PERFECT MATCH - Choosing the Perfect Puppy

Georgia Peaches

Growing up on my grandfather’s farm in rural Sinaloa, Mexico, I lived among scruffy farm dogs, our loyal friends and coworkers in the fields and around the house. You wouldn’t call these dogs “pets” by American standards, in that their lives were spent near us but not as a part of us. They were our dogs, yet they lived in a world separate from our human lives, content and balanced in their own dog culture. I watched a lot of litters born among these dogs, and though the puppies were sweet and appealing, I never really experienced the extraordinary “cuteness” of puppies until I came to America and was exposed to the hundreds of breeds in this country: French bulldog puppies, with their flattened snouts and oversized brown eyes, or Lhasa apso or Westie or poodle puppies, all heartbreakingly adorable balls of fluff. When I saw some of these more attractive breeds as pups, I began to better understand why Americans tended to “baby” their dogs—something that is not a part of the culture in Mexico.

All baby animals are appealing, but in my personal opinion, puppies simply corner the market in cuteness. Even the most hard-hearted human can’t help but stop and sigh when passing a puppy on the street. I have many clients who are ruthless businesspeople in their professional lives but who absolutely melt into butter at the sight of a juvenile dog. According to Canadian psychologist and animal behavior expert Dr. Stanley Coren, “Very young mammals have pheromones that give them a characteristic ‘baby smell.’ One of the purposes of these pheromones is to excite protective instincts, or at least non-hostile instincts, in its own species. However, because of the similarity amongst all the mammals, we tend to find that other animals will respond to it.” Coren’s words offer a partial explanation for the deep “friendships” we have seen develop between an older, more protective animal and another of a different species. Whether it be Koko the gorilla and her pet kitten, or a lioness and a wolf cub, the innate drive to care for an infant runs deep within all mammals.

But a puppy’s cuteness can be its—and our—downfall. The “cute response” we feel when we get the irresistible impulse to bring home a puppy is an emotional response, not a rational one. John Grogan perfectly captures the universal experience of “puppy love” in his wonderful memoir of a lovable but unpredictable Labrador, Marley and Me. “The deal I had struck with Jenny when we agreed to come here was that we would check the pups out, ask some questions, and keep an open mind as to whether or not we were ready to bring home a dog. … I said, ‘Let’s not make any snap judgments.’ But thirty seconds into it, I could see I had already lost the battle. There was no question that before the night was out, one of these puppies would be ours.”

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard variations on that same theme when I’m called in to help rehabilitate a dog with issues. Unfortunately, those stories don’t always end with a best-selling book and hit movie. Sometimes they end with the disillusioned, frustrated owners tearing their hair out, and eventually dropping off their puppy or dog at a rescue or shelter. Sometimes those abandonments result in an innocent dog losing its life.

When you bring home a puppy, you are actually bringing home what in a few short months will be a full-grown dog—not a stuffed animal that will stay small and cuddly forever. Animal lovers, especially those of us who work with dogs day in and day out, take very seriously the staggering number of dogs languishing in kennels and pounds. In recent years, responsible breeders, rescue organizations, and even shelters have become much more aware of the consequences of homing one of their puppies with an owner who isn’t realistic about his or her ability to care for a puppy. Often they will require the potential owner to fill out a contract and will even perform a “home visit” to make sure the owner’s environment is appropriate for raising a dog. Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, makes all new owners of her pedigree miniature schnauzers sign a contract stating that if the circumstances change and they’re no longer able to have a dog, they will return the dog to her for rehoming. She also microchips her dogs so that if they are ever lost, they can be traced back to her.

Two certified trainers and award-winning breeders I have worked with, Diana Foster and her husband, Doug, have been running their business, Thinschmidt German Shepherds in Corona, California, for thirty-four years now. They not only breed pedigree German shepherd puppies with excellent temperaments for pets, they also train them. Diana describes the detailed grilling she gives potential owners before agreeing to adopt out one of her purebred shepherd pups: “We have a lengthy discussion with them. The first thing I ask is if they ever had a shepherd before. Some people don’t understand how much of a dog it is, ‘cause they’re so cute when they’re little. But they have to understand what these dogs are bred for and the size and the strength and how important the early training is. I ask them why they want a shepherd. What’s the reason? Is it going to be a guard dog that stays outside all the time? If so, we won’t sell them one of our dogs—that’s not what we breed them for. Our dogs are family. Right away I ask them if there are children in the family. Do you have any dogs? Are they males or females? Are you active? Is the dog going to be with the family? Where is he going to sleep? We provide a diagram with our suggestions of how to set up your home to get it ready for the dog. We don’t want to send one of our dogs off until we have a very good idea of what its life is going to be like.”

Like the Fosters, Brooke Walker carefully considers whom she allows to take home one of her prize miniature schnauzer puppies.

If it’s a two-career couple with toddlers, they’re not going to have the kind of time it takes to raise one of these puppies right. My dogs are great with kids—that’s not the problem—and the dog is going to survive as long as it’s cared for, of course, but if the dog is not getting enough individual attention, that’s not the kind of life I want for one of my puppies. I ask, where will the dog fit in, in the dynamic of the family? If they have a yard, it has to be fenced, that’s absolutely imperative. For people who live in a small place, they have to give me the commitment that they’re going to walk their dog—and I’m not talking around the block. Psychologically they have to have that long walk. Miniature schnauzers’ noses are always going; they need the stimulation of changing sights and sounds and places.

Brooke also has a checklist in place that prospective adoptive owners have to complete before she’ll allow them to take possession of the dog.

First of all, I ask that anybody who takes a puppy has a reputable veterinarian already in place. I ask them to show me at least a business card, proving that they’ve spoken to a vet and have him or her on board. People who’ve had dogs before usually have their vet already, but new dog owners have to find one they trust before I’ll let them take the puppy home. I want them to come to visit the puppies at two weeks of age, but if this is their first schnauzer, I also insist that they go to a dog show and spend some time around the grown dogs. They have to be as much in love with the adult dog as they are with the puppy, because I want my dogs to have a home for life.

If you are unsure about your ability to care for a puppy, ask yourself if you could pass Brooke’s stringent requirements for ownership of one of her prize puppies:

• Do you have a vet? Is he or she a specialist or at least very experienced in treating small-breed dogs or terriers?

