We got 2 dogs from a shelter, and a purebred rat terrior from a rescue. Our local shelter is really a racket and some of their practices really bother me, but that’s a topic for another day...
When we get a dog from the shelter, we spend about an hour with the dog while at the shelter, with our kids running aroung being loud, like normal, and watch the dog’s reaction. We pick the dog that either runs and plays with them or stays relaxed and/or sleeps.
Early on our rescues needed a lot of extra TLC, 2 of them kept running away, but they settled in and all are doing great.
Feel free to start a thread on this topic; there is a lot of interest here on that subject.
As an aside, I just got a notice from my city, Houston, that I must register my cat and pay them a fee. The ONLY way they could know I have a cat named Punkin is if my kitty kennel or Banfield told them. I am upset about that disbursement of my (and Punkin's) personal info, and ignored the notice. I refuse to give that bloated, unresponsive bureaucracy any of my money so they can promote lesbian day in the schools or some other program that is apropos of nothing.