It varies all over the place.

A few weeks after we lost Jesse Mastiff to cancer, we went to the pound and found Heidi Doberman waiting for us. She lived to a ripe old age.

Later, when we lost Odin Rottweiler to cancer, we said "no more. We don't want to deal with the pain of that loss again."

Years later, Pippi Corgi joined our family. Her death just tore me apart. A month or so later, remembering how we adopted Heidi just weeks after Jesse's death, I went to the county shelter to look around, but I couldn't do it. I broke down and started crying right there, I had to get out of there as fast as I could.

We still don't have a dog, I don't know if we ever will again. Paragon palmed off a little terror-devil of a cat on us. My wife and the cat are inseparable. I know that she (wife) will take it really hard when, eventually, it is the cat's time.

It depends on you and the family.

Sometimes you need time. Sometimes you don't.

We had to put down a Dane Puppy that we only had for a week due to a genetic defect that was incurable. We made the decision to get his brother a couple of days later instead of a refund from the breeder.

It's not like this is going to be a "rebound" dog that you'll kick to the curb once you've recovered, right?

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
It's not like this is going to be a "rebound" dog that you'll kick to the curb once you've recovered, right?

That thought got a laugh out of me.
Dogs are one of the few examples of unconditional love we get to experience, IMO.

I lost my working line GSD, that I imported, in 2016. She was 7, lost her to Leukemia. We had trained thousands of hours, Schuthund work (mainly protection, and obedience, with some tracking/SAR), and she was my personal K-9 unit. She’d take a bullet for me and was trained to protect myself, the house, and property as well as her pack (family, friends, neighbors). The loss was huge, and early. She should have made it to a minimum if 10-11 years.

I put her down on a Saturday. Posted about it here. Saturday night, all Sunday, I’m lucky I didn’t drink myself into the hospital. Monday I took off from work, just too much for me to deal with. Lots of praying, I mean all day. Monday I get up and something tells me to search for Malinois. I had looked at breeders prior, maybe 2 years prior as I finally had the expertise as a handler. So Monday I get up and something was telling me to search my state for Mal rescues. I found an org, and my now Mal was the first pic. Her eyes, in the photo, I saw something, like it was meant to be, and like this was all from God above. I email, no response for two days, so I was back in depression. Then all of a sudden, on Thursday, an officer emails me back, tells me about her, her story (she was 1 year old), relays he is a k9 officer in the South of my state. He then asks for qualifications, we get on the phone for that. He very quickly figures out I have a lot of experience, have owned and trained similar k9’s so he’s good. 7 days after I put my GSD down, I was in a rental making a 4 hour trip to get the Mal. Get her back home in the yard and it was 4 hours of Dances with Wolves. While with the officer she was trying to take my hand off. Took 4 hours at my place for her to let me touch her. Had to train out the abuse she received (not from the officer, the first owner), psychological and physical absuse, but she is good now, a warrior. High prey, toy, and food drive. She loves killing squirrels and possums and anything that runs from her. True beast mode.

So long winded post, but get back on the horse man. One of the best things I ever did, is not sit there and mourn and be depressed. I got back to work, saved a pure blood animal few can handle, and she sits at my feet now waiting on a command. Go get another dog, life is short.

quote:

Originally posted by sig sailor:
We had to put down our beloved Golden Mac om a Saturday. On Sunday I contacted a breeder who had A puppy that was ready to go, we picked him up later that day. We were without a dog for 23 hours. Too long in my opinion. A puppy will not replace the dog you lost, but the antics of a new puppy will fill in some of that whole in your heart.
Rod

This. If you want one, it's time.

We haven’t decided yet whether we’re going to put down a deposit for one of the puppies or not. We have some time to debate it, but to be honest I will be surprised if we don’t do it. We’ve wanted a puppy from this breeder for a while now, and since he doesn’t have more than one or two litters per year we likely won’t pass this opportunity up. We have a couple of weeks to decide whether to put the deposit down or not, when we make up our mind I’ll likely say so in this thread. And if we go ahead with it we have basically three months before the puppy would be ready to come home....lots of time to prepare.

