The Calgary Humane Society refers to them as “teenagers” — dogs looking for homes but often overlooked because of their age.
The Humane Society’s communications manager, Marissa Hansen, says many people are looking for puppies, believing that if you “start from scratch, you can kind of get the dog you want.”
“We see a lot of animals between the ages of eight or nine months to a year or a year-and-a-half – we call them our teenagers — who struggle to get adopted,” she says. “Those are the animals that are not quite the little cute puppies, but they are also not the grown-up and trained dogs.”
“They are these teenagers growing up in a shelter, which means they are not getting the socialization they desperately need in the same way they would in a home.”
“I got a dog from here when, I think, he was eight months old and in that teenager era, and he’s fantastic,” she says. “All dogs deserve a chance, a second home, a second life. Just because they may not be the exact age you want doesn’t mean they are not adaptable and not willing to learn.”
