Consider adopting a puppy for National Pet Adoption Month!
The Puppy Academy student and rescue pup, Chip!
As puppy trainers, we see a variety of puppies and puppy personalities! Some of our favorite students are rescues! The month of June is National Pet Adoption Month and we wanted to spread the word and love for rescue pups!
If you are considering adding a four-legged forever best friend to your life, here are a few reasons adopting a puppy is a wonderful option and how they can make the perfect addition to your family!
You will be saving a life
When you adopt a puppy you are saving their life.
Every year, millions of puppies and dogs, including strays, owner surrenders, or breeder puppies that are unfit for sale, enter shelters across the United States. Sadly, many of these sweet puppies can go overlooked due to the volume of dogs coming in, which can lead them to spend years in the system and may even end up euthanized.
But adopting one puppy can help save another. You’re helping the shelter open up a spot for another puppy or adult dog in need. And many times, the adoption fees associated with your puppy will also contribute to the shelter or rescue organization as a whole, healthcare services, and supplies for other puppies.
Become an adoption advocate
By adopting a puppy, you are essentially becoming an advocate for puppy adoption!
Amongst your network of family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances, someone could also be considering bringing home a puppy. Share the story of your rescue puppy as well as advocate for the shelter or rescue you adopted them from to help motivate other people to adopt!
Not only that, but when you rescue a puppy you’ll be joining a community of fellow rescue pup parents! Many shelters love to keep in touch with their rescues and adoptive families. And there are wonderful online communities on Facebook, meetup events, and fundraisers where you can meet other rescue families.
The rescue community provides a great resource, especially if you are a new puppy parent, for information to help you care for your puppy. You can learn about veterinarians, puppy training, and other dog services in your areas like dog grooming or dog sitting!
Rescue puppies enrich your life
The Puppy Academy student and rescue pup, Dylan!
There are plenty of reasons why adopting a puppy is a great choice but one of the main reasons is the amount of joy and fulfillment they bring into our lives!
Did you know rescue puppies are good for your heart? Sure those puppy eyes will pull on your heartstrings every time but adopting a puppy will help keep your heart healthy and active! From walking, hikes, visits to the beach, or even at home with puppy training sessions and playtime, your new rescue puppy is like your personal workout partner!
And with a rescue puppy at home, you’ll never be alone. Each day will be filled with endless wet kisses, couch snuggles, and belly rubs! Need we say more? Probably one of the best things about rescue puppies is how genuinely happy they are to have found a safe, warm place and lap to call home. You can rest assured that your new rescue puppy will shower you with unconditional love every chance they get!
They make great companions for kids!
Rescue puppies can offer an unconditional love that can really boost your child’s self-esteem and social skills.
They can also help teach children invaluable life skills and positively impact their emotional and cognitive development! Your children can be a huge part of your puppy’s training and help them to learn good play behaviors.
Ultimately, it’s a whole family's decision to bring home a new puppy. If you’re still weighing the options of adopting a puppy, check out our blog about the benefits of puppies for kids!
They are great at puppy training!
As puppy trainers, for us, the biggest reward is when we see how our puppy training classes help our rescue pup students and their owner bonds strengthen and grow!
Just like adopting a puppy isn’t limited by location, neither are their puppy training options!
Our Online Puppy School will help you teach your new rescue puppy everything they need to become well-behaved members of the family. Our curriculum includes obedience commands that will help you communicate with your rescue pup and develop listening skills!
Like all puppies, they thrive from the structure and learning new things! Online puppy training is a great way for your rescue pup’s personality to really shine, for them to learn confidence and independence, and good manners for the rest of their lives!
And as you work with your new puppy, you’ll learn valuable skills and techniques to focus their natural energy and drives. Plus, your puppy will learn to trust you and look to you for leadership.
To get your new rescue pup (and you!) on the quick track to puppy-raising success, get started with The Puppy Academy Online school here!
Adoption is less expensive
Cost is one factor to consider when you’re looking into adding a puppy to your life. When you adopt a puppy, many of the initial health visits, vaccinations, and spay or neuter procedures are already included in the adoption fees, roughly around a few hundred dollars. Some shelters even waive their adoption fees in an effort to encourage adoption when the kennels are filling up.
If you had your heart set on a specific breed, many rescues also have pure-breed puppies or maybe known for rescuing certain breeds, so if you've had a particular breed in mind, make sure to ask!
Whether you choose to buy or adopt a puppy, pick a puppy based on your lifestyle and the personality traits that fit you. At The Puppy Academy, we train wonderful pure-breed puppies and rescue puppies alike, so ultimately it comes down to personal choice. Our advice is to always research and verify your puppy’s breeder and parents before you purchase or get some background information on the shelter or rescue organization if you choose to adopt a puppy instead!
They have unique personalities and temperaments
The vast majority of rescue puppies are mutts meaning they come with a variety of personalities, temperaments, and traits!
This is one of the best reasons to adopt a puppy! Mutts are completely unique, from their physical looks to their quirky behaviors. With the number of mutts out there, you can find a rescue puppy that matches your personality and lifestyle. And thanks to having genes from different breeds, many mutts aren’t as predisposed to certain health issues!
With some puppies, it can definitely be a bit of a mystery at first trying to figure out what they are! But that’s just part of the fun! However, there are some wonderful dog DNA tests you can purchase to find out your puppy's genetic makeup. This can also give you some insight as to what their training needs and play interests may be based on their breeds!
Help end puppy mills for good
@gina_kokoni
Adopting a puppy is your way of helping end puppy mills. These factory-style breeding operations only value profiting off of their puppies versus their happiness and well-being.
Puppy mills continue to operate today through deceptive means, either selling puppies through online ads, at pet stores, or at markets. Puppies that come from these operations are kept in terrible conditions, neglected, and oftentimes have many health problems.
But you can help stop this cycle from continuing. Adopting a puppy takes away the demand and support for puppy mill operations. It’s just one step closer to ending puppy mills for good!
Choosing to adopt a puppy is one of the most rewarding decisions you’ll ever make for many reasons! Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re the one being rescued from a life without them! The perfect puppy could be sitting in your local shelter right now waiting for you to give them their forever home.
When it comes time to bring your new rescue puppy home, join us at a live Ask a Puppy Trainer q&a on our @thepuppyacademy Instagram. Bring your questions about how to raise, train, and care for your new rescue puppy and our trainers will help you live!
Also, sign up for the Very Important Puppy list to receive weekly puppy training tips every new puppy owner needs!
Check out these blogs related to puppy training and more!
8 Effective Ways to Bond with Your Puppy!