I’m sharing my first Ten Steps To Getting A Dog.

I speak for myself, I don’t tell other people what to do. Space limits all that I do, but this is a good synopsis of it.

I hope it’s useful to people in some way. Dogs suffer greatly from the haphazard, emotional, cheap, selfish and thoughtless way so many people choose them.

I’m for being thoughtful and open and careful. It is not a moral choice for me or an emotional or impulsive one. It is intensely practical. I’ve never had to return a dog of mine to a breeder or a shelter or rescue group. I want to keep that record clean.

One: I take a few weeks or months to picture the dog I want. I close my eyes and imagine the dog. What will it look like? How will Maria and I live with it? What will we ask of the dog? How much training can I commit to, and how much am I prepared to do? Do I have any plans for the dog beyond being a pet? Work? Therapy? Hunting? Family?

How much money do I have to spend on a dog? Can I give the dog a full life, with exercise, stimulation, love and good health? Do I understand the dog is an animal, not a cute little furbaby or human? Do I have a safe place outside for the dog? I don’t need to wait for a rescue group to ask me these questions. I always ask them.

Two: What Is Best For Me And My Dog: Do I want a shelter dog? A rescue dog? A purebred bought dog? A puppy or an older dog? This is a big, if not the biggest decision. These are all very good ways to get a dog, depending on what I want to do with a dog and how I wish to live it.

I make this decision myself, along with Maria. I don’t let anyone ever tell me what kind of a dog to get, or how. Those people are not my friends, they are their own friends. They are not acting in the best interest of dogs or people, they are acting in their own self-interest.

I think everybody knows what kind of dog they really want. They just let themselves get talked out of it by people who think they know better than they do what they want, or who tell them what they should want. Follow your heart.

Three: Homework. Research: Once I ‘ve decided on the kind of dog I want and the best way for me to get a dog,  I talk to dog owners, breeders, vets.

I talk to everybody, read everything, I look at websites, adoption or breeding histories. I research breed traits. I call rescue groups, visit the shelter, talk to breeders if necessary. I want to know everything I can know about dog’s history if anything is known – health, parents, temperament. I grill breeders, shelter workers, rescue workers.

I call this the research period. Watchdog? Guard dog? Farm dog? Family dog? Therapy dog? Agility dog? They are all different and need to be acquired in different ways.  Will the dog be around kids? Other dogs? Older people?

This research and thought will determine if I stay my course or change my mind. I follow my gut, keeping in mind my picture of the dog I want and the life we will have together.

Four: I make a decision. I own it. I could care less about what other people think. No one ever got a great dog by letting other people choose it.

I start the often but not always a noxious and laborious process of rescuing a dog or I talk to a breeder and agree to cost and terms or I put a deposit down on a shelter dog. Once I’ve made my decision, I don’t look back much. I focus on making my choice work in the best way for me and the dog. If I need advice, I ask for it. Otherwise, I’m on the way.

Five: I make an appointment with the vet BEFORE I get the dog. I want to talk with the vet about money, ethics, and beliefs. We talk about euthanasia, the cost of animal care, my strong ethical concerns about major surgery on unsuspecting animals, my stronger desire for my dogs to not suffer any more than is necessary.

For me, it is unethical to spend many thousands of dollars on surgery for a dog when so many American children don’t have health care. If I am in any way uncomfortable, this is the time to get another vet. Some vets don’t like to talk about these things, which is fine. I don’t want to be their client, they wouldn’t want me.

When the shit hits the fan, as it always does with dogs, I want to be on the same page as our vet, not in opposition or discomfort. For example, I am obviously not comfortable with major surgery for animals.  Vets make a lot of money on surgeries. I speak for the animals: They can’t agree to it, and they can’t understand it, and it is profoundly unnatural for them.

I want to do what’s best for them, not me.

If they can’t live natural lives, I will help them leave the world in comfort. This will bother some vets. Fair enough. I’ll go elsewhere. I want to get this on the table before an emergency strikes and it’s too late.

