Your empathy for your sister (and others who buy from breeders even though they’re informed) is admirable. But I’m having a hard time feeling it too. There are so many dogs in shelters that there are even puppies and dogs who didn’t go through trauma. Maybe eventually, enough people will adopt (and people stop shopping) so that the shelters are just full of dogs with issues, but we’re not close to there yet. Our humane society was really good at matching us. For instance, they asked if we wanted to have kids someday, and because we thought we probably did, they limited our search to dogs who had already lived happily in a household with babies and young kids.

Our dog was estimated at only 1.5 years when we adopted him, but we were already his 4th family (through no fault of our pup’s; he’s an easy, loving, safe dog). Like you said, so many people are sadly in situations where they can’t care for their dogs, so there are so many dogs at shelters with nothing wrong with them; they are as loving and sociable as any dog bred for immediate sale.

Also included with our adoption were 6 weekly clicker training classes at the Humane Society, which was very helpful, and all the dogs had gone home with foster families first before coming to the shelter.

I know I’m preaching to the choir with you, Jessica Lovejoy. I just feel so strongly about it that I can’t keep my mouth shut.

I also know quite a few people who adopted dogs from breeders and then realized their dog had health problems specific to that sort of purebred dog, something they didn’t really consider beforehand. And a lot of people don’t do as great a job with training as your sis, so the end result can be more issues than an adult shelter dog, where you know what you’re getting into it.

Both dogs are super-adorable. ❤