Dog Recue Centre Manager - AMA

[FuglyLurker]

I’m a manager of a not for profit dog rescue organisation, any questions?

The state that greyhounds and breeding bitches come in to us is horrifying, I won’t go in to it here but it’s enough to keep you awake for days. The thing that really chaps my ass too is that it can be the same people over and over and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it other than take the dogs for a better life.

Can they not be done for animal cruelty?

Have you ever reported an owner to get them prosecuted or would that defeat the whole purpose of getting people to bring dogs to you instead of abandoning them?

That is so sad that people get rid of their old dogs before Christmas to make room for a shiny new puppy

I'm still stuck on the old dogs before Xmas. My spanner is with us until the bitter end.

I honestly don't think my children would cope with rehoming him their hearts would break. But I guess I've taught my children empathy and loyalty somehow.

Some friends of mine have always had rescues and always older dogs - they had a spaniel cross I was so in love with we got one.

This thread makes me want to take a rescue but I'm not sure snowdog would like sharing us and I don't think I can handle another dog as a lone parent. Sigh. I really want a lurched though.

Op can you tell us some success stories?

Do you think rescue should be a state regulated thing? What sort of things would you implement?

I have recently walked away from rescue permanently. I primarily did smaller, independent rescues that i felt i could trust - you probably are all too aware of how easy it is for idiots with a spare room to start a 'rescue' - but now even that is getting hard because so many people have an agenda. My last failed foster was a 9 year old staff with a liver cyst who had been over bred then dumped, she was due to be PTS twenty minutes before the rescue saved her. She was a heart breaker! Losing her ended my foster days so i did transport/HC/fundraising...then found out that one rescue i helped had shut it's doors & abandoned its dogs, & another the owner swapped a 'rescue' - read 'bred in rescue so classed as a rescue - EBT pup for her wedding dress 😡

I like that your centre takes each dog on merit. I fostered for 5 years, every home successful bar my 2 failures...but with many big rescue centres i'd fail as a fosterer simply because of where i live & my child's age. Tides are turning hopefully!

Our charity doesn’t have any police powers and to be honest unless it’s an unusual case that will stir the media other organisations don’t do much about it. They have their own cases to deal with and one more used up breeding bitch won’t attract their attention. Unfortunately a lot of what these people are doing is completely legal too, even though the dogs end up a mess by the end of it.

We do try to work with repeat ‘offenders’ as then we know that I’d the problem arises again the dogs will come to us.

Yes it’s horrendous to see a sad old doggo walking down the corridor towards you and the assholes who abandoned him didn’t even leave him with his name. I hate having to rename a 15/16 year old dog, Jesus they have nothing left

@FuglyLurker makes me think animal care should be taught in schools.
Dd1 has cats protection presentation st brownies which she learned a lot from but really they were preaching to the converted

@FuglyLurker and thank you for whet you do x

The oldies break my heart. For someone to dump a dog that has been devoted to them its entire life makes me sick. Give me an oldie any day, you can keep your cute puppies!

fugly your last paragraph put tears in my eyes.

Animals deserve so much more protection by law than they have. Where my dog came from, the house was a TIP, I mean, clutter like you'd seen on a programme about hoarders, dog faeces everywhere (bathroom floor, bedroom floor, stairs)... It STANK. The breeder had three adult dogs (two Alsatian size, one much larger) and I learned from people who knew them that they never were walked at all and hadn't been in years.
mustbemad sorry I don't understand the post about the staffy? Why was she a 'failed' , do you mean in general or you couldn't foster her?

OP I totally understand your saying you become hardened to things. I guess it has to be that way or you'd end up rocking to yourself in a corner (I have too)! Are there any dogs whose experiences or personalities stick in your mind particularly?

A failed foster dog is one someone’s supposed to foster until a new owner is found... but they fail at the foster part and keep them for themselves instead.

Ha! Well i should have guessed that, seeing as I've got a 'failed' at my feet right now :)

(Disclaimer I am very tired today).

Lurchers are amazing dogs, they make wonderful companions and yet are treated so badly. I know a lot of people worry with older rescue dogs that they won’t be able to bond with them or the dogs won’t love them as they haven’t had them since puppies but it’s the complete opposite. We encourage owners to bring dogs back to see us if they want to and the difference is incredible. Dogs who left us scared and confused are transformed into happy, confident mischievous little puppers who hardly take their eyes off their family.

One of our successes that will always stay with me was this old little mongrel, the family had already replaced him with a younger dog of the same breed and he was now spending 6 hours a day in their vans footwell. Anyway I collected this dog and just stared at him heartbroken thinking no one is going to want him and he’s going to be with us for life. He was an ugly little thing, matted, obese, had a terrible heart murmur, old, his face was crusted over through neglect and I just felt defeated.

Not a week later a young couple was looking for a new family member and they by passed all of our dogs until they came to this bedraggled boy (we had groomed him obviously), the woman turned to me and said he’s the one. They took this boy who had nothing going for him and gave him the most wonderful life, I received photos of him on holidays, travelling, going to festivals and just living it up in his old age... he looked 10 years younger. That restored my faith in people by a lot.

Mustbemad that’s a great question and I’ll have a think about it and get back to you. There are many awful ‘rescues’ out there, and we have had to deal with a lot of them. It’s infuriating to see dogs that should have found a place of safety once again facing uncertainty and whatever ordeal these rescues put them through.

Yes I know a lot of rescues won’t allow fosterers with children under 5/7 etc. We don’t have that policy, the only dogs that we don’t allow with children are pound dogs with no back history, although all dogs have to be thoroughly assessed first before placing them with children.

It is shocking the lack of education around animal welfare, I wish schools would make it part of the syllabus.

