Why Pets Are Not Good Gifts

We see lots of Christmas puppies this time of year at the veterinary practice I work at. New pets seem to be popular gifts. But unless you know, with 100% certainty that the recipient of the pet wants and has the ability to care for the pet, it is probably a better idea to choose a different present. Last spring we visited the local animal shelter and were very saddened by the huge influx of rabbits and bunnies they shelter had to take in after Easter.

There are a lot of differences between giving a pet as a gift and giving something else. Pets as gifts are unusual in that they make a lot of demands on the gift recipient that other types of presents do not. To give a pet to someone is to give them something that will demand a great deal of their time and money in the months - or in the case of a cat or dog, or some other pets - years to come. That's placing some serious demands on the receiver of a gift.

New puppies and kittens can be especially expensive. They require a series of vaccinations that spans many weeks until they are 16 to 20 weeks old depending on where you live and the biggest health threats around your area. By the time these series are complete, including dewormings and other routine puppy and kitten preventative health measures, the person who receives the gift will likely spend several hundreds of dollars. Then there is spaying or neutering surgeries, that will again be in the hundreds of dollars for most new pets. Food, training classes, beds, litter pans, and scratching posts all add into what the new owner will have to pay for as well.

The cost to buy a puppy or a kitten as a gift to someone else is actually the smallest cost associated with owning that new pet.

Where and when I think giving a pet as a gift can work, are in cases such as when a family had decided that they are ready to have a pet, but the parents decide to time the arrival of the new pet (that they would be getting anyway) with a holiday or birthday. They knowingly are taking on all the additional expense and labor involved with getting a new pet onto themselves, not placing that burden onto someone else.

Puppy Classes for Socialization

Even if you've had dogs your whole life, and you know how to train a puppy well, there are still some benefits to enrolling in a puppy class. Dogs have a short period when they are young in which socialization happens. The more access they have to other dogs and other people in this sensitive window, the better. Well socialized dogs are calmer when meeting strangers, less anxious and less prone to problems like separation anxiety, and easier to deal with at the veterinarian and groomers office.

You may think that it would be easier and cheaper to simply take the puppy to the dog park every day. The problem with this approach is that the sensitive period for socialization occurs when the puppy is still at risk for many infectious diseases. Their immune systems aren't mature yet, and they have not completed their series of puppy vaccinations. It just isn't safe to take them out and expose them to unknown dogs at this point.

A good puppy class will require proof of vaccinations in order to enroll. Even if there are more vaccines yet to get, you know that the puppies in the class are current on their shots for their age right now. The puppy class provides a safer environment for your puppy to meet new dogs and people with a greatly reduced heath risk.

Good classes also occasionally invite owners to trade dogs during class so that the puppies learn to take instruction from people other than their owners. This is a very useful skill, and helps dogs feel more comfortable with their vet, groomer, or your house guests.

Are Puppy Classes Worth It?

With our already busy schedules, it may feel like puppy training classes aren't worth the time or expense. Your puppy's behavior isn't too awful anyway, right?

But puppy classes do more for your dog than just teach them to sit. Read more.