Are Dogs From a Shelter Difficult to Train?

 Is it really that much harder training a dog from a shelter?

It really does depend on the dog’s personality and how much it was abused, whether it was a house dog and what its breed is. Remember that each dog is as individual and unique as a person.

Let’s just say that it is a given that if you adopt a stray dog that you are taking a bigger risk then if you bought a pedigreed dog from a breeder.

The reason that a dog from a shelter will be harder to train is that you don’t know its history or background. You don’t know if it has ever been kicked or starved or anything else about its history. If it’s a total mutt you may not even be able to determine the dog’s breed mix by its appearance, which makes how trainable it might be even more unpredictable then ever. A mutt could have all of the aggressive personality traits of a breed that is known to be a little hostile to humans without you knowing it.  

If you adopt a dog from a pet shelter be ready for anything!   First of all dog usually reacts to his new home with some kind of strange behavior.  You could encounter biting, chewing, barking, nipping, submissive urination, whining and fear of other dogs or people. The dog could have a chronic health problem or psychological problem due to abuse that you could not even imagine.  

However the better Rescue Shelters make sure that any dog that is adopted is not sick.  It could also simply be that the dog ended up in a shelter because the original owner simply could not train it. The shelters are full of alpha dogs that pet owners could not control or that they could not afford to send to a professional trainer for behavior management.   The dog then becomes YOUR problem.  

Not every dog adopted from a shelter is an unpredictable or alpha dog but a dog that is obtained from a shelter has a higher risk of being a threat to other pets and children in your household. This is because losing its home and ending up in a shelter can traumatize it.    Sometimes you can find a well-trained dog that was taken to the shelter because its owner passed away in which case you don’t necessarily have to worry about adopting a dog that is too dominant for you to handle.  I

f you are going to adopt a dog from a shelter, the only thing you might have to rely on when it comes to guessing how easy the dog is to train is some guess at his breed. For instance, a big Dalmatian would probably be greatly irritated in a house full of kids and a tiny little shaky Chihuahua with health problems is not a great pet for a busy careerist. Usually a staff member can give you at least a little bit of information about the breed so you have some information about how it is most likely to behave after you adopt it.

Nostalgia for Cartoon Dogs

If you own a pet dog you probably like cartoon dogs a lot as well. One of the astounding things about cartoon dogs is how humanized they were in character but if you really think about it we also humanize our pets in a similar way …here are some of my favorite animated canines from eras gone by.  

Ruff from ,Ruff n’ Reddy was probably the first of the funny cartoon dogs. He was a Hanna and Barbera cartoon that was paired by a bossy cat named ,Reddy, that was coincidentally colored red.   This dog first made his appearance on television in the fall of 1957. Ruff was also interactive with a live host who asked him questions to which Ruff would provide dumb answers.  

The second big animated television cartoon dog was Huckleberry Hound was not that much different in looks than Ruff from Ruff n’Reddy. This is not surprising as this cartoon series was all made by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera’s. In fact the only difference might have been that this dog had a Southern draw. Another interesting fact about this show is that it was the first television show to win an Emmy for animation. Before that only Disney movies got that honor.  

Another one of my favorite dogs was Mr. Peabody, the smart white dog with the whiny voice and glasses that starred in ,Mr. Peabody’s Improbable History, This was about a famous time traveling dog and his pet boy Sherman who he time traveled with in his Wayback machine. This cartoon series started in 1959.  

Once he was released from the confines of the back pages of the Funny papers Snoopy also became a well-known funny dog on the small screen. The famous beagle and his creator Charles Schulz won and Emmy in 1964 for the show ,A Charlie Brown Christmas.,    You might also remember this dog ‘s imitation of a World War I Flying Ace named the Red Baron.  

No blog on cartoon dogs can be complete without mentioning Dino. Dino’s breed was technically a ,Snorkasoraus, and he was purple. His famous bit was trampling his owner Fred Flintstone in the opening credits.   He was also famous for his bark that sounded like ,rubba, rubba, rubba, Dino also talked in some episodes and his voice was bestowed by the fey and dry sounding Las Vegas style comedian Phil Silvers.  

Yet another great cartoon dog was of course Scooby Doo. This star of ,Scooby Doo Where Are You?,    Scooby  had a cute little ,intellectual, sidekick named Scrappy and a not so bright country cousin called Scooby Dum.  

My favorite dog of all time however has to be Ren from ,Ren and Stimpy,. This emaciated sharp-witted Chihuahua was companion to an overweight cat with bad breath. To me the two of them seemed more human then most human beings.  

Some other very famous cartoon funny dogs include Deputy Dawg from the Hi and Lois comic strip,  Underdog from the cartoon series and Otto from the Beetle Bailey comic strip.