Why is adopting a dog so difficult?

FawltyTowel

10 years ago my family adopted a staff whose owners could no longer take care of her. She lived a long life before passing away.

Fast forward to today and I've been trying months to rescue a dog. The vast majority of shelters take weeks to email you back any information. By the time they do I've already moved on. My local sanctuary is barely open. I've called and left messages, filled out a dog questionnaire for various dogs I was interested and heard nothing back.

The pounds I've visited sadly didn't have enough information on dogs as most were just found on the stray.

Now yesterday I found a great little staff on a pretty big animal rescue site. He was good with cats, kids, loved cuddles. Sounded perfect. I left a message, they called back and told me to come up.

Turns out they were hiding a lot of information. Including just how badly abused he was. They didn't tell me any of that on the phone. The dogs were older than the site said they were too, which was surprising.

On top of that, after going all the way to Dublin, they told me I needed a letter from my local council which would say I'm allowed to own this particular dog. As it was a restrictive breed. Of course I'm not allowed to reserve a dog while I sort this, nor do they tell you when a dog you want has been reserved. You just have to go up and get lucky.

I have to jump through so many hoops. I'm seriously better just buying a pup

username123

What do you think the difference between a pound and a rescue is? Most rescues get dogs in from pounds. They make it hard so they dont end up with the same dog back again. Thats a good thing.

Why not just get a pound dog? You will never truly know the history of any rescue dog.

toadfly

Where do you live OP? It's not that difficult to rescue a dog. I have two, a staff and a Yorkie both from a Dublin pound and I live in Galway. No real need to be afraid of pound dogs, a lot of dogs in rescue groups came from pounds with no history. My two are fantastic.

fiounnalbe

I have to agree with OP, it's getting more and more difficult in this country to adopt a dog and I think it's turning a lot of people away from the adoption route.

I've had some truly horrendous experiences with some rescues. I know they are extremely busy, stressed and generally unappreciated, but there is never a reason for being rude and unhelpful when someone is genuinely trying trying to do the right thing and give a homeless dog a loving home.

Now I am not saying that they should just hand out their dogs left, right and centre before I get shouted down. Obviously checks have to made that the dog is going to a loving home after all they have already been through. But even with this research how much does the rescue actually know about where they are going?

One experience of mine a good few years back was I wanted to rehome a dog and was told incredibly rudely, shouted at and all, that I could not adopt a dog, "Who did I think I was". This was because I lived in an apartment and therefore had no back garden, which would be a horrible life for any dog. I wasn't allowed explain further about my situation, that between myself and my partner the dog would be alone for no more than 3 hours a day. We are both big walkers and the dog would get walked 4 times a day, I was planning on training classes and doing agility training with it and every weekend we would go to our house in the countryside. I was kicked out of the rescue straight away.

Upon leaving I met someone taking out their newly adopted dog and they asked was I taking one too, I explained the situation and they laughed and said we should have lied, they told them the dog would be indoors but it wasn't going to be, it was purely going to be outback as a guard dog. Where would the dog have had a better life I ask you??

DBB

I know people are going to post here with their bad experiences, and it is dreadful that anyone gets abused for stupid stuff when they're trying to do a good thing. There's no excuse for it, because belittling people is not a good way to educate them, or encourage them. I also think it's madness, just madness for a rescue to dress a dog up as something it's not... Do they think the new adopter is not going to notice, or something?
However, we're not all as bad as these stories might indicate! I run a rescue, so do one or two others here, whilst others are deeply involved in helping out rescues. I cringe when I hear stories like above, because it's easy to get tarred with the one brush. I'm not saying I don't have my moments (people can be REALLY odd when it comes to pets sometimes!), but I don't consider it to be THAT hard to get a dog from me or most rescues I know... It's not easy-peasy either, but any checks we put in place are readily understood and accepted, and indeed nearly always welcomed by the potential adopters. They are sensible, intuitive, obviously-necessary checks.
The situation described above, where the people lied... Does this place home check? In fairness, it's people like those mentioned above who lied to the rescue who are chief contributors to why many rescues can get a tad paranoid about people's true intentions. Indeed, it is people like this who are making it more difficult for OP, or the above poster. You would not believe the lies I've been told, time-wasters, betrayals of trust I've had to deal with. But nevertheless, I think in most cases, if people play fair with a rescue, the rescue will play fair with you, and I think I've become reasonably good at weeding out the chancers from the genuine, lovely adopters.
There are nutters in every walk of life, perhaps more than the usual proportion are involved in rescues, but please, don't tar us all. We're not all that bad!

angeldaisy

I agree with you DBB, it is so easy to tar everyone with the same brush, but there are good places out there.

My own experience however has found no flexibility with the regulations. My local centre specifies a certain type of fencing that must be in place, which I can understand but just wish that common sense would also play a part. My 2 dogs, one rescued as a pup from a farmer before he was to be drowned, the other as a 2yr old who was found straying who I adopted from a boards member, are both members of our family.

Both dogs sleep in our bedroom, there are at least 5 beds for them throughout the house. They are walked through the fields lots of interesting smells. My collie as I type is in his favorite place which is laid at the front of the house watching the world go by and Tara our Jrtx is in hers, which is curled up in bed - usually mine!

If the rescue centre came to do a home check they would find 2 well loved, cared for dogs but they won't come because I can't tick all the boxes.

However I still support their rules because I know there are many unsuitable places and people looking for dogs and if this means that they are not able to adopt also, well then this makes me happy that these dogs won't be mistreated.

OP please look at the pounds please, you would be suprised I suspect.

Good luck with your search

fiounnalbe

DBB wrote: »

The situation described above, where the people lied... Does this place home check?

Yes they home check.

