While its terrific that people want to adopt their next dog, there's a problem that many potential adopters are only interested in adopting a young female. Kind of like the "middle aged man" syndrome got to have that young female. But seriously, the truth is that young females as well as females in general adopt much more easily than males. And so there is much more of an abundance of the male dogs for adoption, not to mention the that most of these are middle aged at best. So here we are on our soap box again saying "please give a poor guy a break".
So why don't people want males? There seems to be lot of misconception about males; such as "they're marker", "they're more aggressive", "two male dogs can't get along", "they'll mount our company's legs", "they are harder to housebreak", "they're not as loyal". While some of these may be true for unneutered males. A neutered male is as nice as a companion dog as any female. This schnauzer mom wouldn't give up her boys past or present for anything. They are not any more aggressive than the females and as far as two males living together in peace, I can say that we have owned four males schnauzers two at a time and have never experienced any problems. There are many, many folks with multiple male dogs who will testify that this normally is not a problem. The key of course is they are neutered males. Sometimes even unneutered males can get along, but if you are getting a rescue it will undoubtable be neutered. Of course anyone that has read the page I did on my Rudy knows I make fun of his "marking escapades", Rudy I believe must have been neutered later in his life. The truth is all of his leg lifting exercises are done outdoors (and yes he does his share of exercises), but inside he is a gentleman and totally housebroken.
Remember when choosing to adopt a rescue you are not getting to pick from a litter, but you are involved in providing a homeless dog a home. Things such as color, natural ear/cropped ears and size should not be considerations. What is important is that you find a dog that fits your lifestyle and rescuer can help with that (If you have kids or other pets, does the prospective adoptive dog get along with other dogs, cats or kid? If the dog has any special needs and do you have the time or finances to meet any of those special needs. Is it a young dog that requires alot of training etc.) And if you get too set on only adopting that 1-year old female dog, you could be searching for a very long time, as that seems to be what everyone wants.
Another important thing to keep in mind is a healthy schnauzer usually lives to around 12-14 years of age, some however can live as long as 17 years, so in retrospect even a 7 or 8 year old male still has a long life ahead of him. When I first got my Rudy I was told he was a 4-year old, then at my trip to my vet... the Doc said "I don't think so" he has to be atleast 6 or maybe 7 years old. My first emotion was one of disappointment thinking that several years were shaved off my boy's life. But that disappointment disappeared by the end of the day as he had already won my heart big time and as I realized that we still had many years to enjoy our new found family member. Now that we've had Rudy for two and half years, and it feels as if we've had him forever, he has just become so much a part of the family and he is one of the most loyal dogs we've ever had.
So why not give that little boy dog another look... he would be so happy to be your little lap warmer and provide you with endless companionship well into the next century!!
NOTE: This page was written to promote the adoption of male rescue dogs. It has come to my attention that some breeders are linking to this page as a means to promote the sale of their male puppies. Please be aware that I do NOT advocate the sale of puppies via the internet. And further I would have to question the integrity any breeder that would use a page intented to promote rescue as a means to promote puppy sales.
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