Many good-hearted people want to “Rescue a dog” from a local pound because they generally feel as it is the right thing to do. Usually, that is what the general public perceives as a good deed and of course all the media as well. So if you want to be a good and hip person, you want to rescue a dog, give him a new life and share your new joy on Facebook with everyone else. I do not disagree that this is a very nice thing to do on a personal level, But…
There are a couple of issues with this outlook if we take it apart. We already have the worst dog breeding practices in the Western World right here in North America. We literally have no unified breeding selection like every other country for any of the “working” breeds. That is partially the reason why our GSD are useless as working Police dogs or our DSPs are 40lbs vs 60 and 70 and so on. But that’s a separate story on its own. So by going and rescuing a dog we actually support the system of people who breed whatever to whatever and whoever to whoever, without any knowledge or mission for the future. Rather than supporting legitimate breeders who put hard earned cash and a lot of hard work into selecting the right dogs, working with them and seeing what the offsprings turn out like and so on.
Secondly, educated breeders can usually set you up with a suitable dog for your lifestyle. Show you the parents and their performance. That will give you an idea of what our puppy might be like.
Another issue is health. Both mentally and physically. A lot of people have struggled with a well bred puppy and his or her basic training, let alone with a dog that has had several homes and a lot of baggage from the past. And as per physical issues, for large breeds hip and elbow dysplasia is becoming very common, allergies are very common etc. Well, I can tell you that a breeder who works his dogs, someone like me, couldn’t, for example, afford to have, work and breed dogs like that, both financially and for performance reasons. But the guy who has them in the basement and breeds them anyways will, he doesn’t care. Those dogs will likely end up dead or in the pound and some good hearted, well meaning person will “buy” them yet again, this time from the pound. So who won in the end, in the long run? Who did we support and what did we solve on a “global” or “national” level sort of speak?
Food for thought.
J.K.