Are you ready for a dog?

“Dad, look!!! Uncle John has also gotten a dog for himself. Why can’t we have one?”

“Dad, I want a dog for my birthday!”

Many parents might have heard these questions umpteen times from their kids. Puerility or innocence or maybe just ignorance? I guess it depends from person to person. When I had asked this question to my parents it was a pure case of ignorance and also silliness to an extent because neither I had any idea about the seriousness of my demand nor I had any idea about the level of involvement required. For me, the movies had totally glorified the experience of having a pet especially a dog. Later in my life, thanks to my wife, I discovered that you have to be willingly ready to have a dog in your life. It’s a life full of commitment and compromise. It is not a toy that you can afford to get bored of. It has a personality, psychology, emotion and moreover a dog trusts with its life on you and you have to be prepared to reciprocate with all your heart. In short - It is parenthood.

Whenever I hear a question that is in lines of “Can I have a dog?” I suddenly develop a very intense urge to interrogate that person about it . But then I remind myself that the person in question is a small child and if I don’t curb my urge and end up asking him/her some “matter of fact” type questions it might result in intimidation of an impressionable mind. And hence every time I have to retreat in my cocoon praying to God that their parents be granted with all the knowledge to teach the child THE right things in the most loving way possible. Well, having said that, I do not intend to sound like “I believe that kids are incapable of handling dogs (pets)”. I have met and seen, at least a few well taught kids, who tend to their pets with full responsibility, care and devotion that many adults might feel challenged to match up to. And I am superlatively proud of such children when I see them. But then again, such devoted souls are few. Magnitude of the lot falls in the category that I belonged in earlier i.e. of ignorance and hence I speak here of them.

Sometimes parents, rather adults, fall into the “peer pressure” trap. “Getting a dog” decision is then driven by the decisions taken by a neighbor, colleague, friends or relatives. In this case, not only getting a dog becomes a priority but also to acquire a better one (in god only knows what respect). You could well imagine the plight of the poor dog who would join that household. He would be subjected to all kinds of comparison and might be expected to match up to so many insane objectives. “Oh, his dog can do it, why can’t ours?” becomes the motto then. In some cases non-compliance on dog’s part might result in its ill-treatment. Is this justified? Dogs are not slaves but companions. And, to me this is brutality and cowardice. Give them a break and let them enjoy a life that is free from the shackles of expectations and you as a human should enjoy the pure love that they are willing to offer unconditionally.

Anyway, while in my cocoon, I was thinking of an imaginary situation. What if my child asks this question to me? Assuming that I never had a dog in my life, most likely I would not be in a position to justify not having a dog as transparently that I would have wanted to. There is a possibility that I would give in to the demand out of love for my child without considering the dog’s plight. That would mean momentary happiness for my child but life full of neglect to the dog if not chosen well. What a horrible way of life for the dog. Thankfully, in real time, I am a fortunate dog parent and, I guess, now I am well equipped to answer this question because I have experienced it first hand and now know the pros and cons of this deal. Also, I wish to mention that Fetching Hope Rescue (FHR) did a fantastic job in educating us and telling us what we are getting into before we adopted Bud. If you go through their application procedures then you would know what I am talking about. It is pretty thorough and enlightening. The questions make you think about your decision. I am sure, other rescues too would be doing an equally fantastic job in this regard. FHR and other such organizations strive very hard to give them a second chance to a good life. I don’t feel ashamed to say that we were rejected on multiple occasions from many local shelters. This actually led us to research more and build our knowledge base more. So no regrets there .

Buying a dog from a breeder is the easiest way to get a dog but you should also consider the fact that every day shelters across the country find stray dogs in hundreds at least. “Tin Can”, “Little Hangman”, “Gas Cat”, “Graves Pups”, “Super Hero pups”, “Trailer Pups” are some of the names of the dogs/litter taken in by the partner shelter of FHR called “Wynne Friends of Animals (WFOA)” located in Arkansas. Tin Can had an actual tin can attached to his head and was abandoned by its owner. It took more than a day for volunteers/doctors to detach that can from its head. Little hangman was found hanging through a wire in an old dilapidated building that could have fallen anytime to the ground. Little hangman was deeply cut on his neck and chest when rescued. His other littler mates were also rescued from the same shamble. Gas Cat has an amazing story too. She was delivered to the shelter totally covered in gasoline. Last when I had heard about her, vets had managed to save her eyes but she had lost all her hair. Grave pups, whole litter, were found in a graveyard. Trailer Pups were abandoned on a trailer.  These are some of the dogs that were spotted by some kind soul and delivered to this shelter.  Do you think others too are this lucky to get rescued? There are so many instances that I could just go on writing about. Someone or rather lack of something is responsible for such a sad state. What is this lack of something? What is that something? The more I think about this, I feel, ultimately that something is the feeling, the understanding, the maturity to understand the gravity of the responsibility of owning a pet. If we are not cognizant and sensitive of the above we can never value their existence in our lives. And this results in situations where we find a “Tin Can” or “a Trailer Pup” or a “Gas Cat” being found and rescued by generous and angelic shelters/rescues such as WFOA and FHR.

Before you buy or adopt, please take a moment and ask these basic question to yourselves – Are you ready for a dog? Are you ready to be a parent to these lovely devoted souls? Do you understand the responsibilities of handling another life which trusts you with blind faith? Is it financially viable now and in future? Yes pets have costs. Is your family ready to accept a companion and respect it? Most important of all, is there someone who can take care of the dog when you will not be around? Rescue organizations like FHR make it simpler in such situations as they purposefully try to make the adoption process a little intense with the hope that no dog under them should go through the same hell of desertion twice. The questions are so well structured that people are bound to think and revisit their decision of getting a pet. They try to provide clarity and an opportunity for better judgment to new adopters.

