To think buying a puppy is far more sensible for most people than rehoming a dog

[rainyoutside]

I’m a big advocate of animal welfare but AIBU to be concerned at posters who relentlessly push people considering having a dog towards rescue?

For one thing I don’t even know any rescue centres who will rehome to families with young children. But mn insist that they do.

Greyhounds are often pushed on here as an ideal first dog. They are absolutely huge. We would need a new car if we adopted a greyhound. Then it’s insisted they don’t have a strong prey drive. Er - they were bred for hare coursing. I’m sure there are some exceptions, just like there are some Labs who hate water and some stupid border collies, but it’s in the breed descriptor.

Looking on the dogs trust website, out of hundreds of dogs available for rehoming there are nine who can live with primary aged children. Add cats to that filter and there’s none. Zero.

It’s bloody heartbreaking. A MNetter linked someone yesterday to what she enthusiastically described as a brilliant rescue centre in my area so I had a look out of interest. Every single dog was reactive and had a history of biting. I can’t believe she suggested it to a woman with a 7 year old.

Rescue is one of a number of options when it comes to dog ownership and AIBU to think it’s daft and irresponsible to make people feel bad about not rescuing when there just aren’t suitable dogs available?

Lots of dogs are in rescue centres in the first place because well intentioned people have taken in puppies, but then didn't have the skills, knowledge, time or work ethic/determination required to train them properly.
And if you adopt them, the damage is done. You’ll end up with a miserable, non trained, non socialised and often aggressive dog with tons of bad behaviours. Great if you need a purpose in life, not so great if you want a companion.

@ohnothisagain

Lots of dogs are in rescue centres in the first place because well intentioned people have taken in puppies, but then didn't have the skills, knowledge, time or work ethic/determination required to train them properly. And if you adopt them, the damage is done. You’ll end up with a miserable, non trained, non socialised and often aggressive dog with tons of bad behaviours. Great if you need a purpose in life, not so great if you want a companion.

I disagree. Both of our dogs are adoptees. The first spent his puppyhood locked in a shed and has permanent eye sight issues as a result. The second was carried around in a bag and not allowed to socialise. Both had profound problems but we've managed to turn them around in to very loving, well-behaved and happy dogs.

Yanbu we gave up on the rescue center route and we only had old teenagers (15+) ended up with a 4 month old puppy who was intended as a stud dog but he had not become tricoloured enough. We got him on condition we would get him neutered. Our win today is his 1 tear gotcha day and he has enriched our lives

Year not tear

I think rescue dogs can be a really good choice for a lot of people , but you need to be honest about what you are willing to deal with and what effort you are able to commit to training it to be the dog you want it to be.
So for instance, I could cope with a dog that wasn't house trained, that might chew, that had poor recall or pulled like a frieght train on its lead, jumped up , counter surfed and bin raided. I could not cope with a dog that was aggressive to humans, that is my personal line in the sand.

Most dogs have a prey drive, there are very few that won't want to chase a bird or a squirrel if they see one on the ground.

I had a conversation with a friend recently about this, he is adamant that we should get a rescue dog, I told him that rehoming shelters won’t entertain us as we have small DC. He thinks it’s nonsense and all rescues dogs would be so grateful for a home that it would be fine around children..... erm no

I did a little lol 😂 at the idea of dogs thinking that way but it’s not really funny at all is it. It’s like expecting a horse to magically know what you want because the alternative is for it to end up as meat.

Perhaps this is the problem though.

It seems reasonable to assume that rescue centres aren’t full to bursting. The dogs that are available to be rehomed and aren’t snatched up are there because they wouldn’t be suitable for most people. So the myth of pining dogs is a myth.

We "adopted" some of our pets. But didn't do it via a rescue.

One of our dogs, I was sent a link to from a friend. It was on the pets4homes website. The dog was a year old and the owner was struggling as her mum was dying and she was in and out of hospital with her.

We had a few discussions with her, she came to our home to see what it was like etc. It was still easier and less hassle than going to a rescue.

Could you go on that website and choose the adopt option?

@rainyoutside

I’ve never had a greyhound. I’m sure there are some with a low prey drive. Except they are bred for hunting!

When choosing a puppy you can choose a breed that suits you. Of course there are some variations - my friend had a really arsey retriever - but as a rule.

@rainyoutside - yes, but not all greyhounds will chase. I've had almost 15 years of experience with the breed. I've had large greys and small ones, puppies and old dogs, reactive and high prey drive through to super-lazy and laid back - I can assure you that they are not all huge, and not all of them like running after things!!