Six. Setting up the house. Be prepared.

Some people think it’s unimaginable to pay for a dog,  I am happy to pay for the dog I really want if it comes to that. I create a plan for the dog and the house. A dog is worth at least as much as a new TV in my book or a refrigerator.

How will a housebreak the dog? Will it sleep in a crate (yes, at least at first). What kind of food will I need? Where will it sleep? What are the safe toys for the dog? How will I train the dog and where? I work at home, so some training goals are easier for me to achieve. I can correct behaviors before they become ingrained. I get at least two crates, one upstairs, one downstairs.

Enough healthy chews for a puppy so they will eat their stuff, not mine. I make sure I have a secure area in which I can let the dog out to play or run around. I plan for two walks a day. I make sure there’s a crate in my office so the dog can get used to being near me when I write.

Seven. Socializing. Training. By the time the dog is 14 weeks old, his or her world view, her weltanschauung is almost fully formed. Socializing and basic obedience training is critical at this age. I don’t want a dog that frightens or harms dogs or people. That’s not why I have dogs. I want a dog that sits, stays and comes when told. It isn’t hard, it just takes time and focus. I make plans and get advance permission to bring the dog to different places, so he or she can be socialized, and so I can study them and learn what I need to know about them.

It is a difficult thing to re-train a dog after this period, most people don’t have the time or patience for it. And the dogs have their view of the world.

I want to get it right the first time. I am my own training guru, I don’t need expensive books and videos, I know myself, my environment, my family, my strengths and weaknesses. I observe and adapt and keep at it. Training is never over, surely not in four weeks at a pet chain outlet.

If you need help, get help.

Eight: Living with a dog. Here, my personal philosophy comes in. I expand my trust of a dog, I expose them to new and different environments beyond socializing. Can I walk them off-leash? Go out into the woods? Be around other dogs? Does hospice work?

I am not a fan of dog playgroups. Often, they arouse and over-stimulate dogs, pass disease around and are no really necessary.  And lots of people are grossly irresponsible in group dog settings.

Younger dogs “play” in order to simulate hunting. Older dogs don’t need to play in my experience, it’s the humans who love to see them play. It is so easy to mess up a working dog. Think of the ball obsessed Labs who can’t settle. No balls in the house, no playing in the house, only sleeping, chewing and cuddling in the house. When I work, there are no dogs in the house as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want to know they are there. I get the dogs I need. If I want it, and I mean, it is in their nature to do it. Train early or pay later.

Nine: Living with dignity. I’m the leader, not the dog. I go out of the house and through every door first, not last. Dogs have four minutes to eat what they are given if they don’t eat, they wait until the next day. I have no fussy eating issues. I have a contract with my dogs, and I am no hard-ass, believe me. I will treat them with love and respect and give them good lives and I ask the same thing. No jumping, no obsessive barking, no tearing around the house. That’s why God made fenced-in yard and fields.

I won’t be disrespected or manipulated, not by a dog.

Ten. Settling Into Life. This is the sweetest phase of life with a dog for me. If I’ve done my job (see One-Nine) then I will have the life I dreamed of, walks off-leash, a companion when I write,  a sharing of love and affection, and hopefully the great reward and satisfaction that comes from working with a dog, in this case, to lift people up, not to herd sheep.

If I do my job then I will have a spirit dog, a dog who marks the passages of life and shares my life with me. It’s up to me. The more I put into it, the more I will get out of it. It is never their fault when things go wrong. It is always my fault.

Sometimes, I have to pay for a dog to get the dog I want. Sometimes, I have to make sure the dog is 100 percent trustworthy with sick and vulnerable people. Sometimes, I don’t need to do that.

Whatever I need to do, I will take responsibility. I am a steward for my dog, I owe him or the to be as thoughtful and conscientious and informed and prepared as I can be. Every dog deserves that.

The best way for me to get a dog is to get the dog I want and do the work. These are just ideas subject to change. Do what’s best for you.