[Dailydrool] Puppies

[Pamela McQuade]

Puppies are lovely. They can come visit for a while, if they lose their homes and Tri-State needs a place for them for a few days. But they do not get adopted into this household.

The reason? Lady Jane. She was a terror in her puppyhood. She chewed the butler's table my carpenter-brother had made with his own hands. She ate so many remotes, I can't remember the number, but it had to be at least five or six. She showed very little interest in toys, but a lot in anything that frequently had contact with humans. After so many years, I can hardly remember all the damaged items that passed through her teeth, but my frustration remains vivid.

When I read in a dog-training book that a puppy really wants to obey you, I thought they were lying. Jane didn't want to do anything I told her to--at least not until she was three years old or more.

Jane calmed down a bit when she reached three, but her OEBE antics continued until a couple of years ago. No counter was safe. She adored bread, meat, and a wide range of vegetables. None were safe from the basset bounce that aided her in reaching the back of any counter or stove. She even got the cat in cahoots with her; he would knock down bags of treats, so she had access to them. At eleven, after Jane downed the Unidentified Stomach Object that had to be removed at great expense to us and some pain to her, she finally stopped counter cruising. 

But the puppy years still remain vivid in my mind. So I do not do puppies. I adore them briefly, but I pass them on to hardier souls who do not mind their challenges.

I have two seniors currently. I still have the occasional pee or poop on the floor, but little gets chewed and nothing is counter cruised. When I think of adopting a puppy, I sleep on it, and like a bad dream, it goes away. That's because I dream of chewed-on objects of the past.

Recently someone told me he didn't want a rescued hound because he didn't want to deal with the problems someone else had inflicted on a dog. I don't understand him. Why deal with potty training, when you can get a potty trained dog? Why spend endless hours trying to make a dog understand what you want, when you can get one that is mostly trained already?
And more than that, why buy a badly bred youngster when you can rescue a dog few people will even consider. Puppies are cute, but they come at a high price. Training an older dog out of a few bad habits is much easier, to my mind, than trying to bang into a basset head the need for obedience.

I may adopt a middle-aged dog, but I don't do puppies. I'm glad some of you do, but my patience wore thin twelve or more years ago. I still haven't built it up enough to risk a puppy. Though I must admit that the last one we fostered overnight was awfully cute...
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets