How Did You Get Your Dog?

[chrissycat21]

I'm sure many of you have interesting stories of how your dog came into your family. Mine isn't too interesting, though....

Snowy was a gift for my birthday 3 1/2 years ago. I had no idea because my mom just the week before had said I would never get a dog while living under her roof! I opened up the card and it said "Please take me home soon!" and had a picture of Snowy. I have to say that was one of the happiest days of my life. I was screaming out of excitement SO much that the owner of the place where I had my birthday party almost kicked us out! lol

-Chrissy

[BitsyNaceyDog]

Justin and I bought Bitsy 2 days before our wedding as a gift to one another.
When Bitsy was about 10 months old we decided we wanted a second dog, so we found a lady who was looking for a home for her daughters min-pin. Her daughter lived in texas and was getting a divorce and couldn't keep her dog, so she put him on a plane to her mom. She also didn't want the dog, as he was 2 years old and not at all house trained or neutered. Justin and I went to meet "Shortie" and fell in love with him the moment we saw him. When we got him home we changed his name to "Charlie". Three days after he came home with us he was neutered. We worked with him and got him on a schedule and before long he was house trained.

Just 3 months after we got Charlie, a lady I hardly knew wanted to give me Buster, one of her 4 chihuahuas. We felt we needed to take him to get him out of the home he was in. The 4 dogs had NEVER been outside before and the house was dark and filled with cigarette smoke. The dogs went potty on newspapers. The house was dirty and there was trash everywhere. I also found out that the woman's grandson who was in his 20's was abusive to the dogs. We wish that we could've gotten all 4 chihuahuas and found them good homes, but at least we got Buster. He now loves to go outside and bask in the sun.

We just got Nacey back, we had fostered her for a few weeks, about a month and a half ago. She is 9 months old and was passed around to 3 different homes before coming to me, because no one would take the time to work with her and train her. Well, now she is in her forever home and we love her very much.

[pitc9]

Sierra was picked us as a stray by a dog warden when she was 5 months old. Was going to be PTS because she nipped at the dog warden.

Buddy was dumped off in the woods, it took the APL 2 weeks to catch him. He was only days away from being PTS when I found him. He was 1.

[cali]

lets see Shadow was given to my dad by a naighbor who found her wandering the ally the rest of us were in kelowna for the summer, then one day my we got a letter in the mail with picture of little shadow sitting on top of her doghouse! I did not meet shadow till like 2 months later.

Happy, well I had wanted a puppy ever since I was little, I was told I could have one when I was older, when I was 13 I still remebered that promise and I decided I was old enugh lol so me and my mom started researching different breeds, my mom was set on me getting a silky terrier, but I prefer the bigger dogs lol later we started looking at border collies, after I found out about them looking in a book. we had also been looking at the shelter for dogs. we looked at several farms for a BC puppy, till my mom found out about Happys litter looked at the website and everyone fell in love with the pic of Happy at 7 weeks. oh I also almost adopted a german shorthaired pointer, but he was gone within the day. but when we went to see happys litter I fell in love of Happy and brought her home!(after some begging lol)

Perky, we adopted the same year as we got Happy, because both me and my mom were handling Happy in flyball, and my mom wanted her own flyball dog, so she started checking out the shelter till she found Perky fell in love with her, brought me and the other dogs later that day and brought her home in the same trip.

Ripley, well we had been looking for a companion for shadow since the others did not like her much lol, just a pet, not an athlete or anything right, well my mom saw him at the shelter, called my dad at work who ordered her to adopt that dg right NOW. lol so she did and whne I came home from school that day I had a little black dog I had never seen before run to greet me at the gate lol

Misty, after we retired Happy from flyball my mom TOLD me I needed another border collie lol. believe me that shocked me right there! so we started hunting, and found the ad for mistys litter at master feeds, so we called, aranged a time to see the pups, picked out Misty and reserved her, and went to pick her up the morning of christmas eve.

