Should everyone be forced to show they aren’t able to rescue a dog before they can buy a puppy?

Some reacues are prohibitively restrictive when trying to adopt-I had one rescue refuse to even home check (30mins away!). This is the crux of the issue, in some cases at least. There needs to be a lean towards positive risk taking-any dog, whether rescued from a shelter or bought as a puppy, carries some degree of risk.

We did find a very sensible, long established, breed specific rescue and adopted, ours is 7 and was sadly over used for breeding. She is the most gentle, sweetest dog you could meet. We didn't know much of her history but she was physically in bad shape and didnt know what a treat was and frightened of everything when she first arrived. I would 100% rescue from this particular rescue again. Watching her blossom has been one of the most rewarding things ever.

I don't think you could enforce rescue first though. And as unpopular an opinion as this is, part of the problem does lie with some rescues, who sometimes seem to not want to rehome dogs. And pop up rescues are not making the situation easier.

What if the owner and the rescue can't agree whether the owner is suitable? Most people could probably find a rescue dog that the centre says they are suitable for. But does the potential owner's opinion count for nothing?

If I say I'm not compatible with the dog they say I am, do I just never get to have a dog?

Potentially, I can see how "if there is a dog available that meets all your criteria, you should be obliged to adopt it rather than buying from a breeder" could be a reasonable stance. But given that one of the criteria often is "a puppy or very young dog with no history of trauma", in reality almost no shelter can provide that. And it would be completely impossible to implement.

There is truth in this, although the rescue we dealt with did allow us to have dogs with young dc and working full time as long as had plan for dog not being alone all day. It’s a greyhound rescue.

Also I do have some sympathy for the retired dog ladies because dogs ‘bounce’ back all the time unfortunately and they are the ones who have to deal with that.

We had an idea of the breeds involved and looked at traits, needs and potential pitfalls. DNA shows all the breeds mentioned at rescue. What I mean by picky, is if you want pure breed rough collie for example, you will be waiting a while, collie cross, more likely.
I have absolutely no regrets. We have had, over 35 years, 4 wonderful dogs, 3 'crosses', 1 pure breed.

Sorry, but working FT and leaving the dog alone all day bar 20 minutes at lunch is a damn good reason for not relinquishing you a dog. Likewise shoving your dog into day care all week. A good breeder wouldn’t have sold to you either under those circumstances.

If you’re going to away from the house 70% of the week, leaving your dog in the care of someone else or alone, then you shouldn’t have a dog.

Nobody is going to want to pay for these people doing the assessments or any kind of enforcement. It would be better if people had to get their dogs spayed or neutered unless a very strict license for breeding, but again it’s enforcement that’s the issue.

This is a lot of the issue IME. I have two rescue cats, both strays. Both rehomed privately because rescues won’t consider us with young kids. They’re both quite capable of fleeing the room if the kids annoy them and many people grow up with kids no bother.

When I lost my rescue dog I was declined by all other rescues because I worked FT. The fact my office was a 5 min walk and I had always left at lunch and took the dog out for 20 minutes across the park opposite was of no interest to them. I also used a dog walker or doggy day care so the dog was kept occupied and in company. I walked my dog 3x a day usually!

They’re not objective and are often ran by retired women who have an unrealistic view of what life looks like for many people and only want to rehome to people who live like they do. Which would be fine but supply outweighs demand so the consequence is dogs sat in kennels.

People should be picky about breed though that’s the point!

If someone has the lifestyle and experience for a shit tzu then really that’s what they should get. Giving them random puppy with no idea of what it will turn out to be usually ends in disaster.

Puppies aren’t blank slates. Genetically a large amount of what it will be is programmed before you collect it at 8w. It’s no good giving an inexperienced time poor family something like a collie cross because it’s a puppy yet people think this is the answer.

You can get puppies from rescues, you can't be picky about breed and have to be open-minded and bide your time.

We have had only puppies from rescues over the years. Our present dog was a rescue pup aged 9 weeks. The dog before was 12 weeks. He passed away at the age of 13. Brilliant dog!
Our current one turned out to be mongrel, not a cross, but the mix made sense after conversation with the shelter. We wouldn't change a thing, she is gorgeous, loyal, intelligent and funny.

You can't force something (an adult rescue dog dog) onto someone, who doesn't want it.

