Dogs and Corona
-
So, it turns out that I had to give up my resistance against getting a dog after my wife also sided with the kids.
Hence I'm now looking at the dog market, which is rather crazy these days.
When I was a kid and somebody had a couple of cross-breed dog puppies, you could usually get them for free.
Currently, people seem to pay north of a 1000 Euros for a cross-breed, and for a true-bred dog often 2500 or even 3000 Euros. It seems to be the case that the demand has exploded due to COVID.
One "mixed" breed that we are currently considering and where we may have found a good source is "Aussidoodle", a mix between Australian Shepherd and Poodle. Maybe we are making this more complicated than it needs to be, but it's rather difficult to find the sweet spot between the various desirable properties (not too big, calm and friendly, doesn't loose a lot of hair, little hunting instinct etc.) and market availability.
-
Have you considered going to a rescue shelter? In the US, apparently a lot of dogs are being returned as the effects of Covid eases, which is just such a sad indictment of humans - they got a puppy for lockdown, and now they're sending it back. I get mad just thinking about this.
We got a Jack Russell this way a couple of years back, and we honestly couldn't be happier with him. He's not what you'd call calm, and his hunting instinct is far from non-existent, but he's just the best dog.