Blair, well my mom was looking for another dog but she NEVER planned on a pyrshep lol but Blair has some problems as a puppy and his breeder(also Happys breeder) asked if we wanted him, for free because she did not want to sell a sick pup, and she thought he would benifet from being fed RAW so we took him

[Toller 42]

I got Jesse from a vacuum sales man when she was 2, she was also pregnant when we got her so thats how we ended up with Tia. The guy bred Jesse with a very well bred Dachshund and he was a very good looking dog but it wasn't the right match for Jess because Tia doesn't look really have a normal doxie appearance, thats okay though. We got Echo from the shelter when she was 6 weeks old, and we got Tango from my moms friend/chiropractor.

[GoldenRetrLuver]

Both were from breeders.

We found Molly in the newspaper over three years ago, and drove around three plus hours to go see her. She was kept in a wire cage [kind of like a playpin] at the far end of the backyard with a doghouse inside. She was five months old when we got her, had an umbilical hernia, and was the last of the litter, so who knows what she could have gone through for all those months.

Daisy was also found in the newspaper over two years ago. She came to us when she was 11 weeks old, and was one of two Golden Retriever pups to choose from [her sister and her]. The puppies [he had Labs, younger Golden Retriever pups which he said were eight weeks old, and Daisy and her littermate sister], were kept in the patio of the backyard with a few "Igloo doghouses" to sleep in.

Getting both of them were one of the best decisions we've ever made.

[MariaM]

Well, my dad farms and he was at the meeting and he overheard this person he sort of knew asking another person he knew if they wanted any puppies. My dad asked about it, and she said that 6 lab puppies and a father were dumped on the side of the road near her farm. On Good Friday, after mass, we went to go look at them. My mom picked up Major and really liked him (I don't regret getting Major at all, but at the time, I would have picked the odd furry one named Furball) So, then we went home. On Monday we picked him up, took him to the vet, and then brought him home

[primabella]

I'll try and keep this as short as possible. The actual whole story is paragraphs long, lol.

I've wanted a dog for as long as I can remmeber and begged my parents to let me have one. Two years ago, they finally gave in so I began research on what breed would fit our lifestyle best. It doesn't make sense to me to buy a dog just because I like how it looks but make it suffer because we can not offer it all it needs. So I liked the Sheltie and looked for them in every shelter around us. After a summer of no luck, I came upon a breeder who was in the area and we made plans to reserve and pick up a pup.

[Glacier]

Do you want the whole list? This could take awhile.....

My husband bought Muskwa from a breeder. He had Muskwa before we met. Contract had a breeding clause in it. Breeder wanted one litter sired by Muskwa. Our "stud fee" was Earle. I got to pick a puppy. Earle picked me. He started nursing on my fingers when I first met him. My bridge baby Hoodoo was also from that litter. Hoodoo was adopted and then neglected so we took him back.

Sleet was a gift from my mushing mentor. Sleet was about six when I got her. She wasn't happy living in a dog yard, but still wanted to pull. My friend recognized that Sleet wasn't happy and thought she would fit in a recreational team like mine. Sleet's my soulmate dog.

Kayleigh came from the shelter. I was in there one day for no apparent reason when this big, black dog jumped up on her kennel gate. She was way too big for that little room so I took her home. Turns out that there was a reason I was there--if the shelter had enough time to really get to know Kayleigh she likely would have been euthanized. She has/had some major issues, but she'd doing better now.

Bandit we basically stole from former neighbors. They tried to sell him to us. They were his third lousy home. When he ran away, he always came to our place. One time, we just didn't return him. A week or so later, his owner left a bag with his AKC papers, vet records and leashes on our door. We never heard from them again.

Preacher and Franklin were our first foster dogs and our first foster failures. They were a package deal, had to stay together. They had been in the shelter for a year. Franklin was so timid no one could catch him. Preacher was so depressed he stopped eating. Six months later, I was laying on the floor with Preacher and my husband walked by and said "why don't you just adopt him? No one will ever love that ugly old mutt like you do?" So first thing the next morning, I adopted both of them.

Goldie arrived shortly after Preacher and Franklin. She'd been in the shelter for two years and so depressed. She eventually became an adoption!

Raven and Heyoka arrived at the same time. My husband really wanted Heyoka, but he was highly adoptable. The shelter would have had no trouble placing him. Stuart thought we deserved "an easy one" for a change, but he felt really guilty about it. So to ease his mind, we took Raven too. Raven had been in the shelter for a year. She turned into a great sled dog so we adopted her too.

