Christmas puppy? Maybe it's NOT a bad idea

Christmas puppy? Maybe it’s NOT a bad idea

Christmas puppy? Maybe it’s NOT a bad idea

By Dr. Marty Becker
November 26, 2010

You know the usual warnings. How can you miss them? They’re everywhere:

“Don’t give pets as gifts.” “The holidays are the worst time to get a new pet.” “Pets are for life, not just for Christmas.” “The only good pet to give as a gift is a stuffed animal.”

But I’ve found myself swimming against that tide of robotic caution. The warnings are well-intentioned, but they’re based on assumptions that don’t always hold up. We need to look at every family individually, and help everyone make the right choice for them and for the pet they adopt.

When it comes to giving pets as gifts, it’s not always a good idea, but it’s also not always a bad idea. If you add just one word to the word “gift,” it pretty much fixes the problem. That word is “thoughtful.”And getting a pet should always be done thoughtfully, whether the pet is a gift or not.

That means never buying a puppy or kitten from a pet store or Internet site with lots of pets just a click and credit card away from shipping. And while that’s true all year, pet stores and websites that sell dogs and cats make about two-thirds of their annual revenue in the five weeks leading up to Christmas — much of that from puppy sales.

Those puppies come from puppy mills and other undesirable sources. Good breeders never place their puppies this way. Never.

With that out of the way, what about the other cautions?

Sure, the holidays can be a busy time, with lots of activities, travel and guests. But parents often have time off from work during the holidays, and the children aren’t in school. With the exact same planning a family needs to undertake at any other time of year, the greater flexibility of a holiday schedule can make both pets’ and people’s adjustment easier, not harder.

Then there’s the idea that other gifts will be so much more exciting to children that they’ll be distracted from the new pet. I’m a parent and a grandparent, and I’ll tell you one thing about children: They’re expert multi-taskers. And they don’t suddenly become less so on January 2.

If those two threats don’t scare you out of bring a pet into your home during the holidays, there’s also those holiday hazard warnings several of us here on Pet Connection have been rolling our eyes at lately — things such as tinsel (which hardly anybody uses anymore), mistletoe and poinsettias (which aren’t attractive hazards and cause only mild stomach upset), and chocolate (which a medium size dog has to eat about a pound of to experience serious problems).

Puppies and kittens are just like little kids, and they get into things. But that’s not true just at the holidays. If they aren’t getting into your Christmas decorations, they’ll be getting into your laundry basket. Part of getting a new pet is making sure the environment is safe for them, and that treasured family heirloom you inherited from your great-grandmother is locked away until the new furry family member learns the ropes. And that principle applies year-round, not just between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

If the family is ready for the new addition, then all will be well. If not, it won’t — but that’s true whether you get the pet for yourself or for your spouse. And if the parents have unrealistic expectations about how much of the pet’s care will be handled by the kids and how much will fall to them, does that change if the pet isn’t given as a gift?

I also think those people who go to a local shelter to adopt a pet during the holiday season should be applauded, but some shelters have traditionally discouraged holiday-season adoptions (a trend that’s thankfully changing, like with Iams’ great “Home for the Holidays” pet adoption campaign).

Around 8 million pets end up in shelters each year, and they would love nothing more than to move from the cage at the shelter to the couch at your home. And when that happens, not only will it make the pet’s life better, but your family’s, too.

For instance, if you already have a pet, studies show that bringing a new one into the pack can make his life happier and longer. And children with pets receive a multitude of benefits including having fewer allergies, a lower rate of asthma, more empathy and even a higher IQ.

One bit of advice often given at this time of year I do agree with. Giving a gift certificate for pet supplies or pre-paying adoption fees at a shelter, and then selecting the family pet together, is the perfect compromise if travel or other reasons make the holidays a bad time to get a new pet. But that’s something else that’s true year round, not just at Christmas time.

So while springing an unwanted and unexpected pet on someone as a gift is always a bad idea (especially for the pet), and buying from a pet-store or click-and-ship puppy website is never a good idea, the careful and well-planned gift of an appropriate pet can be just what this veterinarian ordered for making your family happier and healthier, now and at any time of the year.

It’s a great thing to have strong ideas about how pets should be cared for. I know I do. But let’s not let those ideas get so set in stone we don’t question and qualify them from time to time. The [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786868082?ie=UTF8&tag=petconnection-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0786868082"]“Healing Power of Pets” [/ame]is a prescription I’m comfortable giving 365 days a year, and what better gift could there be than the love and companionship of a pet?

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