• Is your vet aware of the fact that you are getting a new puppy?

• Have you set an appointment for a health evaluation of that puppy within three days of bringing your puppy home?

• Have you had a puppy before? What breed? Where did you purchase it? How long did it live? What can you tell me about your experience with your previous dogs?

• Do you kennel/crate-train your dogs?

• Do you have children? What ages? What responsibilities will they have regarding the puppy? Do your children act appropriately with dogs now?

• Do you have a fenced-in yard? How large and how secure is it? Do you have a pool? Is it completely secure so that there are no ways of getting into it accidentally without a parent present?

• Do you work? How many hours would be the longest that the dog would be alone? (Brooke says she favors retired folks—their dogs are always with them. She’s an advocate for dogs being taken everywhere with their humans … except to the movies.)

• Are you able to afford to care for a dog? Will you take the dog for regular vet checks? Will you feed high-quality food and avoid overfeeding? (No table scraps and no begging!)

Brooke insists on the following steps:

• Prospective buyers must come to her home at least once and visit a dog show to see the adult schnauzers before they get on her list of potential parents.

• When they come for puppy pickup day, they need to spend at least one hour for a brief socialization with their new puppy. At that time they are required to bring a crate, a water dish and bottled water, a leash, and a harness that will fit the puppy.

• Brooke requests periodic progress reports. She thinks of her buyers as family, and they are always invited for play days that she holds once a month for siblings and other schnauzers. Socialization is important to a dog’s mental health.

• Buyers must sign a sales contract prior to getting the puppy.

• Brooke’s contract stipulates that if owners have a change in life circumstances that requires that they give up the dog, the dog must be returned to her. If they have a family member willing to take over the dog, Brooke wants to meet them and have them answer some basic questions.

• Brooke would like to be informed of any illnesses, regardless of how seemingly insignificant. If the dog should die, she wants to be informed and will pay for a necropsy so that she can record any information that will be helpful for the future of her breeding program.

Diana Foster and her husband are just as serious as Brooke when it comes to selecting the right owners for their prize German shepherd pups. “The hardest part of being a breeder is trying to overcome ignorance,” says Diana. “A German shepherd is a lot of dog, but people only see how cute the puppies are and assume it’s going to be easy. We breed dogs with wonderful temperaments, but they don’t raise themselves. When people obviously aren’t getting the picture, they can’t believe it when I turn them away.”

The Monks of New Skete, also renowned German shepherd breeders, describe another example of this phenomenon in their excellent book, The Art of Raising a Puppy. When they showed one prospective owner the application form she would have to fill out before being able to purchase a puppy, she exclaimed, “My heavens, you’d think I was adopting a child!” To be honest, this woman wasn’t too far off in her assessment. As a father, I can attest to the fact that while raising a healthy, balanced dog is nowhere near as complicated a task as raising a healthy, balanced human, it is absolutely no less of a commitment.

WILL YOU MAKE THE TIME?

Unlike adult dogs, puppies in their first six to eight months of life require consistent supervision, and they’ll continue to need a significant time commitment from you well into their adolescence. In a natural pack, puppies are constantly being watched and corrected by the adults in their lives and are never alone for long periods of time. This doesn’t mean you have to be with your puppy 24/7 for eight months—the reality of our human lives means we have to teach a puppy to master something that is completely unnatural for him, and that is to be left alone. Proper crate training at an early age can successfully accomplish this and prevent the separation anxiety issues that I see in my work almost every day. I’ll address both crate training and separation anxiety in PUPPY COMES HOME - Easing the Transition from Litter to Family. But bringing home a puppy does mean that you should be open to rearranging your family’s schedule for a while. Puppies also need regular stimulation through play, and if you don’t have another dog to undertake that task for you, you run the risk of an idle mind getting into trouble when you’re not paying attention.

FIRST-TIME OWNERS: LIFESTYLE CHANGES

Chris Komives filming a dog up close

Sometimes when we’re joking around on Dog Whisperer locations, I like to lighten the mood by pondering what breed my human pack members might’ve been if they’d been born dogs. Curly-haired cameraman Chris Komives is definitely a terrier, in both looks and behavior. Chris is the guy who goes in before I arrive and gets all the close-up “bad behavior” footage, and he is relentless about getting exactly the right shot, no matter the difficulty, discomfort, or even danger. He himself admits he’s a bit of an obsessive personality. It took a lot of work for me to teach him how to approach unstable dogs, patiently ignore them, use “no touch, no talk, no eye contact,” and wait beside them in a quiet, calm-assertive state for as long as it takes until they relax, get used to him, and get used to the bulky high-definition video camera he carries. Chris has taken all my lessons seriously and has become an excellent amateur assessor of dog behavior. Sometimes he will arrive at a house and the owner will say, “Don’t get near her, my dog is dangerous!” Chris is usually able to tell if that’s really the case or if it’s the owner that’s causing the situation. Usually once Chris gets to be alone with the dog and follows all my protocols, everything is fine.

After shooting five seasons of Dog Whisperer with me, Chris and his wife, Johanna, a senior policy analyst at the Government Accountability Office, were eager to get some hands-on practice with a dog of their own. They decided they wanted the fulfilling and challenging experience of raising a puppy together.

“Never having had our own dog before, we wanted to experience one from start to finish,” Chris told me. “We also wanted to maximize the amount of time we’d have the dog in our lives, so that meant a puppy. When it came time to choose a breed, having seen so many types of dogs on the show gave me a lot of direction into the type of dog for us. Since Cesar had told me if I were a dog, I’d be a terrier, that’s the group we looked into.”

Chris and Johanna researched terrier breeds and decided they wanted a soft coated wheaten terrier. They chose to go the breeder route, rather than seek a rescue or a shelter dog. “By choosing a purebred with known lineage, we were confident in avoiding expensive vet bills for the life of the dog. Working with Cesar also gave us credibility with some of the breeders with whom we were applying. Some breeders are reluctant to give a purebred like a soft coated wheaten terrier to a first-time dog owner because of their concern for the quality of life of the puppy. When I answered the application questions so specifically, the breeder wanted to know how I had such extensive dog knowledge. When I told her I was a cameraman on Dog Whisperer, the deal was done!”

