Again, in the principle, we agree, but in the context of this article, and in the context that we are COMPARATIVE between, and unknown, untrained and one raised poorly but naively, the risk is lessor for the later and greater for the former. Now, in your most extreme example, assuming the worst possible conditions for the puppy raised, and then simply and Unknown for the adult, sure, the median will favor the unknown adult.
But that is biasing the trial in advance and does not prove anything but that you are good at knowing how to set the standards to produce the outcome of the statistics.
It is not a FAIR sample.
I would therefore submit, that in a truly RANDOM sample, you will have a greater number of adult dogs, given up for good reason, ie, bad behaviors, than you will puppy raised.
Why? Because as we have already discussed, the bad adult dogs HAD to have COME FROM badly raised puppies.
Ergo: The puppy pool of good vs badly raised, greatly favors the owners who KEEP their dogs, as if they did have bad issues, THOSE would be the ones given away.
Your scenario only works in the extremes of the bell curve. The norm, just systematically, reflects that the very reason more adults are given up is due to behavior issues. Thus greater risk.
Now. To my VERY VERY first point: And where we have greatly differed. Most of the usual suspects on this thread, either deny ANY RISK or have AVOIDED discussing the risk. No one, other than the few early on who have been driven off this thread, supported my position, that where children are involved, ANY RISK is too much risk.
Which is why I said NEVER. I am speaking to, these unskilled random folks, we have both been using in our examples.
Which is why I dismissed any and every expert trainer’s personal stories. THEY are the exceptions, not the norm.
For the normal folks, they are better off starting from scratch than, taking, any risk. No matter how slight or diverse are the odds.
This will piss off the Animal wackos, but NEVER, Never, never, never, never, adopt an adult dog.
Is complete and utter crap and that you were wrong?
Until then all you are doing is backing up.
According to the AVMA: “half of all bites are inflicted by the family dog. Only about 10% of bites are inflicted by dogs unknown to the victim.” The AVMA continues, stating, “Dog bite injuries rank third only to bicycle and baseball/softball injuries as a leading cause of emergency admission of children to hospitals.”
The vast majority of dogs join human families as young puppies. In addition, well run shelters have a vested interest in not adopting out dogs with known red flags to families with kids. Dogs are evaluated for possession guarding, extreme fearfulness and for dominance behavior, to name just a few categories, before ever being presented for adoption. This is done to all adult dogs. Obviously, there is no way to prevent 100% of dog bites, but I will stand by the fact that since most dogs are acquired by people as young pups, those persons who adopt screened shelter dogs are not in extreme danger of having their kiddies eaten.
If we must continue to rely on statistics, I think we must eliminate all childhood baseball/softball and bicycle exposure to make sure nobody is hurt in the road to adult status. Think of the healthcare savings!