Picking a dog-

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

If you do go to a shelter, odds are your dog will find you.

Finding a dog who will find you is easy. However, a lot of dogs are one-person dogs. Since you have kids and cats, a potentially troubled shelter dog who will view you as his savior may not be a good mix.

Before we got our lab, we got a Belgian shepherd mix from a local rescue place. The dog was the product of a broken home and, apparently, part of a shared custody arrangement. The rescue people told us how he would jump the fence when he was away from the kids' house and run across town to be with them.

Well, he was a great dog. For me. He would lie beside me in my garage office, run with me, etc. However, as he got comfortable and found his voice, he started looking too interested in my toddler son's scampers across the room and, when he growled fiercely at my daughter coming down the stairs, he was gone. I think he didn't know who was who and who to protect from whom.

"Huh," said the rescue people. They recommended that we take a look at another dog. It was the Hound of the Baskervilles on steroids. Go slowly. Getting rid of a dog who doesn't fit will make you feel bad.