But Chris and Johanna are a busy, two-career couple. In planning for the arrival of their new puppy, Eliza, they soon realized their entire lifestyle was going to have to change. “I knew from Cesar what we were in for, and that we’d be making a lot of changes and a few sacrifices, too. I actually took two full weeks off work to be home with Eliza while she adjusted to our house. I knew from Cesar that the puppy needed at least two long walks a day, and we never varied from that. I got up an hour earlier than usual every day in order to walk her, and in the evening, I walked her again before feeding. That routine has continued to this day. When I had to go back to work, we hired a dog walker twice a week to take her out in the afternoons. Though it wasn’t always possible with my shooting schedule, I tried to get home at lunchtime whenever I could to let her out of her crate on days when the dog walker wasn’t booked.” To make sure that Eliza was never crated more than four hours at a time, Johanna arranged to work from home on the days the dog walker wasn’t available or when Chris was shooting too far away to make it home in the afternoons.

Chris Komives with Eliza

KOMIVES FAMILY SCHEDULE FOR ELIZA’S FIRST MONTHS

5:30 a.m.: Wake up, walk Eliza, obedience/agility/other challenges in short intervals.

6:15 a.m.: Return, feed Eliza, shower, and get ready for work.

7:00 a.m.: Put Eliza in back hallway, go to work.

7:30 a.m.—4:30 p.m.: At work—check on Eliza’s webcam. Twice a week, dog walker takes Eliza with pack around 12 noon for one hour.

5:00 p.m.: Return home, walk Eliza, obedience/agility/other challenges in short intervals.

6:00 p.m.: Feed Eliza.

7:00 p.m.—9:00 p.m.: Eat dinner, keep Eliza on her “place,” groom Eliza (brushing, trim nails, clean ears, etc.).

10:00 p.m.: Put Eliza in back hallway, go to bed.

“I knew from my on-the-job training, so to speak, that the first six months are vital for establishing the routine with the puppy as well as the rules,” Chris recalls, “so I became very focused on raising and caring for her—unfortunately, to the detriment of my other relationships. I tend to have a somewhat obsessive personality anyway, and I channeled this into Eliza. After a month or so, Johanna requested we find something else to talk about besides the dog.”

As the Komiveses learned, puppies require commitment, focus, and energy. If you are not prepared to care for a dog for the rest of its life, then please don’t fall for an adorable face and bring a puppy home on a whim. But the good news is, raising your dog from puppyhood is your best chance at creating the kind of intimate human-dog bond that we all dream about. Puppies are born without issues, and if they are raised by a good canine mother for the first eight weeks of their lives, they usually come to you unscathed by the quirks and neuroses that bother many an adult dog. Puppies come with a built-in leash attached, because they are programmed to follow. They also naturally seek stability and balance, and they are hungry to learn and absorb the rules, boundaries, and limitations of your family pack. Putting the right time and dedication into the first eight months of your puppy’s life offers you an incredible opportunity to nurture and influence the dog of your dreams—your faithful companion for a lifetime.

WHERE TO FIND A PUPPY

“How much is that doggie in the window?”

Actually, the cost of that puppy—to animal welfare and to society—is far higher than simply the dollar amount on the price tag.

There are three legitimate ways to go about adopting a puppy—from a shelter, from a breeder, or from a rescue organization. But many a softhearted dog lover has been lured by the winsome puppies in the windows and cages of the chain and independent pet stores that dot the streets of American cities and the aisles of our sprawling shopping malls. Most well-meaning animal lovers who purchase a dog from a pet shop or over the Internet or from a classified ad are unaware that those same puppies may be among the hundreds of thousands in America having been raised in horrendous, unsanitary, inhumane conditions in factory-like atmospheres known as puppy mills.

“I’ve been inside a lot of puppy mills, from one end of the country to the other,” says my friend Chris DeRose, founder of Last Chance for Animals, a nonprofit activist group that works as a kind of “animal FBI,” gathering prosecutable evidence of systemic animal cruelty through detective work, whistle-blower information, and undercover operations. “And the one thing I can tell you is, puppy mills are ugly.” In most puppy mills, dogs live and die in their own excrement. Because they spend their early lives trapped inside wire cages, sometimes their feet get caught, and they lose paws and limbs to injuries and infections that are never treated. There is no regular veterinary care, and the dogs aren’t tested for genetic health problems, so chronic eye, ear, and digestive tract infections are common. Many puppy mills that exist in areas with extreme temperatures have no heating or air-conditioning, so the dogs routinely die from overexposure to heat or cold. The worst sufferers in puppy mills are the breeding pairs, the mothers in particular. They are forced to produce litter after litter, until they are physically used up. Then they are disposed of—often with unimaginable violence and cruelty.

What’s often ignored in the puppy mill discussion is the significant role that a puppy mill background plays in the growing epidemic of serious behavior problems we see in America’s dogs. I’ve been called in to help dozens of dogs whose troubling behaviors I can pretty accurately trace back to their having been born under these oppressive conditions. That’s because dogs raised in puppy mills don’t have a natural style of life during the first weeks and months that are most crucial to their normal physical and mental development. They can’t learn how to be dogs, because their mothers don’t know how to be dogs. Recently, Chris DeRose took me inside my first puppy mill to help rescue and rehabilitate some of its saddest victims, the ones these so-called breeders were willing to relinquish to us (after all, these dogs were already so damaged, they would never make them any money). I saw dogs that were at such a high level of stress and anxiety, they didn’t know how to calm down—ever. I saw dogs trembling with shock, depressed dogs, sick dogs—even hopeless dogs. Anyone who has ever owned a normal, upbeat, joyful dog knows that hopelessness is a very aberrant quality for a dog—especially a puppy—to exhibit. It was a truly sobering and life-changing experience for me.

Cesar with the Last Chance for Animals team and some rescued puppy-mill dogs.

