Small Dog Surplus

At the shelter where I volunteer and at most shelters around the country, the vast majority of adoptable dogs are medium to large in size. I don't really know what the ratio of large dogs to small dogs coming in to the shelter is--I just know that in general, the small dogs get adopted much more quickly. Here are just a few of the reasons that small dogs seem more desirable to many people:

1. They take up less space, which is especially important to people living in apartments or who have pet size restrictions in their rented home.

2. They eat less, which makes them cheaper and easier to clean up after.

3. They are easier to bring along when traveling, or to dump off on a friend or relative when traveling.

4. They can be carried easily and can sit in laps easily.

5. They are generally easier to walk on a leash, and therefore a yard or a fence is not always necessary.

6. They may have still have behavioral problems, but because their size is smaller those problems seem smaller too.

With that said, this summer there was a bizarre phenomenon at our local humane society. There were tons of small dogs, many of them purebred, who were available for adoption for at least a month at a time. Most of them were from the state seizure that happened back in early August. This is so unusual, and a fellow volunteer and I were talking about the situation and pondering the reasons why it was taking unusually long for these tiny dogs to get adopted. The only theory we came up with was that maybe the people who initially came in and applied for these dogs on an impulse (after seeing the article about them in the paper) changed their minds after thinking about it more carefully. Usually when a dog has one approved application, other people are reluctant to put in their application because they think the dog has already been adopted, even though the adoption obviously hasn't been finalized. The staff usually gives the first potential adopter on the list several days to return any phone calls, which can delay the process even further if that first person changes their mind about the adoptable dog.

Thankfully, a few more of those cute tiny dogs went home this week, but there are a handful still looking for homes. One of my favorites is Kassie, a cute little Schnauzer/Westie mix who is very shy and very sweet!