humane, you need to view dog ownership as a mutually beneficial partnership, rather than for your convenience only. Your dog is absolutely entitled to the same quality of life that you enjoy.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that dog ownership is an extension of recreation or entertainment, perhaps something that you can take out and play with whenever time is available, then otherwise ignore. Or that a dog will add a particular decorative quality to their home, maybe to amuse the kids or impress company. Or that a dog's main job is protecting property.

Dogs are neither toys nor decorations, and although they are usually willing to protect their territory, that is not their primary function, which is that of a companion. Dogs are animals whose ancestors were once wild and free. And, while they have been bred for generations to live with people, they still retain particular lifestyle requirements that, if not met, will result in a not-so satisfactory outcome. Our goal here is to help dogs find forever-homes, and to encourage responsibility and training for people in how to provide those homes.

Many households are just not suitable for a dog. You will want to honestly question your ability to provide for an animal that will be completely dependent on you. If you work long periods away from home, or even just very long hours, and if there is no one else at home while you are away, you are simply not a good candidate. Your comfort in coming home to a dog does not outweigh the loneliness that the dog will have to endure, with all the potential behavior problems that this may cause.

Dogs by nature are pack animals, and if separated from their pack for extended periods of time, they suffer. In nature, a lone dog might eventually perish. Within your household, you and your dog form the pack, along with any others sharing your living space. When you leave a dog alone for hours each day, the dog experiences this as abandonment, which causes tremendous stress, often resulting in destructive behavior. So, do the right thing and consider not just how a dog would fit into your own way of life, but how your lifestyle would affect a dog.

No other animal shares the long history with humanity that dogs do. Thousands of years ago, human and dog came together for mutual comfort and slowly developed the interdependence seen today — people caring for dogs in return for the continuing companionship and a great variety of working functions.

The gradual recognition of the many different ways in which the dog could contribute to the association has led to the development of an enormous variety of dog types. All varieties of dog are members of a single species; it is the most varied of any species known, ranging from the tiny Chihuahua to the towering Irish Wolfhound, from the fly-weight Italian Greyhound to the enormous Mastiff.

So close has the association of dog and human become that there are now probably only two breeds of truly wild dogs left, the Cape Hunting Dog and the Australian Dingo. Many countries, of course, have roaming packs of wild dogs that lead an independent existence, but these are invariably domestic dogs that have "gone wild" for one of any number of reasons.

That a dog of any breed can mate with another of any other breed and produce fertile offspring is remarkable in itself, and has led to even more varieties developing over the centuries, as new functions and fashions were thought up. There are now something like four hundred known breeds in existence. The precise figure in impossible to determine as previously unrecognized breeds continue to emerge, and types of the same breed are recognized as distinct; or conversely, varieties previously considered as separate are combined as one breed. It is the aim of this website to provide information on as many of the dog varieties as possible, plus most of the popular cross breeds.

Although fewer breeds are expected to carry on their traditional purposes, certain type characteristics persist through many generations; these include both conformation and behavior. All puppies are majorly appealing, but your responsibility will go way beyond puppyhood. If you buy a Great Dane puppy, small though it may be at eight weeks old, it will grow into an enormous dog. If you buy a terrier of whatever breed, it will display feisty terrier behavior, inherited from its working ancestors.

If you have decided to buy a dog, look into all the breed characteristics, and consider them carefully before you decide which type of dog you want to live with. Be certain that you can commit to a "forever-home" for your dog. Forever means the entire life span of the dog, between ten and twenty years — this dog is yours to care for over a good part of your life.

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