I am a big believer in the theory that the mental health and environmental stresses placed on a mother (of any species) play a role in the issues her offspring inherit. Imagine a female dog, like her mother and grandmother before her, raising litter after litter of puppies, never leaving the confines of a 4-foot-by-4-foot wire cage. Her puppies are going to come into the world stressed, and they’re going to get more and more anxious as the weeks go by and they absorb their mother’s unstable, depressed, or jittery energy. Once that puppy gets to the pet shop window, she may look adorable, but the deck is already stacked against her. Because of the inborn behavioral (not to mention physical) problems that will show up more as the puppy grows out of her cute stage, this dog is more than likely to end up abandoned at a shelter and possibly put to death. Why should the puppy mill owners (and pet shop owners) care? They’ve already pocketed their money.

I was doing a seminar in Atlanta, Georgia, last year when a rescue group there presented me with a little female Yorkie with extreme anxiety, fear aggression, and a host of other behavioral problems. She was a puppy mill dog. This little girl was going to be put down unless someone stepped in. I ended up bringing her back to Los Angeles with me, and now she’s a member of my home-based family pack. In the beginning, even my normally very patient wife threw up her hands in frustration at her behavior. “Georgia Peaches,” as we named her, spent all her time hiding in corners and under and behind furniture, aggressively attacking anyone who got near her. She peed and pooped wherever she stood—even in her kennel. Puppy mill dogs have only one option—to pee where they sleep—something healthy dogs never do in nature. Eventually I was able to rehabilitate her so that she is no longer a behavior problem. She is still somewhat tentative, but she lives and plays happily with our other dogs and doesn’t show any of the signs of stress or aggression she did when she first arrived. She’s not human-aggressive anymore. But as far as housebreaking goes, she is still a work in progress. Growing up in a puppy mill kills off even the deepest instincts of many dogs.

Many well-meaning people suspect that a pet store puppy may have been raised in a puppy mill but buy it anyway, honestly believing they are doing a good thing by “rescuing” an individual puppy. I can understand that line of thinking—most of us who love dogs cannot stand to see any dog, especially a puppy, go without a loving home. But according to Stephanie Shain of the Humane Association of the United States, “All these well-meaning people are doing is opening up another cage for yet another puppy mill dog to fill. It’s all about economics; it’s all about money. If people stop buying puppy mill puppies, the puppy mills stop making money.”

The Humane Society is determined to put an end to the horror of puppy mills in our lifetime, but since puppy mills are still legal in most states, the only way to do that is to make this trade in canine flesh no longer profitable for its investors. If unpurchased, the puppy in the window of an unethical pet store will eventually end up at a shelter or rescue organization once she is past her “cute” expiration date. That’s the time to adopt, if you sincerely want to help and believe you are patient and experienced enough to handle the many behavioral and health problems that might come along with that dog. The puppy mill “breeders” don’t profit, the pet stores don’t profit, and you will be helping go one step further toward solving the problem of puppy mills and putting them out of business forever.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT BREEDER

It’s easy to avoid pet shop puppies or puppies being hocked on the Internet, but how do you tell a responsible breeder from a “backyard breeder” or a home-grown amateur? First of all, I want to say that there is nothing inherently unethical about bringing home a puppy from your neighbor’s backyard. Just know that you will probably have no guarantee at all that the puppy isn’t predisposed to chronic genetic health conditions or behavior problems. This is why, if you are an inexperienced dog owner or fear you can’t afford the possibility of long-term, expensive vet bills, I urge you not to go this route. Some backyard breeders may truly have the best intentions, but most will have little or no experience selecting for health and temperament, and they may not know anything at all about the lineage (including genetic health or behavior histories) of the puppies’ parents. Unfortunately, there are many other backyard breeders who don’t think about the dog’s welfare at all. They have little concern for the puppies they bring into the world, except to use them to make a little extra money.

If you have decided you want to go the breeder route to purchase your new puppy, it’s in your best interest to find people like Brooke or the Fosters, with high standards and excellent reputations. As their examples have shown you, a great breeder will ask you a lot of questions. Some of them may even seem quite personal. Don’t be shocked if the breeder asks to come to visit your home to see firsthand where the dog would live and to make sure your yard is secure. This is how seriously responsible breeders take the placement of their dogs—they do not want to contribute in any way to the growing population of abandoned and unwanted dogs in the United States! A trustworthy breeder will also be only too happy to answer any and all questions you may have, about the breeder, his or her practices, the dog you are thinking of buying, and the complete histories of all litters, older dogs, and their bloodlines. Think twice about any breeder who does not freely share this kind of information with you, or acts as if you are taking up too much of his or her time.

Purchasing a puppy from a responsible breeder will probably cost you a premium—from the high hundreds to thousands of dollars—but remember, you are not only paying for the puppy, you are paying for a buffer against costly veterinarian bills during your dog’s life, as well as a lifetime relationship with the person responsible for bringing the puppy into this world.

So where do you find these dream breeders? Call the Humane Society of the United States or visit their website, www.HSUS.org. They provide their own thorough checklist of criteria for selecting a good breeder. The American Kennel Club’s website is also an excellent resource, www.akc.org. Remember, many breeders specialize in raising a certain kind of dog, even within their specific breed expertise. In searching for Eliza, Chris and Johanna Komives made sure they had the right category of breeder for the puppy they wanted. “We did choose our breeders based on their statement that they breed for temperament,” Chris told me. “The breed standard is for a happy self-confident temperament with less aggression than other terriers. Other breeders we inquired with were more concerned with the soft coat and its color than the demeanor of the dogs.”

QUESTIONS ALL REPUTABLE BREEDERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO ANSWER

• How long have you been breeding dogs?

• How many litters do you have every year?

• Why did you select these particular parents and why did you plan this litter?

• What are the potential health problems of this breed and what have you done to prevent such problems in your line?

• Do you have proof of health tests for the parents?

• Are the parents on the premises? If not, why not? If yes, can I meet them?

• Were the parents in any kind of conformation or performance events (dog shows)?

• What steps have you taken to properly socialize the puppies?

• What are you feeding the puppies and why?

• Do the puppies have all of their shots?

• Have the puppies been dewormed?

• Do you require a signed contract of sale?

• Do you offer a health guarantee?

ANY REPUTABLE BREEDER WILL …

• Never sell you a puppy that is less than eight weeks of age! Puppies absolutely need at least eight weeks of rearing by their canine mother before they are ready to be placed with human owners.

