To think that dog charities are so fussy about rehoming that they drive people to buy from breeders?

[FreshFreesias]

I volunteer and help fund a small very well-run dog charity. We are all volunteers, no one takes any remuneration and we are all united in our desire to help dogs in the direst of situations find a lovely home.

However I struggle with the strict rehoming policy. We are rescuing (healthy, attractive, assessed, socialised and rehomeable) dogs and puppies from the horrors of life in a concrete pen in a `shelter’ in 100 Fahrenheit from which they will never be released, even for a walk; or from a precarious life starving on the streets of in Greece or from life on a chain.

Given that these dogs have absolutely no hope where they are, a loving, sensible, experienced owner in the UK who may well live in a flat or in a big city can most probably give one of these dogs the fantastic opportunity of a new life.

But I’m constantly working with dare I say, dogmatic ladies who, while redoubtable and salt of the earth, have very restrictive ideas of where these hopeless hounds can be happy.

A recent conversation with the rehomer made my heart sink. She explained that while she didn’t rule out homes in London and cities, she didn’t think London was a good place for a dog and that a flat in London would automatically be ruled out. Ironic as I live in a London flat with 3 dogs who have the most wonderful life as I live in the middle of a Common! The most important thing is the right owner, who is determined to make it work.

While I agree that rehoming to someone who is working all day isn’t a good idea, if someone can take their dog to work with them, why not? Oh no’, she replied, what is the dog meant to do in the work place?’ Um, I should have replied, do whatever it will do when it’s at home… sleep, get petted by visitors, potter around or whatever.

This all came to a head when my sister in law recently applied for one of the rescues on the website. She is a really lovely woman who lives with my brother in a modest but comfortable terrace house in Bristol, with a nice garden and near parks. They are middle-aged, no kids, both work from home and have one old dog already for whom they seek a companion. I’m despondent to find out that she applied for a dog on the website but was told he already had a home. Fair enough. But soon after I find out that this home has fallen through and despite SIL having sent in her form and stated her keenness on this dog, has not been informed.

Consequently, this dog is being advertised again. I don’t think she has slipped through the net as the rehomer is supremely efficient but very fussy. (I haven’t let her know that this applicant is my SIL as I am interested in her being a `mystery shopper’ and giving me an insight from the other side, so to speak).

Because SIL lives in a city in a terraced house I have the feeling that she has been tacitly turned down as country homes are favoured. Of course it would be wonderful if all adopters lived in the greenbelt with acres of land but that is not the reality. Many of the best dog owners I know live in London and make good use of all the parks. Many people who live in the countryside have no access to `countryside’ and must drive for miles to access dog-walking fields, so country living is no panacea.

While I am in favour of home checks and dogs going to the right homes for them, do you feel that dog charities are over fussy? It breaks my heart when great homes are rejected and owners then go to breeders. The last thing the world needs are any more dogs when there are millions, even billions, living wretched lives, and yet kind-hearted, dogmatic rescuers are inadvertently making things even worse than they need be.

The other maddening thing is that dogs are often kennelled while homes are being found but due to all the turning good homes down, this can take months and this is a huge expense for the charity.
I’m so fed up I am pulling out of rescue and will stick to raising money for neutering programmes, which is even more vital anyway.

Yes!!! I wholeheartedly agree with you. This has caused much discussion in our house over the last few months. My DH and I recently made contact with a rehoming charity for a lovely older dog that sounded like he would be the perfect much loved addition to our family. In the end we decided it would be easier to sell a kidney on ebay than go through the absolutely ridiculous process. I appreciate there have to be pathways in place to protect the puppy, but this was mad. My police checks for my job were less stringent.
We are now looking on gumtree for a dog.

Fresh unfortunately we did give up on a rescue, got a puppy from a breeder, DC2 is now 12. A year after we got the first puppy, we took her litter mate who didn’t get a home. Unfortunately he had to be put to sleep 18 months ago, we recently got a new puppy after looking for about a year.