Sorry I didn't mean to tar them all with the one brush, but I did go to 5 rescues that didn't give me the time of and day, each more rude and abrasive than the next. Luckily, I didn't give up and just buy a dog like my partner wanted and found a rescue with the nicest woman ever, who listened to everything I had to say about offering a dog a home, did a home check etc and now we have two gorgeous rescues, who are extremely happy with their living arrangements

Keep trying OP, you too will find your perfect dog in a decent rescue soon

fathead82

I never adopted a dog from a rescue but I tried to volunteer in a big rescue near to me when I was out of work for a few months,emailed them,rang,left voice messages, never heard anything back so I called into them to offer my time & the woman was so rude i decided not to bother.

I rang another well known rescue to offer to foster a dog after seeing an appeal on the internet.Im almost a two hour drive from that rescue. The woman on the phone laughed at me,then asked me to hold on a minute,I could hear her telling another woman"this lad wants to foster a dog & hes from Tipperary" then they both laughed.
From what I can see,its the smaller rescues that are ran from peoples houses that are much better & the people who run them are much nicer to deal with.

Bullseye1

As others have stated its important that a dog who has probably been abused in their previous home don't get similar treatment when adopted. When you think about it it's easier to have a child than to adopt one. You could have the most unsuitable people having children in environments not suitable for them. Yet to could have a couple trying for years to adopt a child and their circumstances are absolutely ideal for bringing up a child. It seems to be the way people in adoption agencies work. Not saying they are all like that but if anything is to be learnt from spending time in this section of the forum is there are people with strong views who like to preach.

If your looking to rescue a dog to the pound route. For the same of a few quid employ a dog behaviourist to help you pick a suitable companion.

DBB

fiounnalbe wrote: »

Yes they home check.

Sorry I didn't mean to tar them all with the one brush, but I did go to 5 rescues that didn't give me the time of and day, each more rude and abrasive than the next. Luckily, I didn't give up and just buy a dog like my partner wanted and found a rescue with the nicest woman ever, who listened to everything I had to say about offering a dog a home, did a home check etc and now we have two gorgeous rescues, who are extremely happy with their living arrangements

Keep trying OP, you too will find your perfect dog in a decent rescue soon

Oops! I didn't mean to imply that you were tarring everyone with the one brush, it was just a general plea to everyone
I have to say, I think it's awful to hear these stories of good people getting short shrift, and made feel inadequate. You know, save the vitriol for the time-wasters and liars!
We have rules here, but sometimes people contact us who may not have a perfect set-up, but we know that they're not going to do anything stoopid, we know by talking to them that they're every bit as committed to their dogs as we are to our own, so we take everyone on a case-by-case basis. As I said above, you learn with experience who's genuine and who's chancing their arm, and sometimes, some of the rules can be rubberized a bit!:D
A case in point is my wee Shih Tsu x Spaniel, who I adopted 10 years ago. At the time, I rented a small house in a garden that wasn't secure. The rescue knew fine well that I wasn't going to let the little one run riot in the neighbourhood, and the adoption went ahead without any glitches. Like you fiounnalbe, they could see I had two beds ready for her in the house, a great routine with the dog I already had, and time to spend with her. So, whilst it would've put the heart crossways in a purist, they bent their rules in my case. That little dog is sitting here beside me 10 years later
It's probably easier for smaller rescues to do this, because one person takes ultimate responsibility (in our case, me! And me wee dog above also came from a small rescue), and I deal with every adopter personally, rather than larger rescues who have to delegate the duties out to a few different people, which probably means they need to be more uniformly strict? Maybe?

TooManyDogs

Sometimes I think people go about looking to adopt a dog a little backwards. Each rescue will have different policies, those policies will be generally based on experience. Some rescues will allow more wiggle room in the policies and some remain rigid to them. For what it's worth, my opinion is that firstly you should research the local rescues and what their policies are, have a chat with them about adopting a dog in general and see if that rescue is going to be a good fit for you. After that keep an eye on their dogs on the website or facebook page to see if the type of dog you're looking for comes in.

I am heavily involved with a rescue and have to say that the internet is both a blessing and a curse. People are browsing the internet on all the sites and fall in love with a dog's picture and then are bitterly disappointed if it doesn't work out, and sometimes it doesn't work out for a huge variety of reasons - the dog genuinely won't suit the particular circumstances, the dog is already booked but the volunteer updating the website hasn't been given the changes yet, the dog needs a really experienced owner, the prospective adopter lives too far away from the rescue to make doing a home check practical, etc etc

A disadvantage of the internet from my point of view is the expectation that everything will happen instantly, people seem more and more reluctant to pick up the phone and ring, they're texting and emailing asking for more and more information and photos of the dog rather than simply ringing to arrange to come out and meet the dog and chat to the person in charge of the rescue. And then they're getting thick when their messages aren't answered quickly enough. The rescue I volunteer with doesn't have internet access onsite so all emails and site updates are done by me at home, and the lady who runs it can't text, and even if she could there's that many texts come in she'd spend all day with her head in the phone trying to answer them.

For us there's 3 opportunities for us to suss prospective owners out, once on the phone when they ring about the dog and to get directions, second when they come out and meet the dog and we see the interaction, and thirdly when they're getting their home check done. Yes people will say Mass in order to get a dog, so you're depending on intuition and impressions so it's crucial that people actually come out, often that's why rescues don't allow people to book a dog over the phone.

The other side of that is that there's absolutely no excuse for a rescue to be rude to people, it's not good for the dogs, the adopters or the rescue. Sometimes in this rescue world all I can think when I meet some rescue people is 'Good with dogs, sh!te with people'

thomur

fathead82 wrote: »

I rang another well known rescue to offer to foster a dog after seeing an appeal on the internet.Im almost a two hour drive from that rescue. The woman on the phone laughed at me,then asked me to hold on a minute,I could hear her telling another woman"this lad wants to foster a dog & hes from Tipperary" then they both laughed.
.

