Unpopular opinion: I bought my dog

Adopt, don’t shop.

Everyone knows it. Everyone knows there are a ton of unwanted dogs destined to live horrible lives (or be euthanized) simply because there aren’t enough available homes/rescues/foster homes for them.

I know, I’ve heard it. I’ve seen the videos. I’ve written the stories.

And yet … I bought my dog.

And no. I’m not going to apologize for it.

How could you?!? You may be asking. Well, allow me to explain. Or, at the very least, let me play Devil’s Advocate for a minute.

I’ll start off with the elephant in the room: I didn’t want a pit.

Now, I’m not trying to get into a debate about the virtues/shortcomings of owning a pitbull terrier. I have every confidence they can be (like any other breed) a great dog.

But I didn’t want one.

That’s really the bottom line. The sad fact is pits and pit mixes are among the most common dog breeds to end up surrendered to shelters in the US — along with labs, German shepherds, boxers and chihuahuas — and that’s not the dog I wanted. For me, or my kids.

I had other reasons as well: I wanted a mellow breed, something with little to no prey drive. I wanted a puppy, not an adult. I wanted a female. I wanted to meet the pup’s parents and get to know their temperaments and be able to ask questions about their health. In short, I was being really picky — and why not?

This dog was going to be a part of our lives for the next decade or so, what’s so wrong with wanting to make the best choice possible for me and my family? I feel sorry for those dogs in the shelter, but I didn’t put them there. Their crappy owners did.

I refuse to feel guilty for someone else’s shortcomings with their animals.

Also, I feel like it’s important to note not every breeder runs a “puppy mill.” There’s plenty of ethical breeders out there who produce healthy pups and thoroughly vet potential owners.

In our case, we found a family in northern Georgia who had an upcoming litter of Saint Pyrenees puppies. (The mom was a Saint Bernard, the dad was a Great Pyrenees.) We had several conversations with the breeders asking what we were looking for in a pup, how big was our yard and was it fenced? What experience did we have owning dogs — especially giant breeds, etc. We had to send vet references, we talked about our kids’ ages, about whether we owned our home or rented … The list went on and on.

In the end, the mom had 15 puppies and out of 37 applications, we were one of the 14 approved. (The family had decided to keep one of the puppies themselves.)

We met the litter at 4-weeks-old and placed a deposit and went back at 6-weeks (when they were showing more personality) to pick out which puppy we wanted. At 10-weeks, we wrote a check for the remainder of the balance and brought her home.

I have zero regrets.

Freya is a year old now and she is the perfect addition to our family. She has all the qualities we were looking for in a family dog and more. She also has an appointment next week to get spayed. Why? Because as awesome as she is, I realize the world doesn’t need another 15 like her.

Can you find your perfect family pet through a shelter or rescue group? Of course you can. (In fact, up until Freya, all my dogs have been “pound puppies.”) But this whole “if your dog isn’t a rescue — you’re part of the problem” rhetoric needs to stop.

There’s more than one way to be a responsible dog owner.