4 Tips for Choosing a Pet Dog That Won't Drive You Crazy

I'm an owner of five dogs, 2 males and 3 females. I got my first dog when I moved out of my parent's place and lived on my own which was about 6 to 7 years ago. The others became part of my doggy family within about 2-3 years after that and when one of my female dogs passed away recently, I adopted another female dog the week after, who quickly adapted well to living with my other dogs and me.

The one thing people always ask me is how do I manage to handle so many dogs pretty much by myself, especially when I have no garden and the dogs are in my house when I'm away? As amazing as it may sound to dog owners who have trouble dealing with even just one dog, all of my dogs are quite easy to handle. They learned the proper place to do their toilet business quickly with little or no training, they rarely bark except when scared or excited, they don't fight with each other and they do not chew up my belongings. Of course, it's not a 100% perfect behavior streak for all of them as there are exceptions to the above. For example, one dog still makes minor mistakes by doing her business close to but not exactly at the right area, they sometimes bark in the middle of the night at the smallest odd sound, my late dog used to be slightly aggressive and sometimes started fights with my other dogs, and when I'm away for long periods, sometimes my cushions would get chewed up due to anxiety. But all these cases are rare and tolerable. To me, the amount of work I have dealing with my five dogs, which includes almost daily walks, cleaning up their business, cleaning up their fur (by vacuuming) and feeding them is still easily much less work than raising one child. Yet I know there are people who can't even handle one dog due to annoying behaviours like excessive barking, pooping and peeing in all the wrong places, hyperactivity and destruction of belongings. Well, for those looking to get a new furry friend, especially new adopters, here are my 4 tips for choosing a dog that won't drive you crazy:

a) Choose an older dog over a puppy

Having rescued dogs before, I can say that 90% of people are only interested in getting puppies, so usually the older dogs, even those less than one year old but are fully grown, usually get sidelined. Personally I think this is the silliest mistake, unless you have a lot of free time to spend with your puppy. Puppies are like babies, they need plenty of attention and training, and they will demand what they want by making the most noise. Like babies, they also have growing teeth which means they very likely destroy your stuff, even if you give them chew toys. They also have poor bowel control and so you have to deal with potty messes until they grow older. So if you enjoy endless yapping, your stuff getting chewed up and poo and pee everywhere for weeks or months, by all means, get a puppy. But if you don't have time or energy for that nonsense, get an older dog, ideally one that is about a year or two years old, done teething and therefore much less likely to chew up your stuff. From my experience, my older dogs rarely destroyed my stuff, except for cushions as they enjoyed pulling out the fluff. So I got a sofa that has no chewable cushion, and the problem stopped. People who prefer puppies usually think older dogs are more difficult to train, especially on where to do their business. But really, older dogs are smarter than puppies, and also like to maintain the cleanliness of their territory, so it is much easier to train them where to poo and pee than one might think. The only older dogs that might have difficulty learning this are those who have spent most of their lives in cages. Which brings me to my next point.

b) Choose strays/rescues over store-bought pets

This not only helps to reduce the stray population and unnecessary breeding of profit hungry breeders, but strays and rescued dogs are usually much easier to train on the proper poo/pee spot than store-bought pets. This is because animals that grew up in stores spent their lives in cages where they were forced to do the deed right where they sleep and live. Hence in a home environment, getting them to unlearn this habit and not poo or pee all over the place will be more challenging. On the other hand, strays would have spent most of their lives outdoors and be used to doing it on the grass, far from where they rest. Hence if they are made to live indoors and once they figure out where the main 'hangout' area is (i.e. The living room, your couch, their sleeping mat, etc), they will naturally do their business away from that area, and preferably on a grassy type surface.

My first male dog until today prefers not to do his business indoors but prefers to wait until I take him out to do his deed, which is OK for me as it means less to cleanup in my house. For my other house trained dogs, my doggy pee and poo spot consists of a tray covered with a grassy like texture mat with holes, so they can squat over it to do their business while not getting their feet messy. Once my first female established that as the pee spot, the others who were adopted later watched and learned from her, and learned to use it quickly with very little training from me.

