Now ye're talking - to someone who runs a dog rescue charity

Hello all! Thanks so much for your posts so far... some great questions and observations there!
I'll work my way through them bit by bit, hopefully I can help folks to understand the whole world of dog rescue in Ireland a bit better!
I will say, it's a relatively very small rescue I run compared to some of the big hitters, so I may not have my finger fully on the pulse these days compared to a number of years ago when I'd have been volunteering myself for other rescues as well as running this little one.
I don't involve myself much in any politics that can go on, life's too short!:o
Anyway, here goes!:D

Deleted User wrote: »

Freakily I suspect I might even know who this person is The dates line up anyway!

The time I got into rescue was a real heyday in terms of rescues being set up, in response to shamefully enormous numbers of healthy, unwanted dogs being euthanased in pounds. So there are quite a few of us that have been doing what we do since about the same time

As for a question - does Ireland take in many dogs into our Dog Rescues from other countries? I know from contacts I have in Germany and Spain that they are often taking in dogs from Eastern EU countries where there is less of a structure of support. Or do we tend to focus solely on dogs in our own country?

Anecdotally speaking, I have met a few rescue dogs in Ireland that came from Eastern Europe in recent years, having never come across it before. We seem to mirror what's going on the UK, albeit we often seem to be a few years behind them, but there is certainly a growing number of rescues in the UK dedicated to rescuing dogs from Eastern Europe and Asia.
On the flip side of that coin, Ireland sends a LOT of rescue dogs to the UK, and a smaller number to Scandinavia, particularly Sweden.

What do we do for dogs who have undergone some long lasting psychological trauma? Do we treat them in any way before finding them a home? Or do they go directly to a home? I know my father took in a rescue dog relatively young but even today she is terrified of _everyone_ except him. Whatever her trauma was as a puppy - she has basically never recovered from it. I always wondered what policy is there on such a dog. Can anything be done before homing them? Or do we just try to find the best fit home that will hopefully allow them to cope with those issues.

Good question! There does seem to be quite a wide disparity between different rescues in how they handle rehoming the more difficult or complex dogs. Personally, I feel that owning a dog should be a pleasure for the person who has adopted that dog, or at least, the good times should make the bad times worthwhile!
Different people have different expectations, abilities, circumstances, and commitment when it comes to what they want from a rescued dog, so there are people out there who can take on a more difficult dog that needs work, and there are others who just can't, for whatever reason.
In my opinion, it is wrong to saddle the latter type of person with a problem dog, or with a dog that doesn't tick a lot of their boxes. It affects the bonding process, it causes frustration and resentment, and most importantly of all, it seriously increases the likelihood of that dog being sent back to the rescue, which, for a sensitive, fearful, traumatised dog, is a bit of a nightmare to be honest. It also makes that person far less likely to explore the rescue route again.
So, to answer your question, matching the right dog to the right home is terribly important, as is providing support and back-up directly myself, or by pulling in favours from behaviourist contacts who'll go visit the adopter with their new dog to design a bespoke treatment program for them. But, as a general rule, I will get the more complicated dogs into experienced foster homes, both to get to grips with what's going on with the dog, and to start off the process of trying to repair that dog before he goes off to a carefully selected home, again giving direct support to the fosterer, or if necessary, getting professional help in. Fostering is fab, because it gives me fantastic information about what each dog is like to live with, what he's good at, what he's not, from an unbiased carer.

Rows Grower wrote: »

What are your average running costs per annum?

If you never received another donation how long could you keep doing what ye do?

Hmmm, interesting. Without wanting to go into too much detail, and bearing in mind this is a small rescue which rehomes 30-100 dogs per year, depending on how busy the year is, bills could run into 5 figures. We try to minimise kenneling fees by seeking foster homes, and we twist the arms of vets to get reduced medical care, including vaccination, neutering, microchipping etc. If we get a healthy, unneutered, unvaccinated, unchipped male dog in (castration is cheaper that spaying), and use a foster home, each dog will cost us a minimum of €110. Neither I nor our volunteers charge for their time nor fuel, which keeps the costs right down.

Edited to add: I forgot to answer your second question! At best, a few months is as long as we'd last.

pawrick wrote: »

Do you think animal rescues nationally could do more to work together / share expertise and or equipment where possible at a local level?

Economies of scale seems to be something missing when I look around my own area and see how many rescues overlap with each running different campaigns rather than pooling together.

Choc Chip wrote: »

I feel like dog charities are very disparate and have completely different policies and procedures. I'd love for them to work together but I don't know if that's feasible with so many different personalities involved. Do you think they could ever work together nationally?

Don't get me started
I referred earlier on to a "heyday" in rescue about 17ish years ago, when the national annual figure for euthanasia in healthy, unwanted dogs in Irish pounds was heading for 30,000, so there was a real sense of having to pull together to do something about it.

There was no social media, just one or two dedicated rescue forums where rescues could look for help from other rescues, or from volunteers, and there was genuinely a great sense of community and mutual support across the country. And it worked too... the euthanasia rate fell immediately, and has fallen every year since then, with a concurrent increase in rehoming rates.

But, between the advent of social media, and too many differences of opinion, and perhaps some egos getting out of control, that community pretty much fell apart. It's never been the same since really, although I'll always help out rescues that contact me for help, and I have a good group of contacts across the country that I can call on when I need to. I don't get involved in any silliness, as it's not about us, it's about the dogs.
There is a National Stray Dogs and Cats Forum organised by Veterinary Ireland every few years, where vets, rescues, and other dog related charities get together to discuss issues with unwanted dogs and cats, and what can be done. This is probably the closest we get to a cohesive gathering of rescues these days.

There have been attempts made over the years to at least have some sort of industry standards set, so that members of the public would know that if X rescue was signed up to a central Code of some sort, they'd know what they could expect from that rescue in terms of service, pre-adoption processes, costs, support. But again, the politics of such an idea has made it difficult.

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

What's the bigger challenge, finding enough good homes for dogs or finding enough funding to keep doing what you do?

Another good question that's got me thinking!
Having pondered on it a while, I've concluded that for us anyway, it's funding. Generally, you'll find a home for each dog eventually. Having the moolah to keep a dog in the longer term is always a worry though, and it takes a fair bit of ongoing effort to fundraise. There have been times when there'd be a glut of dogs coming into us all at the same time, all needing money spent on them at the same time... aaaaggghhhh!
This might be different for other rescues though, particularly those that specialise in harder-to-home types/breeds of dogs.

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

if i volunteered for a dog rescue charity what would i be doing?ive often thought of doing it but never got around to it.(do you take volunteers?)

Most rescue charities need volunteers to foster, or to drive dogs from A to B, or to do home visits. Larger rescues which utilise kennels will also appreciate people to walk and groom and goof around with their dogs for them. Indeed, some of the pounds will invite people in to walk the poundies... you've got to be fairly steely to do this though, as pounds often aren't nice places to be, and there's that emotional drag of knowing the dog you're walking faces an uncertain future in this setting in some pounds