I realize this wasn't the point of the story, and I'm so sorry this happened to anyone's dog. But please do not buy dogs from breeders when there are plenty of amazing dogs waiting to be rescued at shelters.
A dog you've raised from 8 weeks old is very different than a dog someone else has already abused and abandoned. Even if they're only 6 months old the habits have been learned and they're hard to break.
Young puppies go instantly from shelters for that reason, and few people want to adopt a pit bull with behavior problems.
In ours's case: he's not a barker and he's incredibly gentle, but he's both dumb as a post (not the shelter-dog problem, and also usually just hilarious) and extremely timid (that one is) to the point of frustration. Speak excitedly? He'll slowly sink to the floor and look worried. Tape a cable to the floor with gaff tape? He won't go over it[0]--probably because he'd experienced an invisible fence, we think. Move a chair to the other side of the living room? He sits in the corner and quietly freaks out for two hours. Leave after such a traumatic furniture adjustment? You might come home and he's nervous-chewed something. (Like, to this point, five pairs of my shoes. I am literally bankrolling Nike by my re-purchases of Air Force 1's. It doesn't help that now he's figured out how to open the doors that don't latch in our house--we're doomed, I tell you. Doomed.)
He's a great dog. But we knew going into it that dealing with his issues would take some effort, and there definitely are people who could be enriched by having a dog (they're great!) but don't have the capacity to deal with even a relatively minor case like ours.
The downside to this sort of generosity of the benefit of the doubt, of course, is that then there are people who can't hack it and who create more shelter dogs. I don't have a good solution for that, of course. But my intuition is more good is created than bad.
[0] - His pathfinding is just not good. He'll go the entire way around the house to avoid walking over a scary black tape line. He'll also squeeze under tables, chairs, benches, etc. to avoid innocuous spaces or hop over the couch to avoid going around it. And this dog is a mess of Labrador, Staffordshire, and German Shepherd, with legs like a greyhound--watching him accordion on down to squeeze under a foot-high bench is hilarious.
Both of them required training and care beyond what most people are prepared to give.
I love my dogs, but if I could have avoided the training to get them to where they are now I would have.
Yet if we adopt another dog it'll likely be from a shelter or rescue.
He’s optimized for minimum anxiety, not time or distance. Your dog’s pathfinding is _excellent_.
There are plenty of irresponsible shelters out there but a responsible adoption center will insist that you have interaction with the dog before you adopt. The will have done thorough behavior assessments and will do their best to make sure the dog suits your lifestyle. I would guess about 80% of the dogs at her shelter require no further training to be a pet. In the remaining cases potential adopters are given guidance before they adopt and will usually know what they're in for ahead of time.
> Shelters are only really active in North America and a few European countries.
I'm not sure where you got this idea, but I live in Asia (Taiwan) and can tell you for a fact that there are plenty of active shelters here and all through this side of the globe, both volunteer- and government-operated. Further, common sense tells me that there must be shelters anywhere there's an animal control department that doesn't immediately euthanize the dogs they catch. In any case, I'd hope to change your mind about breeders even if there were no shelters in your area.
> Everyone else simply buys from the best breeders
This is another really peculiar claim to stand behind. If people only adopt from shelters or buy from the best breeders, what are the so-so breeders doing? What about puppy mills? They account for a lot of the dogs that wind up in shelters in Taiwan (or, more precisely, their well-meaning but capricious customers do).
> It’s good to know people “rescue” or “adopt” dogs from shelters and their payment in exchange for dogs isn’t considered “buying”
This is the heart of what I want to discuss, though. There's a significant distinction between adopting a shelter dog and buying from a breeder, and this distinction is where the moral question lies:
Shelters are not in the business of producing more dogs. They are in the business of managing the human-induced problem of transient dog populations.
Breeding is part cultural practice, part commercial endeavor. I have no criticism of the cultural practice, and I think it's wonderful that there are long lineages of majestic, purebred dogs out there. But if you truly love dogs, and I mean truly love them, not _like_ family but _as_ family, then you must concede that they are all equally deserving of a home.
There is a finite supply of dog stewardship out there in the world, and it is truly dwarfed by the demand for it. Breeders manufacture more demand; shelters do not. When you say "yes" to a breeder, you aren't just saying "no" to a shelter dog. You are agreeing to raise the overall demand while keeping the supply constant. More than that, you're sponsoring it.
Stray dogs are refugees in this manufactured world of ours, clamoring for asylum. There's a _lot_ more of them then there are visas to go around, and we're paying somebody to make new refugees because these ones suit our preferences better. The ones that don't make it are literally killed and thrown into a furnace.
Please please please reconsider your stance on breeders. Of course, I understand. Breeder dogs are prettier. More impressionable. Easier to train. They don't come with baggage. You don't have to adopt the worst shelter dog out there; I guarantee that somewhere out there, there's a shelter dog that's right for you. It might be more work, but if you love dogs, don't you think they deserve it?
As I understand it this is a very dumb thing to look for. It is true that many people want a purebreed but many of these are genetic dead ends. Inbreeding has done awful things to many breeds of dogs, especially since it is very hard to maintain the traits we subjectively selected.
Shelter animals and their problems will cost you more money over time and cause more problems. I speak from experience.
People who talk about how great shelter animals are virtue signalling.