missy wrote:one of your best "bets" is to find a breed specific rescue. You can often find out the temperment of the dog (they are almost always "fostered" for a bit), you usually get an adult dog (no puppy chewing, etc.) and you are helping save a life.
I've got two rescue boxers laying at the bottom of the bed currently. We know one had a traumatic puppyhood, but he's otherwise a great dog. The other is just plain stupid, but loveable.
Wiley is a rescue, though he came to us through his breeder. His previous owners abused him, then dumped him at a local groomer and called the breeder to come get him. She then had to have him fostered for several weeks by Poodle Rescue before she was able to make arrangements for his return.
He's a great dog, but he has a lot of bad habits that we're slowly but surely working on...most significantly (especially for a poodle!), he fights being groomed. My guess is, at some time during his rebellious adolescence, he flashed a tooth at someone who was brushing him or handling his paws, that person was intimidated, and a pattern was set. He's gradually learning that his new mommy doesn't intimidate easily, but it would be so much easier if I'd had the training of him since he was a puppy!
He's also never been trained out of the puppy habits of mouthing hands and nipping at clothes, but those are easier to work with using consistency and distraction.
I remember reading about the "creation" of the "labradoodle," and even at the time I thought "how stupid!" The guy who did it claimed that they would be ideal guide dogs for people with allergies. What he didn't take into account is that the ONLY reason poodles aren't generally used for guide dogs is that "hypoallergenic, non-shedding coat", which needs to be thoroughly brushed and de-matted daily, and trimmed every four to six weeks. The same is true for all "non-shedding" breeds...including his newly minted mutt. Labradors already make outstanding guide dogs, as we all know, and both breeds are excellent field dogs.
BTW, another way to get an excellent purebred dog is to apply to a guide dog school for a retiree or a "drop out." These dogs are bred for good health, soundness, and emotional stability, and are given meticulous early training. Often, however, a particular dog just doesn't have quite what it takes to be a guide dog. When that happens, the dog is offered first to the family that raised him, but it they don't want or can't take him, he's offered for adoption. Also, when a dog is retired from active service (usually around the age of seven), he's offered as a pet first to his blind companion and then to the family who raised him, and again, if neither can take him, to an adoptive home.
I'm constantly telling people that regsitration, or even "champions in his pedigree," don't mean any more than the paper they're printed on. All purebred dogs have champions in the pedigree somewhere and, as cowtime pointed out, the registration process is very easy to subvert, which results in a lot of "registered" dogs who are clearly not purebred. A friend of mine in college fell afoul of something like that once. She purchased what she was told was a purebred, registered basenji puppy. Even though the puppy was black and white and both (purported) parents were reds, she bought the story (and the dog). If she'd known much at all about basenjis, she would have been suspicious, as two red parents can't throw a black puppy (the red gene is recessive). There were other indicators, including floppy ears and a puppy who barked rather than "yodeled," but she wouldn't be dissuaded. She eventually went to the law, however when a breeder at a benched show she visited told her point blank that there was no way her pup was a basenji. It ultimately turned out that a local pit bull had gotten to the mother when she was in season...the "breeder" decided to try to capitalize on this by using his own basenji male's registration number to register the litter, and showing him to prospective buyers as the sire. Since no one actually does anything to verify that the dogs on the registration slip are actually the parents of the puppy (the AKC just takes the breeder's word for it), this kind of thing happens more often than many people realize. The only answer is to know your breed and know your breeder.
Redwolf
