Adopting An Adult Dog From The Shelter
If you decide a puppy is what you want, you'll probably have no trouble finding one you love in an animal shelter. But most shelter dogs fall into the category of "adult dogs," those over a year old. And although just about all these grown dogs can turn into terrific pets, people sometimes tend to overlook them.
Older shelter dogs, unlike puppies, have probably had pasts which have strongly influenced their personalities. Some have been neglected or abused in their previous homes. Some have never even lived with people. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some have enjoyed happy homes whose dissolutions may have left them confused and depressed. When you adopt an older dog, you're adopting her previous experiences, too, and she'll require your understanding and perseverance as she adjusts to her new life.
But it's not true that dogs deliberately dwell on their pasts and hold grudges against their new owners. In fact, they're probably better at "getting on with their lives" than most humans are! We've heard a lot of romantic stories about "one-person dogs" - dogs whose staunch loyalty permits them to love only one person as long as they live - but, to be quite honest, we've never actually met one. Dogs have more than enough love to go around. Your adopted dog, especially if you're conscientious and careful in your selection, will be more than happy to give you her trust - or, at least, the chance to earn it. She'll adore you just as much as if you'd been her one and only person from the beginning - maybe more - and you'll adore her just as much as if she'd always been your dog.
Of course, some of her "past experiences" may work strongly in your favor. Lots of adult shelter dogs are fully or mostly housebroken already. They've probably outgrown some of their puppyish tendencies to chew or to whine during the night. If they've lived in decent homes before, they may even have had some basic training in canine etiquette. Grown dogs are often a good choice if you have children in the house: even though the pairing of puppy and child is standard, puppies are fragile and children can be rough (and as puppies grow into adolescence, they often become too big and rambunctious for kids), so an older dog who has had experience with small people can be an ideal choice for a family.
One more advantage to adopting a full-grown dog is the predictability factor: It's often tough or impossible to know what a shelter puppy will look like when she's all grown up, but with an adult, what you see is pretty much what you get in terms of size and appearance. And that can give you and your dog some real security; after all, more than a few dogs have been (unfairly) returned to shelters because they grew up to be much bigger or furrier than their adopters expected or wanted.