Sorry to hear that OP. I adopted a dog from the local pound in Dub in Feb and they couldnt have been more helpful. I work in Mayo and had rang the rescue centre up there a few times to inquire about a dog on their website but I never got a call back. A few other people told me the same story. I think some centres are turning people off rehoming as its not worth all the hassle.

DBB

TooManyDogs wrote: »

A disadvantage of the internet from my point of view is the expectation that everything will happen instantly, people seem more and more reluctant to pick up the phone and ring,

Lol, more than once I've had people ring me at the most ridiculous hours of the night asking can they adopt X dog they've just seen on the interweb. I think the worst was at 4am. All of them stone cold sober!
Some of the phone stories are hilarious (they might not have been at the time, but time heals all wounds :pac:), but I'll bet the lady who runs TMD's rescue could write a book on it.. maybe she should?!;) A great lady!

NuckingFacker

I'd have to agree with the Op. I live on a farm, admittedly a big hobby farm, but loads of space, two kids and always had dogs. A delivery truck ran over our family dog, kids were distraught, so I said "lets get one from a pound - give a good home to a dog that needs it". Moreya.

We went, looked, picked, they did home visits, the crap dragged on and on. In the end, i went and bought a staffie(I like them, they're good, loyal dogs). I just couldn't be bothered with the ludicrous hoops they wanted me to jump through. They seemed happier to have the dogs cooped up and then put down. Absolutely mad IMO, but there you go.

Mr bought Doggie is now perched on the couch with the youngest kid and the cat, watching worlds most shocking car chases. I'd say adopting a kid would be easier than adopting a dog from a pound.

toadfly

I think you are confusing pounds and rescues. Pounds pick up stray dogs and hold them for at least 5 days and then the dog is either rehomed or killed. I have never heard of them doing home visits you go pay for the dog and a dog license and off you go.

Rescues on the other hand do home visits/neuter/vaccinate the dogs etc before rehoming and the fee is more than the pound as all these things have to be paid for.

boomerang

I have the phone for our rescue group right now. It is exhausting, the amount of calls coming in, the difficult callers, the situations I'm trying to help. I have to keep reminding myself that every caller is contacting us for the first time and has high expectations that we can fix their problem. Sometimes it's very hard, when you've had a few bad calls in a row. Don't forget that people ringing the rescue can be just as rude and awkward as the person you get on the phone when you ring! You get burned out, answering the phone, and that's when you get short and abrasive with people. I used to work in a call centre and tbh answering this phone is just as hard! There's only five of us in our group, and two are working full-time. We share the phone between us so that we all get a break from it, but it's still not easy.

I don't think the rescue were "hiding" information from you. In fairness it was probably easier to talk you through it in person than go through it on the phone. They probably didn't have time for a longer call. They gave you full disclosure when you visited, when a lesser rescue might be tempted not to, to get him into a home. However abused he was, or wasn't, the important thing is the dog in front of you. If you saw for yourself that the dog is everything the rescue described him as, that is what to focus on.

I am sure the dogs are older than advertised on the website because they have been there a while now so they are not the age they were when their info was posted on the website. They may not have time to keep the website updated.

The red tape is not the fault of the rescue - they are making sure that you're not forced to get rid of the dog because you are a council tenant and you are prohibited from keeping a restricted breed. In fairness this only applies to a small fraction of applicants and wouldn't be one of the first questions I would ask of someone phoning about a dog.

You are not allowed to reserve the dog while waiting from the letter of confirmation from the council, because in the event that you can't take the dog, it may have lost out on other prospective homes. There's nothing worse than when a good home falls through for a dog you've earmarked for someone, and in the meantime you've turned other interested people away.

I think you have to look at it from the rescues POV. These people offer their time because they love dogs. They try to make the adoption process as straightforward as possible, but understand that as dog lovers, they feel responsible for the animals in their care and want to be sure the dogs get great homes and never end up on the street or in a pound again.

There has to be a bit of give and take when dealing with rescues. They don't have the financial or personnel resources you might expect. That said, I think people in rescue should hold themselves up to the same professional standards expected of them in their working lives. Difficult as it may be, there's just no excuse for being rude or dismissive on the phone. I hate how it gives all rescues a bad reputation.

boomerang

angeldaisy wrote: »

My own experience however has found no flexibility with the regulations. My local centre specifies a certain type of fencing that must be in place, which I can understand but just wish that common sense would also play a part.

I don't think asking for secure fencing is so unreasonable. They don't want their dogs to have access to the road, or the ability to wander. Not only is it against the law, it increases their chances of being hit by a car, stolen etc. I sense you appreciate this. I do homechecks for rescues and I would never rehome a dog to a home with a garden the dog can escape. I couldn't, in good conscience. The risks are too great, and if anything happened to the dog, I would feel responsible. That is how folks in rescue think. And they're not going to give the option of an invisible fence or a chain link run, because they have well-founded objections to those.

Most homes don't fail homechecks on the set up of the garden, because the majority of people (in my experience of doing homechecks) are living in an estate and the house automatically is secure at the back. Or they have young children and have already secured the garden, for that reason. For a lot of people, the only thing they have to do to prepare for the dog is to raise the height of their fencing. The prospective adopters who get caught out are those living in a detached house on half an acre in the country. Rather than turn them down flat, I would always suggest ways they can keep the dog safe without having to fence in the entire garden and put in gates, which in fairness is more than most people can afford.

mgbgt1978

TillyGirl wrote: »

I think you are confusing pounds and rescues. Pounds pick up stray dogs and hold them for at least 5 days and then the dog is either rehomed or killed. I have never heard of them doing home visits you go pay for the dog and a dog license and off you go.

