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While a brand new car has its attractions, many people have found that a car with some mileage on it runs just as well, has had the kinks worked out, and costs a lot less than a new vehicle. So it goes with dogs. A mature dog usually has plenty of life left. In addition, the behavioral kinks have likely been taken care of, and a mature dog often costs a lot less than a 2- to 3-month-old puppy. The advantages break down as follows.
1. Mature dogs, whether 3, 5, or 10 years old, usually have been socialized and therefore know what it means to be part of a household. They are primed to intuit the rhythms of daily life, whether their human family consists of just one person, two, or more. They’re comfortable with people’s comings and goings, don’t need to be taught that a vacuum cleaner is not a metal monster, and quickly get the hang of what furniture they’re allowed to sit on.
2. Older dogs don’t need to be toilet trained. If you bring home a young puppy, it means getting up in the middle of the night so he doesn’t piddle indoors. A puppy also means accidents, no matter how hard you work to train him to urinate outside. With puppies, as with human babies, it takes some trial and error. With an older dog, along with no need for toilet training, there’s also no need to teach him not to chew on the furniture or chase the cat. He has been through all of that and will probably be mellower.
3. A mature dog’s personality is not a mystery. With a puppy, you can temperament test to get a sense of what kind of dog your pet will grow into, but there are no guarantees. With an adult dog, pretty much what you see is what you get.
4. Even if you want a dog of a particular breed, you can have an older dog who meets your requirements through a breed rescue group. And you won’t have to pay $1,000 or more, as you would for a puppy.
5. Adopting an older dog means helping to reach the broader goal of making the U.S. a no-kill nation. Many of the dogs put down in shelters are older because people often go for younger pets. So when you adopt a mature dog, you have a better chance of truly saving a life. Also, as the senior Dogs Project has put it (srdogs.com), “by adopting an older dog, we can make a statement about compassion and the value of life at all ages….And, of course, just as a puppy has his whole life ahead of him, so does an older dog have the rest of his life in front of him. You can give that older dog the best years of his life.”
