The basics are in place – Adult dogs that are waiting for adoption in foster homes are already toilet-trained and respond to their names. Since they have had their first round of vaccinations, it becomes a fairly easy adoption for the new owner who just needs to provide the same level of care that the dog is used to and continue the vaccination cycle.
A walk in the park - “Adult dogs are calmer than puppies”, says Jennifer Jacob-Murali Anand, co-founder of the Chennai Adoption Drive initiative. “They're comfortable around many people and are trained to walk with a leash”.
They've outgrown the ‘chew' phase- While there is now plenty of information on how to get through a puppy's chewing phase successfully, pet-owners who are working full-time or are a little older prefer adult dogs that have outgrown this phase in their foster homes and therefore do not need any puppy-proofing in their new surroundings.
A second chance– Many adult dogs were either abandoned by their original families or were rescued as puppies and were not fortunate enough to find good homes when they were younger. People adopting fully-grown dogs get the pleasure of giving them a new lease of life. Says Sara Mohan, former anchor/producer of Pet Tales, NDTV Hindu and volunteer of the Cattitude Trust- “It's actually the humans who missed their shot at a life-long friend when these dogs were puppies, but surely some lucky human deserves another chance. Dogs have the biggest hearts and their love can definitely make up for lost time”.
(To adopt healthy adult dogs free of cost, emailgopishankar@gmail.comorletslivetogether.in@gmail.com)
