Should I give away my dog or cat | Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT Board-Certified Veterinary Specialist

Posted by justinelee in Animal Safety, Blog, Pet Health, Pet Help

I’ll tell you the truth. As a veterinarian, my biggest pet peeve EVER is when people give away dogs or cats. Unless there’s an egregious reason or extremely good excuse, you get bad pet and life karma ever, IMO. As a veterinarian, I believe pets are for life. So if you’re moving, or inconvenienced, or can’t hack it, you don’t have an excuse to get rid of your pet. You should have been committed and done your research before then.

I always tell people to make sure they are FULLY committed before getting a pet. Pet ownership isn’t rocket science, but it does require a few things: commitment, responsibility, preventive care, environmental enrichment, safety, and food. That’s pretty much it. So, please ask yourself these key questions before you even think about adopting or purchasing a new pet.

Before you get a pet, make sure you are ready to commit to the following:

1) Commitment. Simple as that. It means you KEEP your pet his or her forever home. Obviously, there are rare circumstances where it may not be safe (e.g., child’s asthma, aggressive nature of a pet, etc.), but in 90% of the cases I see pet’s being surrendered, it’s due to the human “inconvenience” factor [e.g., “I’m too busy to train him,” “He’s chewing a lot,” “I don’t have time for him,” “He’s really hyper”, “I’m moving,” “My landlord won’t allow him” (Um, you should have asked first, duh).] A few tips. You need to train him. You need to realize puppies are hyper and chew a lot for months. You have to buy a crate to crate train your puppy. You have to walk him every 2-3 hours during the initial puppy training for several MONTHS.

2) Responsibility. Part of being a good pet owner is responsibility. That means if you get a dog, you need to scoop his poop when out for a walk. That means you need to scoop your fenced in backyard at least every other day. That means you need to take your dog – regardless of his or her age – to 2 semesters/levels of puppy obedience when you first get him. For you cat owners, that means making sure you keep your cat indoors, or neutering/spaying your cat before they get the whole neighborhood overrun with kittens. It means buying n+1 litter boxes (2 cats? You need 3 litter boxes). It means scooping the litter box ONCE. A. DAY. (Or using an automatic scooping kitty litter).

3) Preventative care. Be prepared to pay at least $1000 in preventative care for the first 3 years of life. When you get a dog or cat, you can dramatically reduce the number of LONG-term medical problems by getting him or her neutered or spayed, respectively before the first birthday. And your puppy or kitten needs multiple vaccines – a series of vaccines – to mount an appropriate immune response. Let me say that again. Just getting one set of vaccines doesn’t do jack. The reason why you have to bring in your two-legged human kid to the pediatrician more in the beginning is to do a series of vaccines. That’s because the first vaccine only primes the immune system to respond to the second and third and fourth vaccines! So if are not committed to preventative care for the first few years – and yes, it’ll likely cost you at least $1000 for the first 1-3 years of pet ownership, then you shouldn’t get a pet. Or instead, get pet insurance, which I’m a huge fan of.

4) Environmental enrichment. You don’t need to buy fancy toys or expensive gadgets, but you do need to provide some stimulation for your dog or cat. This can be in the form of tennis balls or laser pointers. Here, my favorite inexpensive cat toys. For dog owners, this means that you MUST exercise your dog. Dogs need exercise and stimulation. So for potential dog owners, here’s my veterinary rule: 30 minutes of exercise a day. If you can’t commit to walking a dog twice a day for 15 minutes, you likely shouldn’t have a dog. It could be taking your dog to a dog park for supervised running. For cat owners, environmental enrichment could be as simple as committing to 10 minutes of laser-pointer play time a day. It could be putting your cat’s food in a muffin tray as a way of getting them to hunt for their food more slowly. Or better yet, a meal-dispensing toy.

5) Safety. Have a good leash. And more importantly, keep your dog on it. Provide a safe household (e.g., inside, ideally). Keep your cat indoors, or supervised outside on a leash with you. Keep your pet away from extreme weather (e.g., outside 100%).

5) Food and fresh clean water. My basic two rules for dog food are: a) if your dog has a nice coat, and b) if your dog sh*ts less than 2X a day, then it’s a decent food. I don’t believe that you need the most expensive, organic dog food out there. I do like having a meat-based food where meat is one of the top 2 ingredients. And I do want the food to be made and SOURCED in the USA. Otherwise, those are my basic rules.

If you’re still not sure, offer to pet sit for a while. If you enjoy it, volunteer at an animal shelter walking dogs and petting cats. Then make sure you’re committed, don’t mind the responsibility, cost, fur and poop. Then you’re ready.

Any hints or tips? Weigh in below!