Two bacterial infections, a spay complication, a case of bladder stones, a radioactive thyroid treatment, a bacterial eye infection, diabetes diagnosis resulting in twice daily insulin shots, a viral eye infection… 16 years and counting… this inbred rescue cat living on borrowed time, but we suspect she is eternal. Our vets love her. 
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I’m pretty much the only shelter/rescue person in my family. My first was when I was a frugal 13 and spent my own $50 to adopt a puppy from the local shelter. Of course, the fee was the cheap part! But she wormed her way into everyone’s hearts, including my grandparents who never let their kids have a dog but after her first visit said we weren’t allowed to visit again unless we brought her.
Next was a rescue who was about to be euthanized who was about 15-months old. Rottweiler coloring with a lab size. An absolutely wonderful dog and still very much missed.
During Covid we got a puppy from a rescue group. It’s half Dalmation but looks just like a lab…one of the foster parents said that the ones that looked like labs were smarter than the ones that look like dalmations. He’s nearing five and is definitely still high energy, but very sweet.
I’ve thought about doing a breed-specific rescue before, but never have. Our shelters have lots of the uninsurable breeds, and our home insurance excludes dogs that are mixed with any of them (German Shepherds, rottweilers, pitbulls, staffordshire terriers, dobermans, and about 10 or so other breeds). (Our dog that looked like an 80-lb rottie was a “mutt - lab mix” for insurance purposes.)
But other members of my family have bought purebred dogs (Coton de tulear, Giant Schnauzers, Boxers, Maltese, Miniature Poodles, Golden Retrievers, etc), and they’ve all been wonderful dogs, so no shade to the purebred owners.
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All cats, either shelters or in a couple of cases kittens from litters that would have ended up in a shelter otherwise. Reason, there are more than enough out there who need good homes.
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It was. Also no visiting just online viewing. It worked well for all of us. 
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This is Louie, named after Louie Armstrong because our older dog is named Jazz. MTA: I forgot that he’s my profile photo, ha!
I tend to fall in love with a particular beeed so that’s why I go to a breeder. I think collies and Aussies are wonderful. 
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In my earlier post, I didn’t address the “why” portion of the question. I live in an area where most people get dogs from breeders, and the majority are the same few breeds – particularly retrievers, doodles, and toy/companions. I instead have always adopted rescue dogs as an adult. Some of the reasons for this decision include:
I got my first dog as a small child from a shelter. Throughout my life, I’ve only adopted rescue and shelter dogs. This is what is most familiar to me.
I have positive associations with saving a life of a dog who has gone through a tough life situation via rescue. And I have negative associations with breeding dogs, including eugenics-like connections. I particularly dislike the idea of breeding for traits that negatively impact a dog’s life for no reason other than the breed is supposed to have that trait. All things being equal, I’d prefer to support rescues, and I’d prefer to not to support dog breeders.
I like the general idea of my dog being a unique one-of-a-kind mixture, rather than the usual common breeds. Being a unique mixture also supports combinations of traits I prefer that are not possible in a single breed.
For example, my current dog is hypoallergenic enough to not impact my mild allergies and has extremely limited shedding, but also does not have grooming requirements of breeds associated with being hypoallergenic, such as poodle/doodle. The densely packed short fur also makes trips to beach easier than with a poodle/doodle, as water/sand/mud/… stays on top of coat, rather than penetrates within.
She has a light frame and is fast, but is not as specialized on speed as a sighthound, so doesn’t have issues with longer multi-day hikes or cold, as is common in sighthounds. Tri-color dogs have always appealed to me probably because of my first dog as child was tri-color (foxhound). Mixed breed allows tri-color that appeals to me, without being limited to the relatively few tri-color breeds.
While breeding dogs makes likely health issues more predictable, I believe that the genetic diversity of mixed breed dogs leads to improved health overall on average, particularly in regards to conditions associated with inbreeding, such as certain cancers, but also in regards to various other conditions. For example, the Nationwide study found that goldendoodles had on average less than 1/3 the high cancer rate of either of their 2 parent breeds. Along the same lines, insurance costs generally average lower for mixed breeds than pure breeds, with the lower risk of various expensive medical conditions.
I mentioned my previous dog was a shepherd mix who lived to 17. I believe her smaller frame than typical shepherds and lack of sloping and general diversity also reduced risk of various other common shepherd issues, such as hip dysplasia. The lack of wrinkles also reduced risk of common shar pei issues (many of shar pei appearance traits are recessive). The result was living far longer than common for either of her parent breeds, without the health issues that were common in her parent breeds.
