We have a lovely 9 yr old dog, DH and I have both had dogs all our lives and very experienced with animals. We want to get another dog so started looking at rescues. We offer a wonderful family home, where dog is walked twice a day and have a small farm and woodland which we visited every day with our dog. So far, before even meeting us, I have been declined by four rescue charities, because of the following reasons 1) we have children under 14, 2) we don't have a 5 ft fence going round our garden, 3) we don't have a 6ft fence going round our garden, 4) we don't have someone at home all the time (though we've never out for more than 4 hours anyway because of our current dog, and if we on the rare occasion are MiL pops over!!). Our garden is very secure with a big hedge and stream and then backs on to farmland, we re not on a road (at end of a track), have a big garden, have our own small farm where we take the dog every day as well, and MiL pops in whenever we are out. Not one of these charities have met us, we just didn't fulfil the checklist. It's frustrating. We rescued our current dog when she was a puppy, and would offer a wonderful home to a second dog. I completely get the need to have criteria, please don't think I'm disputing that, but I feel it is so tight that they turn away potentially good people because they didn't tick a box, rather than having any flexibility. I wonder if we keep looking at rescue charities or instead get a puppy instead.