Introduction 

Are you thinking about buying a puppy or a dog? If so, then you are about to add a lot of freshness and joy to your life.

I am a professional dog trainer and this book is designed to give potential owners an insight into what is involved when you get a dog. The main goal of this book is to help perspective dog owners make an informed decision. A decision based on well-reasoned arguments and seasoned information about getting a dog, keeping a dog and training a dog.

It is an exciting thought when you bring home a puppy and you will feel exhilarated by the possibilities. Anticipating the exciting adventures you can have, you become filled with the promise of a new life. Like most people, you will have high expectations. Expecting loyalty and ultimate companionship from your canine acquisition.

It is this connection with humans that make dogs so unique because they are pretty much everywhere, helping out. Originally, they may have been designed to herd sheep and cattle, to ferret out ferrets, rats and other vermin and for guarding our holdings but that’s not the end of it.  Continually, you will find dogs in the roles of facilitators and helpers. Utilizing their powerful ability to smell, dogs have been trained to recognize specific scents and help airport security and drug enforcement agencies to spot drugs and contraband and to detect explosives. They warn us of intruders, dig out people buried under avalanches and collapsed buildings, track the lost, stranded or injured.

They can identify malignant cancerous tumors in patients. Emotionally, dogs have been used to provide support to those who have been through traumatic experiences. Although dogs can’t see shades of red, they can and do help the blind cross the street. They can guard and protect you from all kinds of threats. Dogs somehow know if their owner is going to have a seizure and they have been known to become agitated and start barking at the earliest signs of a heart attack.

The accolade Man’s Best Friend certainly appears to be well-earned.

The general reason dogs are well-liked is due to their capacity for bonding with their owners. They form the same kind of connection as wolves in a pack and become uncontested members of your family. So, dogs are really popular and they can be found in 44% of all US households, according to the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). There are about 78 million dogs registered as pets. Dog adoption reached a new high of 10-13 adoptions per day during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The tragedy however is that every year 3.3 million dogs enter US animal shelters nationwide according to the APPA (American Pet Products Association). In the past ten years, the number may have fallen by 0.6 million since 2011, but it is in no way significant. According to the APPA, out of the 3.3 million, only 1.6 million dogs are adopted from animal shelters.

Forty seven percent of dog owners rehome their pet. Major reasons for rehoming their dogs according to the APPA are behavioral problems, aggressive behaviors, or health problems or the fact that the pet outgrew owner’s size expectations. If new homes can’t be found, then these dogs end up in an animal shelter.  About 30 % of animals left in shelters are left there by their owners and 25% of dogs left in animal shelters are purebreds, which means they have a documented pedigree. A pit bull is the purebred dog most likely to be found abandoned in a shelter than any other dog breed.

A significant number of dogs in animal shelters are stray dogs. Out of the seven hundred thousand stray animals, 620,000 dogs are returned to their owners each year. This success in restoring dogs to their owners is due to microchip identification for dogs.

Still, in the end, 625, 000 pets were euthanized in 2019. An intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital is administered for a quick and painless death. Euthanasia is justified on the grounds of age, and problematic health issues, as a way for the animal’s suffering to come to an end.

The questions that such statistics raise are; how come such a large number of dogs were no longer their owner’s joyful companions? and what lead to the dog being discarded? How unmanageable and unruly were they? Couldn’t they have been trained? Why wasn’t their aggressiveness controlled and what kind of misbehavior landed them in an animal shelter? Wasn’t the owner aware of their dog breeds specific health risks? And surprisingly, how come the owner did not know that the dog was going to grow and most probably reach the size specified for their dog breed? 

Majority of the people who buy puppies are usually attracted by the cute and cuddly size and look. Not realizing that this baby is going to go through the toddler stage and adolescence in a matter of months, to mature into a fully grown dog in a year’s time or maybe two years for some of the slow-growing breeds.

This is the first reality check.

Now that the Pandemic lockdown is almost over and people are returning to their workplaces, a large majority of the dogs which were adopted during the pandemic to ward off loneliness, are now either being put up for adoption or simply being dumped in animal shelters.

Most of these animals are one-year old dogs. They are scared by the change in their situation. They have not been trained. They are destructive and fearful of anything new. One animal shelter director Aron Jones, executive director of Moms and Mutts Colorado Rescue, states in USA TODAY that these dogs are, ‘gigantic babies’. 

An indicator of the plight of these dogs, is that no one is willing to take on these dogs because they are untrained and destructive. Aron Jones, goes on to identify the main reason behind this situation, The trends that we've seen is the people who adopted, either they didn't have any other dogs or pets or they were first-time dog owners, and I think that was the biggest thing, 

Unawareness and ignorance about how to care for a dog and how to train a dog is the main cause of this trend. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t get a dog.  Rather it highlights an oversight. A confusion regarding dogs and what kind of care they need. New or first-time owners were no doubt nonplussed by their dogs demands because they had no idea what they are supposed to do.

This book will help you reach an in-depth understanding of dogs and their concomitant care. The first section of the book is centered around the question, should you get a dog? What aspects need consideration before you buy a dog. The second section is an exploration of dog breeds and which one might be suitable for you because the fact is if there is a clash between your and your pet’s personality and character traits, it not going to be a happy marriage. Then if you get a pet, you can develop a strong relationship between yourself and your dog through positive engagement activities, training essentials for a dog and your role in making it happen.

Finally, as you read through this book you will be able to come to a well-reasoned judgement about whether you should get a puppy or a dog? How to identify which dog is most suitable for you and then what is the inherent potential of a dog and what is the gauge you can use for assessing the training of your dog; whether you have been able to convert him into a well-mannered dog.

Chapter 1 

Should you get a Dog?

Friendly, loyal, and playful, dogs are one of the most popular pet choices. Commonly considered man's Best Friend, dogs play multiple roles in human lives. One can see hunters perform guard duty outside homes and along the border, pulling sleds as Huskies, herding cattle and sheep, and discovering hidden clues as police detectives and airport security. Not to forget their performances in movies as dog actors, which certainly deserves mention. However, as pets, they certainly steal the show. 

Dogs make adorably loyal pets. They curl up next to you while you sit and relax, and when you come home, you are greeted by your furry friend with a few slobbery choice licks. A welcome that is guaranteed to raise your mood and spirits. When you take your dog for a walk, toss a few balls in the park or race along the road or swim where canines are welcome, you will find your mood and energies restored to a normal order, which makes dogs fun.

Dogs as pets add a rich layer of experiences to your life. There isn’t only the singular dimension of companionship, but there are so many positive attributes of having a dog as your pet that pet owners should know about. The mental, physical and social life of a dog owner improves considerably, thanks to daily interaction with their loyal pet that makes them forget about their anxieties, at least for the time being. Since dogs require activities to burn their energies, you need to devise ways to engage them, so you fill your days with a variety of positive activities. These activities repeated on a daily basis can have a long-term effect on improving your overall mental and physical well-being.

Dogs need exercise, so all your exercise and health-oriented milestones become easier to achieve when you have the right partner to keep you on track. You can tell yourself that you are too tired to follow your exercise regimen, but your pet will bring its leash to you, to remind you that you need to go out and as with all things that seem challenging, it is always the first step that is the hardest to take and sometimes you need that nudge to get started and then stay on track. Physical exercise, as all doctors