Seeking Advice on a Puppy

I would think she's too young for a puppy, but if you as a family want a new pet, she would probably love that. Puppies are a lot of work, and take a lot of time with training, and the like. If you're not fully prepared for this, I would look into getting a younger, fully trained dog. We found one of our dogs through a rescue shelter (Paws and Prayers) of greater Akron. We did a search on petfinder.org, its a great site. You can search for dogs, using breed and area, and it also gives nice descriptions of the dogs with their stories. It says whether dogs are pet friendly. I'm not sure what breeds are good with kids, maybe labs. I think there are books on matching breeds with your family. We paid $75, and our dog had his shots, and fully crate / potty trained. Our dog was 1 years old when we got him, and has made a wonderful pet. Good luck!

If you are in Akron area try One of a Kind Pets. It is a rescue and they are great! Ask for Ezra he knows the dogs very well and is so helpful he can tell you exactly which dog has the personality for kids. You can get a dog that has been fixed and all of their shots. They are located in the wallhaven area on rt. 18. It is actually connected to a circle K

M.,
I'm a 56-yr.-old grandmother of 4 and have had numerous dogs over the years, both purebred and rescued. My first thought is you should choose from a rescue agency that allows you to take the puppy home for a week or so for a trial run. I have experienced dogs that seem fine in a shelter but once home, find they don't tolerate children well and my daughter rescued a dog that someone else had returned because it didn't do well with her children. My opinion is that a 3-yr-old is a nice age to get a puppy. Shelters are full of dogs that are partially or totally house trained and/or crate trained, and that is a wonderful way to start. I would suggest a dog between 15-40 lbs.; anything smaller your child might be too hard on, and a large dog can get a little rough unintentionally. Stay away from a high, nervous energy breed (australian shepherd, beagle, golden retriever, young labs, springer spaniel, dalmatian, etc.) Out of all the dogs we've had over the years, we found the mixed breed/strays have been the best dogs. We've raised pomeranians, had a beagle mix, boxer, sheltie/aussie mix, black lab/springer mix, and an airedale terrier mix). Our absolute favorites were the boxer and airedale terrier mix, but we enjoyed them all.

Good luck!!
Cathy - Wadsworth

The best advice we got was from a dog trainer. He told us he works with all breeds of dogs and that the most important factor in a dog's disposition is how it is treated as a very young puppy. So, the best way to ensure a well-behaved, happy, unafraid dog is not to look at breed, but age. Get the youngest puppy you can: 8-12 weeks (at the oldest). Of course you can get wonderful happy dogs older than that, but you have to make sure the dog is not fearful. Don't go for the "shy" dog. When you visit, the dog should run up to you, be happy to see you. From day 1. It's the fearful dogs that bite, run away and have more trouble. Size, breed, etc. are just personal choices. We got our puppy when he was 8 weeks and he is a dream. A lot of it is truly because of how we socialized him (especially how he has learned to be with kids). Good luck!