Pros and Cons of Poodle Rescue
A quick search of the internet will reveal hundreds of poodle rescue sites. There are unquestionably many abandoned poodles that desperately need good homes. But is poodle rescue the best way to get a poodle? It’s a very individual decision. Before you choose one way or the other, take a few moments to consider these pros and cons.
Pros of Poodle Adoption
Saving a life. Poodle puppies are usually easy to sell. Their innate charm and their beauty makes people fall in love with them. Older dogs are much harder to adopt. Every year, animal shelters are forced to euthanize hundreds of dogs whose only crime was being unwanted. By adopting an adult poodle from a shelter or rescue organization, you are certainly saving its life.
Getting an adult dog. Cute as they are, puppies can be destructive, and no matter how good your housebreaking techniques, you’re bound to have to clean up a few accidents. An adult dog is much less likely to rip your favorite shoes to shreds or urinate on your Persian rug. An adult dog may also have already learned some basic obedience commands, which will make caring for it much easier.
Paying less money. Buy a purebred poodle pup, and you’ll likely pay a breeder several hundred dollars. A shelter dog usually costs less than a hundred dollars to adopt.
Cons of Poodle Adoptions
Health and behavior problems. Not all owners are honest about why they are giving up their dogs. Some don’t even bother to take their dogs to a shelter, but simply abandon them on the streets. Either way, you may be getting a poodle with problems you don’t know about. A vet can assess the health of the poodle, but you may not notice behavioral problems until you get it home and discover that it bites, or it barks night and day, or it isn’t properly housetrained.
Personality fully formed. Our personalities are partly formed by genetics, but they are also partly formed by our environment. If you get a new puppy, you can help shape its personality. With an older dog, what your see is what you get, and there isn’t much you can do if the dog turns out to be chronically anxious, depressed, or hostile.
Hard to prove purebred status. If it’s important to you to have a purebred poodle, you may be better off adopting from a breeder who can supply your poodle’s genetic history for several generations. With shelter adoptions, there is often no proof that the poodle is purebred. In fact, you very well might be getting a mixed breed without even realizing it.
You now have all the information you need to decide whether to purchase a puppy from a breeder or get an older dog from a shelter or rescue organization. The only thing left to do is select the best pet for you among the different types of poodle.
