What would make the biggest impact on reducing the number of dogs in animal shelters, and consequently, the number of dogs put to death every year? Rescues, shelters and breeders need to start focusing on puppy socialization and training. Get the puppies right and you are much less likely to get them back.
Socialization. We need to start telling people to only adopt puppies from shelters, rescues and breeders that socialize their puppies prior to adoption. We need to start telling the public to only donate to rescues and shelters that socialize puppies properly. If they don’t do that, then don’t volunteer there, send them money, or adopt their dogs. It is time to put market forces to work. If we get these dogs socialized when young, we will see fewer older dogs in the system years later. Socialization not only makes dogs calmer and happier, but it also teaches bite inhibition. We can significantly limit the number of dog biting incidents, and the number of dogs put to death every year through proper early puppy socialization, starting at 2 weeks of age. It is unacceptable to keep manufacturing fearful dogs that have no bite inhibition. Socialized puppies will do their adult roles best.
Puppy Training. We need to start telling people to only adopt puppies from shelters, rescues and breeders that start the training of their puppies prior to adoption. House training is the main lesson that must be started. We need to start telling the public to only donate to rescues and shelters, or to buy dogs from breeders, that crate and house train puppies properly. That means they have learned not to soil themselves in their enclosures, to go potty on cue, and to potty on a natural surface such as grass or dirt (not newspapers, carpet, tile, hard floors, or fake grass). If they don’t do that, then don’t volunteer there, send them money, or buy or adopt their dogs. It is time to put market forces to work. If we get these dogs house trained when young, we will see fewer older dogs in the system years later. Many dogs are left outside all day because they aren’t clean in the home. There is no excuse for not house training puppies. And the puppies should want to chew on toys instead of our stuff. It’s easy to put durable tasty toys, such as puppy food stuffed Kongs, in the crates for puppies to start them out right.