Don’t buy just on a whim. Let your pet be a well thought over and informed decision rather than one bought on a whim. I am sure it will bring a lot of positive energy in the household for good of all in the family. BTW, don’t we all aspire for it?

Mutts – The Impure

Mutt or Mongrel – Dog of mixed or unknown breed. Mongrel sounds more like a cuss words if used for name calling. Interesting, I guess!!! But today I am going to write about dogs of mixed lineage and also about my experience with them.

Bud, my Mutt <proudly>, enjoys playing so much that we make sure that we take him to the nearest dog park regularly. Not only Bud but we (parents) also get a chance to interact with other dog parents. At a dog park, the ice breakers are generally the questions about each other’s dog. After the usual pleasantries it is usual that we politely ask about each other’s dog. Questions such as “What your dog’s Name?”, “Is it a he or she?” or “What breed is he/she?” etc are considered the norm and falls within the boundaries of politeness. When it comes to the breed question I have had different experiences with different people. In the realm of dog parents there are owners of “Purebreds” and owners of “Mutts or Mixed Breeds”. Most of the time I have seen happiness and pride in both these groups of people. And, both these group of people have their own reasons to feel that way. However, there is a third kind of breed in humans who dislike Mutts for whatever petty and constricted reason. I fail to understand this dislike and I personally try to avoid this kind I if I can. Never mind, God has made me and he has made them too. Ever heard about “Anti-Christ” or “Anti-Matter”. Antagonistic forces exist everywhere and who am I to fight that. I accept them. So let’s talk and focus on good people and gather positive energy.   

Coming back to the breed question – When we are posed with this question our response is “Lab mix”. To some people it comes as surprise because Bud resembles a lot to a purebred lab prima-facie. Some people also call him “Blondie” or “Pinky Nose” (which used to black initially) ha ha.. But there are many experienced people who have not failed to notice some “Hound” features in Bud. To tell you the truth, we were least bothered about it and considered these trivial when we were looking to adopt from petfinder.com (great website). We have never gotten Bud DNA tested but sometimes my wife gets curious to know what mixes are there in Bud and claims that she wants it done only to understand him better. J Although, I guess I have discovered that there is another reason behind it. She had once exclaimed that she would like to adopt another “lab mix” just like Bud. I thought about it and then I realized that my wife actually wants to have another Bud because he is BUD and not because he is a MUTT. I am sure she knows about this but it took me sometime to figure this out. Yes, between us, she is the smarter one J. Anyway, that Bud is a mutt – is a fact, but Bud is our BUD too – which means that he has his own personality, a temperament, energy level and all other things that makes Bud our BUD. Even if we spend a fortune and get to find what mixes are there in Bud then also manage to match another dog with the same breed distributions. But even after going through this pain can we still be sure that we can get another BUD. The straight answer is NO. Irrespective of breed, I believe, every dog is unique and has its own personality. I feel, the breed information should only be used as a vague guide to understand if a particular dog would match up for the household or not. Again, this is just to have a vague idea as, believe me, I have seen supposedly high energy worker dogs behaving like super couch potatoes. Like I said, every dog is unique. Also, please note that I use the term “household” because when you take a dog in, it becomes a part of the family and just not of one person who spent the dollars. He affects everyone and gets affected by everyone in the house.

For a minute and sake of argument, let’s even suppose that Bud was a purebred. So, does that mean that if we get another purebred of the same breed he will be same as Bud? I am sure that you would agree with my answer that this is not possible and that breeders don’t produce robots or have a set-mold to fashion the same dog each time. Even a breeder would agree with me here that each dog in their kennel is unique. Although, they may tell you the standard characteristics with a great deal of guestimation such as weight, height or expected capabilities or known habits. But again, all of these are not accurate information about a particular dog. I firmly believe that it really doesn’t make a difference whether a dog is a purebred or a mutt if a household can accommodate its needs.

There is another term that is often used in this (Mutt) context – Cross Breeding. Cross breeding and Mixed breeding are almost same except for the fact that former is artificial selection and latter is a process of natural selection. Cross breeding is mostly controlled by humans who try to engineer or preserve a particular mix in dogs. There is another type of breeding that happens called inbreeding. Although I condone it and consider it against the natural laws of eugenics but it is known to be practiced at some places for selfish motives. Most of the times Inbreeding produces unhealthy progeny. Demand for purebreds and their high selling price is also another reason that some puppy mills resort to inbreeding. Why are purebred so much in demand? And, that people are ready to pay few grand for the purebred puppies irrespective of the fact that what sad conditions these puppies may have come from is astounding. Commercialization to be blamed here?? Or the simple logic of economics – Demand & Supply to be blamed? Whatever be the reason but resultant is that dogs have attained a status of toys for many. Nevertheless, in-spite of the ill-treatment and abuse it continues to be man’s best friend and if you ask me why then I just have one answer, that is, because they have a heart of gold and that my friend only good people can appreciate.  

I also believe that, choosing a purebred or a mutt is totally an individual choice but should the mutts be viewed as lesser beings? I don’t agree with that. Moreover, I have read and also many people would agree with me that Mutts tend to take the best of all the breeds they have within them and thus making their progeny stronger and better in many ways.

Bibliography

1.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-breed_dog