No. I had a rescue dog and while he was lovely, he had serious behavioural problems. I couldn’t walk him and he just ran around destroying the back yard barking constantly. I wanted to report myself to the council. Once he got old we had a few great years together. I don’t think I would ever get another rescue dog.

The reason there are so many dogs in rescues is not because people buy puppies. This is placing the 'guilt' in the wrong place.

It's because too many people take on a dog they don't have the time, space, money or knowledge for. If you irradiate that, there would be far less dogs needing new homes - just those whose previous homes genuinely had a change if circumstances beyond their control that left them unable to look after and dog and lacking in alternative options.

I know it's not the same but I wanted a cat. Tried so many different rescues. I gave up. Makes me laugh oh were overrun blah blah. No you can't have a cat tho because there's a train line. Or no your 3 bed split level flat is too small. Blah blah. So no I think ppl do what they need to do

Ooh, can you share the name of the rescue as so many won’t rehome with young children and other pets - so people might find that really useful - we have a dog from a lovely breeder now as we could not get what we needed from a rescue

I wish some of the people saying how hard rescues are to adopt from could see the applications I’ve had (bearing in mind I dealt with GSD, not a breed for the inexperienced) I bet those people have gone on to say they couldn’t get a rescue dog.

You only have to look at Facebook rehoming adverts to see it. During the XL ban the around of people taking random large bull breeds into their homes with other pets or children made me feel sick. No wonder there's so many dog problems at the moment.

We're a rescue animal only household, but despite a DH who WFH with an animal behaviour degree, a house with a large secured garden and (at the time we wanted to rescue) no DC we couldn't rescue from any UK based shelters, and believe me, we tried. The reason? We had visiting small children and an elderly cat.

We did eventually manage to adopt a lovely dog from Cyprus but she's come with her own issues and we didn't get to meet her before we collected her so had to take a bit of a leap of faith.

I am obviously very pro rescue, but I'm not in charge of what everyone else does and I've got first hand experience of how difficult it actually is to adopt from a rescue centre.

Have you had a look at the vulnerable native breed list and then had a look to see how many of those breeds are in rescue?

If rescue were the only option those breeds would die out.

Besides, rescuing is mopping up after bad breeders rather than supporting good ethical breeders.

It should be mandatory to research the breed/breeder you're going to buy

I think we should bring back dog licences but they should be more expensive and priced according to the breed and whether they are 'done'.

A rescue dog could be given a lower category or a discount.

Working dogs could also get a different category.

So a rescue lab that is neutered might have a licence charge of £50 a year. A lab that is a trained guide dog might be £0 a year and a show lab puppy that is going to used to breed would be £200 a year.

Numbers picked at almost random.

DS is a grown man.

Hell would freeze over before I gave my money to a greeder. There's hardly a shortage of dogs

No, I don't really think so.

Aside from other reasons people have mentioned, another thing is that not all dogs are meant to be mainly pets. There are lots of people who want a working dog and so look for particular breeds and need to train them up.

More specifically, I don't have any particular love for breeders. We always have several dogs, we've had rescue staffies, dogs born to some local pet owner due to an escape, dogs that sort of just arrived, dogs from breeders that we sought out. They've always been good dogs and none really better than the others, except in terms of health - the purebred labs seem to have simply had health issues after health issue, even coming from differernt breeders, so we don't get those any more.

Anyway, all this is to say while I have no particular problem with the types or personality of dogs from rescues, but we'd never be approved for one these days. And I guess I just don't think people have an obligation around this.

I do think many people are altogether too ready to give up on a dog that causes problems.

The rules the shelters put in place are often bizarre and so counterproductive. I think a lot of people who go in for rescues work have issues. Some are borderline animal hoarders, and a lot just don't have a sense of proportion. Demanding that people not work outside the home is nuts!

Most rescues are hard work, ridiculous restrictions. Such as one adult must not work nor be committed to volunteering/elderly care etc & no children under 15. How many people do you know that fit into that category.

poeople who have always had dogs, but no because they have primary age children.

then complain shelters are full.

Rescue animals should come with a warning.

I've had rescues and they were nightmares, with various health issues or behavioural problems.

Never again! I felt cheated.

I didn't want to take on a dog with potential
Problems from someone else poor training and raising. I also didn't want an unknown history dog around my children.
It's also very restrictive trying to rescue if you have small children.
It's not for everyone. Other peoples poor decisions aren't my responsibility to rehome.

Some dogs are better being PTS (which they know nothing about) than being forced on people without the patience or skills to take on a rescue dog.