Delta and Antare arrived after a disasterous foster. Summit, the foster, tried to kill Kayleigh. She was highly dog aggressive and would escape just to beat up another dog. She did major damage to Kayleigh. I had no choice but to return her to the shelter. Of course they were full so I said I'd take a timid male. Delta and Antare were another package deal, so they both came.

Pingo was from a musher friend of mine. She wasn't abused, but he had dropped her to his B team. He's really serious, has run the Quest ect. Pingo wasn't getting enough exercise and a bored sled dog is a bad thing! She was one of his first dogs and he wanted her to go somewhere he knew she would be well loved. I don't think he expected her to be a house dog, but she really likes the couch!

Chase came from the shelter. Kira had just been adopted and we had an open foster spot. Again, good sled dog, so I kept him.

Pacer arrived after a long debate about which shelter dog to take. Deciding factor was that the volunteers would no longer take Pacer out for walks, runs on the weekends. So he came home. A couple weeks later, hubs brought home Founder.

You all know Hobo's story.

Chum arrived after the shelter considered putting him down--he's dominant and growly. He just needed to know he wasnt' the boss and that someone else would take care of him. Then someone claiming to be his owner showed up at the shelter. They were drunk, rude and abusive to the staff--clearly Chum had been treated the same way. I walked out the back door with him and he's never gone back.

Mac & Ozzy are more long term shelter residents that all seem to end up at our place.

I think that's everyone.

[Amber]

When I was 6 years old me and my brother wanted a dog really bad. It was kinda late, and we were searching for a petstore. (yes, i know it's bad, but i didn't know about them at the time) We went to the 1st petstore, no puppies, the 2nd petstore no puppies, but a kitten was there. We were giving up hope, and it was pouring down rain, when we tried our last stop. Just our luck, Katie was there, and we got her. And I don't regret it at all.

I wanted a puppy ever since Brodie. (my old dog) I remember begging, and doing anything to get one. One night when we were at captain Ds we were talking about getting a puppy. My dads said we would wait till summer time to start looking. Well, not really. On Easter break, April 8, 2004 my parents brought me to a breeders house. Where there were schnauzers puppys in a pen. First one that caught my eye was Elvis. and thats how Elvis came.


Best decisions we have ever made!

[EssTer]

what an intresting stories

[Samantha Puppy]

My neighbor found Samantha and her puppy sister abandoned alongside a busy highway when they were 6 weeks old. She stopped to rescue them and brought them over my house to see if I knew anyone who was interested in a dog. I took one look and knew I had to have her.

[stacwase]

We got Max at the shelter. I took him for a "test walk" and he saw an open truck door and pulled me off of my feet to get into that truck! I knew I had to have him.

We got the chihuahuas when my mother became too ill to care for them and I agreed to take them home and housebreak them. I made it clear I had no interest in keeping them. My husband, my kids and I all fell in love with them. It looks like we're keeping one or both of them.

We got Jake from a breeder. I wasn't conscious of the dog overpopulation problem at the time.

[dappledoxie]

Ok well...

Rebel:
My dad went through a phase of breeding dachshunds (Only a few litters but still too many in my opinion) and the last litter one of his females had I wanted one of the black and tan. I picked out little Rebel and he was mine from then on! He's such a mommas boy.

Claire:
I've wanted a dapple dachshund since I knew they existed so once I got old enough and had a job. I saved up some money and contacted a few breeders. I found Claire's breeder and when I saw Claire I fell in love and knew I had to get her into a great loving home.

Niki:
My friend's mom was breeding Australian Shepherds and Boston Terriers. He asked me if I wanted one because they weren't finding homes for them so he said I could come pick out a puppy. I found out later after checking out aussie sites and talking to breeders that Niki's mom and dad were both merles. Luckily my vet checked her out and she is good and healthy. (I felt very angry at my friend's mom for doing her dogs that way, one of the pups was almost all white with blue eyes, I still wonder what happend to that pup)

[LorraineO]

totally uninteresting answer here,,, Newspaper advertisment....private sale... she was a birthday gift for our son.