Dogs
Find and offer dogs in Costa Rica.
A large share of the dogs in Costa Rican homes arrived as a gift: a puppy from a neighbour’s litter, a mixed-breed dog a cousin could no longer keep, an older dog left behind when a family moved away. That is how dogs change homes here, passed from one family to the next rather than traded, and the questions that matter are about character, health and the house waiting for them. Their gear is another matter. Beds, harnesses, crates, leads and bowls are bought and sold new and second-hand, and plenty of it was outgrown by a puppy within a few months.
Mixed-breed dogs handed on as gifts:
that is how most dogs in Costa Rica reach a new family, and most of them are mixes of every size and coat rather than any one breed. Owners who are moving, families with an unplanned litter and rescuers all post in adopt a dog, where the conversation is about temperament and the home on offer, not a price. The beds, harnesses, crates, bowls and toys go to dog supplies, where they change hands like any other gear.
From the patio to the sofa, and the gear a house dog needs:
within a generation, sleeping indoors has gone from the exception to the norm for Costa Rican dogs, and the kit has followed them inside. A dog that sleeps in the house needs a bed it can stretch out on, often a crate for the first nights, and a harness and lead for walks round the neighbourhood in place of the old chain. Buy for the size the dog will reach, not the size it is, because a puppy from a big mix keeps growing for months after it arrives. Measure a harness around the deepest part of the chest, and choose a bed by the length of the dog lying on its side, nose to the base of the tail.
Meeting a dog in the house it is leaving:
see it where it lives before you agree to take it, and ask how it has spent its days: indoors, loose in a yard, or tied. A dog that has lived for years on a chain may never have learned to walk on a lead or settle inside, and it needs a family ready to teach it. Ask for the vaccination card and whether the dog is sterilised; most owned dogs in Costa Rica are, and the ones that are not are where the unplanned litters come from. Watch it with children, with another dog and with a stranger at the gate, because a dog kept partly to guard the house may greet every visitor to its new home the same way.
Puppy collars, crates and beds bought for a dog that kept growing:
that is why so much second-hand dog gear is nearly new. A puppy can go through several collars and harnesses, and often a crate, before its first birthday, so those small sizes are the cheapest used dog kit there is and rarely worth buying new. Beds are the opposite. Press the middle of a foam bed: if it stays flat, the dog will end up lying on the floor. Look for a cover with a zip that comes off for washing, since a stuffed bed that cannot be washed keeps the smell of the last dog, and some dogs refuse to lie on it. A doghouse for the patio should have its floor raised off the ground and a roof that lifts off for cleaning.
Giving your dog to a new family, or selling the things it used:
for the dog, put down the details any family needs before it calls: age, adult weight, whether it is sterilised and vaccinated, how it gets on with children, cats and other dogs, and whether it has lived inside, in a yard or both. Say plainly why it is leaving, and photograph it standing, in daylight. When it goes, send its food, its blanket and its vaccination card, ask what fence or gate the new house has, and if it gets out anyway, post it straight away in animals lost and found. For the gear, give the size and the weight of the dog it fitted, and say whether the covers have been washed. A dog that guarded a patio in Grecia for years will bark at its new gate for the first few days; tell the family before they come to collect it, so they do not take it for a bad start.