When deciding to add a new adult dog to the family, have you considered purchasing one that is actually retired? What is a ‘retired’ dog? Simply put, most people never consider finding a companion that used to be of service to other people, such as a guide dog.
If you look up the reports provided by the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, you’ll find that there are approximately 8,000 to 9,000 dogs in the United States alone that are ’employed’. These animals are out there providing service to our fellow human beings by guiding blind people, helping the deaf, and offering assistance to other disabled men and women.
However, not all dogs who are bred and raised in order to provide some sort of service are actually out there working. And other dogs have indeed been of use to people during their life but obviously cannot continue working forever. To help these animals find homes, there are guide dog organizations that provide adoption programs as part of their services.
These animals are definitely in high demand. Most of them are completely trained and offer stable companionship from the day they are brought home. The reason for this is because most of these working type dogs spent months and even years going through intensive obedient classes and learning training protocols. This type of training is so extensive that most everyday citizens could not afford to have their pets undergo such training from professionals.
Consider this, it takes a very special and intelligent dog just to get excepted into a program that will train them for a career as a service dog. They must be well adjusted, in good health, and show all the signs necessary to make them good students of whatever particular job the trainers will be preparing them for.
Just these attributes alone, before being trained to work, would make a wonderful pet. Now imagine six months up to two years of additional heavy-duty obedience training and career protocol programs. The result is a dog that anybody would be extremely grateful to have as a house pet.
So before you decide to go to a shelter or any of the usual places to buy or adopt a dog, consider checking out local facilities that specialize in providing dogs that are ex-service oriented, or those canines that for some reason or another did not completely make it through the training. Either way, you are guaranteed to enjoy a high-class, first-rate quality pet.