Quality breeders can also have a more complex, more expensive, and more time consuming adoption process, with long wait periods. Rescues also often have challenging adoptions, but usually for a different group of reasons. For example, the group I adopted with wanted me to show them videos of my yard and home, and required 3 references, which were checked. However, the process was quick and relatively inexpensive to complete.
Of course there are downsides to mixed breed dogs as well. One downside is that among rescue/shelter dogs that do not have controlled breeding, it often isn’t clear what breed the dog actually is. By far the most common breed among mixed breed dogs in US is pitbull terrier, and many shelters intentionally mislabel pitbull mixes to improve odds of being adopted. There is also a higher risk of dogs not being adopted due to problematic behaviors. Some dogs get sent to shelters because their owners have problems with the dog . This can relate why shelter dogs are more likely to be breed mixes that are often challenging for inexperienced owners, such as huskies and german shepherds, in addition to pitbulls. While huskies, shepherds, pitbulls, akitas, and similar breeds are overrpresented; most breeds are very difficult to find among shelter/rescue dogs. Some are almost non-existent.
Even when breeds are known, the nature of mixed breeds leads to future being less predictable – less predictable behaviors, less predictable health risks, even less predictable size. My first dog as a small child was labeled as a “beagle mix”. He grew to nearly 100lb. I suspect he was a foxhound, rather than beagle.
My current dog has a mixed bag of behaviors that are not associated with any one single breed. For example, she is big on stalking, has an alert yodel, loves the snow and never gets cold, etc. The behavior I find most annoying is being obsessed with scavenging for anything edible. This may relate to generations of selection for traits that are most successful in a street dog. However, if we spend the day in a natural environment without a lot of people around or a lot of food scraps, then tracking/hunting mode immediately kicks in, which seems to override scavenging.
While there are both positive and negatives, overall my preferences is rescues, and I take some steps to mitigate the negatives associated with rescues and/or mixed breeds. Among the many possible rescues in my area, I both looked at lists of dogs on rescue websites and looked at search engine type sites like Petfinder. When I found a dog that I thought might be a good fit, I’d contact the organization and ask some questions; then if things went well schedule a visit. My current dog had a foster family when I adopted. I met the family at a public park. We spent the afternoon playing with the dog and talking about the dog. I asked a lot of questions, and they asked questions about me as well. It seemed like a good match, so we continued with the adoption process.
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I grew up with dogs - an insane Irish Setter was the biggest part of it. He was a beautiful dog but a handful. He came from a farm and was $25, I think.
Mr. Sabaray and I have had five Sabadogs - all Labrador Retrievers. The first Sabadog came from a farm, where he was the progeny of an American style Lab and an English type. He was chocolate in color and smart as a whip. He was great with our children and extremely protective. He lived to be nearly 15 years old.
Our next Lab, Sabadog2, came from a small breeder. She raised about 3 or 4 litters a year of the English type. Sweetest, kindest black dog ever. We lived near a housing development that housed quite a few refugees and one young boy just loved him. We’d tell the dog to sit and the boy would always exclaim “he has good English!” He was a wonderful dog but was plagued with seizures. It broke my heart when he died at 9. Our next Lab, Sabadog3, was a gorgeous yellow boy - and boy, did he know it! I think he thought there was a mistake that he ended up living with us. Again, a real sweetheart, came from another breeder. We bought him a friend, Sabadog4, a black female, from the first breeder we’d worked with and they were truly bonded. He died of gastric lymphoma at the age of seven and it was terrible. So…
We added Sabapuppy, a yellow female. She and Sabadog are the best of friends and distantly related (same breeder). Sabadog4 is almost 12 now and going through treatment for copper storage disease, an affliction Labs are prone to. Sabapuppy has osteoarthritis in her elbows but is the happiest pup ever. She will be 6.
I have thought about going through a breed specific rescue, but I have to say I love the opportunity to work with a puppy and to shape their personality and behavior. I financially support our local shelter and LRCP rescue.
I love my dogs. I know they have a very privileged life and I wish every dog could have that. I guess just knowing my experiences with Labs and the knowledge I’ve built up over the years, I want to stick with what I know.
