adopting a former puppy mill dog--any advice? - Page 1

My mom's little lap dog of 16 years passed away a few months ago and I talked her into adopting from the local shelters to replace him. One of the local shelters has a number of adult Poodle/Pom/Westie etc mixes available that were taken from a recently shut down puppy mill. I have not seen the dogs in person yet but checked them out on their website. Most need socializing and I'm guessing housbreaking as well. (I can only image what the living conditions were like.) I'm just wondering if this would be an appropriate choice for my mom. She lives alone so no issues with kids or other dogs. The dog would be the center of attention with the run of the house and fenced yard. What kind of issues could she be facing? I'd like to take her to the shelter this week and see the dogs in person. There's a few Pom mixes that are absotutely adorable, at least in the pictures.

PM sent :)

First off health would be my concern.
Then trainability, paperwork.
You might find the perfect little dog, you might not.
Choose wisely.

I'm not worried about paperwork, but trainability and whether or not my mom could handle all the potenial issues that she could be faced with. If the dog didn't work out for her, I'd be the one with another mouth to feed. And then I'd still have to find her another dog. (I wouldn't have the heart to return the dog.) I think I remember the news story about the puppy mill. Most of the dogs were in fairly decent shape heath wise but there were something like 40-50 all crammed into a house trailer.

We had a similar puppy mill shut down here,
The dogs looked ok for the most part.   Some did not.
The breeding had no plan at all except to produce pups, ya have to wonder about that a little even with a pet.
I would say health would be my primary concern.
And age would make a big difference as to raising and training.