We tried to adopt but like many people have said the rules are ridiculous. We only had 1 day a week with no one home and I was prepared to pay for dog walking twice in the 6 hours but no from several charities. So we tried for a cat form the RSPCA turned down as we live in a main never mind that the way out a cat could go out was out the back and miles of farm land told us no cat would last a year there. We ended up going to Rhodes Minnis. they are lovely there and we walked out with two cats, one did not settle in our house she was used to old people and the speed and noise levels of elderly people. Rhodes took her back no quibbles and in chatting to my husband about her issue he was offered a kitten as a kitten would love the attention of our boys. And as the lady said the feed back they get from failed adoptions helps them find a more successful outcome the next time because the runs the cats are in don't really mimic real home life.
We are going to buy a dog next year and our cats are still alive and well a year plus on.

I foster for Celia Hammond Animal Trust and so I know that they routinely let people with children adopt suitable cats and kittens. All their cats are clearly classified on the website as “cannot live with children/can live with older children/can live with gentle children/can live with children”. I don’t think they’re fussy about people who work full time either though they’d prefer you to adopt a pair of siblings rather than an lone cat.
www.celiahammond.org/canning-town/

We adopted our cat from the local authority shelter for free. They were desperate for someone to take him as he had been there for months and the staff didn’t have time to do home checks. They said they could tell by our questions and manner though that we loved cats. DD was 5 and lots of places wouldn’t have given us one.
He had a hard life before us and I like to think he has the best life he can have now.

We're waiting for a puppy from a breeder now! We were turned down for a year old rescue dog because our granddaughter - 5 years - comes after school 1 or 2 days a week. I'm retired, would / will take puppy to dog training classes. I have had 2 labs - both rehomed dogs and 2 standard schnauzers from puppies. Vet very happy with all aspects of care of our dogs who had health problems.

YANBU OP. Cat rescues aren't much better. I lost a cat to illness/old age. When I contacted the local CPL, they refused to rehome a cat with me (and I'm not fussy, I'd have taken anything) because I lived in an area of town deemed too busy and too near a road - because no cats (including my 17yo cat that died of leukaemia) can live safely in a town.

A few months later, I moved to a village outside the town and contacted them again, ready and willing to rehome at least one, preferably two cats. Again, I didn't care what colour, age, health status etc, I just wanted a muggy in my life again. 'Great!' they said, 'lovely village, just as long as you don't live on the corner of xxxx rd'. Guess where I lived . I emailed back with 3 words - I GIVE UP.
Devastated, I rang my mum to cry about it. She lived about 2 hours away at the time. The next day, she called me to say she'd secured two young litter brothers for me in conjunction with a rescue where she lived. And we all lived happily ever after. One is still alive now (13yo), one died of cancer a few months ago. They were dog savvy...

Really wanted to rescue a dog. Perfect circumstances - SAHM, secure garden, village location, on hand doggie care (my dm, has two dogs herself) for any occasions where I couldn't take a dog with me (holiday's, emergencies etc). Plenty of dog experience. But no, because I have a young child (ds,3), I wasn't a suitable home.

I do understand that they want to ensure the next home is the forever home, but come on!!!!

So I will wait, as I refuse to line a breeder's pocket or buy some idiot hobby/backyard breeder's mistake from Gumtree or similar. But still

Then why can those with all the no no's for adoption be allowed dogs as 'family ' friends there

This is depressing.
So you need to be a rich unemployed single and childless person living in the middle of nowhere in the countryside to be able to adopt a dog or a cat...
And they wonder why people go to breeders? This is insane.

My local rescue place (and many others) won't let you rescue if you don't own your own home.

Fair enough if you've been in several houses over the past few years, but I've lived in my rented house for 25 YEARS and owned a series of dogs in that time. But no, I don't own, so I can't rescue!

I've already posted on this once but it annoys me so much. Like I said we lived on a farm and the dog would have gone to work out and about with my husband every day but...no 6 foot fence. Part of me wondered if they thought we were too young and our circumstances would change? Well, they did and our (bought) dog has spent most of his life roaming Brecon with my husband.

