DOG OWNERSHIP

Love going on vacation but hate leaving your dog at home? What about taking your pet on a cruise?

Most people prefer to have just one dog. Of the 65 million American households dogs live in, 87 percent of them live without other canines. And that’s absolutely fine. Those “singletons” generally have good lives, loved by their human family members and well taken care of. But if you’ve ever thought about getting a second dog for your pet, you may just want to take the leap—if you can afford it and have the energy to care for two canines.

This year in particular, it seems, emotions are running high about political events here in the U.S. as well as about conflicts in other regions of the globe. And sometimes those emotions spill over into discourse that might not be relevant or appropriate to a partic-
ular setting.

The COVID pandemic led to more Zooming and FaceTiming, including for veterinary care. And it may be easy to assume that most people have come to prefer such virtual vet visits because it’s more convenient than taking your dog to the doctor. But they don’t.

People often think that if a dog has wound up at a shelter after living in someone else’s home, it’s because he didn’t make a good pet. Maybe he kept soiling the carpet, they assume, or was aggressive, or just didn’t know how to get along with people. Or maybe he’s a wallet emptier due to ongoing health problems. In other words, the dog is believed to be damaged goods. But that’s very often not the case.

Taking a shelter dog for an outing of just a few hours or fostering the animal for a night or two significantly increases the dog’s chance of being adopted — and not by you. When dogs are seen in the community and their short-term caregivers share these animals’ stories, people step up to take home the canines as permanent pets.