On Mon, 21 Jul 2003 03:31:11 GMT crosem whittled these words:
go to petfinder.org and type in your particulars, and see what rescue dogs
turn up that you might like. a resuce dog is thoroughly checked over for
health,

While I agree 100% that an adult rescue dog is a good alernative it is
misleading to say the dog is "thoroughly" checked over for health. In
most cases the dog is checked for nothing more than lack of obvious
problems. If the dog is slowly going lame from luxated patella, or hip
dysplasia, or going blind from PRA it is unlikely to be noticed or
diagnosed unless the disease has progressed quite far.

Among the entire
populaton of dogs there are going to be a number, maybe ten percent or so,
who currently have detectable disease that won't be revealed in the kind
of vet exams given to rescue dogs.
A *puppy*, even
from a good breeder, will likewise be limited in the amount of informaiton
available on developing health problems that aren't yet obvious. Our
diagnostic tools haven't quite developed to the point of being able to
identifing many problems when the dog is quite young - or at least not in
a cost effective manner.

A puppy, regardless of source, doesn't give much assurance as to whether
there is or is not a problem. Problems are much more detectable in the
adult. The rescues will be able to screen out the most obvious affected
dogs. An adult from a knowledgable skilled breeder, however, will often
(but not always) have been tested for the most common problems even if
they aren't yet noticeable in an ordinary vet exam. For MOST families the
rescue dog is a reasonable bet even if it might have health problems. One
reason for this is that it isn't easy to find the kind of breeder who
breeds to avoid health problems. Your average pet owner isn't likely to
want to invest the time and energy into finding a good breeder. If a
person doesn't care to make that time/energy investment then a
shelter/rescue dog is as good a bet as any other.


has all its shots, has been neutered, usually housebroken. a
slightly older dog than a puppy is much easier to deal with...in your shoes,
I would go for a medium size dog that is good (patient) with children, and
alway be sure to teach my child how to approach and treat her new doggie!
good luck to all!

Yup I agree.

Diane Blackman