OK, so once you’ve finally figured out which particular breeder or breed line to go with, there is still the process of picking out the right puppy. Believe it or not, this is the process that most people know the most about. You can find info. online and in books to help with this process that is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, this is actually the least important aspect f picking out a dog. If you get the right breed, the right line, the right breeder, rescue group, or shelter, then the choice of which particular dog to get is not nearly so important. They are all likely to be pretty good choices. However, especially if you are getting a dog through a rescue group or shelter, it can be tricky to

Yes, there are placid Labradors, there are hyper Labradors, there are fearful Labradors, and there are even highly aggressive Labradors (trust me, I’ve worked with them). Some of this has to do with the environment in which they are raised, but much more than most people think is simply due to breeding. Some Labradors are bred to hunt, and their energy, intensity, pain tolerance, and stubbornness would drive most pet owners mad. Some are bred for the show ring and the breeding focuses simply on their looks, often with disregard to temperament and health. Many Labradors are just plain bred badly by people who don’t know what they are doing and are just trying to have fun or make some money. There is even a distinct difference between an American bred Labrador and an English bred Labrador (Americans are more goofy and silly, English more dignified and mature). Over 40% of Labradors in America have hip dysplasia, a joint disorder that can be crippling and is passed genetically. Labradors aren’t unique in this variety. Pretty much every dog breed has the same amount of variation, and there are thousands of dog breeds. What a mess, huh?

Now this seems like something that would be easy to do on your own, right? I mean, there are books on dog breeds: there are Internet sites that can help, etc. The trouble with all of this is that there is no way for you to know if the information given about each breed is accurate, and, trust us on this, most of it isn’t. A lot of people who take the time to write about a breed have either never met the dogs themselves and are just repeating hearsay, or are lovers of the breed and have a lot of blind spots about it’s qualities. Many breed lovers, or “fanciers” as they are called in the dog world, have never spent any time with any other breeds, and so when they write their descriptions, they have nothing else to compare to. They may think their breed is calm and easy to train simply because they have never actually worked with a dog that was truly calm and easy to train. Many fanciers also have a very grand idea about their breeds nobility, history, beauty, etc. that may not be based in fact.

Puppy Mill Puppies: Puppy Mills are places where dogs are raised and sold solely for profit. The puppies are usually pure bred, and are sold out of pet stores, on the side of the road, out of back yards, over the internet, and in the paper. Puppy Mills keep their dogs in horrific conditions and breed them repetitively until they finally succumb to disease and malnutrition. They can’t sell the puppies themselves because no one would visit these houses of horror in order to get a puppy, so they find sneaky ways to distribute them. Often Puppy Mill owners will hire a series of families or couples that they pay to sell the puppies on their behalf. These families will tell the customer that the puppies came from their own dogs, but they really were brought to them from the puppy mill. Another really common way to distribute puppy mill puppies is through pet stores. There is no such thing as a responsible breeder who would sell their puppies to a pet store, so you can safely assume that all pet store puppies come form puppy mills.

So why not try to rescue a puppy mill puppy and make it your pet? Well, first of all, they are almost always horrific to housetrain. This is due to the fact that they were forced to live in their own filth for most of their short lives. Worse than this, though, they tend to be very sickly and will require lots of expensive veterinary care to keep them alive. They are bred indiscriminately, and are often highly inbred. This results in both physical and mental deformities. They are not given any medical care or vaccinations. Many are completely non-socialized to people, and will grow up to become fearful and/or aggressive. In short, they don’t make very good pets and can leave your family with a lot of heartache.

Puppy Mills are pretty much the scum of the dog world. Many people are outraged by these establishments and many campaigns have been undertaken to get fight them. I see the existence of puppy mills as part of a larger problem with the way we view and treat dogs in this country. I will write more on this later. In the meantime, this link should give you some more puppy mill information: http://www.stoppuppymills.org/

Obesity in Dogs: Obesity in dogs is as much of an epidemic in America as is obesity in people. Why is this? Well, for many of the same reasons. Dog owners are busy and harried and don’t have as much time to spend with their dogs. We don’t get out to exercise them as much, we feel guilty about this, and so we feed them more. Another problem is that the quality of the food that many of us feed our dogs is not great. A lot of dog foods are high in refined carbohydrates, and this will make anyone fat. Even the diet foods contain a lot of these sugary ingredients! That’s why many of the diet foods don’t work. The last problem, though, and probably the biggest, is that many people in America don’t know how to tell if a dog is overweight. This misunderstanding is exacerbated by veterinarians who are frightened of offending their patients’ owners and so don’t mention the problem, and by the media who often portray overweight dogs as normal.

So, how can you tell if your dog is overweight? Feel along his ribs and waist (you may have to squirm your fingers down past the coat on thick-coated dogs. You should be able to easily feel your dog’s ribs under a very thin layer of fat (think about how you’d like your ribs to feel). If you have a short-coated dog, you should actually be able to see the last rib or two. Also, you can feel your dog’s hips. His hipbones should be clearly defined and easy to find, but not protruding. This link http://www.placervillevet.com/canine%20body%20condition.htm has the best drawings and descriptions I have found to date for determining your dog’s weight. Still unsure, ask your vet to be brutally honest with you (many are scared to do this unless you ask), or, the next time you visit Cool Dog, ask me to take a look.