I have a friend whose dog died shortly before his wife died. Being lonesome, he went to a shelter and was told that at his age he could only adopt a dog ten years or older. My friend is living on a modest income and went he brougt a dog home he had to take her to a vet just about every third day. The dog died within about two months. So this elderly man was forced to endure a third loss within about four months while incurring huge vet fees and long driving times. This WW II vet was put through all of this even though his daugter had agreed that if anything happened to her father she would adopt the dog.
While an elderly person might not be a good fit for an exuberant puppy, I think a middle aged dog (5 or 6 years old) would have been a good fit. To be honest with you, while I avidly support our golden rescue and usually mention it first when someone calls me looking for a dog (I currently am not breeding because we have a restrictive breeding law here) I will say that sometimes hobby breeders have perfectly wonderful adult dogs they are willing to part with who are trained and make wonderful pets. I have placed adults myself, either because they came back to me because their original homes didn’t work out, or because a potential show dog didn’t work out for me. I DO screen homes, and SOME breeders are just like the groups being discussed in this thread, but certainly not all are. It’s another avenue for someone looking for a nice adult dog. It might have worked out for your friend. And I”m really sorry he had to go through that. I know my dogs are always a comfort to me. (and fwiw, I would have agreed to take the dog back myself if he had needed me to, it’s part of my contract, altho I would have also allowed the daughter to if she wanted to—I don’t think this would be an unusual arrangement).