If you are to adopt a rescued dog, it is better to get one from an independent rescuer rather than a 100% caged shelter (unless the shelter has a grassy area for dogs to run freely at least once a day). Reason is again because a dog that has spent too much time in a cage has to be trained again not to pee and poo where he has been sleeping, whereas a rescuer would very likely have already house trained the dog, or dogs from shelters with grassy playgrounds would get chances to learn how to defecate away from their resting area.

Of course, if you have time and patience and willing to train a dog who has been caged most of their life (and most likely is traumatized from it), then this is most commendable, and hats off to you! For most people who don't have the time, and need a dog that is easily toilet trained, my tips above apply.

c) Adopt more than one dog

This would definitely seems impossible to those who already can't handle one dog, but did it ever occur to you that maybe your dog is misbehaving because he or she is bored? And that he is bored because you aren't spending enough time with him? And that a single dog would get lonely without companionship just like humans do when left alone in a house or garden by themselves every day for hours on end?

If you are unable to spend most of your time at home with your dog, and can't stand the idea of yourself being stuck in an enclosed area all day with nothing to do and no friends, then you should understand the importance of getting more than one dog. Two is good. More is better. Dogs are pack animals so the closest you can them to living as a pack means the more behaviourally stable they will become. Putting a younger dog in a group of older dogs will allow the younger dog to learn manners from the older dogs as well. All in all, they can easily spend time enjoying each other's company, meaning you don't feel so bad when you're away all day for work. Plus more dogs means that much more love and joy from happy mutts when you get home! 😄

d) Choose behaviour over breed

Another bane in the life of animals rescuers is when they have a perfectly adoptable, loving, friendly, easy to manage, well-behaved dog for adoption, and yet get potential adopters who, other than wanting a puppy, also wants to know, "What is the breed?"

Most people claim to want a dog of a certain breed because those breeds have certain characteristics or traits that they think make the dogs easier to train or more manageable. But let's face it, the other 'real' reason why most people want a purebred rather than a mixed or unknown breed is coz they want a status symbol, and want to be able to show off that you can 'afford' an expensive purebred, regardless of whether or not in actually that dog was abandoned and you got him or her for a fraction of the market price. But in the end, many purebreds also have specific needs. Some like huskies and terriers are high energy dogs that need lots of exercise, and some like pugs, shih tzu and pitbulls have breed specific conditions like breathing difficulties and skin problems. A dog owner who has no idea of a purebred's needs and just wants a 'status symbol' will very likely get very frustrated when the dogs acts up and misbehaves when he is not getting enough attention, or constantly needs medical attention. This will then lead to them very likely abandoning the poor dog.

If you truly want a great companion dog for life, don't ask about their breed and instead ask about his or her personality. This you can easily do when you adopt from an independent rescuer or fosterer who knows the dogs since they have raised them. Rescuers and fosterers will almost certainly give you accurate info about the dog because the fact that they sacrificed their time and most of the time, own money to care for the dog, means they want the dogs to get a good home and won't lie to you just to get the dog off their hands. You can find out about the dog's energy levels, toilet and eating habits, level of aggression, health problems, and pretty much anything, then use that info to decide if this is the dog for you.

Hope my tips helped anyone out there looking for a forever furry friend to make a better informed decision.

P.S.: If you live around Klang Valley and looking to adopt a furry friend, please get in touch with my mother, Madam Jocelyn from Subang Jaya. She is an independent rescuer with many loving and healthy doggies looking to bring joy to your life. Feel free to contact her at +6016-9950708 for adoption enquiries. If you can't adopt but would love to know more about her and support her rescue efforts, do check out my mom's story at this link:

https://gogetfunding.com/help-grandma-jocelyn-save-malaysian-dogs/

You can make a PayPal contribution to her email at [email protected].

Thanks and be blessed!

4 of my 5 furry kids, including my late female, Angel 😊