Whereas my grandmother - who is frankly a well-meaning but terrible dog owner (makes them all neurotic, two 20 minute walks around the same route every day) can have anything because she lives alone, with no children and a six foot fence.

It's ridiculous.

Not dogs but I was rejected to adopt rabbits! I can't even remember why. I went to another animal adoption organisation with less strict criteria and adopted 2 lovely bunnies who desperately needed a home. They had a wonderful life with me and lived to a ripe old age in bunny luxury.
Some rescue centres do seem to loose sight of what is actually best for the animals.
We now have a rescue cat from Battersea. I found them very sensible and helpful in respect of the adoption process.

We registered with several rehoming charities. We'd had dogs as kids ie family pets but not as adults. We wanted one for years but both of us were working but my husband took early retirement so we went for it. We're in a flat, but ground floor and with garden access and close to 2 parks. On paper we were perfect, no kids or anything but got knock back after knock back. ' Not enough experience, needs to be in the country, too many behavioural problems'.

We got one from a breeder in the end.

Hopefully with so many recommendations for pragmatic rescues in this thread, those that have been turned down will have another go and not end up lining a breeders pockets.

Whoever mentioned about "a little bit of power" was spot on. I volunteered for a local rescue a few years ago, and my goodness but the power trip the head honcho was on! Not in the best interests of the charity at all.

I agree - but have had the cat rather than the dog experience of this.

We wanted to rehome two kittens but were rejected as out of the home for too long every day.

I did then start looking at non rehomed cats, but luckily someone on Gumtree wanted to rehome her six year old cat. And here she is .

We should start a thread on rescues who take into consideration normal family life and let those families adopt them! It would be a great resource.

Did your sil ring the rescue once she saw the original home had fallen through? A simple reminder "hello remember me, I applied for pooch but missed out, I'm still interested"?

I foster for a small rescue Helping Yorkshire Poundies and the people that run it are rushed off their feet, picking dogs up from the pound, taking them for vet checks, to their kennels or foster homes, vet trips, raising funds for vet bills 4k this week alone (that I know of) cleaning, feeding and walking the dogs in kennels etc etc.

Time is short for ringing people and I cant imagine them thinking 'oh FreshFreesias sil applied for a dog 3 weeks ago I'll give her a ring' where as if she rung them 'hello I'm FF's sil I applied for pooch but he was rehomed and now I see he's back I'm still interested' ding ding 'oh yes fabulous would you like to meet him' I can't help but think your sil did herself no favours and as soon as she heard he was back she should have rang, dogs if they are particularly cute and shaggy often have people queuing up for them.

Hyps have no blanket rules, they rehome according to the dogs needs, working, flats and children are not automatic no's, in some cases it can be beneficial, what better for a known escapee than to go live in a flat, one dog I fostered last year had to go with children, they were his life and he did :-)

HYPs takes everyone on their own merit, if you're on here thinking I cant get a dog because ...
Try a smaller rescue like Hyps, Hyps rehome nationwide but there are small rescues nationwide too .. you might get a knock back but you'll never know until you try and you might be pleasantly surprised.

My mother was told by a staffie rescue charity that her home was unsuitable for dogs because her garden fence wasn't tall enough. I don't remember the exact issues but part of her frog garden has a fence that is only 5ft tall, and the rest is 6ft. My parents live in the middle of nowhere and have no neighbours, and the road by which you find access to their property is a private unmade road which you can't feasibly drive down at more than 10mph without destroying your car. So I'm not sure there was much potential danger, even if the dog did jump the fence, which is pretty unlikely anyway at 5ft. Her current dog has never managed to do this in the 8 years that they've had her.

She was devasted as she absolutely adores dogs, and particularly wanted a staffie because she knows they can be the most difficult to rehome and has experience with difficult dogs, so was specifically looking at the ones who had been labelled as difficult or not suitable for children. In the end she found a staffie via the preloved website. This dog has her own bedroom complete with baskets of dogs toys and a human bed to sleep on (no, I'm not joking) she is well fed on expensive organic food, she is walked every morning and evening and is never left alone as both of my parents are retired. They only holiday in country cottages that allow dogs so that she can go with them. I really can't imagine a dog having a better life than this. It's sad that there are still staffies sitting in little kennels in that charity's shelter, labelled unsuitable for children and not much chance of being rehomed, when my mother could have given one or even two of them a wonderful new life.

