When your family decides it is time to bring home a new family member, where do you go from there?

There are so many places to get a dog.  Jack's, Petland, rescues, shelters, puppy mills, backyard breeders to list a few.  

If you are thinking about buying from Petland or Jack's, please click on our Adopting a Puppy Mill dog page.   We have included a little information for you on it.  Specific cases that we would like you to know about. Some videos that we think will give you a better understanding of what puppy mill and backyard breeders dogs are going through and continue to go through.  But, as a rescue we see no need to reinvent the wheel as you can follow this link to the Columbus Dog Connection , where you will find the latest news on animals, pet stores and the status of puppy mill bills.  As well as ways you can help.  You will be amazed at where that cute little puppy came from and how many dogs suffer each year to supply these pet stores with pets. 

There are many places that we hope you will go to select your dog other then a breeder.  A great place to start is petfinders.com.  It is simple, easy to use and you will find ALL the pure breed dogs and mutts you could ever possibly want.  

To find a rescue or shelter dog, if you live in Ohio you can follow this link to Columbus Dog Connection where you will find a list of all rescues and shelters in the state of Ohio.  If you don't live in Ohio just put your zip code in to petfinders and it will show you what dogs are available in your area.   


Rescues

If you decide to go to a rescue for your dog there are many kinds of rescues.  If you have selected a breed that your family feels will fit in your home your best bet would be to look for a breed specific rescue for that breed of dog.  Since they specialize in one breed they will have a bigger selection for you and more accurate information on the breed then shelters and rescues who only take a few of that breed. 

NOTE***  Do not rely on a rescue to inform you of breed characteristics.  When you decide on a breed you should first "google" that breed and find out what illness the breed might be prone to.  Big dogs are know for having hip problems.  Each breed usually has some breed defects that are most common to their breed.  i.e. Cocker Spaniels and dogs with floppy ears are more prone to ear problems then dogs with ears that stand erect.   

Rescues select the animals they can rehab or help.  They are not publicly funded and rely on balancing the number of animals they can rescue with the number of donations they recieve and money they can raise through fund raisers.  Rescues have to ask for a adoption donation so they can keep rescuing dogs.  Most rescues average spending $300 to $500 on each dog they rescue.  While most have adoption donations of $200 or less. 

Animal Control

Animal Control Officers have to take all animals.  They are publicly funded and this is where some of your tax dollars go.  But very little.  Most animal control shelters in Ohio and Ky have to euthanize dogs once a week.  When you drop your dog off there don't think that it has a chance of getting a good home.  With today's economy and so many people losing their homes and leaving their animals behind, this has put a tremendous burden on County ran shelters. 

The main difference you will see between shelters and rescues is that many rescues keep their dogs in their homes and know all about the dog.  it is a member of the family.  Even the rescues who have shelters socialize the dogs and rely on volunteers to spend time walking, exercising the dogs and getting to know them.  Most rescues spay/neuter their animals as well as updating them on shots, rabies tags, microchipping, heatworm testing and keep the dogs on heartgard and flea medications. So they are going to be picky about who they adopt to.  They only want to save this dog once and they want to fit the dog to the home to make sure it is the dogs FOREVER home.  Most rescues are like ours, 100% spay/neuter.  Meaning no dog leaves our foster care before it is altered.  We will not adopt to anyone who has unaltered dogs.  The only way to stop the millions of deaths each year to spay/neuter our animals.

While animal control has to have a place for their animals to go.  They can not be selective.  Most do not have the dog long enough to get to know them so you will need to rely on visiting the dog yourself and finding out about it's personality before you decide to take it in your home.  The adoption fees are low and many include spay/neuter vouchers with each adoption.  Some shelters will give the dogs all the medical care it needs, but many do not have the rescoures to do this.  So while the adoption fee is lower you may end up spending more to bring your dog up to date on shots, spay/neuter, etc.