Rescues on the other hand do home visits/neuter/vaccinate the dogs etc before rehoming and the fee is more than the pound as all these things have to be paid for.

I think he is just mixing up the names, rather than 'confusing' pounds and rescue centres.
It's fairly obvious from his post that he is referring to rescues.
We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.
We have a Lab/Collie X and a German Shepherd, both got as pups (the Lab was dumped as part of a 4 week old litter in a hedge near us).
They are fonder of children than anything else and will allow any child to pull them, push them, and always come back for more.
Yet a few years ago when we rang both of our local rescues we were more or less told by bossy know-it-alls (I will not be getting into any arguments here about this description, I made the phone calls-not anybody else on Boards) that because we had children (5 and 12 at the time) it would be almost ridiculous to have any of their dogs in our home..... :rolleyes:

boomerang

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.

And that is the fault of the rescue, why?

It is quite possible that the kind of dogs they had at the time wouldn't have been suitable for a home with kids. Rescues don't get to pick the dogs that come in. In my experience, most collies coming into rescue are timid because of rough handling. They are a particularly sensitive breed. As a collie owner and in rehoming them through rescue, they are not the first breed I think of as a good family pet. They generally politely tolerate kids. And even though tons of people have Jack Russells - largely because they are a compact little breed - they're not the best choice with kids. I'm not saying this holds true of every individual dog in a breed, but there are definite patterns. You learn that with the amount of dogs coming through your rescue.

Maybe it's not that the person was a know-it-all, but that you just didn't like being turned down. That's human nature. If it is the rescue I am thinking of, you quite possibly spoke to me!

DBB

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.

In fairness, maybe most of the JRTs and Collie/Collie X's they get in come with baggage, including lack of adequate socialisation, which means they've no provenance, or have been shown to have a problem, around children?
I don't rehome the dogs I rehome with small children. That's a rule I don't bend. Some people don't like that, because they know of one person whose dog of this type was great with kids. But I know these dogs like the back of my hand. Most of them aren't great with kids. I'm not going to put a child at risk to test anyone else's theories... if that makes me a "know-it-all", I can live with that.
Again, please be careful about the language that's being used: there are thousands of people who have had great experiences dealing with rescues. To use such forceful language ("know-it-alls") is a little hard to take, I'll be honest with you.

angeldaisy

I don't know how to quote on my phone, but Boomerang and DBB make some excellent points
Whilst I know that I will not be allowed to rehome dog from my local rescue that doesn't mean I don't or can't support them or their policies.

I know that every thing they do is for the good of the animals. Today they have an open day, so I'm taking my 8 yr old son off to it. I hope that I'm already raising him to be an animal lover and a future responsible pet owner but want him to see what can happen to animals through no fault of their own.

We also throw some spare cash (not much these days:)) into their collection buckets and also that of the organisation looking after feral cats, who tnr them and rehome the kittens. We tell ourselves we are paying for kitty cuddles - don't think my two would appreciate a kitten coming into the house! I just hope that I can pass on my love of animals to him!

As I type this morning, my lady is sat on my tummy in bed having tummy rubs whilst my collle is snoring his head off. It's a hard life!

Btw my collie tolerates the child as does the jrt x neither would have been selected as pets for the child but I think sometimes for unknown reasons they pick you rather than you pick them! Both times I wasnt really looking for dogs but it just happened!

inocybe

Just want to point out that the OP and another poster have mentioned Staffies. Rescues have to be really careful and a bit paranoid when people come looking for a staffie. Someone who is prepared to wait and go through all the process is probably a safer bet.

borderlinemeath

inocybe wrote: »

Just want to point out that the OP and another poster have mentioned Staffies. Rescues have to be really careful and a bit paranoid when people come looking for a staffie. Someone who is prepared to wait and go through all the process is probably a safer bet.

The breed doesn't really matter. All the hyperbole about baiting and fighting and some of the ridiculous facebook posts that give people downright paranoia about their dogs doesn't help. If somebody wanted a dog for nefarious purposes, approaching rescues that have strict criteria and a rehoming fee wouldn't be their first port of call. Unfortunately stealing or indiscriminate breeding would be more their thing. I would imagine that the majority of people working in rescue have a fairly intuitive nature when it comes to rehoming and if 'a hard man' etc came in looking specifically for a restricted breed they wouldn't even get to fill out the forms.

Again, the breed doesn't matter. The dog itself matters because at this point it's in a rescue, it's either been lost or strayed, abandoned, given up for various reasons or was part of an accidental litter. Unless it's a puppy then it's probably already got some psychological battle scars from removed/lost from it's original family and the rescue have a duty of care to protect the poor confused dog from further trauma.

I think people who don't know a whole lot about dogs will pick a dog purely on looks and then get pissed off when the rescue says..
"no that dog can't be rehomed with children", or "that dog can only go to a single dog home" or "that dog will only suit an active household" etc. It may seem like the rescue are putting nothing but obstacles in your way but they are just protecting the dog, ensuring it gets the right home as opposed to any home, ie one there's a chance it might end up back in rescue.

kylith

I went to a breed rescue and found them quite sympathetic to my situation; that I wanted two dogs because I was away 08:30-17:30. They checked my accommodation and that my garden was secure, and that I didn't have a van with 'Furrier' on the side or anything, and then they said ok.

The thing that annoys me most about some rescues is when they insist that someone must be home during the day. Do they think that only people who are rich enough not to work should have dogs?

Sam Kade

FawltyTowel wrote: »

10 years ago my family adopted a staff whose owners could no longer take care of her. She lived a long life before passing away.