Yep!
Weren't allowed to adopt a puppy/dog as i have children. Went to a highly rated breeder and got our pup-who much prefers children to adults anyway

Yes I agree with PP. There is always at least one human at home in my house, we have a (small) garden and live beside a park and I am a very experienced owner of many different types of animals (grew up on a smallholding).

So much faff around rehoming from charities that my dogs are a mixture of bought from breeders and rehomed from elderly neighbours who could no longe cope (it is not quite as much a menagerie as it sounds!).

They have a great life and are very much loved by all of us. I make sure they are looked after very well, trained, fed good quality food, dieted if they need it (looking at you DDog who was a wild, untrained chubby ball when I got him), groomed and vaccinated and taken to the countryside for long walks in the woods at least twice a week. They are possibly better looked after than the humans, but I would not be acceptable as an owner because I work. albeit flexibly and from home some of that time.

Sadly I agree. Many years ago I had a beautiful rescue female Rottie. Following her first vaccinations, as an adult not a pup, she had a severe reaction and had a seizure. The vet put it down to a bad batch and we adopted her. A year later she went for her booster, exact same reaction. We almost lost her she was so ill. The vet recommended we don’t vaccinate as the risk of the vaccine reaction happening each time was too high and we may not be so lucky next time.

A few years later I saw another Rottie in rescue, he’d been there for a year waiting for a home as was elderly and timid. We applied to adopt him.

We were turned down because our existing dog was not vaccinated. It mattered not that we had vet evidence as to why, that our vet offered to write a statement, that the dog we were adopting was vaccinated. It was a blanket no.

Absolutely ridiculous and left that poor dog sat in kennels. I often think about him and hope he found a home. We ended up taking on a private rehome due to this.

Having been "enlightened" by MN, I thought we would try & get a rescue cat. Good grief! The effort to try and do a good deed. Are all of these cats & kittens really so happy in their cages in rescues that they wouldn't want to try living in our house with a good size garden off a quiet road backing onto woods? It seems they must be. The DC, being 9 & 7, are clearly too young to have a cat or kitten; the animal is obviously going to get run over immediately even though I explained that some of our neighbours have the stupidest cat ever who likes to sleep in the middle of the road so we all drive carefully in case he's there. By mentioning this cat, I have then been told that there shouldn't be any established cats in the area.
As I am on the books of many of these rescues in case something suitable miraculously arrives, they have my details so can regularly sent me pleas for funds. I don't want to donate. I just want a cat!

Yanbu. We had no success with any of the bigger charities as they were strictly no children. My friend put me in touch with a local charity and I had my boy about a week later. I applied for another dog, but this charity fosters them with families for a while and his family decided to adopt him. They rang me on the wednesday telling me about my baby (can you tell I love this daft dog) and I picked him up on the saturday. They came and did a home check on the thursday as I wanted to get him asap. They were very eager for us to have him, as my family has a lot of experience with his breed and although he was 1 he had never been walked, trained or socialized. The only thing he could do was go to the toilet outside. He loves our kids, and anyone who comes in the house. Still not keen on other dogs as he just has no manners and did a lot of fighting in his foster home so thinks that's how to react. Seeing a behaviourist currently. Sorry gone on a mad tangent about my dog there, haha! But if anyone is in the Midlands area, and wants to adopt a dog or cat I highly recommend Harleys Animal Rescue. They're amazing.

No, no, no. You are all doing this wrong. According to MN, you need to do the following:
Go to dog shows to pick a breed. Talk to the officially sanctioned breeders .
Then call the breeders to get on their list for a puppy when they have one available.
Take into account that the closest breeder to you may have rules against children, first time dog owners, etc. You may end up with one at the other end of the country.
Wait anywhere from 6 months to 3 years for a puppy to become available. You may have lots of extra room in your house because your oldest child has left for uni by then.
See--easy peasy