• Require you to sign a contract of sale. This contract will explain in detail the terms of the sale and what is expected of you as the new owner.

• Require you to have the puppy spayed or neutered before you can receive the registration papers and/or you will only be given a limited registration, which prohibits subsequent puppies from being registered with the AKC… unless you plan to breed the dog, or if specific arrangements are made otherwise.

• Offer a health guarantee of some kind. Some breeders will guarantee the health of the dog for life; others may guarantee the dog for a certain number of years. These health guarantees normally cover any genetic problem that prevents the dog from living a normal, healthy life.

• Offer to be available through the life of your dog to answer any questions you may have.

• Offer to help you find a new home for your dog should you ever find yourself in a situation where you can no longer keep it.

Another great option is for you to visit an official dog show. There you can meet a variety of breeders, get to know them, and see firsthand the dogs they have raised. Dog show aficionados tend to know one another, and breeders know other good breeders (they have to, in order to keep their bloodlines diverse), so even if you don’t find what you are looking for right there, you are sure to get a lot of good references. At a dog show or conformation event, you can also get a close-up experience of the adult dogs of the breed you are considering, and a better idea of whether or not it is the right breed for you.

FINDING A RESCUE ORGANIZATION

If you think you know the breed of puppy you are seeking but really want to give an abandoned dog a home, and if you don’t think you can swing the premium prices charged by a top-notch breeder, you have the option of contacting a breed-specific rescue organization, like the Southern California Labrador Retriever Rescue, our friends who brought us Blizzard, or like Daphneyland, a rescue organization for basset hounds that helped us out for the production of my video Your New Dog: The First Day and Beyond.

Dogs arrive at rescue groups for a variety of reasons: sometimes they are dogs that were lost or abandoned; sometimes they are dogs that were returned to a shelter or kennel because of behavioral or health problems; and sometimes they are dogs whose owners had legitimate reasons for relinquishing them, such as a change in life circumstance or a death in the family. Reputable rescue groups are diligent about obtaining any needed veterinary care for their animals. They spay and neuter the dogs that arrive there, and often even go the extra mile by working to rehabilitate dogs with behavioral issues. A number of the cases I have handled have come to me from rescue establishments that were having trouble rehoming a dog with problems. My wife and I started the nonprofit Cesar and Ilusion Millan Foundation in part to give financial aid, training, education, and other support to these essential groups. Great rescue organizations are not in it for the money; they are nonprofit groups. Like great breeders, the people who run them genuinely care about dogs and are actively doing something to help solve the problem of dog overpopulation. They are often staffed primarily by volunteers, and any fees they charge are usually marked as donations that go right back into the many costs involved in rescuing and caring for their animals.

A reality check: puppies that come into rescue groups are usually snapped up as soon as they come in, but you can always get your name on a waiting list, so you can be contacted immediately when any new puppies arrive.

Just as with finding the right breeder, you should be diligent in your choice of rescue organizations. The first thing you should do is check business records to confirm a rescue group’s nonprofit status and to make sure the group is not a front for a puppy mill, a backyard breeder, or simply people trying to make a little extra money from “animal hoarding,” a pathological behavior that can often be a danger to the public health. The Humane Society of the United States is the best clearinghouse for finding a reputable group in your area. Pet-finder and Pets911 are also excellent resources.

A REPUTABLE RESCUE ORGANIZATION WILL …

• Have 501c3 (nonprofit) status, or be in the process of applying for it.

• Provide preadoption veterinary care for and spay and neuter all dogs older than six months.

• Present a clean, sanitary facility and healthy, well-fed animals.

• Be knowledgeable about all the dogs in its rescue and have completed some form of temperament testing to ensure it will be matching its dogs with compatible owners.

• Ask you detailed questions (though probably not quite as many as a breeder) about your lifestyle, environment, experience with dogs, and ability to provide for the dog. Some organizations, like some breeders, may insist on a home visit.

• Offer to take back or help rehome its animals if an adopter can no longer care for them. This is usually a stipulation in the adoption contract.

• Provide you with any available health records and other pertinent history of the animal you are adopting.

FINDING YOUR PUPPY AT A SHELTER

Rescuing a dog from a shelter is an admirable endeavor, one that I always support and encourage. If you are confident enough in your ability to accept all the “unknowns” in a dog’s background, there is no reason in the world why you should not do so. Most of the dogs at a shelter or pound are adult or adolescent dogs, usually of mixed-breed origins. Some of the dogs at a shelter that appear to be “purebred” may well have puppy mill origins; pet stores have no use for puppy mill puppies when they outgrow their “cuteness” phase, so they often end up in shelters. On occasion a pregnant or nursing bitch is brought into a shelter. At other times animal control will clear out the puppies produced in a hoarding situation, or have to take in puppies due to their abandonment in a death, a move, an eviction, or a foreclosure. To find a puppy at a shelter in your area, go early and get your name on a waiting list.

The Humane Society of the United States provides us with guidelines for discerning whether your local shelter meets the minimum acceptable standards:

ANY RESPONSIBLE ANIMAL SHELTER SHOULD …

• Accept every animal, or partner with another local shelter or facility that does.

• Accept surrendered animals without charging a mandatory fee.

• Maintain a clean, comfortable, safe, and healthy environment for each animal.

• If applicable, hold stray animals for a minimum of five operating days, including Saturdays.

• Screen prospective adopters using established adoption standards.

• Use sodium pentobarbital administered by well-trained, compassionate individuals when euthanasia is necessary.

• Spay or neuter all animals at the time of adoption, or require adopters to get their animals sterilized soon after placement and follow up to ensure compliance.6

Penny Dunn, director of the Washburn County Area Humane Society in Spooner, Wisconsin, spoke to us about her criterion for accepting puppies at her shelter. “We’ll gladly take in any and all breeds. But the number one thing we do is ask the person who wants to bring in the puppies to have the momma dog spayed first. Every now and then someone will find one or two individual puppies and bring them in, but the reality of the situation is that most of the time people know exactly where the puppies came from and we all have to work together to prevent any future unwanted animals.”

We’ll talk more about spaying and neutering in SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT - Adolescent Challenges.

