by Bobbye Land

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

Before you purchased your last new car, you likely spent hours poring over safety ratings, body designs, available features, and asked a professional you felt you could trust any questions you might have about the models you were considering. Since a dog is going to be a living, breathing member of your family, doesn't making the choice deserve at least as much research and consideration as an inanimate object that will likely only be with you a few years?

The first thing to take into consideration when you decide to adopt any pet is whether or not you have the time and money to spend on its care and wellbeing. Pets are expensive, dogs are especially so. Proper nutrition, health care, daily grooming and training take quite a chunk out of a budget and schedule. Granted, a dog repays all that tenfold with their love and devotion, but if you're not going to have the ability to care for it the way it deserves, consider getting a smaller, less labor and cost intensive pet.

Next it's time to ask yourself why you want a dog. If you want one "for the children" remember that while kids and dogs seem to naturally fit well together, it is the parent that will ultimately end up taking care of the dog. If you want one for protection only, remember that a security system will be far cheaper in the long run, and won't require cleaning up after or feeding (well, except maybe for batteries). If you think you want one so you can breed it and make a lot of money, be aware that there are literally thousands of purebred dogs being euthanized in shelters across the country because there are not enough good homes. Raising a litter of puppies costs a lot of money if you do it correctly. Anyone who 'makes money raising dogs" is not doing it right, and is just contributing to the overpopulation and genetic health problems facing the dog world. If you want one because there was one in the last movie you saw and you want one just like it, remember that you don't live on a movie set. In real life, dogs aren't born knowing how to do cool tricks. Not only that, but usually after a specific breed is made popular thanks to Hollywood, their overall quality declines as unknowledgeable people try to jump on the money-train and begin to breed them willy-nilly. Dalmatians, for instance, became wildly popular after Disney filmed '101 Dalmatians' much to the dismay of serious Dalmatian fanciers who knew that while Dals make wonderful pets for special people, they are definitely NOT a breed that will

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