Anonymous wrote:The hardest adjustment as a dog owner that I've gone through is adopting a shelter dog who was approximately 6-9 months old. He was frightened of the world, had never lived indoors from what I could tell and I had to give up on crate training because of his severe negative reaction to it. Despite the hard work, he ended up being the most beloved of all my dogs, and worth it all. Agree your experience will completely depend on that particular dog's history...which you may or may not know.

I've adopted a shelter puppy, shelter older puppy, and two breeder puppies.

I’m glad this dog became so wonderful.

OP, please note that the PP had some skills. This wasn’t for beginners.

The hardest adjustment as a dog owner that I've gone through is adopting a shelter dog who was approximately 6-9 months old. He was frightened of the world, had never lived indoors from what I could tell and I had to give up on crate training because of his severe negative reaction to it. Despite the hard work, he ended up being the most beloved of all my dogs, and worth it all. Agree your experience will completely depend on that particular dog's history...which you may or may not know.

I've adopted a shelter puppy, shelter older puppy, and two breeder puppies.

We adopted a 1 year old dog that had been living with a foster. She was house trained when we got her and did not chew on household items. Dog is very well behaved and it worked out great for us. Really happy we didn’t have to do all the work training a puppy, only minor downside is we didn’t get to see how cute she was as a tiny puppy.

It depends on the circumstances of the first six months.

This is a rescue, right? He may not have had a good first six and may not be on his way toward becoming a well-trained dog. You may have to work extremely hard to undue some bad behavior.

We adopted a 9 month old dog from a rescue and it was the best decision.

We adopted at 5 months from a rescue and it was so so easy. She was crate trained and house trained already and still very puppyish and playful.

Anonymous wrote:Would a two year old dog be considered too old to adopt?

OP here - no, not to us. We want a dog under 3 I think. We adopted our last dog at 5 and he only lived to 8 (cancer) and we were/are heartbroken that it was such a short time so looking for a younger dog this time around.

Anonymous wrote:Would a two year old dog be considered too old to adopt?

Absolutely not - 2 year old dogs are wonderful

The rule of thumb I'd found to be true is, they can hold their bathroom needs for as many hours as months old they are (obviously that ends around 8-10 hours).

Many dogs are still puppies until they are 2. Take that into consideration.

Would a two year old dog be considered too old to adopt?

We adopted a dog who was about 12 months old (per rescue; I think he was a bit younger, but he's mostly lab so that could be it!). Anyway, he was completely housebroken and proven around kids of all ages. Really sweet guy. He didn't chew anything except his ropes.

But he was also really strong and really rambunctious! I had to double down on the training because he was kind of set in his headstrong ways (pulling on the leash, chasing squirrels, etc) but now we have a super sweet guy who listens, too.

I'm a big fan of adopting a slightly older puppy and think that the 6-12 month range is great.

We adopted a dog who was estimated to be somewhere between 1 and 2 years old, and for us that was perfect.

I think 6-12 months would also be great.

They aren't totally trained (usually) at that age and will still have a lot of puppy energy, so it's not like adopting a 4 year old couch potato who knows the ropes - just understand that. But at that age, they shouldn't need as MUCH as a young puppy does.

<3 Dogs!

We adopted our dog at about 8 months or so. Perfect age in my opinion! You get to meet the dog and assess the personality/behavior. If you don't want to deal with a jumping/chewing/peeing dog, then don't get one with those issues. Our dog was cheerful, friendly, mannerly, and almost house-broken (just needed 2 more months of crate-training during the day).

We don't want a young puppy because we don't feel like the work required for a dog that age would work with our daily lives so are thinking about a slightly older puppy/young dog. But I'm wondering if at that age you kind of get the hardest of both worlds...you still need to do a lot of training around housetraining (especially if coming from a shelter), jumping, chewing, etc but you miss the super cute puppy phase. Curious to know others' thoughts.