By Cheryl Anderson • Post-Crescent staff writer • March 30, 2009

By the time President Barack Obama returns home from the NATO Summit in early April, there may well be a new top dog in the White House.

Word is it’ll likely be a rescue Portuguese water dog, and if daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, have their way, it might be called Moose or Frank, according to a People magazine interview last month with Michelle Obama.

It will be the first family’s first dog.

That got us thinking about what goes into finding a dog that fits your family. Deb Lewis, executive director of the Fox Valley Humane Association, said before adopting a dog, do your homework and make sure you don’t adopt just because the dog is aesthetically pleasing to you.

“Adopt because a dog’s personality fits into your lifestyle,” Lewis said. “For example, if you’re more sedentary and a couch potato and your family likes to watch movies, you don’t want to adopt a border collie who will get a whole kindergarten class together and herd them for you because they’re working dogs. Try to make wise choices.”

A year ago, 12-year-old Sylvia Valk of Appleton wanted to adopt Sam, now a 3-year-old mixed breed rebound dog from FVHA. Through the rebound program, select shelter dogs with behavioral, medical or social needs are selected and trained by inmates at the Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center in Oneida. After 12 weeks of training and socialization, the dogs return to the FVHA to be adopted.

Months after Sylvia’s initial and continued requests, she, along with parents Carol and Bruce Valk and brother Carl, 10, brought Sam home to meet Stewart, the family’s 13-year-old golden retriever, which they also obtained from the shelter. The two immediately hit it off.

Carol Valk said the first question a family should ask themselves when considering adopting a pet is if they are mentally ready for it.

“As much as we love dogs, I was not ready to take on another dog,” she said. “We all had to be on board, it’s not, OK, Mom’s getting another thing to take care of. We’re all getting another dog — feeding, walking and cleaning up after the dog. Mentally, we all had to be on the same page.”

“There were multiple conversations prior to that on commitment and responsibility,” Bruce Valk said.

In the Valk family, Sylvia is Sam’s master. She feeds both dogs at 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. and includes medications in Stewart’s food. Carl takes care of the walking.

As a rule of thumb, Lewis said, moms and dads should remember a child 10 years and younger probably will not be the primary caretaker for a pet. That responsibility is too much.

“If your children are younger, you may want to start with a smaller pet like a gerbil or a hamster, a bird or a fish and then work your way up,” she said.

Dogs are either purebred or of mixed breed, and most shelters have plenty of both, according to the Humane Society of the United States. An advantage of a purebred dog is owners will have a good chance of knowing how big the dog will get and general physical and behavioral characteristics it will have. The size, appearance and temperament of most mixed-breed dogs also can be predicted if you know the ancestry of the dog’s parents.

When a family is ready to share the added responsibility of a dog, like the Obama family, Lewis recommends going to a humane society or rescue because there are millions of good animals that need homes.

“If you want a pure breed and your heart is really set on it, please, please, please, do not go to a puppy mill,” she said. “Winnegamie Dog Club is a fabulous source and can direct you to responsible and reputable breeders. If you decide a pure bred isn’t that important, then go to the local humane society or rescue, but keep in mind almost 50 percent of the dogs that run through FVHA — both surrenders and strays — are purebred dogs.”

Good rescues and humane societies have a series of evaluations they put animals through before they are even put on the adoption floor and made available to the public.

For example, FVHA has a veterinary check, and animals are spayed or neutered in-house and vaccinated for heartworm. Every dog goes through a behavioral assessment program, which it also has to pass before it can go on the adoption floor.

“It’s a really fabulous way to do it,” said Lewis, who has been at the shelter for 24 years. “We are in our fifth year of adopting 100 percent of our adoptable dogs. And we’re seeing more and more of that across the country. The reason for that is because humane societies and rescues are realizing they have to make these discoveries and fit the family to the animal so everybody fits well. Not every animal and every family fit together, it’s just that simple.”

“If you’re going to take a rescue dog or take care of a dog, you have to do it for the right reasons,” Bruce added. “Make sure it’s not pure empathy or emotion. You’ve got to raise it and have a game plan and have thought the process through.”

“And when you get a shelter dog, they are so darn thankful,” Carol said. “They almost do flips for you.”

Cheryl Anderson: 920-993-1000, ext. 249, or canderson@postcrescent.com

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