Fast forward to today and I've been trying months to rescue a dog. The vast majority of shelters take weeks to email you back any information. By the time they do I've already moved on. My local sanctuary is barely open. I've called and left messages, filled out a dog questionnaire for various dogs I was interested and heard nothing back.

The pounds I've visited sadly didn't have enough information on dogs as most were just found on the stray.

Now yesterday I found a great little staff on a pretty big animal rescue site. He was good with cats, kids, loved cuddles. Sounded perfect. I left a message, they called back and told me to come up.

Turns out they were hiding a lot of information. Including just how badly abused he was. They didn't tell me any of that on the phone. The dogs were older than the site said they were too, which was surprising.

On top of that, after going all the way to Dublin, they told me I needed a letter from my local council which would say I'm allowed to own this particular dog. As it was a restrictive breed. Of course I'm not allowed to reserve a dog while I sort this, nor do they tell you when a dog you want has been reserved. You just have to go up and get lucky.

I have to jump through so many hoops. I'm seriously better just buying a pup

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

borderlinemeath

Sam Kade wrote: »

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

I got one of my dogs from a rescue and got plenty of background information as he was there for 5 months recuperating. I knew I was getting a skinny, nervous, people shy, heart of gold dog . I also knew he had a wee bit of food guarding and also needed a bit of toilet training. Good, reputable rescues don't sugar coat the dogs problems or foibles as they know they'll end up with the dog back if they don't disclose everything.

Rescues use experienced fosters that they know can read the dogs signals and give unbiased information regarding the dogs behaviour, it's invaluable to them as it whittles down the prospective owners for the individual dog, ie good with other dogs, not good with cats. Shows a bit of resource guarding but easily trained etc.

muddypaws

Sam Kade wrote: »

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

Unfortunately not necessarily so. Puppy farmers will spin all sorts of tales to sell their pups, or their ex breeding stock, including using family members' homes to pretend thats where the dogs live. Also, if people are desperate to rehome a dog, they will sometimes lie.

I have a boy here looking for a home, he's been back with us for 15 months, was adopted when he was 8 months old and came back last year, aged 4. He's a lovely, lovely dog, but has a few issues, so it has to be a very specific home. I arranged a hv with someone on the South coast who seemed very interested, a volunteer did the homevisit, I spoke with the prospective adopter on the phone about 8 times, it all seemed great. I live in Sligo, the home was on the south coast, I was willing to drive half way to meet the man so that he could meet Rudi. He wanted me to drive all the way with the dog for him to meet him, and wasn't willing to do an hour and a half or two hour drive to meet me. So whilst he ticked all the right boxes in some ways, his lack of willingness to go out of his way for this dog made me wonder what would happen if there were any problems.

Sam Kade

muddypaws wrote: »

Unfortunately not necessarily so. Puppy farmers will spin all sorts of tales to sell their pups, or their ex breeding stock, including using family members' homes to pretend thats where the dogs live. Also, if people are desperate to rehome a dog, they will sometimes lie.

I have a boy here looking for a home, he's been back with us for 15 months, was adopted when he was 8 months old and came back last year, aged 4. He's a lovely, lovely dog, but has a few issues, so it has to be a very specific home. I arranged a hv with someone on the South coast who seemed very interested, a volunteer did the homevisit, I spoke with the prospective adopter on the phone about 8 times, it all seemed great. I live in Sligo, the home was on the south coast, I was willing to drive half way to meet the man so that he could meet Rudi. He wanted me to drive all the way with the dog for him to meet him, and wasn't willing to do an hour and a half or two hour drive to meet me. So whilst he ticked all the right boxes in some ways, his lack of willingness to go out of his way for this dog made me wonder what would happen if there were any problems.

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

borderlinemeath

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

No pup should be taken from it's mother at 6 weeks. If you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know that it was a puppy farm that sold pups that young.

DBB

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

I don't agree with you, because I rehome almost all purebreeds, and at an estimate I would say 90% of their owners, most of whom would be average dog owners, bought them from puppy farmers and didn't know it. Actually, not so much puppy farmers as Ireland's more insidious bybs. In some cases, the owners look back and think that maybe things weren't quite right... But still bought the pup anyway. Many more had no clue, but I know from the dog's papers, or from what the owner tells me, who they bought it off and under what circumstances.
I know quite a few breeders who are producing dozens of pups in a shed down the country, but are selling them from their lovely residences in leafy Dublin suburbs.
It is very easy to fool people, and the proof is in the fact that many people are fooled.
When you say about the 6 week old pup, do you mean you're just visiting the pup? Or bringing it home at that age?

muddypaws

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

Well, if you're buying a 6 week pup then you are clearly not fairly clued in about dogs at all.

Bannasidhe

Well I am sitting here with my adopted rescue jrt sleeping next to me on the sofa - she was found abandoned and starving with nothing known about her age or history bar the fact that she had been abused (with the scars to prove it) and had at least one litter. Sometimes playing with the grandkids she can get too excited and jump at them. As she is strong she can knock them. They understand and aged 6 and 4 tell her very firmly not to jump on them then give her a cuddle.

Lying on a blanket cuddling a large bone is a long-term foster dog from the same rescue with a liver condition. All we know about him is that his owners wanted to pts him at 5 months (he is a year old now) when they learned of his condition. The vet refused contacted a rescue and now he will be with us for as long as he lives. He would play soccer all day and all night if we left him and my granddaughter has declared he is hers.


On my OH's lap is a dog we bought as a 9 week old pup - we saw her mother and the shed they lived in - it was waterproof and clean. But just yesterday OH happened to meet the woman we bought Dolly off and all the woman wanted to know is if we had bred her. OH said no and never will as she has been 'done.'

