Wise advice from Lynn Taylor Rick in today's Rapid City Journal:
Terry Besler sees it all the time: dogs and owners who just don’t match up."A lot of times, people come to my classes because they want to give the dog one last chance," she said.
Besler teaches Happy Tails Dog Training classes in Rapid City. Her classes include puppy kindergarten, basics commands and agility classes.
Besler says that many of the issues people have with their dogs can be traced to a bad match between family and dog.
Often, it’s the high energy dog that has been adopted into a family without the time or inclination to provide enough exercise or stimulation.
That’s one of the reasons breeds such as border collies are found in abundance at the pound. “You don’t want to get a border collie if you work 16 hours a day,” Besler said. “They’re a dog that needs mental stimulation and lots of it. If they don’t get it, they will think of something to stimulate themselves on their own.”
When it comes to choosing a pet, too many people make impulse buys, Rapid City veterinarian Christine Teets said.
They see a cute puppy and take it home without much knowledge of the breed and its needs. This accounts for at least some of the 2,643 dogs left at the Humane Society of the Black Hills last year, 565 of which were eventually euthanized.