At the shelter I work at, we have had some rescues come in that are special needs. I am curious how many people would adopt a dog, and retain him or her, who has had one eye removed, or is deaf and is learning sign language (yes, a couple of our dogs have been learning ASL. Amazing, isn't it?). So, if you were looking for a dog to adopt from hopefully a rescue shelter, not necessarily a breeder or Petco (which, most commercial pet stores are working with puppy mills), would you adopt a special needs dog, if it meant giving a little more of your time to give a second chance at life?
many people would. Mostly people who ive worked with at veterinary hospitals. There are organizations who specifically rescue those types of dogs.ive fostered and adopted dogs like that. I think the main issue people think about is higher cost medical care. Veterinary expenses are high enough just for a healthy animal. ...some can be challenging but most make awesome devoted pets
Some types of special needs are not expensive medical needs, like deafness and blindness. But it is a good idea with any dog to buy health insurance so that hard decisions never have to be made. We adopted a Scottie knowing the likelihood of liver disease, which is characteristic of the breed. So we got health insurance and the dog developed cancer. Treatment was very affordable due to copays being reasonable and insurance covering the largest part of it. BTW she was given 6 months more to live but we had her for a year and a half more.
