I just typed in “Ottawa, ON” into the location field in the “Search for a pet” sidebar. There were numerous listings in and close to Ottawa. And I just tried Toronto and Waterloo and search results show up for both of those as well.

You can search by breed, age, size and sex of dog so if you do want something in particular it might not be a bad idea to see if there’s one out there that needs a home.

This site seemed quite useful for generalizations:

http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/dogbreeds/index.html

although every dog I clicked on, including what you mention, said things like:

“Vigorous exercise requirements ”
“Destructiveness when bored or not exercised enough ”

Although the jack russell seemed to be the best blend for what I imagine your father would need/appreciate:

http://www.yourpurebredpuppy.com/reviews/jackrussellterriers.html

Good luck, please let us know in another post what you end up doing!

Aaron

THEY ARE SIMPLY ENERGY WITH FUR. They only rest while you sleep. During the day they will wear you out with the energy. Not the best dog for anyone over 50 I’d say.

But the next one must definitely be named Chewie if it’s a golden doodle! I’ll even get a shoulder strap for holding empty ammo clips – how cool would that be!?

Julie, Looby, Alex: I actually talked to my mother while preparing this post and suggested that they start walking dogs from the local shelter (they’re happy to have volunteers take dogs for walks) as a way to see the dogs personality before they’ve committed to taking her home, and my Mom was more receptive to this then I expected, so maybe a shelter dog will happen after all. She even mentioned that she’s had friends who’ve gotten dogs from the pound and they’ve all been lovely pets.

Dogs are like people…some handle change just fine and some have issues with change. If you get most shelter dogs home, generally they adapt just fine. Especially if someone is home with them most of the time, as it sounds like your father will be. Dogs need a pack, but they don’t necessarily need the same pack – they actually adapt to whatever pack they’re in.

You can find lots of dogs at the shelter with various ‘issues’ that aren’t a problem in a new home with proper training and love. Most often, the ‘issue’ isn’t the dog’s fault, it’s the previous owner’s lack of training and care. Very rare is there a really bad dog, mostly it’s bad owners.

If you want a well-balanced shelter dog, though, then learn the language used in the shelter descriptions. For example “needs a home with somebody home all the time = separation anxiety.” “Gets along with some other dogs = some dog aggression issues.” “Wants to be the only dog = more serious dog aggression”. “Good fit for an active person = probably too much energy.” You get the gist.

There are too many dogs that need a good home in this world in shelters to even consider going purebred unless you’re planning to show the dog at Westminster. But please, please don’t get the dog from a pet store under any circumstance. Because they’ll originally be from puppy mills that keep the ‘parents’ in wretched conditions, doing awful things like making them live their whole lives in tiny wire cages to cutting out their vocal cords with scissors to keep the dogs quiet. Disgusting.

Good luck!