I know several people have said to rescue, and there are reasons we aren’t going that route. The biggest reason is “pack dinamics” for lack of better words. The three dogs we have here now all get along great. They all have their quirks and faults but they do very well together. Bringing in another adult dog that has his own way of doing things can disrupt things and it’s so uncertain if all of them can work it out. With a puppy introduced we can help shape and guide him, teach him what is acceptable and not. We are worried that things might not work out with an older dog....if we didn’t have any dogs then we absolutely would try to get a rescue. Also, we have tried to rescue in the past but we were turned down because we already had two dogs at the time. Their reasoning was the same as what I described above.

We lost Luka on Columbus Day a few years ago.



Katie joined the pack a week later. Too empty without four more paws in the family.



Katie continues to find the "Post-It" notes apparently left by Luka: This is the best place to lay in the sun... get permission before you jump on the bed... that vent has the coldest air in the house.

You'll know when it's time, and it'll probably be sooner than you think.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I think a new puppy will just remind you of Roscoe while he makes his own place in your hearts.

flashguy

This

When we lost our Rhodesian Elwood, I was very low. Did not figure on another dog for a while. But house was so empty and I really believe my kids benefit from a dog. My wife started checking out rescues a month later and figured it would take 2-3 months...but Jacques found us in the first week. Did not take away from Elwood and brought some light back into the house.

So not very long, which surprised me.

We buried our dog of 12 years today in the back yard after taking her to the Vet to put her to sleep. We tried to save her, but she was eaten up with cancer, and any treatment would have been useless. Today she took an accellerated turn for the worse, having a hard time breathing, couldn't walk, could not eat or drink for days, just skin and bones. We held her while she went asleep, it was very sad, but we know we did the absolute best thing for her. I have to believe that all dogs go to heaven, they represent the best traits of humanity.

I agree with what everyone says - anywhere between now and whenever you're ready. I don't know when we will be ready, but the way good dogs are, they will find you. God made dogs as a gift to mankind, and we owe them a quality life. She was 12 years of daily love and occasional hilarity.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
God made dogs as a gift to mankind

So true. And we miss them terribly when they are gone.

Well we decided to go ahead and put the deposit down for a puppy from the breeder. He said that there are others that he’s waiting on receiving the deposits for, but we are the only ones looking for a brindle. So if there is a brindle male (very good chance) then we are guaranteed a puppy from this litter. So we should have our puppy in September....plenty of time to prepare for his arrival. It helps make the sadness of losing Roscoe a little, but that’ll never go away completely. I still miss him so much.

Here’s a pic of the little guy we are going to get. (Hopefully this works anyway...I haven’t tried hosting a pic for forums in years)



In this pic he was two weeks old. Tomorrow he will be five weeks. Next weekend we’ll be able to go out and meet him for the first time (breeder asked us to wait until he was six weeks old) and then he’ll come home two weeks later on Labor Day weekend.

We’re pretty excited to go meet him next weekend and of course bring him home in three weeks from now. We haven’t figured out a name we both like yet...does he look like a certain name to anyone here? Definitely open to suggestions.

Ok I understand that pic is likely huge....it looks really big on my iPad. The site I used is imgbb and there’s a ton of options for links to use....which one should I be using?

Here you go!

What option did you use? I’ve tried several and the only one that worked for me was the huge one.

Apparently the only ones that will work from that site are huge. So I guess I’ll have to find a new site to use.

Ok I think I got it figured out now...signed up at the place you used and it gives options to resize when uploading. I’m assuming you used the 15 inch monitor size....mine above is a bit bigger and I chose one size bigger at 17 inch. I’ll go with a smaller size in the future.

He looks like a "PATCH"...

quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
He looks like a "PATCH"...

Yeah, somehow Spike just doesn’t seem right for a Boxer.

quote:

I know several people have said to rescue, and there are reasons we aren’t going that route. The biggest reason is “pack dinamics” for lack of better words.

FWIW, I think your reason is bogus.
You can rescue young dogs.
BIG misconception that rescues are always flawed and the only way is with a new-bred-for-sale pup.
We have had three rescues all who have passed and each were wonderful beyond what we deserved.
Anyone with any heart can appreciate recuing a dog.
YMMV