SETTLING ON A BREED

When President Barack Obama was elected to our country’s highest office, he was faced with a dilemma. He was going to have to make good on a campaign promise—made not to the American people but to his two daughters, Malia and Sasha—to adopt a puppy after the election chaos was over. For weeks on end, the news media was obsessed with the still-hypothetical Obama puppy. On Sunday-morning talk shows, pundits from both political parties debated the merits of one breed over another. What is the ideal presidential dog? Which breed would be most compatible with Malia’s allergies? Breeders and dog lovers all across the United States sent the White House thousands of missives, filled with photos of potential puppies, and reams and reams of unsolicited advice.

It’s easy to see why the Obamas, who had never owned a dog, might have experienced some confusion over this particular executive decision. There are more than 150 separate dog breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, and hundreds more breeds and variations of breeds in addition to those. Selecting the appropriate breed of dog is an important factor to consider when choosing a puppy for your family, especially when considering size and special needs, lifestyle choices, environmental compatibility, and factors such as food and exercise requirements. But in my opinion, the energy level of the puppy is a much more accurate gauge of whether you and your dog will be compatible mates for life. That’s because all breeds of dogs are dogs first. I think of any dog first as animal, then as dog, then as breed, and last, the dog’s name, or what most people term her “personality.” When humans took on the task of custom-designing dogs for our own needs and desires, we didn’t create the characteristics we selected from scratch, we merely adapted and refined basic dog traits that were already there. In other words, we took what Mother Nature had already given the canid species and reshaped it to our liking. I think of breed in a dog as that extra “boost” that kicks the dog’s natural instincts into hyperdrive.

All dogs are predators, but over thousands of generations, we’ve created sporting breeds to be exceptionally focused predators. All dogs like to dig and chase small prey, but terriers are superdriven to dig and find rodents. All dogs love to run, but greyhounds can run up to forty miles an hour, and huskies can run for hours and hours on end. All dogs have the natural ability to fight or wrestle with one another, but the bully breeds have been genetically engineered to fight to the death. The more pure the bloodline, the more that genetic “boost” will probably play a part in your dog’s behavior. That’s why some owners claim that their “mutts” make mellower pets, because, they theorize, their DNA has been somewhat diluted, and their breed-related drives diffused as a result.

As a general rule, the more purebred the dog, the more intense the desire it will have to fulfill its genetic purpose. Therefore, it will require more focus and attention from you in making sure that those breed-related needs are constantly challenged and fulfilled.

When thinking about what might be the right breed for you, you must do your homework ahead of time. Read up on every breed you are interested in, paying special attention to the original job it was bred to do. Then ask yourself, Can I provide the right environment, the proper amount of time, and the appropriate stimulation to fulfill those inborn breed-related needs? For instance, if you are in love with the scruffy face and petite size of terriers, are you prepared to designate a part of your prized garden so it can fulfill its biological need to dig? Or are you so in love with your lawn that any damage to it causes you to fly off the handle? If you admire the sleek physique and elegance of a pointer or Weimaraner, do you have the time and energy to play hide-and-seek or hunting games with it in the park several days a week? Or will you keep it cooped up in your apartment and only walk it to the corner? If you desperately want a high-energy Australian shepherd, will you be willing to take it to sheep-herding class or play agility games with it, on a regular basis? When we fulfill all the needs of our dogs—with consideration to them as animals, dogs, and breeds—they will reciprocate by being the most loyal, loving friends we could ever imagine. When we leave them unfulfilled, on the other hand, we create issues that can make their lives and ours absolutely miserable.

WELCOMING THE FIRST PUPPY

The Obamas did their breed research and settled on a Portuguese water dog, an ancient breed from the AKC’s working group known as a friendly, playful, very active family pet. Portuguese water dogs are also nonshedders, animals better tolerated by people with allergies like Malia’s. To set a good example for the country, the Obamas had originally intended to rescue a shelter dog, but they soon found that locating a young puppy of the correct breed from a shelter would be a daunting mission, even for the president of the United States. “It’s harder than finding a commerce secretary,” the president complained. The Obamas learned that the Kennedy family were also fans of Portuguese water dogs, having raised a number of these fine animals in their large extended family throughout the years. Senator Ted Kennedy contacted the breeder for his own dogs, and learned that a six-month-old puppy was being returned to the breeders for rehoming. By taking a rehomed puppy, the Obamas were able to give a nod to the rescue community, avoid the issue of illegal presidential “gifts,” and still give the girls the experience of having a young dog from their chosen breed.

The media was in full circus mode when the Obamas finally took possession of their new puppy, Bo, in April 2009. An excited environment is not the ideal energy to project when a new puppy is introduced to his new home, but unfortunately, such is the nature of life in the presidential fishbowl. As White House staffers held back the dozens of press corps photographers wildly snapping away, the curly-haired, midnight black Bo—already a large dog at six months of age—proceeded to lope about the South Lawn on his white, bootlike paws, pulling Malia behind him. I was watching the live feed of Bo’s first official appearance from my Burbank offices, talking via satellite to Wolf Blitzer in CNN’s Situation Room. “Uh-oh,” I blurted out, forgetting I was on mic. “They’re gonna need a lot of help.” I’m not sure Wolf understood what I was trying to express. While much of America was seeing simply a happy, playful, picture-perfect puppy, by virtue of what I do for a living I was seeing something else. Bo’s first impression of the Obama family was as an overexcited pack of somewhat disorganized followers.

What the First Family needs to remember is that Bo does not see them as the president’s family. He simply sees them as the energy they project toward him. President Obama has been naturally blessed with a strong calm-assertive energy—that’s why he seems nearly unflappable in so many tense situations. But I have plenty of clients who are leaders among humans in the entertainment and business worlds whose dogs think they are pushovers. Sometimes leadership abilities don’t translate well between human and dog worlds.

