Quote: leih merigian

 Quote: alexandra neufeld

Well, I'm in highschool... Could your parents care for the dog if it doesn't work out in the apartment? At any rate, if you go through with getting dog, get one there's a market for. Look at GSD rescues. There are RARELY working line dogs in there. They seem to go quickly if advertised in the paper. If worst comes to worst, you at least want to be able to find a home for your dog, so choose a good dog from "desirable" bloodlines.

This is what makes me nuts, Alexandra; people getting pets with the "if worst comes to worst" already figured out, ready to take the escape clause.

Do you ever read the pet ads in Craigslist? The kind of thinking you are representing here is what populates those lists with TONS of dogs that most of the owners should never have gotten in the first place.

Let's see...all the people who have to move and just can't take their pets...all the women who are about to have a baby and can't devote the time any longer (gee, did you think you might want to get pregnant when you got married? And you got a dog anyway?). I could go on, but I won't.

If a person can not make a lifelong commitment to an animal, and with a GSD, that's going to be 10-14 years, s/he has no business getting the pet, period.

Sure, sometimes there are things that happen that can not be forseen or avoided that would requre the rehoming of a pet, but the vast majority of pets that end up in shelters and passed around from one home to another are the result of people making very poor decisions.

It's called self-indulgence.

The other side of that is called delay-of-gratification. It's when you really, really want something, but realize that it's not a great idea to do it right now, so you wait until the time is right and more conducive to things having a great outcome. This is a sign of maturity.

leih

I couldn't have said it better -- or as well.

I hope Amanda sees that she has received some great responses, and that this: Could your parents care for the dog if it doesn't work out in the apartment? At any rate, if you go through with getting dog, get one there's a market for. Look at GSD rescues. There are RARELY working line dogs in there. They seem to go quickly if advertised in the paper. If worst comes to worst, you at least want to be able to find a home for your dog, so choose a good dog from "desirable" bloodlines.
is NOT one of them.

I think Amanda will get that. Her post was responsible-sounding and thoughtful.

A dog is indeed a commitment for the life of the dog, and this attitude is a huge reason for the glut of dogs in classified pages (print and 'net) as well as overcrowded shelters.

Shame. It's not often a post like this finds its way onto a board like this one, filled with responsible handlers, trainers, and owners -- thank goodness.

 Quote: alexandra neufeld

... They seem to go quickly if advertised in the paper. If worst comes to worst, you at least want to be able to find a home for your dog, so choose a good dog from "desirable" bloodlines. ....

Every one of those ads represents a real live creature ... not 1/4" of text ... and in many cases, it represents a dog who someone considered to be disposable when they acquired him/her.

 Quote: leih merigian

If a person can not make a lifelong commitment to an animal, and with a GSD, that's going to be 10-14 years, s/he has no business getting the pet, period.

i agree absolutely. getting a pet with an escape clause in mind is a terrible thing.

if you're going to college/university, i would suggest waiting until the end of that time. your living situation may change, and also - i'm pretty much a huge homebody. but when i started university, i went out all the time. i'm back to being a fairly big homebody again, but it was a period i went through, and i think it's common in college/university, especially in the first year. and it's not conducive to owning/caring for a dog. i just mention it, b/c as much as you can think to yourself 'i don't go out a lot, i'll totally stay home', that may not be what actually ends up happening, and i'd plan for that.

also, with 5 cats and 1 dog already, if you're still a student, i would be concerned about the financial burden of another dog. your personal circumstances may allow it, but it's something to be considered.

I never said it is a good idea to get the dog. I think it's fairly obvious it's not. Is it possible to do, yes.

For the record, I have never gotten rid of an animal, ever. I do not get a creature thinking "Oh, it's ok to get rid of it if doesn't work out." The OP does not sound like that type of person either.

You don't think it's responsible to get an animal without considering what's going to happen should you not be able to keep it? I think THAT'S irresponsible. It would be unrealistic to get a dog in this situation and not recognise the reality of being unable to keep the dog at some point. I could have simply said "No, don't do it, it won't work out." But that is relatively unhelpful. I have looked at craigslist. I know of the number of dogs in shelters. I am well aware of the plentiful, lame excuses for "rehoming" an animal.

The previous posts all stated the obvious; that this is not going to be the best idea. It isn't. That said, if she is going to get this dog, then I stand by what I said, may she well be intelligent in her choice of dog. Get something that could be donated to someone as a a working dog prospect, not just another pet that she won't be able to rehome and will fill up a cage at the shelter.

 Quote: Alexandra Neufeld

You don't think it's responsible to get an animal without considering what's going to happen should you not be able to keep it? I think THAT'S irresponsible.

I think it's that there's a difference between getting a pet and thinking and planning for what you would do if you died, or had some catastrophic event, vs. thinking and planning about getting rid of a pet b/c it is no longer convenient to your lifestyle.

