What Dog Breeds Will You Find at Your Local Humane Society Shelter?

Finding the dog you want at the Humane Society may take patience, especially if you want a smaller breed, or if you want a breed that's fairly rare. Here in Portland Oregon and in many other large cities around the country the Humane Society always has Labrador retrievers, pit bulls, chow chows, Rottweilers, Australian shepherds, Border collies, and various mixes of these breeds. You sometimes find a golden retriever, and very occasionally an expensive purebred, such as an English bulldog or West Highland terrier.

During a recent trip to the local animal shelter I saw a Boston terrier mix that looked just like Henry J, the mutt I grew up with â€" I would have taken him home, but someone beat me to him.

Labs and Lab crosses are one of the most common dogs in America, and it stands to reason that the shelters will have lots of black dogs. There are also a number of the guard dog breeds in every big city animal shelter. The pit bulls, chow chows, Rottweilers, Shar Pei and Akitas appear to be over-bred in cities by the sort of owner who doesn't pay much attention to the steady stream of advertising asking people to spay and neuter their pets. A dog raised by a drug dealer is not necessarily a bad dog, but extra care should always be taken to assess the temperament of a guard dog before taking him home, just in case his previous owner imprinted the pup with undesirable or unsafe behaviors.