The woman said OH was mad as loads of people are looking for 'miniature' jrts and she will be breeding Dolly's mother again - maybe not this year as she had eaten some stones and had to have some of her intestines removed and the vet advised she not have any more litters. Despite this the woman intends to breed her again :eek:. Just to make a few bucks...:mad:
Dolly loves the idea of the kids and goes mad with the kisses when they arrive - and then fecks off somewhere quiet for a snooze. No one told us that. We know that because she lives here with us.

We are now awaiting arrival of our first short-term foster - a jrt pup found starving in an industrial estate. The rescue trying to find him a place to go was not the same one as we got our 2 from so when I offered to foster 'new' rescue got in contact with 'other' rescue to find out if I was suitable. They made no bones about it and I am glad they did - I would have felt they were not 'doing their job' if they had taken me at my word via a facebook message.

So in the last year I have been homechecked by a rescue, another rescue then contacted them for a reference and they both are assured that any dogs in my house will be well cared for with a safe enclosed garden to play in. Actually, they know they will be pampered!

For our other dog we simply handed over 150 euro- no questions asked to a woman who is willing to put 'her' dog at serious risk to keep the money rolling in.

I will never, ever get another dog from any source but a rescue.

Our newbie foster will be looking for his forever home in a few months and we will be able to say he likes a,b,c but hates x,y,z. We will have seen how he is on the lead, with other dogs - both the ones he lives with and strangers. How he is with kids, if he likes to play ball, tug-of-war etc etc. We will have a very good idea of what kind of home will suit him.

inocybe

borderlinemeath wrote: »

The breed doesn't really matter. All the hyperbole about baiting and fighting and some of the ridiculous facebook posts that give people downright paranoia about their dogs doesn't help. If somebody wanted a dog for nefarious purposes, approaching rescues that have strict criteria and a rehoming fee wouldn't be their first port of call. Unfortunately stealing or indiscriminate breeding would be more their thing. I would imagine that the majority of people working in rescue have a fairly intuitive nature when it comes to rehoming and if 'a hard man' etc came in looking specifically for a restricted breed they wouldn't even get to fill out the forms.

Again, the breed doesn't matter. The dog itself matters because at this point it's in a rescue, it's either been lost or strayed, abandoned, given up for various reasons or was part of an accidental litter. Unless it's a puppy then it's probably already got some psychological battle scars from removed/lost from it's original family and the rescue have a duty of care to protect the poor confused dog from further trauma.

I think people who don't know a whole lot about dogs will pick a dog purely on looks and then get pissed off when the rescue says..
"no that dog can't be rehomed with children", or "that dog can only go to a single dog home" or "that dog will only suit an active household" etc. It may seem like the rescue are putting nothing but obstacles in your way but they are just protecting the dog, ensuring it gets the right home as opposed to any home, ie one there's a chance it might end up back in rescue.

In this case the breed does matter because one of the problems in the OP was that he needed a letter from the council confirming that he is allowed to have a restricted breed at that address. Sounds like a good rescue covering all the bases.

borderlinemeath

inocybe wrote: »

In this case the breed does matter because one of the problems in the OP was that he needed a letter from the council confirming that he is allowed to have a restricted breed at that address. Sounds like a good rescue covering all the bases.

But not pertinent to everybody, only certain housing associations have bans on keeping restricted breeds. Your post indicated nothing about that whatsoever, it was more about rescues being choosy. You said:

inocybe wrote: »

Just want to point out that the OP and another poster have mentioned Staffies. Rescues have to be really careful and a bit paranoid when people come looking for a staffie. Someone who is prepared to wait and go through all the process is probably a safer bet.

Bannasidhe

Bannasidhe wrote: »

We are now awaiting arrival of our first short-term foster - a jrt pup found starving in an industrial estate. The rescue trying to find him a place to go was not the same one as we got our 2 from so when I offered to foster 'new' rescue got in contact with 'other' rescue to find out if I was suitable. They made no bones about it and I am glad they did - I would have felt they were not 'doing their job' if they had taken me at my word via a facebook message.



Our newbie foster will be looking for his forever home in a few months and we will be able to say he likes a,b,c but hates x,y,z. We will have seen how he is on the lead, with other dogs - both the ones he lives with and strangers. How he is with kids, if he likes to play ball, tug-of-war etc etc. We will have a very good idea of what kind of home will suit him.

Just found out that this little guy was offered free to good home on Done Deal 11 days ago... :eek:

The 'home' he got can't have been much good since he was found starving, lost and without a collar never mind a tag 6 days ago. :mad:

Now, thanks to the diligence of the rescue involved his forever home will actually be good because it will be checked first and care will be taken to find the right match.

Unless we end up adopting him which OH has bet will happen...

Nody

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Just found out that this little guy was offered free to good home on Done Deal 11 days ago... :eek:

The 'home' he got can't have been much good since he was found starving, lost and without a collar never mind a tag 6 days ago. :mad:

Now, thanks to the diligence of the rescue involved his forever home will actually be good because it will be checked first and care will be taken to find the right match.

Unless we end up adopting him which OH has bet will happen...

We had similar bets put on us by friends when we became a cat foster family (and having a 7 week kitten cuddle you or a cat sleeping in your bed next to you every night don't help) but we've stayed strong so far and said we want to focus on helping more cats (i.e. we can have X cat in the house, if Y is ours the higher Y gets the fewer cats we can help).

DBB

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Unless we end up adopting him which OH has bet will happen...

