Why Are So Many Puppies Being Rehomed?

I'm Dale Buchanan, and this is Puppy Talk, the podcast that offers free advice and tips for raising a happy, healthy, and obedient puppy. For more information on this podcast, visit us at puppytalkpodcast.com. Welcome to Puppy Talk, episode number 74. Why are so many puppies being re-homed? This is a great question, and I've been thinking about this for a while. I've had a lot of clients of mine who have re-homed their puppies recently, and I've had a lot of people that contacted me and ended up not hiring me, but re-homing their puppies. This is unprecedented. All of the years I've been doing puppy training, I've never seen as many puppies being re-homed as I have over the last two or three months, all types of dogs for all types of reasons. Let's get into this in a little bit more detail.

Why are so many puppies being re-homed?

Number one, owners don't have time to raise and train a puppy. This is obvious that if you don't have enough time to put into raising a puppy, then don't get a puppy. The first episode I did here on Puppy Talk was in January of 2021 entitled, owning a Puppy is a lot of work and it is, if you're not willing to put in the work, don't get a puppy.

The second reason why puppies are being re-homed is that owners have unrealistic expectations for their puppies. In other words, they think their puppies should learn how to be potty trained instantly. Should learn to love the crate right away, should learn all obedience commands within a couple of weeks, and that's unrealistic. Puppies don't learn that fast. You have to be patient and I've done a podcast episode on Be Patient with Your Puppy, so check that out.

The third reason why people are rehoming puppies is they realize they have the wrong puppy for their lifestyle. They may have a puppy that needs a tremendous amount of exercise and they can't give them that exercise. I had a client of mine that re-homed a golden retriever that was a great dog. I love this dog so much, but it needed three to four hours of exercise every day. In addition, it needed a lot of mental stimulation and enrichment and play. This dog needed a lot of attention and the owner couldn't give it to the dog, so she rehomed it and got a little dog that didn't need as much exercise and mental stimulation, so she's able to manage the lifestyle of that dog a lot easier.

The fourth and most popular reason why people are rehoming their puppies is that the puppy develops behavior problems that are hard to fix. These include barking, jumping, play, biting too much, chewing things in the house such as furniture, and this goes on for months and months and when the puppy is usually eight to 10 months old.

This is when I get the phone calls, people say, help my puppy's bad, and they're destroying my house and they're jumping on all my guests and they're just hard to walk on a leash, and I'm really frustrated in having a hard time managing them, and when I have a conversation with them and let them know that their breed that they have, maybe it's a German Shepherd or a golden retriever or a Labrador retriever or any other type of dog that needs a lot of exercise and outlets for that energy, then they realize that these behavior problems aren't gonna be fixed right away, that they're gonna have to put in a lot of work to get these behavior problems fixed.

A lot of people think they can call or hire a dog trainer and we have a magic wand and we can just wave that wand and fix the puppy. It's not that simple. When I do puppy training or dog training or behavior modification, I never even use the word fix. I never bring it up. It's not in the vocabulary of working with a puppy or a dog because it's not an appliance. You just can't take a part out and put another part back in and the puppy's behaving better. It takes work and the reason why the puppy has developed these issues we're gonna talk about in just a few minutes, keep in mind that if your puppy is starting to develop behavior problems, you should call a professional immediately. When you start to notice these behaviors, not when the puppy has rehearsed these behaviors for 5, 6, 8, 10 months, it's too late at that point.

Sometimes they've rehearsed it so much to reverse that, it's just a tremendous amount of work, not only on the trainer, but also on the puppy owner. How do you prevent rehoming your puppy? How do you make your puppy so good and so easy to live with that you never even consider Rehoming your puppy?

I'm going to go through a list of six things you need to do to ensure your puppy doesn't get rehomed.

Number one, choose the right puppy. If you don't choose the right puppy for your lifestyle, it's never gonna work out. You can't fit a square peg into a round hole. I'm gonna put a link to a website called dog time.com. On that website, you can search for almost any breed and you can find their demeanor, how trainable they are, how livable they are in apartments and houses, how good they are with children and other dogs and other people. You can find out a lot of details before you get the puppy. If you're at a rescue organization and you're getting a mixed puppy, try to find out as much information about the mixed breed of that puppy and look them up before you adopt the puppy and bring them home. This will save you a lot of frustration and a lot of aggravation down the road. If you think you got a lab and you actually got a pit bull, then things are gonna change a little bit for the way that you manage that puppy, the way that you train them and the way that you meet their needs. You want to know how to meet your puppy's needs. I did a podcast recently, how to meet the Needs of your Puppy. Check that out.

Number two, provide very clear rules and boundaries for your puppy If you don't want them. Counters surfing, don't let them in the kitchen. If you don't want them jumping up on your furniture, don't let them go. Jump up on the furniture, don't give them access to that. Keep them away from the furniture. Put their bed away from the couch. Have them lay down on their bed and stay. You have to set very clear rules and boundaries and enforce them.

Number three, put them on a structured schedule. Make sure that your puppy has everything that it needs for success. They get up in the morning, they go potty, they come back in, they eat, they do a little training, and then they go potty again, and then they go in their crate or they take a nap and they have some downtime and repeat that cycle throughout the day. Just keep repeating it every four hours. Keep repeating that same cycle. Exercise, food, training, or play enrichment and downtime. This will help teach your puppy what's gonna happen next, and they don't have to stress out worrying; what are we gonna do now? What's gonna happen next? When will I get food? When can I go outside? When are we gonna throw the ball? They already know when it's gonna happen because they are very intuitive and they can instinctually tell what's gonna happen next once they're on a structured schedule.

Number four, get obedience training for your puppy as soon as possible. Don't wait. When you get the puppy at eight or 10 weeks old, find a trainer that can start with you within that week. Find a trainer who can help you immediately develop the foundational skills of the puppy so they're easy to live with and easy to manage. They learn how to sit down, stay, come. They learn impulse controls that just leave it and drop it. They learn how to walk on a loose leash outside so you can take them places and socialize them. This is what I do at Top Gun Dog Training with the puppies that I work with. I put 'em on a very structured, disciplined schedule and we have training that goes for six weeks, and at the end they go to Home Depot and socialize and they're all great dogs because we've built them up to the point where they can do the commands and the cues that we ask them, and they're very calm and relaxed in public.

Number five, get your puppy lease trained as soon as possible. In my book Lease Training Your Puppy, I explain that the relationship between the owner and the dog is built through the leash. It's not built inside the house, cuddling on the couch, giving a lot of affection. It's built through leadership, and that leadership is done while leash training on a loose leash without your puppy pulling and reacting to everything, this needs to start immediately. When I got Dixie, I started leash training her the first hour that I brought her home, may the fifth, 2020. She was 10 weeks old. I put her on a slip lead and I taught her how to walk on a leash immediately. This was very important and this is one of the reasons why my relationship with Dixie is so good and her behavior is pristine.

Number six, set your puppy up for success. The chances of rehoming your puppy are less likely if your puppy's very happy. If your puppy's having a good time, if they're not getting told no and they're not getting told, knock it off and stop all the time. That type of frustration and that type of chit chat with your puppy is going to make them check out and set them up for failure. Then they're gonna start to do more bad things because they're bored and they don't want to engage with you and listen to you, and then you rehome the puppy, set your puppy up for success the very first day you bring them home by following this advice. I hope this information was helpful for you. If you have any questions about Rehoming a puppy, you can contact me through my website, puppy talk podcast.com. Have a great day.