How to Select a Puppy from a Litter--But First a Word on Rescue Dog versus new Puppy

I'll skip the details on how you decide what breed, what age, and so forth. But here are some quick tips on where to go to even look for a dog.

It's always nice to check the rescue dogs in your area, through petfinder.com. They say that for every new dog you buy from a breeder, a dog in a shelter will die because it's one fewer adoptions.

Ouch.

For Pete's sake, at least CHECK the shelters and rescue groups.

So I started with a rescue dog. That's Bambi, my 4 to 6 year old Italian Greyhound. At least I did my part a little bit. She's a great dog, with the kookiest dog personality ever. Eccentric, and with a huge sense of humor. She's hilarious, but we suspect she's part extraterrestrial because she is so absolutely weird!

My second dog, Midey the Boston Terrier, 1.5 years old, was from an AKC breeder. However, there are incredible young Bostons on Boston rescue sites!

Oh, that's the other way to rescue a dog. You google like this: In the white box, you put:

Your state Dog breed Rescue

So for me, it would go:

North Carolina Boston Terrier Rescue

or for Bambi it was

Wisconsin Italian Greyhound Rescue

and all the rescue groups in your area will pop up.

Rescue groups are especially great because they have specific breeds that you're looking for, but best of all, ALL their pups are in private foster homes! Being house trained, crate trained, socialized. AND on their sites, you will get a really thorough assessment of all the strengths and weakness of each dog! It increases by geometrics the chance that the dog you get will be what you were looking for.

Shelter dogs can turn out beautifully, too. But if you're timid like me, and like to proceed on maximum information, rescue groups set up by breed and by state give a bit more information sometimes.

Next post, I PROMISE to get to the part about what to look for when you go check out a litter.