Warning: Be Careful Of Where You Buy Your Mixed Breed Dog From

The first place to look for a good mixed-breed dog is a qualified, reputable shelter such as the Humane Society or a county-supported facility. These are normally adequately staffed and funded, and many of them provide plenty of information as well as basic obedience classes. The adoptable dogs will be altered, often free of charge and, if old enough, will be fully inoculated.

There are also many privately run nonprofit shelters throughout the country (ask a vet or look online or in the Yellow Pages) that do an admirable job, though they are not always funded as well as a county facility. These facilities normally charge a nominal fee for altering and inoculations. Many also offer obedience classes for a small fee.

For-profit shelters are also a source for mixed-breed dogs, but the profit motive must always be taken into consideration. You may not get the straight scoop on a dog, or the health of the dogs might be a suspect because of overcrowding.

Many look to newspapers to find dogs. Doing this is similar to buying a car from a private advertisement. Have the sellers represented their product honestly? Has he been well maintained? What are the owners like? Why are they selling this dog or giving him away? Their motivation for giving up the dog must always be suspect. Is the dog aggressive or destructive? Does he bark incessantly? Is he housebroken? Is he their dog or just a stray that they are selling for a quick profit? Be observant and skeptical when you read a newspaper ad.

Watch the dog's interaction with the people, and observe the environment. Is it clean and well maintained? Are the people forthright about why they are unwilling to keep the dog? It is your job to find that out.

Some pet shops also sell mixed-breed dogs, which are often a result of the accidental breeding of two purebred puppy-mill dogs. Though we know of some respectable pet shops, as a general rule we frown on getting any dog this way. These stores have a reputation for providing low-quality, poorly bred dogs. Pet shop dogs also often lack proper dog-to-dog social skills and usually have terrible house-trainings habits due to being in cages constantly. They never learn to differentiate between the right and wrong place to go; they just go on paper in their cage. These dogs are very hard to housebreak, especially if they have been in the pet shop for a long time.

The case of the stray dog is a heartbreaking one. Many of us have befriended a stray, or at least provided one with food or water. We know of many that, after being brought back to health and trained, have become great pets. The problem with strays is that you have no idea what you are getting. There is no shelter acting as a middleman or filtering agent. Is the dog diseased, arthritic, infectious? Does he have severe behavioral problems? Avoid adopting a stray unless it is temporary, in lieu of locating the real owners.

In conclusion, a mixed-breed dog can be just as smart, healthy, and wonderful as a purebred. It is just a bit harder to discern the good from the bad due to limited knowledge of the dog's heritage and history.