If the OP didn't know before that getting a dog isn't the best idea, she does now.

We can agree that there is a real chance the dog will have to be gotten rid of at some point in the next 10 years.

Assuming she does get the dog, knowing the reality is that the dog might have to be "rehomed" or whatever, is it better (for the dog!!!) to have a dog that is easy to find a good home for or a run of the mill dog? And please don't say that she shouldn't get the dog if there's a real chance she'll have to get rid of it, because we already established that.

And before you tell me that I am irresponsible, keep in mind that my animals will all be well cared for the rest of their lives, for barring catastrophe. I have not gotten animals that I cannot guarentee a secure and happy future for, despite the fact that I could have and would loved to have gotten them. A horse, for instance.

I'm not saying you're irresponsible or in anyway commenting on your situation with your animals. I'm merely commenting on your advice to her.

I know you are not. I was referring to an above post. Sorry, I should have specified.

Most of my adult life has been spent in cities, living in apartments, with one or the other thing going on (marriage, having a child, and frequent moves). As much as I always wanted a dog, my life-style and my living arrangements really weren't ideal for a large dog. I had cats and I waited a long time to get my dog.

There is never a "perfect" time but there are better times than others...and really only you know what your situation is.

I haven't read all the posts but one thing you really have to consider is this: While THIS apartment is pet-friendly, you may have to move at some point and many rental apartments and homes won't accept large dogs or GSDs. If you get a GSD now you may have an extremely difficult time finding a place to live. So that is something you should think about if you know you're going to be a renter for the forseeable future. :wink:

First of all, thank you so much for all your quick replies everybody.

I think at this point, I'm going to see what happens when I move into my new apartment. I haven't totally decided whether or not I should hold it off for a few years (well, it's more a matter of WILL I hold off for a few years.. my GSD 'fever' can be quite aggressive at times!). Once I graduate from high school I am going to be living in Victoria BC with my mother and her large house w/ a yard and hopefully attending one of the colleges or the university in the area. I haven't decided whether or not to go into veterinary medicine or psychology, but I know that my mom has said that as long as I'm in college I can stay with her, and my dad has said he'll help with my rent until I graduate from college.

I'm thinking of doing online high school next year so as to be able to work and spend more time with my animals. I know that six animals is a lot as it is, but I should have mentioned something- my dad and I are both going to be technically living there. He has more or less moved in with his girlfriend but he still needs a place to keep his things and to live in if they break up. Also, three out of the five cats will stay with him when I move out on my own.

I have considered the 'worst-case scenarios', more as a musing rather than a possibility, because I view my animals as family members and the thought of giving one of them up makes me physically ill. It was a hard enough decision to let my dad keep some of the cats. I am being very serious when I say that I would never give any animal up unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. I see a dog as a friend and partner for fifteen or more years, not as something disposable. In the absolute worst case scenario where I had to give up the dog, my best friend (and a GSD fanatic) would be very willing to take it in. I wouldn't get a dog without some kind of a backup, even though I'd pray I'd never have to use a backup plan.

I'm considering rescue- there are a lot of GSDs in rescues around here- but I do worry that a rescue GSD would have some sort of problems that I might not be able to conquer- I've been reading up on behavior and such but I'm not exactly a trainer yet. And any dog I got would either have to be a young puppy or a dog that was safe around cats. Most of the GSDs I've seen in shelters around here have some kind of over-excessive prey drive problem/cat killer, and I wouldn't want to risk it.

While it'd be nice to say that I've decided against the whole thing, I can't say that honestly, because I don't know what it's going to be like in the new place yet, and I can't promise I'll always be thinking totally rationally. I think I'll see how things go with my small dog and if things turn out abnormally well and I have some time on my hands, then who knows. I have.. no social life whatsoever, by the way. In general I don't like people, and I'm probably not going to get married (even if I do- no kids!). I don't really have to worry about a social life getting in the way. haha.

Also, this is a TOTALLY unrelated topic, but I didn't want to make a whole new post for it- I have been wanting to get Charlie (my small dog- the one in my signature) an e-Collar to help with his recall and some other minor problems he's been having, but at the moment he only weighs 10lbs (and I don't know if he'll mature much bigger than that- he's nine and a half months old) and I've heard e-collars shouldn't be used on dogs under 12lbs? I was saving up to get him the Dogtra 175NCP. I also looked at the Innotek collar for small dogs, but I didn't like that it only had four levels of stim. He can be a bit finicky when it comes to correction- I wouldn't say he's a soft dog, but with a prong correction he either won't respond much at all or he will respond like you just hit him with a baseball bat, with the minutest increase of correction. He lunges on lead, but the prong has helped with this immensely- he just tends to forget and start walking in front of me again. He's a very energetic dog.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (01/21/2009 09:13 PM)
Edit reason: change title