People often ask me how I ended up with such great dogs. My usual answer is consistency; both my husband and I enact the same rules. For example: To prevent begging at the table neither of us feed our dogs (Sadie and Rusty) while we are eating at the dinner table. Still we often save a treat for them and give it to them later when we are finished with our meal. This passive training helps to further establish us as the dominate members of the household, while training good manners.
However there is more to our great dogs than simply consistency. Both Sadie and Rusty are rescues from the Butte Humane Society and our luck with our pooches goes back much further and resides in the method we used to finally choose which dogs to adopt. Choosing the right dog is not always easy but here are a few traits I look for when picking out a new dog.
When Chris and I were picking out Sadie and Rusty, the first thing we examined was their personality. Did they like people? Did they cower at the back of the pen or eagerly wait for you to open the gate. If the gate opened and the dog ran by us showing complete disinterest then it helped us to say no regardless of how cute they were. On the contrary if we opened the pen and the dog came to us begging for attention (which both Sadie and Rusty did) then it received a yes vote. It’s difficult, but not impossible to train a dog who is terrified of people, a runner, or simply lacks the desire to please. If you don’t have hours to spend training, then do not pick out a project dog which will require oodles of time.
If when you open the gate the puppy/dog you are considering making a part of your family comes to you, it’s a very good sign. You know the dog will bond more easily with you and your family and will be a lot less likely to run off.
What do you think?