Is it ok to adopt from this kind of shelter???

svs05

I live in boston and am looking for a german shepherd/golden lab mix.... the only thing is that the shelter near my house has puppies that come from puppies across america program and other different places...... I guess these puppies come from all different places around the country and I am wondering if I get a puppy who is only like 12 weeks old... could they have any emotional or behavioral problems from possibly having such bad experiences either with people or all the stress they have been through. If so I am looking to see if anyone breeds any german shepherd/lab mixes. thanks

Curbside Prophet

No reputable breeder will breed a German shepherd lab mix. If you find one, run in the other direction as fast as you can. Any dog can have emotional or behavior problems when traveling across the country. That's why it's important to find out how the dog was transported and if they were temperament tested. Have you visited the shelter?

Keno's Mom

Sounds a bit suspicious to me - almost like a "puppymill". Did you try Petfinder.com in your area for a GSD/lab mix - I know in Minnesota you can find that combo. Check them out in your state

Please do NOT go looking in the paper/petshop/online for a "breeder" who is crossbreeding - they are nothing more then a backyard breeder or puppymill.

Here's a few I found on Petfinder

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=7703232

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=7642382

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=7137166

If you don't like any of these you can check back in a week or two and see if there are any others.

Maybe contact a Labrador or GSD rescue group in your area to see if by chance they have a mixed.

DogAdvocat

By putting "puppies across america" into google, I came up with the following website. I don't know if this is the shelter of which you speak:
http://www.northeastanimalshelter.or...ms/puppies.php

I think what you need to do is to find out more about this program and what kind of safeguards they use to protect the puppies health. Being that it's a shelter, and they are coming from shelters, there is the possibility that your puppy may have been exposed to diseases such as kennel cough, distemper, parvo, etc. But kennel cough is usually easily treatable, especially with older puppies, and distemper and parvo can occur in the litters of breeders too.

As was pointed out by others, there are no responsible breeders of mixed breed dogs, and it's very likely that such breeders will not be there to help you with any future problems you have with the dog, but a reputable rescue shelter would be. So you might want to factor that in.

Also, supposedly one of the reasons that your shelter is taking in puppies from around the country is because your area allegedly has such a good spay/neuter program that there aren't any puppies available. If that's the case, you may find it difficult to find the puppy you're looking for without shipping it in - which is no different than they are doing.

One other thing to consider - when looking at mixed breed puppies, you may find that what you think is one breed, will look totally different as it grows up. So many people look for small breed puppies, and then give them up when they get too big. Hopefully since you are looking for a large breed puppy, there will be less chance of that, but will the dog still have a home with you if he only reaches 30#?

dragongsd

I have raised German Shepherds for close to 30 yrs. And genetics can be good
or bad real fast if you don't know what your doing.
Both Shepherds and Labs can have alot of hip and many more problems
so you can be asking for a bucket of worms in the long run.
Do you feel lucky is all I can say?

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nrhareiner

When I was a foster home for the county humane society the lady that ran the it before the county shut it down she then started her own rescue. When she gets extra foster homes or gets lower on rescue dogs she will go to areas which are high kill facilities and get dogs from there. She would take the ones she thought she could place and where close to the end where they where. This may be what this shelter does also. Some areas of the country have a lot of no kill shelters so some rescues will get their dogs from out of their area.

Heidi

skunkstripe

svs05, I live not too far from you and I do not see a problem with this program. As you may or may not be aware, there are not that many adoptable dogs in shelters near us. That is why so many shelters truck dogs in from the south and the midwest. Both of my dogs are "Dixie dogs" (tarheels to be exact). This first time I was not aware of it. I was at a shelter about 45 min away from where I live and well, there was a 4 mo old puppy who picked me. It turned out that he had been transported up from NC along with his littermates (as other dogs as wel!). Ironically I much later ran into a woman on a dog board who had been involved with the transport. Our other dog came from an all-breed rescue operating out of a subrub of Boston. This was when I was looking for a Golden Retriever and had given up on breed-specific rescues. This particular dog had been momma in a puppymill but had been released to the rescue.
Both came with vet records and were reasonably healthy. Sophia did bring a tick with her but as soon as she was able to stand it emotionaly I did a full vet check on her and she was clean.
It may be trickier these days. The head of the Mass USDA enacted some kind of "emergency" order to prevent off-the-truck adoptions. This supposedly is to prevent diseases being brought in by out-of-state dogs. Based on what I hear from people who are closer to the source, it probably has more to do with a friendship with Petland than anything else. But I digress. At the time the order went into effect, there were not that many state approved quarantine facilities for incoming out-of-state dogs so that pretty much killed a lot of small rescues. That may have changed by now.

The 4 mo old puppy has been saint with no emotional baggage from what he experienced as a small puppy. The other dog was 20 mos when we got her and having lived in a puppymill messed her up. With a LOT of love and understanding she is now a happy, healthy dog.

Again, I see no problems, but then again I am someone who would never pay money to someone who is deliberately breeding dogs of any kind so shelter/rescue is the only way to go.

Good luck!

SweetEmmaloo

My dog Emma and her 5 siblings were rescued from an out of state puppy mill.We adopted her from a local shelter.All my other pets are rescues also,may I add.When we got her she about 6 weeks and very sickly.I think she was at the vet once a week for the first month we had her.We almost lost her,but the shelter did try to do all they could for her,it was not their fault that the horrible place they rescued these pups from were the reasons these poor puppies were in such an unhealthy condition.How people can be so cruel is beyond me.
Now here it is, 2 years later, our Emma is a beautiful,happy healthy dog. She has a wonderful temperament.She does however, have hip dysplasia at her young age,but we have her on special meds from our vet, and some natural products for her joints that really seem to help her there.She is the best dog/companion a person could ever want.This shelter was great with everything,but I have dealt with a differant shelter that was not very nice,when we adopted a new kitten about a year ago.That is why I will stay with the one shelter from now on.

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