As far as I'm concerned, rescue is the ONLY way to go when you need a dog. All of our dogs were adopted when they were about 1-2 years old, they were already housebroken but still young and more than willing to learn. My current companion is a 2 year old Rottweiler who was dumped in the woods of Massachussets. She been through obedience training and recently passed the tests to become a therapy dog so we can go cheer up old folks in the County nursing home. She's also a whiz at agility, and we'll probably start competing come fall.

Her predecessor was a big lug of a male Rottie who was abandoned at a local shelter. He spent nearly 10 years helping me remind inner city kids that they were actually good kids and that there were better things to do than smoke dope in the men's room of our museum.

Given the thousands of dogs waiting in shelters and rescues for homes and being euthanized every day, rescue is the only way to go.