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Over the past 25 years, I’ve had 4 dogs and 2 cats. First dog was a Golden rescue through the breed rescue organization – she was being re-homed because the family had medical challenges and couldn’t care for the dog. We got her at age 6, when my kids were under 5 years old, and she lived to 14. A sweet, mellow introduction to dogs for my kids. After that, back-to-back Bernese Mountain dogs, raised from puppies, gotten from a reputable breeder. My favorite breed, wonderful temperament – the two negatives are the shedding (which I can live with) and the short average life span (which broke our hearts). Both Berners died of cancer at age 7. We also adopted two rescue cats together when our kids fell in love at an adoption event at the pet store. Cats liked the mellow Golden but were not fans of the Berners who wanted to play more. Cats lived to about 14-15. Now I have a mixed breed rescue dog who looks tiny to me at under 40lbs, super sweet, keeps me active.
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If you are on Instagram, you would enjoy bunsenberner.bmd. Two berners, a golden and a floofy ginger cat all living their best lives.
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Golden Retriever from a breeder- our first and probably only dog we will have and he’s been pure joy.
Grew up with lots of dogs, always from a shelter. My mom was a dog whisperer- they always listened to her. I’m not so great but fortunately my dog is pretty easy.
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We got our pure breed Australian Shepards from a pet “store” known in our area. But they bred them on a farm in Indiana. Everyone got their dogs here in our area. We got to know the owners well. Many of our family members came out of state to get their dogs. They would pay for the first doctor visit if something was wrong also. We got two fantastic dogs 13 year’s apart. They closed their store years ago and we miss even just going in to see what dogs they have. Don’t really see those types of stores anymore.
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Is that an aussie???
I agree we only had full size aussie but have seen some miniature one’s and they are damn cute
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Cats from shelters always, except one stray who was rescued and spayed. There are so many pets looking for homes.
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Agree 100%. Over 1 million cats enter shelters each year. It is heartbreaking - especially the older ones. My Wilson, who died right after Christmas, was 5 when we adopted him. He was an outdoor cat with bad teeth and a bad attitude. He ended up being just such a wonderful gentleman who wanted nothing more than to be with me. It just makes me so happy that his life was one of love and comfort after such a bad start.
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Yes, he’s a full size Aussie. He was about 3 months old in that photo.
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So cute. Miss my Aussies.
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Our dog was a medium mix-breed from a county shelter. We were advised to visit a county shelter since the city shelter had far more visitors than the county shelter, and smaller or younger dogs would be adopted quickly. Best dog ever (non-biased of course).
Cat #1 was actually a neighbor’s cat that like to stay at our house more than theirs 
. Cat#2 was an adopted stray from another neighborhood. Lived to about 19. DD brought home cat #3 from a store parking lot. We learned later a nearby business would feed feral cats, and evidently one of them recently had kittens - that would become feral. Also lived to about 18 with very few health issues until later in life. Best cats ever (non-biased of course).
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Yes, I see lots of older cats in the shelter that may have been surrendered when their elderly owners passed - I thought about adopting an elderly cat last time around but one of the kids was still in the house and I didn’t want it to pass while he was here. Losing a pet is heartbreaking, even due to old age.
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Currently have four dogs. All were adopted as puppies; all are mixed breeds.
Two males, two females. Get along great as a family.
The older pair (male & female) are 12 & 13 years old. The 13 year old weighs about 75 pounds and acts like a puppy; she runs & wrestles with the two young ones–who are both about 2.5 years old.
The 12 year old male is a light golden colored mixed breed lab who weighs about 90 pounds. Gentle soul. Allows the younger two to eat his food if they so desire. Permits the 55 - 60 pound German short-haired pointer to sleep with him.
The 60 pound German short-hair pointer mix is affectionate. Four the first four months, he slept next to me. I had to hold him throughout the entire night during that time. Fortunately, I sleep without much movement. Possibly the happiest dog alive. Very energetic & super athletic.
Our 2.5 year old Great Pryennes mix was adopted by me because she was shy and reluctant to make contact with anyone while in the shelter. I like shy dogs because we can give attention 24/7 every day of the year. Took awhile, but she is no longer shy. Weighs about 95 pounds.
More dog beds than I can count, a large fenced in yard, freedom to roam both inside and outside, lots of small swimming pools, and a good bit of stimulating activity beyond our fences.
Sweet, playful, healthy, happy, affectionate, and appreciative. You reap what you sow.
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Yes, most people ask me if my GSD male is a large-sized Belgian Malinois because he is sable and does not have the severe rear angulation that the American line GSDs have.
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