But sure, he's only small. You'd hardly even notice he was there :D

boomerang

kylith wrote: »

They checked my accommodation and that my garden was secure, and that I didn't have a van with 'Furrier' on the side or anything

inocybe

borderlinemeath wrote: »

But not pertinent to everybody, only certain housing associations have bans on keeping restricted breeds. Your post indicated nothing about that whatsoever, it was more about rescues being choosy. You said:

What's your point? I never used the word 'choosy', I said careful and a bit paranoid. There are extra requirements for the restricted breeds, and if you are asked for that letter and view it as a 'hoop' to jump through then you probably aren't ready for the responsibility.
Didn't realise it was the Spanish inquisition:(

FawltyTowel

I'm located in Drogheda. I know there's Meath pound. <snip> use it for a lot of their dogs. Is it just a case of going down there?

I have cats too so it's proving rather difficult. Been trying for about two months with no success

We can't allow mentioning of individual rescues here OP, unfortunately. But just to check, that rescue take dogs from that pound, puts them into foster care, and then rehomes them. I'm not sure what you mean by they "use it for a lot of their dogs"?
You've also got Louth pound not too far from you, and a large rescue based in the very town you live in!

Bannasidhe

DBB wrote: »

But sure, he's only small. You'd hardly even notice he was there :D

He's a jack - no jack is 'small' when it comes to being noticed.

Bullseye1

DBB wrote: »

I don't agree with you, because I rehome almost all purebreeds, and at an estimate I would say 90% of their owners, most of whom would be average dog owners, bought them from puppy farmers and didn't know it. Actually, not so much puppy farmers as Ireland's more insidious bybs. In some cases, the owners look back and think that maybe things weren't quite right... But still bought the pup anyway. Many more had no clue, but I know from the dog's papers, or from what the owner tells me, who they bought it off and under what circumstances.
I know quite a few breeders who are producing dozens of pups in a shed down the country, but are selling them from their lovely residences in leafy Dublin suburbs.
It is very easy to fool people, and the proof is in the fact that many people are fooled.
When you say about the 6 week old pup, do you mean you're just visiting the pup? Or bringing it home at that age?

Can nothing be done about these types of breeders?

DBB

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Can nothing be done about these types of breeders?

I'm afraid Bullseye, all I can say in response to that is "Harumph"!:P
There is new-ish legislation to supposedly control the puppy farmers: they have to have a licence, the price of which is proportionate to the number of breeding bitches they keep. Their premises are subject to welfare inspections by County Council inspectors and vets and various other controls are put in place. On paper anyway.
However, and here's the clincher which makes the legislation a joke, the legislation only applies to breeders who keep more than 6 bitches of breeding potential. Anyone who keeps fewer than 6 breeding bitches is not subject to ANY controls relating to breeding. And the thing is, I would say that the huge, huge majority of disreputable puppy producers in Ireland fall into this category.
There are also various loopholes used: there could be, say 15 breeding bitches in a premises. But 5 of them are in one name, 5 are in spouse's name, 5 are in son/daughter's name. So the legislation doesn't apply here either. This, of course, could be stretched to as many bitches as you want, as long as you have names to assign them to.
So, the only way these types can be stopped is by using the old, outdated welfare legislation which the ISPCA and AGS have been struggling to get prosecutions with for years. There have been prosecutions, but the scale of the problem is so huge that it seems an impossible task to get this problem under control. Meanwhile, the government tell us they're great altogether, they've introduced legislation to stop puppy farming, what are people like me gurning about?:rolleyes:

borderlinemeath

inocybe wrote: »

What's your point? I never used the word 'choosy', I said careful and a bit paranoid. There are extra requirements for the restricted breeds, and if you are asked for that letter and view it as a 'hoop' to jump through then you probably aren't ready for the responsibility.
Didn't realise it was the Spanish inquisition:(

Please read the opening post again. The OP had a staff for 10 years, I'm sure they're well aware of restricted breed legislation and owner responsibility but they didn't get the dog through a rescue so wouldn't be aware of any of the requirements that rescues stipulate to adopt a dog. The letter from the council was just one of the things mentioned and that was at the end of the post.

I really don't know what point you're trying to make, it's certainly not an inquisition, I stated breed doesn't matter because in the grand scheme of rescuing a dog, it really doesn't. All people who want to potentially adopt a dog should be responsible owners of ANY breed, restricted or otherwise.

Bid08

I have to say im all for rehoming dogs from the pound / rescue but I have to say SOME whom I have had experience with makes it extremely hard. I have 3 rescue dogs but none actually came from a pound / rescue centre as we were deemed 'not eligible' for ridiculous reasons. The second lad I got was after I was rejected by a rescue centre I got a call a few days later to say there was a woman who just called them to say that her dog had pups and she wanted the rescue centre to come and take them but the rescue centre had no space for them so I was told I could go down and take one of them if I wanted cos they were not in the rescue centre so they couldnt tell me no. when I went down the conditions the pups were in were appalling we ended up taking all pups and gettin good homes for them cos we didnt have the heart to leave them all there.

Even though I had bad experiences with trying to get a dog from the rescue centres I have to say I dont think I would ever buy a pure breed dog, I would always go for a rescue one

JustAThought

Ivd had a lot of dog stuff that I've tried to give away - brand new kennels, unopened Drontall treatments, big bags of dog food that I win & don't suite my dog so no point in giving it to her, toys she refused to play with, etc. I've contacted three big dog rescue/organisations ( NOT <snip>) & really no one ever bothered getting back to me , or offered any interest -the same organisation that aaSK for donations & gifts that will help.

Personally I don't understand it .j was happy to drive the stuff out to them but they just weren't interested.

I ended up giving up & driving the lot out to the lady who runs the dog place near Ballymun who was glad of the lot. I can't remember if she is <snip> or <snip> -amazing woman.

Still getting over the others tbh.