Thank you queen, although none of what we do would be possible without our volunteers

Haha Rantymare yes i had 2 failures...was me who failed not them! One was a rommie dog whose adopter couldn't be bothered so locked him in a room. He stayed with me purely because nobody else would take him...he came back to me very broken. Trashed my flat, tried to escape out my skylight window, had very bad SA...he settled reasonably well with us & his issues lessened but he was very broken. My staffy was meant to be short term emergency foster & i nabbed her 5 days in 🙈 she only lived 6 months with us sadly but she was a diamond dog. My best friend.

I like folk who pick the 'broken' dogs. Everyone wants cute youngsters...the golden oldies with missing teeth are the best in my eyes!

I'm doing a degree at the moment in Canine Behaviour and Training. I volunteer too.

My question is, what makes the difference between an okay applicant and a great applicant when recruiting staff please?

For dogs that are hard to rehome for so many varying reasons; do you think it is better for that dog to live for many months / years / indefinitely in a kennel environment than it is for it to be euthanised?

Not a question but I'd rather the greyhounds and ex breeding bitches came to rescues because the alternative is well barbaric and it does happen.

@Wolfray for me not to be frightened of the dogs and I kid you not some are of the larger breeds.

Haint your question is one i'm always intrigued to hear the answer to. We have a 'rescue' here who believe alive is the end goal...they don't really focus on the conditions the dogs are kept in, or the mental well-being of the dogs (okay they don't care about the physical well-being either!). For me quality of life is key. I find justification for anything else questionable

Hi OP I'd like to know a bit more about fostering. How much of a dog expert and skilled trainer do you need to be? I'm neither! I do have a wee rescue doggie who we got at 7 months old and it was a bit of a learning curve, even though she is a lovely dog she did get up to all sorts of mischief, but she has now settled down into quite a well behaved dog. I don't think we could cope with a difficult dog though.
So what is fostering like and can a normal family who are not experts do it?

Also very interested in Haint's question - I regularly see owners with rescue dogs who frankly seem to be leading a miserable existence for both dog and owner, and for whom walking can not be the pleasure it should be for both.

I can't help wondering whether sometimes it might have been more sensible to let a dog go. That said, I feel dreadful for any rescue worker who has to make those decisions for physically healthy dogs - it shouldn't be needed, dogs should not be so disposable.

Whitney, no I have never had an overseas rescue offer any aid to us, quite the opposite in fact, we are stigmatised because we prioritise the dogs of the UK.

Sorry OP, I clearly worded that badly.

What I meant is do you see many owners of overseas rescues relinquishing them in to UK rescues, because they are not always the easiest of dogs. Although I would hope the overseas rescues are working from kindness, they often offer minimal support and new UK owners are often ill-prepared for the issues of street dogs.

Experience plays a massive part with us, if you can write on your application that you have been hands on with animals in different capacities you will have an advantage. The more you deal with animals in various ways the more attractive you would become to our rescue.. like I said that’s how I got where I am. Keep going, don’t stop at one role, I threw myself into it and did everything that I could as a volunteer. Your degree will put you in great stead.

Haint, this is of course a very sensitive side of rescuing, and honestly we are not a ‘No Kill’ centre. I do not agree with forcing a dog to live out their lives in what is solitary confinement. However we do not under any circumstances euthanise a dog because they have ‘run out of time’. If we find that a dog has been with us for a length of time and we do not think they are going to be rehomed with us then we will coordinate with another rescue to try them in a different part of the country. A dog who has failed to be rehomed with us could find their new owners within days elsewhere.

The only time a dog is euthanised with us is when a vet (and a second opinion) has stated that medical intervention will be against the dogs best interest.. no matter the cost of treatment. Or when a dog is a danger to the public, confirmed by a behaviourist (again with a 2nd opinion) and we can not rehome them.. some rescues then keep these dogs in kennels for life, I do not agree with it.

Milfromhades you don’t need to have any experience to begin dog fostering! And it seems that you already have with your little rescue. You certainly don’t need to be an expert in training and dog behaviour.

Most of the time a normal family is exactly what these dogs need, there are of course difficult dogs with all sorts of issues however as a new fosterer a good rescue centre will give you relatively ‘easy’ dogs to begin with. Then as you get more experienced you will feel confident in dealing with the more difficult scenarios and suddenly there’s a Husky giving birth on your sofa.

Do some research on rescues around you and give one a call, fosterers are golden to us.

Whitney, we currently have one dog with us that was adopted from abroad and was then relinquished to us because of how terrified of everything he is. He has been with us a while now and it is extremely slow progress, I despair we will ever get him happy. Street dogs are a whole different ball game.

Just wanted to say how much i admire you. We have a rescue. Had to be carried into the room to meet us as so scared of people. Gets admired every day now. So loyal and obedient. When walking her looks back at us. So happy and loving with a big grin on her face. Recently stared down a druggie who had designs on my bag. All 11kgof her.. The ball is for her. The first time we threw a ball she had no idea what to do.

We adopted a poor traumatised Romainian street dog (we didn't import him, someone else did and then promptly abandoned him). We adopted him because none of the big charities would rehome to us because we were a young couple planning children in a few years.

I've never seen such a transformation in an animal. He was literally feral, and extremely anxious! But with lots of patience, love, good food and training he is the most loyal wonderful well behaved dog I've ever met. It's so so worth the effort. Plus he is actually completely fine with our 11 month old. The pair of them require a bit of juggling at times but I would so recommend a rescue to someone who wants children. Don't be put off - just train them before the baby arrives!!

So my question is what are your rules for potential adopters? And do you get gut feelings about people when you rehome?