When you decide to adopt a dog and welcome him into your family, it is always a joyful event and an immense act of love. However, it is good to remember that it is also a great responsibility, because from that moment on the life of the dog will depend exclusively on you. This is why you need to pay attention to it and find out things like why does my dog sit on me.

If you want to make a further gesture of admirable generosity, it would be good to adopt a dog from one of the many dog shelters in your city. But what needs to be done in this case? First of all, it is necessary to fill in an adoption request, which will be provided to you by the operators of the shelter you will contact. 

During this phase, you will be asked some questions about your lifestyle habits, in order to check whether or not you are suitable to meet all the needs of the dog.

The adoption test

Usually, after filling in the application for adoption, there is also an interview with the staff of the shelter, who may ask you for some information about your private life. Therefore, if you are really interested in welcoming a dog into your home, do not be impatient and follow all the steps of the protocol.

The ultimate goal of the questionnaire is to understand what kind of people you are, if you are really motivated and if you have enough time to devote to the needs and care of the animal. In short, are you really willing to make the dog your new life partner?

Unfortunately, it often happens that many people who decide to adopt a dog, after a few days bring the animal back to the shelter for various reasons. Most of the time the cause is due to a too hasty decision, taken without having considered the great commitment that an adoption entails.

It is not fair to “send the animal back to the sender” as if nothing had happened; for this you have to think about it not twice but three times before taking such an important step. A dog is not an object but a living creature with great sensitivity. It is not nice to make a dog become attached to a new family and a new home and then send it back to the shelter for the umpteenth time.

All these changes could seriously undermine his emotional and mental balance and consequently make him more difficult to adopt. 

A new home

Bear in mind that once adopted, a dog needs some time to adjust to his new home, you and your pace of life. On the other hand, this is understandable if you think that the animal is suddenly catapulted into an environment unknown to him. 

The dog needs a few days to take up the rhythms of a new life, although these are better and more tempting than the flat and monotonous ones of the shelter routine. Surely you are driven by noble intentions and you want to give the dog a better life full of love, but the dog still does not know this and you will have to give him the time to understand it.

Advice for adopting a dog

After submitting the application for adoption to the shelter, if you have not already spotted your future four-legged friend, the operators of the facility will show you some specimens that may correspond to your requests.

All this will be based on the information you have previously provided to the staff. For example, what size the dog should be – small, medium or large – depending on your needs and the size of your home.  

The next step in choosing the dog consists in a preliminary knowledge of the animal. At this stage you will be asked to make some visits to the shelter, to spend some time with the dog in order to get to know each other better.

A suggestion that we give you is to play with the dog and take it around for walks (with the authorization of the shelter). This way you will earn his trust and prepare him for change.

Remember to ask as many questions as possible to the staff of the facility, relating to the character of the animal, its habits, its past and any trauma it may have suffered.

By doing this you will be prepared for everything and will understand if you are compatible with the dog or not, in order to avoid having second thoughts after the adoption.

If the dog is of a breed that has a loud bark, invest in a BarxBuddy for your dog. This ultrasonic training device will not only prevent your dog from barking unnecessarily but also help you train him to be more obedient. Before buying the product read this BarxBuddy review here to know everything about the product.

Conclusion

Before bringing the dog home, it is likely that a shelter attendant will carry out an inspection at your home, to ascertain whether there are indeed the appropriate environmental conditions to make the adoption effective.

The person in charge will simply have to verify that the house is suitable for hosting the animal and check if you are able to take care of the dog.