Did the Obamas choose the right breed and energy-level dog for their family? They are all athletic, high-energy people, which is a good thing, because Portuguese water dogs, by virtue of their working nature, are not couch potatoes. “I wouldn’t say he’s excessively high in energy,” claims Bo’s breeder, Martha Stern of Boyd, Texas. “But he’s still a little bit more than middle-of-the-road. On a scale of five, he’s probably a three.” If the Obamas can find time in their busy schedules to walk Bo a lot every day (that’s a proper walk, with Bo next to them—not pulling them along on the leash!), they’ll start to drain his overabundant energy and to create the kind of bond between human and dog that can cut through even a high-energy dog’s excitement. They also need to make sure he’s tuckered out and hungry at meal-times—that will give the dog a routine and help him see that the family is the source of his food. Of course, being the First Family, they have plenty of household help and support, not to mention access to the best dog trainers in America, to fill in the gaps. But I’d like to see a First Dog who honors and respects his president and family as his indisputable pack leaders. Nearly every resident of the recent White House, to my mind, has failed my “pack leader” test when it comes to having a well-behaved, calm-submissive dog. I have my fingers crossed that the Obamas may prove to be the exceptions.

SELECTING FOR ENERGY

Above and beyond breed, finding an individual dog with the right energy level for you is the most important first step you can take in creating a fulfilling lifetime with your pet. Yes, many dog breeds “come with” a certain activity level attached, but each individual dog’s personal energy level will vary. An older German shepherd with low energy may make a better pet for a laid-back family with children than a boisterous golden retriever puppy. For an inexperienced dog owner who wants a small dog, a medium-energy terrier may well make a better choice than a nervous, high-energy Chihuahua. When it comes to choosing a puppy, understanding how to read a dog’s energy level is as vital a skill to hone as an encyclopedic knowledge of dog breeds.

Dog Energy Levels

Every dog is born with a certain energy level. Those levels are:

1. Very high: Constantly on the move, from dawn to dusk. Can walk or run for hours on end and still have energy to spare.

2. High: Very athletic, prefers very vigorous activities, but tires normally and is ready for sleep at the end of the day.

3. Medium: Seeks out normal physical activities, sometimes vigorous ones, but balances them with equal periods of rest.

4. Low: Your basic couch potato dog. Prefers rest to activity. A couple of regular walks a day will be plenty of exercise for him.

As a good rule of thumb, I recommend that people choose a dog with the same energy level or a lower energy level than their own. If they have other dogs at home, it’s even more important not to choose a dog with an energy level higher than that of the dogs or humans already in the family pack.

Some breeders employ a method called puppy temperament testing, an exam administered by a professional at around seven weeks of age that attempts to predict what kind of “personality” the grown-up dog will probably have. Based on the puppy’s responses to several basic challenges, the test attempts to quantify responses in such areas as social attraction; following; restraint; forgiveness; acceptance of human dominance; willingness to please; touch, sound, and sight sensitivity; and energy levels. Breeders use the results of these tests to help categorize their dogs from cautious to aggressive and to assess how likely they are to be suited to certain specific jobs, such as therapy dog, search and rescue dog, police dog, and so on. If you are getting a puppy from a breeder, you might want to ask her if she has the results of these tests for the dog that you are interested in. They may aid you in assessing whether the puppy’s personality is right for your lifestyle.

However, even those breeders who use these tests religiously will tell you that their results don’t always tell the whole story. When evaluating energy, other factors can make a big difference, such as the dog’s direct bloodline, its birth order, or, more important, its day-today interactions with other dogs. When you are evaluating an adult dog at a shelter, you may find it hard to separate a dog’s true energy from the issues it carries with it from previous life experiences or placements. Happily, with puppies, there are no issues to get in the way of your selection. Puppies are clean slates, born with a certain energy level, and in most cases, that same energy will be with them for the rest of their lives.

MEET THE PARENTS

As you’ve already learned, breeders will carefully choose their breeding pairs—both females (dams) and males (sires)—seeking to control and shape the temperament of the offspring. In other words, breeders who want calm, sweet-tempered puppies that will make good pets, therapy dogs, or show dogs will choose sweet, calm-tempered mothers and fathers. Breeders who raise search and rescue dogs or agility dogs may be looking for more active energy in their dam and sire. Those breeding for guard or police dogs may be looking for some territorial traits in their mating pairs, and those who illegally breed pit bulls for fighting unfortunately select the most aggressive, ferocious dogs to mate for the next generation. That’s why it’s important that a breeder be willing to let you meet the parents of your new puppy whenever possible.

Brooke Walker let me spend a lot of time around Angel’s mom and dad, and they were playful and active yet calm and stable dogs. Mr. President’s parents were both the kind of laid-back, mellow English bulldogs everyone desires as pets. With puppy mill puppies you purchase at a pet shop, you will never be allowed to meet the parents. That’s because they may be in a warehouse hundreds of miles away, crammed among dozens of other dogs in tiny cages. The bitch will probably already have another litter gestating by the time that puppy hits the pet shop. Imagine the effect on the temperament of a dog living in those inhumane conditions. Imagine the stress placed on the mother as she is forced to give birth in a cramped enclosure again and again and again, until her body gives out from the strain. There’s no way that a mother’s experiences don’t have an enormous impact, both on her own temperament and energy and on the lifelong psyches of the puppies she brings into the world.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

In Marley and Me, there’s a funny scene where, after having selected Marley from a backyard breeder’s litter but before the dog is ready to come home, John Grogan picks up a book about Labrador retrievers and gasps when he learns that a dog’s temperament can often be traced back to its parents. Marley’s breeders had hesitated to let them meet the sire, a dog that turned out to be “a manic dervish tearing blindly through the night as if demons were close on his tail.” Marley’s hyperactive father aside, the Grogans had been exposed to plenty of warning signs that highlighted Marley’s very high energy level. In the book, John humorously recounts what is an all-too-common puppy selection experience.

One of the males seemed particularly smitten with us. He was the goofiest of the group and charged into us, somersaulting into our laps and clawing his way up to lick our faces. He gnawed on our fingers with surprisingly sharp baby teeth and stomped clumsy circles around us on giant tawny paws that were way out of proportion to the rest of his body. …

“I think it’s fate,” Jenny said.

“He certainly seems to like us,” I said.

