Host: What challenges may I face in owning a dog?

Michelle Otis: Again, it is going to depend on the specific dog that you are adopting. In most cases, dogs are coming into the shelter for all sorts of reasons, but sometimes there are behavioral issues and that could be anywhere from chewing issues, destructive issues or separation anxiety type issues. So most of the time your shelter will do some kind of an evaluation, behavioral evaluation before they will make a dog available for adoption and that will give you a baseline of -- some idea of some of the potential issues with that particular dog. Some people think that the greatest challenge that they have is pet care during the day while they are at work or finding care for their animal when they go on vacation, that can be a challenge. Other people find challenges when they first bring a dog home and have to deal with some adjustment issues, scheduling issues, making sure that they find out what particular training needs the dog might have that may or may not fit in with their lifestyle. So I think it really depends on what your definition of challenge is, but I think it could be anywhere from as simple as which pet sitter do I find or who can I get to watch my animal to. I need to take a trainer's advice because we are having some other issues.