Adopting A Dog

Congratulations. You've made a great decision to adopt a dog. Studies have shown that owning a dog does reduce stress, bring happiness and a general all over good feeling! The love that you recieve from a dog is incredible.

However, adopting a dog into your family and household does come with some baggage. Puppies and even older dogs can act out in ways that can drive you crazy. The kind of things that will make you second guess your decision to adopt your dog in the first place.

 Usually there is an underlying cause such as boredom, aggression or a lack of proper training at the root of the trouble. Luckily, there are things that you can do to make life a whole lot easier for both you and your dog.

These 5 Tips can help in your quest for a better behaved pooch:

Spay And Neuter

1. Spaying a female or neutering a male dog may seem cruel and unusual punishment, but in reality it is a necessary kindness. Without these procedures being done, a dog's nature will take over. Females will go into "heat" and try to mate as will male dogs.

They can and will do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal including breaking loose from you at the most opportune time. Once loose, I think you can imagine what the result is. This is also one of the reasons that there are so many homeless and unwanted dogs in the world today.

The spaying and neutering tends to have a calming effect on dogs. Without the natural drive to mate, dogs are under much less stress. The lessening of stress can lead to much a longer life for your dog as well as a better relationship with you.

Stress

2. Even after you have adopted a dog and had it spayed or neutered, a dog can still be stressed out. This stress can come from many different things such as:

   * Just being a new environment

   * Separation from his own family

   * Competiton for attention with your children or other pets

   * Loneliness when left at home for extended periods of time such as when      you go to work

   * Boredom from having little or nothing to do

This stress can turn into destructive behavior very quickly. Simply put, dogs have few options to relieve stress in there lives. If you don't provide an outlet for it, they will take matters into their own paws.

Exercise And Activity

3.  Research into the personality and characteristics of the breed of dog that you want to adopt is an important thing to do prior to adopting your dog. Many breeds of dogs require higher degrees of maintenance than others.

Breeds that are known as working dogs are usually the brightest and most active dogs. They will need much more time devoted to them and be kept active. This fits in well if you also are physically active and have the time to train them.

However, if your life revolves more around your job, your families activites or simply sitting in front of the television or computer on your down time, a less active breed would be better for you.

Regardless of which breed you choose, all dogs need care and attention. They will need to get out and exercise and to be socialized. You are going to have to plan out at least some time to devote to your dog. If you don't, you can't expect to have a well trained and loving dog.

Training

4.  Every dog is going to respond differently in each situation. But one thing that you will need to do, even at a most basic level is to train your dog. Without at least some training, you are most likely to have your hands full with a very unruly dog.

Training doesn't need to be hard. In fact you can often make a game of it so that training is a fun activity for both of you. There are many online and home study dog training courses that you can investigate. These allow you to set the pace of learning so that it fits your schedule. Also the training is done at your home or locations that you choose. Most aren't very expensive.

An alternative is to locate a local dog trainer or dog training course. The advantage to this method is that you have someone to guide you in your efforts and you have someone to ask questions. The downside, is that your training is done at their location, on their time and not at your home. This would make it difficult to train a dog for a specific condition at your home. Local instruction in general will also cost more than home study courses.

Patience

5.  Having patience when training your adopted dog is probably the most important of these tips. Without it, you are most likely to be very disappointed in your results. It takes time and effort to train any dog.

A well trained, well cared for and loved dog will not only be healthier but happier in the long run. The bond that you will develop over time is definitely worth every second that you devote to your dog.

Following these five tips when you adopt a dog will result in a better relationship between you and your dog and end up with the two of you being much happier.