Like the Grogans, most people selecting a puppy will instantly fall in love with the first dog that climbs all over them or begins licking them. They say to themselves, “He loves me. He chose me. He wants to come home with me.” Of course, feeling that we are “chosen” by a dog makes us feel good about ourselves and good about the dog we are going to bring home—both important factors in a human-dog relationship. But we have to keep in mind that in many ways, this attraction that we perceive is just a beautiful story. Any healthy, curious puppy will be attracted to most new things and people that enter its environment. The truth is, the puppy who, like Marley, leaps out of his box to be with you may already be displaying dominant tendencies.

Now, a dominant, active puppy with a high or very high energy level may be exactly the energy that you are looking for. You may be looking for a future champion agility dog to run obstacle courses with you. You may be a daily long-distance runner, like my colleague, Dog Whisperer field producer Todd Henderson, who needs a very active dog to keep up with him. Todd adopted Curly, a very-high-energy Lab-greyhound mix from the show—a wonderful dog that was far too boisterous for his previous owner, Pete, a laid-back New York City dweller. Remember how Angel’s breeder, Brooke Walker, wanted to give me Angel’s more dominant brother, Mr. Blue Collar, whom she called “the pick of the litter”? Brooke says she prefers more assertive puppies, because in her experience, they have been easier to train as show dogs. But remember, both Todd Henderson and Brooke Walker are also highly experienced dog owners, with naturally confident, calm-assertive energies. If you are inexperienced with dogs, or if you know yourself to be a softer, more submissive, more laid-back sort of person in general, the little Marley that jumps out of the box and charges you is probably not a good energy match if you want a compatible pet for life.

Interpreting a high-energy puppy’s natural curiosity as “love at first sight” isn’t the only way we can misread a dog’s communication through the hazy filter of our own emotional needs. Some people are looking for a spiritual connection with a dog, so they’ll select a puppy based on his “soulful eyes.” Other people want a puppy because they want to feel needed. They will see a puppy that seems nervous, timid, or withdrawn and choose it because they feel sorry for it. Then there are the people who choose based entirely on looks. In the first season of Dog Whisperer, we met an owner who selected Emily because the puppy had a heart-shaped pattern on her flank. Emily was a very active pit bull, and the owners ended up keeping her cooped up in a fenced backyard, unintentionally creating a red-zone dog-aggressive pet that needed serious rehab later. I’ve met people who brought home a puppy simply because it looked like Spuds MacKenzie, Petey from The Little Rascals, Lassie, one of the 101 Dalmations, or the Beverly Hills Chihuahua. I believe it is very important that people be attracted to the way their dog looks, but choosing a dog on looks alone makes even less sense than choosing your human mate solely for that reason.

Choosing a puppy based on energy level is a skill anyone can learn. At one month of age, all puppies are adorably clumsy in the way they move, but food is always a motivator, and the mother is pretty much the number one focus of their lives. So I will call the breeder in advance and find out what time the mother usually feeds her puppies, which happens on a certain schedule, the same time every day, about five times a day. That’s when I’ll schedule my visit. By one month of age, the puppies are already walking. I’ll ask that the puppies be kept in a separate area, then bring in the mother for feeding, and observe in what order the puppies waddle to the mother. By doing this I can read the energy of each puppy right away. I’ll see which is the pushiest, which is the most anxious, which has the most submissive energy, and which has the most medium or laid-back energy. Right there, I will be able to classify the puppies as low, medium, high, or very high energy.

You can also use the method I employed when choosing Angel from his siblings, by sitting all the puppies on chairs or a bench and observing how long they are willing to wait before getting distracted or jumping off. Low- and medium-energy puppies are perfect for inexperienced dog owners, families with kids, or owners who already have a higher-energy dog at home. In fact, the great majority of the problems I’m called in to correct are the result of an owner who is living with a dog with a higher energy level than the human. Higher-energy puppies are for the Todd Hendersons, Brooke Walkers, and Diana Fosters among us—very active people or very experienced dog owners.

Although Chris Komives is a very active, high-energy person, his wife, Johanna, is quieter and definitely medium-level energy, and it’s always best to seek a dog that matches the lowest-energy family member, so everyone in the household will find it easier to be the dog’s pack leader. “Because we were looking for a terrier, we knew we’d be getting a medium- or high-energy dog,” Chris said. Being novice dog owners, the Komiveses planned on taking my advice and wanted a medium-energy dog for their very first puppy. However, their breeder had other ideas. “In working with breeders, they have a lot of say about which puppy from the litter you’ll be getting. Unfortunately, because of the breeder’s confidence in me as a Dog Whisperer cameraman, she gave us what she called the ‘pick of the litter.’ Now, I only recently learned from Cesar when he brought home Angel, that the ‘pick of the litter’ is the highest-energy, most dominant pup. So that didn’t work out as planned. In the breeder’s defense, I did talk about doing agility with Eliza, and a higher-energy dog is more appropriate for this activity.” Eliza’s higher energy level did present the Komiveses with a few unexpected challenges when she became a teenager, which we’ll discuss in upcoming chapters.

When it comes down to choosing energy, however, experience trumps activity level, as far as I’m concerned, because even most longdistance runners have to go to work during the day. Lots of hands-on experience with dogs, on the other hand, gives you the kind of leverage that only instinctual knowledge can bring. A person with a physical disability may not be very active, but he may also be able to handle a high-level-energy service dog, because he understands leadership, patience, and knows how to channel that dog’s energy into doing things like turning on lights, opening doors, and guiding the person to the bus stop. A person with instinctual calm-assertive energy and confidence, combined with experience, can manage even the highest-energy dog, even if that person has physical limitations.

Finally, since dogs speak in energy 24/7, a dog can tell you more about another dog’s energy than any human system of measurement. When I first took Daddy to meet the pit bull puppy that would carry his legacy of calm-submissive energy to the next generation, I allowed him to show me the energy levels of the puppies I was considering. Remember how Daddy growled at the puppy I had noticed displaying dominance toward my friends’ children? Daddy knew right away that the puppy’s behavior was not his cute “friendliness” or “spirit” but the kind of dominant energy that can cause problems within a pack. Daddy ignored another puppy, one that was displaying a lower energy level but also some early symptoms of nervousness and anxiety. He instantly gravitated to the calmest, best-behaved puppy in the litter. Take your cues from Daddy and don’t let your emotions get in the way of finding the perfect puppy for you.

Cesar Millan