All over the city there are dogs walking, running or playing on the beach. Students owning dogs is not uncommon, however, where the dogs are bought or adopted from is something that should be taken into consideration before one is brought home.

When deciding to get a dog, some people may automatically think of going to a pet store or buying from a breeder, but adopting from a shelter or rescue is also an option.

Whatever is decided, the most important thing is to research where to get a dog before going to pick one out.you may be surprised by what you find.

“There are many dogs out there,” said Cheryl Collins, who is a part of the Midwest Wire Terrier Rescue. “They’re just wonderful dogs, and they just need a chance.”

Collins used to be a breeder of Wire Terriers until she saw the tremendous number of dogs without homes.

“I didn’t feel we needed to breed anymore with so many homeless dogs and owner surrenders and dogs that needed help,” Collins said

“There are often common misconceptions that rescue dogs or dogs from a shelter have something wrong with them, either medically or behaviorally,” Collins said, and that is definitely not the case.

“Rescue dogs don’t necessarily have a problem; most of the time they’ve just been in the wrong home,” Collins said. “They’re not the right dog for that family. There’s nothing wrong with the dog, it’s a normal dog that just wasn’t in the right home.”

“One of the primary reasons that people turn their dogs in is either because they can’t afford them anymore or they don’t have time for them anymore,” said Barb Willard, an Associate Professor of Communication at DePaul and a volunteer at Chicago Animal Care and Control.

“It’s rarely because of any behavioral problems.”

While some may choose to get their dogs from a pet store and think it comes from a good breeder, Collins says this is not the case. As a former breeder, Collins said that no respectable breeder would sell their puppies to a pet store.

“Pet store puppies always come from puppy mills,” Collins said.

“And they don’t tell you that, in fact they will lie to you and tell you that’s not true. If you buy from a pet store, you are supporting puppy mills. There are no two ways about that.”

Jordan Wales, a former Petland employee, says that each pet store is different. While she can only speak for the Petland she worked at, they take good care of their dogs and made sure they come from good breeders. She bought all four of her dogs from Petland and hasn’t had problems with any of them.

There are both pros and cons to buying at a pet store,” Wales said.

One of the pros is the dogs come with a three-year warranty and most come with a free spay or neuter.

Wales also said that pet store puppies are harder to train when you get home because of the fact that they’re always in a cage and they aren’t socialized properly.

According to Wales, some of the dogs are played with after work, but only the cute ones. Some dogs will never be played with.

“I mean a lot of them that stay there for awhile, they don’t always turn out aggressive but I’ve seen it happen where they kind of do become aggressive or they’re food aggressive or toy aggressive because they’re so used to being by themselves and not being socialized,” said Wales, “so that’s always a big deal.”

Stephanie Mikel, a journalism student, owns two Collies.one from a pet store and one from a shelter. Mikel has owned the pet store Collie since it was eight weeks old.

“The dog had heartworm, was deaf and partially blind,” said Mikel. She had no knowledge of these problems before they took her home.

A big reason why people don’t want to buy from a pet store is the fear of their dog getting sick,” said Kaitlyn Kwiek, a former employee at another Petland.

“If they do get sick,” Kwiek says, “we will pay for them to get better and pay for their vet bills and things like that, but that’s why people tend to look away because they think they’re from puppy mills.”

Kwiek would neither confirm nor deny if they in fact came from puppy mills.

Mikel says her rescue dogs have no problems with people and the shelter organizations help to pair people with dogs to make sure their personalities match.

“Shelter dogs are nine times out of ten healthier than pet stores,” said Mikel.

Willard has owned a total of six rescue dogs and says that each one has been wonderful.

“In fact, adopting from a shelter is, I think, a better way to test for problems than just getting a puppy,” Willard says. “With a puppy, you never know what sort of personality they’re gonna [have], so you can get a sense of the dogs personality, whether it’s highly energetic or shy, and match your needs with the dogs personality.that’s the ideal situation I think.