Choosing a dog is a lot of work. Having any pet in your home is a lot of work. Regardless of which pet you choose you will have to put some time into raising or trading or even care. Extending your family by any amount of legs and species is a huge undertaking that should not be taken lightly. Pet’s are not something that should be brought into a family if you don’t intend to keep them their for the entirety of their lives. Remember too, those cute kittens and puppies will eventually grow bigger, eat more, and require much more care as they age too. Including those ever so expensive vet bills too.

Choosing a pet that is right for you can be challenging. Especially with a dog. There is a lot of stigma around people sometimes when they get a pet and have a pure bred. I am sure you may have heard the saying “rescue, don’t shop” or something along those lines about getting a mutt instead of shopping for a breed. I get it. But there can be many reasons why a family (including mine) would spend the money on a dog rather than rescue one. And like many aspects in life, who are we to judge how a family decides to get their faithful companions.

One big reason we did not want to rescue a dog was we had no idea their background. Sure, some rescues do get dogs as puppies and can be adopted at that age so they basically are able to be trained whatever way you wish, but that doesn’t mean medically. Maybe they were bred between a family, or maybe they have a lot of health problems when the 2 breeds mix. There is many reasons aside from the obvious “mutt” stereotype or even the “Heinz 57” as my Mom would say. You never really know unless it is even pure bred. Now I will also say, just because it may be a pure bred doesn’t mean it has a great health record either. Because I have a feeling I know people will come at me with the whole “But do you know where the puppy is coming from even with a breeder”. No. I don’t. But there are some standards when they are registered breeds and bred through the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC).

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Another reason why we wanted to get our dog from a respectable breeder and not a rescue was because the breed we choose means a lot to me. It reminds me of my Grampie and Nanny. They had Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retrievers and their last one in particular, I was around a lot because I spent the night at their house the most as a kid. I felt like it was a very comfortable dog to be around and I loved going camping and bringing her food at the end of the day. She was a great dog and I wanted that feeling for my pwn family too, knowing that this was a forever, or until life says so commitment.

To tie into the earlier statements, I also knew their temperament. They are a medium sized dog, longer fur. They love to swim and are known for retrieving birds and well, ducks, for hunters. They are high energy and have grooming needs also. However being around Princess (Grandparents dog) she was never snippy or would try to growl at us. Even when she had puppies and we would chase them around the yard and they would nip at our heals as we ran. I knew that eventually I would be having my own family and wanted a dog that would be safe around my kids even when it becomes old. That’s not to say you shouldn’t watch a dog at all times either. Accidents do happen and tails can be stepped on too!

And finally, before I hear comments about this, “WhY jUsT pUpPiEs”? We wanted to raise a dog. We wanted a dog that would be around with us for a very long time. And, with our lives and working having an older dog that would maybe need to be let out more, not be left alone as often, etc would not work well for us. Mind you I was working a little at the time and my partner was away for a bit, I still was able to make sure he wasn’t left alone for more than 4 hours in the first year or so. We didn’t want to be with a dog if it needed someone there due to trauma and whatever else it may need. Plus, getting an older dog that was not a puppy that did have traumatic upbringing would require some pretty serious training to correct their behavior or to make them even comfortable around us too. Not to mention, by the time that we had gotten our dog we had in fact knew my siblings would have children first and we didn’t want to have to worry about bringing out dog to family gatherings and monitoring them 110% of the time to ensure no one was hurt.

Before judging people why they decide to have a pure bred dog as part of the family, think about why they are getting it first. It is really easy for people on the outside to automatically think it has to do with maybe a rescue being dirty or something, which is entirely not true at all. There may be far more thought put into a pure bred than a rescue than you may think!