Buying a dog
How to choose your dog
Having a dog in your home is not a decision to be taken lightly. A bad choice on the breed, use, or character of the dog might well lead to mistakes and problems even if the owner is a ‘cynophile’ (dog lover).
Having a dog in your home is a source of joy, shared understanding and tenderness provided that the dog lives in a stimulating environment that contributes to its well-being. Numerous criteria come into play to define the ideal dog’s qualities. Every individual is different and will have a different approach to what their ideal dog is, which is why it is not possible to classify the various dogs in an exact and comprehensive manner. There are however several hundreds of breeds, amongst which you will find those that correspond most to your expectations.
According to whether there are children within your immediate family, your circle of friends or people you occasionally see, according to the time you have to look after this animal and your taste or abilities in looking after its coat, you will lean either towards a dog that is quite patient with children or not, easy or not to train, needing regular grooming or not at all. Similarly, according to your life style - in town or in the countryside, sedentary or dynamic, according to your own tastes for competition, sport or peace and quiet, your choice will lean towards one breed or another.
Do you want a big dog or a small dog? Do you want a “useful” dog that will need to keep watch, to work for a surveillance company or to help a disabled person? Maybe you are simply expecting of it that it is faithful and happy in all circumstances.
Once the breed identified, you still need to ask yourself other questions. Is it better to buy a puppy or an adult dog? Should you buy a male or a female? Does it need to have a pedigree? It may be that you don’t want to have a purebred dog and that your motivations for having a dog are different from the above-mentioned criteria. In this case, how can you acquire such a dog?
Finally, you also need to take into account the expenses that come with having a dog. Aside from the amount spent on purchasing the dog itself, you need to allow a budget for its food, its toys, its basket or house, its veterinary care and, if applicable, its insurance.
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Choosing the size and coat of the dog
Your life style will define the criteria you will consider when choosing a dog. If you live in a flat, it will be easier to look after a Dachshund than a Neapolitan Mastiff. However, small does not mean that they need little exercise. Some breeds of small dogs designed for hunting are very active and can turn out to be disruptive if they don’t have enough space to exercise. On the contrary, some giant nonchalant breeds do not necessarily need to exercise but must be able to feel comfortable. A flat that is too cramped for a big dog can cause damage. If the dog is not taken out every day, it can become unhappy. Finally, if your activities monopolise you, it would not be reasonable to get a dog and leave it, lonely, locked up in a flat because such living conditions can result in serious and dangerous behavioural problems for the dog.
The age and the character of the owner are to be taken into account. A dog that needs a great deal of exercise will neither be suitable for someone who is not in good shape, nor for someone who is in good shape but does not have the time to practise sports. Such a dog will neither be suitable for children, nor for elderly people. A dog must be chosen so that we do not fear that it will push us around if it is strong, or that it disturbs us by being aggressive and having a disruptive temperament if it is tiny.
If you care about having an impeccably clean home, it is ill advised to get a longed-hair dog. Indeed, some breeds of dogs require a lot of maintenance both for you (some dogs dribble, others make a mess when they eat) and for your dog (some dogs need regular grooming). According to the part of the world you live in, your choice will be geared towards a dog with either long or short hair. A dog with a dark and dense coat will be more sensitive to the heat and will shed its hair more than a dog that is perfectly adapted to the climate. A dog with short, smooth hair will be less protected against the cold and bad weather.
Sometimes a master will choose a dog with an opposite character to theirs. For example, if the master tends to be shy they will choose an extravert dog. If a child is disruptive, parents will carefully choose a calm dog. If you are apprehensive, you will lean towards a daring dog. Finally, if you are of small built, it is quite likely that you will find yourself attracted towards a big placid dog.
Small size means small meals. It is important to know that a dog such as the Great Dane will eat each day one to two whole chickens and that a Pyrenean Mastiff will satisfy its appetite on a daily kilogramme of meat. The smaller breeds may have a smaller appetite, but feeding a small dog is a delicate and difficult process.
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Choosing the age of the dog
When acquiring a dog, because of the importance of the socialisation phase, which is the most crucial for having a well-balanced adult dog, it is more advantageous to adopt a puppy than an adult dog. That way, if you adopt it when it is very young, you will be able to shape it to your needs.
A dog whose breed that is not known to have a good reputation towards children can turn out to be very gentle if you socialise it appropriately according to the children and to your surroundings. If you educate very early on a dog whose environment is rich in objects, noises and situations, it will present fewer risks of developing behavioural problems such as fear, aggressiveness or lack of cleanliness.
It is at a very young age that a dog learns to learn. At 2 months-old, a dog already has its own temperament and the Campbell tests will allow you to choose a dog that suits best your personality. By choosing your puppy that way, you can ensure that its education is carried out according to your desires and to what you expect of the puppy.
There is, however, only one advantage to taking an adult dog - it is if the dog is already trained. This is obviously an advantage as long as its training is appropriate. To ensure that the dog suits your needs, it will have to undergo a few tests that will define its socialisation and education levels. For example, you will walk it amongst a crowd of people to analyse its reactions in terms of trust or fear. See how it reacts to strangers, children or other animals. Test its obedience and its temperament: is it dominant, well-balanced or excessively submitted?
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Choosing the gender of the dog
This choice will depend on the task your dog will have to fulfil.
A male should prove a better defender and more aggressive than a female who should be more adapted to household life. Males prove more active and dominating towards their owners. They more quickly seek to establish a hierarchy when in the presence of other dogs. They are sometimes keener to play than females would, but are to be less gentle.
Some females can keep watch on a very conscientious and aggressive manner, but in a family environment they are more patient than males when faced with children teasing them. Though more home-loving than males, females have a tendency to run away when they are in heat. With the existing means of contraception, however, it is nowadays easy to mitigate the disadvantages that are a female dog’s heat periods and her pregnancies.
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Choosing the use of the dog
Depending on your environment, where you live, your character and the function you want your dog to fulfil, you will choose either a pet or a working dog. Needless to say that a sled dog needs a lot of space to run and is designed to cope with very low temperatures. Newfoundland dogs need to swim whereas pointing breeds, terriers or Braque dogs need to hunt. Some hunting dogs need to work in packs and cannot therefore be solitary pets.
A dog with a particularly sensitive sense of smell will always be attracted by smells it can track. It is therefore necessary, for its well-being, to satisfy as much as possible this natural need through walks, bloodhound work or competition.
A shepherd dog watches over herds and lives in the countryside. This guard dog quality is used nowadays to guard property and family. It is necessary to match to your own character the temperament of the guard dog you are looking for.
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Choosing the pedigree
A lot of people buy a dog and choose the same breed that was chosen by a member of their family. Some make a choice knowingly. Others are happier with a mongrel for company. There are advantages to acquiring a purebred. A well conducted selection should allow you to choose an animal knowing its behaviour, its qualities and faults, whereas if you choose a mongrel you can neither predict its temperament, nor its work potential. A pedigree dog can be more faithful to the standard behaviours of its breed but risks being more fragile. Indeed, advanced breeding in pure breeds can result in hereditary defects. These defects do not always manifest themselves in every animal of that breed, as they can skip generations, but they predispose the descendants to more or less debilitating affections. Mongrels are less likely than pure breeds to have health problems.
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Buying the dog
You can buy a dog from a professional breeder or a private one, from a specialised shop, a shelter, through a vet, on the market or via an animal charity. The guarantees offered by each of these possibilities are very different.
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Buying the dog from a breeder
Professional breeders use a precise process to guarantee you a dog that is as close as possible to the standards of its breed. They can inform you of the recognised qualities of the dogs they breed and will guide you in your choice. Breeders are professionals when it comes to the behaviour and socialisation of their puppies. They know exactly what environment is needed to stimulate the puppies and they are the ones who, together with their mother’s participation, start the education of each puppy. Moreover, breeding dogs professionally means having to follow rigorous hygiene regulations and putting in place preventive veterinary checks. Canine livestock is closely monitored to ensure a better behaviour amongst the breeding stock.
Food is rigorous at each stage of a dog’s development. The first vaccinations and worm treatment are carried out by the breeder before the puppies are sold, preferably from as early as three months old.
Amateur breeders might not be able to either guarantee you as good origins as a professional one would, or ensure a proper stimulation and development of the puppies and should not therefore charge the same price as professional breeders.
Some breeders might also be vets; they are of course the most aware of the health precautions to be taken when selling an animal. It is important to mention that a pedigree dog is not simply a dog that comes with a health and vaccination record. The pedigree is a true identity document acknowledging that the dog is purebred and mentioning the origins of that particular dog. It is in fact the ID card of the lineage that allows identifying the dog’s genealogy. It includes the parents’ breeding certificate, the dog’s birth certificate, the number tattooed on the dog, the description of its coat, its breed, its name, the Kennel Club Registration/Stud Book numbers and the stamp of the official national affiliation body. (For dogs born in France it should have the stamp of the Société Centrale Canine as well as a registration number to the Livre des Origines Françaises or L.O.F.) This last document is necessary if you want your dog to take part in canine shows as well as for some competitions.
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Buying the dog from a shop
Shops that sell animals are not as specialised as traditional breeders. They have no breed to promote or to improve. They cannot advise you accurately because they do not know all the breeds sold in these shops. They are not members of clubs that support breeds and their advice in terms of education is therefore less trust-worthy.
The financial logic behind these supermarkets does not allow employees to guide you in your purchase. Dogs might be presented in individual cages and you will fall for one of them when you are in unknown territory. Do not let yourself be persuaded if you are not able to welcome the dog in your household, nor if you do not know how to educate it or how to look after it or do not have any information on its character.
Moreover, before choosing a puppy, you must find out the size it will grow to once adult.
It goes without saying that a dog bought in a shop will only be slightly cheaper than one from a breeder that is affiliated with particular breed’s support group.
Dog sellers must, however, provide a sales certificate that allows the buyer, if they have been duped, to have recourse to paperwork justifying the dog’s breed. This paperwork is the ID card bearing the dog’s tattoo number and birth certificate and the stamp attesting temporary registration with the national affiliation body (the L.O.F in France).
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Buying the dog from a refuge
Animal refuges or other organisations protecting animals are very serious organisations that offer for adoption for a token contribution dogs that were either abandoned or found. Veterinary services supervise the hygiene conditions of these centres, take part in the care via medical assistance and propose as frequently as possible sterilisation programmes. In those centres, you can find purebred dogs – but without pedigree – as well as all sorts of mongrels. Even if medical assistance is in place in these centres, it is wise to see the vet as soon as you have adopted the dog so as to restart a programme of vaccinations, flea control and worm treatment.
Wherever the puppy or dog has come from, make sure it is frisky, plump and cheerful, that is coat is beautiful, its breath clean and its eyes round and shiny. Some signs will alert you; for instance apathy, a lack of energy, a limp, bad physical structure of its limbs, runny eyes, a cough, scabs at the base of the nostrils, redness of the skin, a dirty anus or a swollen belly.
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