Fine Pets Can Come From Humble Places
If you’ve never owned a shelter dog, or any dog from a relatively unknown background, but are thinking of getting one, take a look at a new book by California dog trainer Bob Christiansen.
“Choosing a Shelter Dog: A Complete Guide to Help You Rescue and Rehome a Dog” is an excellent source of information about how to best care for these special canines.
Christiansen and the four other dog trainers he employs train more than 1,000 dogs each year through the Canine Learning Center in the San Diego area. Christiansen said that’s how he got the idea for the book.
“I own two purebred dogs, and in my prior life I was guilty of having a bias against shelter dogs,” he said during a recent phone interview.
“But through working as a trainer, I saw many excellent shelter dogs and wondered why anyone would give a dog like that up.”
Too often, the reason is the dog misbehaved. It barked too much. It dug in the backyard. It chewed shoes or the furniture. It jumped or climbed the fence.
All those behaviors, Christiansen said, can be solved humanely and fairly easily. The root of most dog behavior problems, he said, is lack of knowledge on the owner’s part.
Christiansen said he wrote his new book with the goal of intervening when the dog-owner relationship starts.
“That’s when optimism is the highest,” he said.
The 116-page, soft-cover “Choosing a Shelter Dog” is divided into 10 chapters which collectively cover just about anything you might need to know about developing a great relationship with any dog from an unknown background - shelter dogs, dogs advertised in classified ads and puppies given away in shopping mall parking lots.
Logically, the book starts out with tips on preparing to get a dog, covering everything from what it takes to meet a dog’s needs to the importance of spaying and neutering.
In the chapter on selecting a dog, Christiansen covers questions to ask at the shelter, how to decide what kind of dog to get (there are variations in mixed-breeds, too), among other related topics.
He also strongly urges those seeking a purebred dog to contact a local purebred rescue group if they can’t find the type of dog they want at the shelter.
Other chapters cover living with a shelter dog, training a shelter dog, preventing problem behavior, health care, maintaining canine wellness, responsible dog ownership, travel and lost and found pets.
The book sells for about $12. Check your local dog supply store, bookstore, or order directly through the Canine Learning Center, P.O. Box 97, Carlsbad, Calif. 92018
Two other books that also might be helpful if you’re adopting a dog from an unknown background are “The Chosen Puppy - How to Select and Raise a Great Puppy From an Animal Shelter” and “Second-hand Dog - How to Turn Yours Into a First-rate Pet.” Both books are by dog trainer Carol Lea Benjamin, who wrote “Mother Knows Best - The Natural Way to Train Your Dog.”
Of note:
USDAA Agility Trial, sponsored by the Spokane Dog Training Club, starts today beginning at 8 a.m. at Hutton Settlement, E. 9907 Wellesley (access from Upriver Drive). For more information, call Gail at 928-7592 or Barb at 244-2332.
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