The Chosen Puppy: How to Select and Raise a Great Puppy from an Animal Shelter

When you adopt a shelter puppy, you acquire a loving companion and save a life at the same time. When enough dog lovers do the same, they create at least a partial solution to the pet overpopulation problem in the United States today. It staggers the mind to learn that over seven million dogs are received by shelters in this country annually. Of this figure, far too many are puppies, and for most the future is neither bright nor long. Mainly, this vast glut of surplus puppies happened because someone didn't care—about neutering or using a leash or closing gates or even about the quality of life for all living things. In The Chosen Puppy, author Carol Lea Benjamin offers a better understanding of the shelter puppy, why its needs are so special and what you must do to be sure the Chosen Puppy of your choice grows up well adjusted and happy. Here's how to temperament-test and select the right puppy for you; and here's how to train your Chosen Puppy and care for it, providing all the creature comforts it never may have had and the love it craves so much from those it comes to depend on. Ms. Benjamin understands all aspects of pet overpopulation and how to best help its most innocent victims. She tells why neutering is the hope of the future to curb and curtail a population explosion that never should have happened in the first place. Think of  The Chosen Puppy as your guidebook through your shelter puppy's most important formative period and as a passport to the lifetime of joys awaiting you both.

Shelter puppies are often the victims of abuse, but they can grow up happy and confident with the dynamic regimen offered here. Includes testing procedures to help readers find the right puppy.

How to select and raise a great puppy from an animal shelter.

Carol Lea Benjamin, one of America's foremost contemporary dog writers, is an articulate spokesperson for the well-being of all dogs. She is an award-winning author whose credits include such bestsellers as Mother Knows Best, Dog Training for Kids and Second-Hand Dog. She has been honored by the Dog Writers' Association of America and Gaines Foods as Dog Writer of the Year for 1985, by Kal Kan Pedigree as the Outstanding Pet Care Journalist of 1987 and again by the Dog Writers' Association with its Distinguished Service Award for 1989.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction: John F. Kullberg, Ed.D.

1. From Shelter Puppy to Chosen Puppy.

2. How to Talk to a Puppy.

3. Choosing the Best Puppy for You.

4. Puppy Comes Home.

5. Teaching Your Puppy How to Learn.

6. The Well-Mannered Puppy.

7. The Obedient Puppy.

8. Advanced Learning for Puppies.

9. Growing Up Canine.

10. Afterword.