As per the forum charter, please do not name individual rescues on thread.
Thanks,
DBB

borderlinemeath

JustAThought wrote: »

Ivd had a lot of dog stuff that I've tried to give away - brand new kennels, unopened Drontall treatments, big bags of dog food that I win & don't suite my dog so no point in giving it to her, toys she refused to play with, etc. I've contacted three big dog rescue/organisations ( NOT <snip>) & really no one ever bothered getting back to me , or offered any interest -the same organisation that aaSK for donations & gifts that will help.

Personally I don't understand it .j was happy to drive the stuff out to them but they just weren't interested.

I ended up giving up & driving the lot out to the lady who runs the dog place near Ballymun who was glad of the lot. I can't remember if she is <snip>or <snip> -amazing woman.

Still getting over the others tbh.

I always prefer to give to the smaller/one man/woman show operations rather than the big official ones. My local rescue doesn't even have a premises for dog, but it has a small cattery that always needs food/towels/blankets, even newspapers. I also try to send back what I can to the rescue that Benson came from.

The only exception is when I know a rescue is sending dogs by the truckload to the UK, (one or two rescues spring to mind) as I don't like the habit they have of exporting our problems. It only dilutes the problem to a certain degree and also keeps the statistics at a level where the powers that be can still choose to ignore it as it's considered not important enough to warrant proper legislative change.

TooManyDogs

borderlinemeath wrote: »

The only exception is when I know a rescue is sending dogs by the truckload to the UK, (one or two rescues spring to mind) as I don't like the habit they have of exporting our problems. It only dilutes the problem to a certain degree and also keeps the statistics at a level where the powers that be can still choose to ignore it as it's considered not important enough to warrant proper legislative change.

This is a situation that I know creates a lot of debate. The rescue I volunteer for sends the occasional dog to the UK and some dogs go to Sweden, mainly they're the dogs that have been waiting months or in some cases years for a home here because they're simply not desirable to Irish people. Bull breeds and sighthounds are very difficult to home here but much easier to home in Sweden so you're left with the choice of keeping a dog in Ireland until eventually it's homed or maybe never homed so it's taking up a kennel space that could go to a new dog in need, or letting them go out of the country to a foreign rescue who can home them in a matter of weeks.

Again in some places in the UK it's really really difficult to adopt smaller dogs or puppies of any breed, and again the UK has the same difficulty homing the bull breeds and sighthounds and the people looking for pups or small breeds won't adopt bullies or sighthounds cos it's simply not the dog they're looking for. So you're left in the situation of there being homes for certain types of dogs in the UK, those dogs are unwanted here and there simply aren't the number of homes here for them all, so what do you do?

It's absolutely not ideal, and yes some rescues seem to send dogs to the UK in their droves without trying to get a home here but I guess it all comes down to each individual rescue trying to do their very best for Irish dogs. Sometimes that's by getting them homes as quickly as possible wherever the demand is, sometimes it's only taking in the dogs that they know will be adopted out fast so they can keep taking in new dogs, sometimes it's taking in the dogs no-one else wants - old, sick, behaviour problems etc and hanging on to them indefinitely if they prove unadoptable but it takes up valuable kennel space.

There's no one correct way to help the situation here, it's simply an unbalanced equation - number of unwanted dogs is far greater than number of homes available

borderlinemeath

TooManyDogs wrote: »

This is a situation that I know creates a lot of debate. The rescue I volunteer for sends the occasional dog to the UK and some dogs go to Sweden, mainly they're the dogs that have been waiting months or in some cases years for a home here because they're simply not desirable to Irish people. Bull breeds and sighthounds are very difficult to home here but much easier to home in Sweden so you're left with the choice of keeping a dog in Ireland until eventually it's homed or maybe never homed so it's taking up a kennel space that could go to a new dog in need, or letting them go out of the country to a foreign rescue who can home them in a matter of weeks.

The occasional dog to the UK doesn't annoy me at all. I know there's some dogs that simply have a better home in the UK, be it because of breed etc. Also Sweden has a far better animal welfare system to ours and the occasional sending of dogs to somewhere where they will be far better off and thrive is ok too.

It's absolutely not ideal, and yes some rescues seem to send dogs to the UK in their droves without trying to get a home here but I guess it all comes down to each individual rescue trying to do their very best for Irish dogs. Sometimes that's by getting them homes as quickly as possible wherever the demand is, sometimes it's only taking in the dogs that they know will be adopted out fast so they can keep taking in new dogs, sometimes it's taking in the dogs no-one else wants - old, sick, behaviour problems etc and hanging on to them indefinitely if they prove unadoptable but it takes up valuable kennel space.

It's the ones that send dogs in their droves, literally every week a van might head stuffed with Irelands unwanted dogs, pulled frantically from pounds all over the country, sent to one rescue in particular, maybe stay for a few days and then get shoved on the van to the UK. While it is probably saving the dogs life, it really is skewing the pound figures.

There's no one correct way to help the situation here, it's simply an unbalanced equation - number of unwanted dogs is far greater than number of homes available

Very true. But if the epidemic was fully transparent through actual statistics rather than skewed figures then it might warrant proper legislation that has a proper effect on the indiscriminate breeding and the attitude that some people have towards dumping/straying their dogs. To be flippant about it, the quote "you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" springs to mind. Although the thoughts of it are horrible.

crally

hi sorry to hear so many bad experiences in trying to rehome a dog. Contact a reputable rescue in your area and phone them to make contact arrange to call out to see the dogs and take it from there. Do not rely on email or phone messages. There is a pound in most areas, some put photos of the dogs in the pound on their council site and others do not.

If you want to pm me with where you are located I will give you detail on your nearest pound or rescue. There are good rescues and bad rescues and this will make all the difference with advise and finding you the perfect dog.

FawltyTowel

Can anyone pm me some shelters/pounds in the Louth area?