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In Defense of Purebred Dogs


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    I'll begin by saying I grew up with dogs and cats that my family got from our local animal shelter in Peoria, Illinois. I absolutely loved all of my childhood animals and will always have a special place in my heart for all of them. However, I'm lucky because I don't have any allergies and am safely able to be around any type of animal without having any negative reaction.

    Many people, including my wife, aren't as lucky as me and can have seriously and potentially deadly allergic reactions when they are around certain types of animals. I've seen it first hand with my wife on more than one occasion when we visit someones home who has an animal that tends to shed. The owners can clean up as best they can and even put the animal in another room, but sometimes even that isn't enough. Luckily for my wife, an inhaler she keeps with her and fresh air usually do the trick when she is in that situation.

    So it is no surprise that we knew we would have to find a mostly hypoallergenic (since there is no such thing as a non-allergenic cat or dog) when we decided to add a four-legged friend to our little family. After much research and discussion with her physician, we settled on a Soft-coated Wheaten Terrier.

    In a perfect world everyone wouldn't be allergic to any four-legged friend and we would never need professional breeders, but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and everyone who wants to have an addition to their family deserves to have that opportunity.

    What type of animal did you grow up with or have now? Did you get them from your local animal shelter or do you or someone in your family have allergies that prevent you from getting a mixed-breed dog?

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    Awesome and sound argument for purebred animals. I've had many four legged friends over the years, all of them strays or from the pound. I've had both cats and dogs. I found out in my 20's that I was allergic to one of my cats. He could rub against my leg and I would immediately begin to itch, however the other cat could do the same thing, and I wouldn't feel a thing. I think it comes down to dander. I might have gotten stuffy a time or two, but I don't think I'm particularly allergic to dogs.
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    I'm also allergic to cat hair. But not nearly as much now as I was when I was younger. We did have cats, but eventually got rid of them after not just mine, but other's allergies in the house got too much.

    We grew up with tons of animals, inside and out over the years. My mom even bred Shih Tzus for a few years. Had Poms too. A few poodles. Many kinds of terriers. A few Schnauzers, Dalmations, weiner dogs and tons of mix breed dogs. And I'm sure I'm forgetting others. And those were just the dogs. Don't get me started on all the other pets we had. :) Yes, I grew up in the country.

    Some we got from the pound, many from friends or strangers giving them away, and a few we bought purebred.

    I know the argument that you should rescue a dog vs getting it from a breeder. But I never really bought into that all the way. All dogs need a family to care for them. So shaming someone getting a pure bred dog is dumb to me.

    Was trying to remember the name 'Schnauzer' for like 5 minutes writing this, and couldn't. Had to go to this site and scroll though all the different kinds of dog breds by pic until I found it. Crazy how many different breds there are. If you are bored, they all seem to be there, in ABC order --

    All Dog Breed Profiles