Our local rescues don’t put you on a waiting list either. They insist on taking all your details, but when I asked if they’d be calling us if a dog came in that would suit us, they said no, we’d just have to keep an eye on the website. The website is updated only slowly and a lot of dogs don’t make it on there at all, so if you can’t visit the centre every morning you’re out of luck. So what’s the point of taking all our details? So they can continuously ask us for money, apparently.
I do call myself an animal-lover. I know I could give a dog a good home with loads of walks, but I’m not blinkered about the work a badly trained or socialised dog would be. I was prepared to train a dog (hence getting a puppy!); I can’t expect daycares and family to look after an aggressive/reactive dog. I can - and did - ask them to look after a chewing, weeing pup when I couldn’t be with it due to part-time job and other commitments. Perhaps the rescues are correct and only retired or rich people should have rescue dogs. That leaves the field wide open to people who want a family dog and can give one a happy life - so you need both options to be available and nobody need sneer at others’ choices.

I take your word for it tappering

But

here

“Strong instincts to chase other living creatures that run”

There's no guarantee that a puppy won't turn out to be reactive tbh. Even if you do all the right things. Some dogs are just genetically more fearful than others.

We rescued a puppy. She was just a tiny thing which we were told would grow up to be the size of a small puddle/westie. She turned out to be borzoi mix and is larger than a retriever. When she was about 7m old she became very aggressive to all dogs outside. Mind you, she grew up with an older dog and in daily interaction with a same age puppy of our family member who lives near by. We took her to vets, dog behaviour specialists, trainers... nothing helped. On the other hand, she's very sweet at home, great with the baby, loves our cat and our other dog and is the gentlest soul imaginable... until she's on the streets. Walking her is unbelievably stressful as we have to plan our routes to avoid other dogs as much as possible.

We were not inexperienced - I had only rescues since I was a child and she was our second rescue dog as a couple.

I can 100% understand that rescues are not for everyone and that families, especially those with young children and/or other pets would want to avoid surprises by opting for a puppy from a reputable breeder. I also think that shaming people into rescuing is counterproductive - people who adopt without being prepared to deal with potential behavioural issues are more likely to give up their dogs or never get a dog again.

My local rescue say on its website that they are inundated with demand at the moment and I've seen others that say the same. 100s of applications for each dog. Where are these rescues with kennels full of lovely dogs waiting to be adopted?!

We are getting a puppy this week. I looked for a rescue first - I wanted a spaniel because I grew up with them and know the breed well, as do my family. But there aren't many in the big rescues and the smaller breed specific ones were also getting crazy numbers of applicants for each dog coming in.

Our plan is to have our pup for a few years and then rescue an ex breeding bitch from somewhere like Many Tears where they mainly cant be an only dog.

I think regulating the whole industry is a much better idea than demonising people who buy puppies.

I do agree with this. A puppy is much less work than a rehomed dog with issues

We were turned down for adoption due to being “inexperienced”. We have gone down the puppy route -he is an old boy now and has been tremendous. But we could have offered an amazing home

I work in animal rescue and I will probably get a puppy once I have children. Not worth the risk.
I’ve had 3 rescue dogs and they have all had problems. It’s really not easy having a rescue dog. It’s pretty much random what you will end up with.
It would be nice to have a blank canvas to work with for once.

I have had eight rescues - often found it easier to fit a more adult dog into my daily life than a pup. Mine all arrived through various pregnancies and when kids were babies. Non came from big rescues though and some were tricky. When I wanted an easy rescue I made sure I got one, if you get dogs that have been fostered then there are few surprises. I would only get a pup from a known breeder and would wait, like I did for my rescues, to get a good dog. Consumerist attitudes haven’t done anything to improve welfare.

My local rescue say on its website that they are inundated with demand at the moment and I've seen others that say the same. 100s of applications for each dog. Where are these rescues with kennels full of lovely dogs waiting to be adopted?!

Being inundated with applications doesn't really mean anything if none of the applicants are deemed to be suitable.

@MozzchopsThirty

YANBU at all Our home wouldn't be suitable for a rescue, all out between 9-4, children, cat But our puppy (now 2) has been brought up like this and is no problem at all

If you're a lone adult, working from home with a garden then get a rescue
Everyone else 🤷🏼‍♀️

You don’t need to be working from home. Get a dog walker! That’s what I did. I don’t think leaving a dog alone for seven hours on a regular basis is fair. You should have gotten a cat.

I watched that Paul o’grady programme at the beginning of the pandemic where they were trying to find homes for all the dogs at Battersea before they went into lockdown. And they did. For about 70 or so dogs. Within 48 hours.

So why, if that is possible, are these rescue centres not capable of doing that all the time?

My personal view is that many of the rescues actually like to hold on to some dogs because it suits them financially to do so. This notion that we “never put a healthy dog down” is ludicrous but it plays on people’s sympathies so they give them money, when in actual fact, a dog which can never be rehomed is not a healthy dog and IMO should be put out of its misery. Surely spending the rest of its life in kennels is the worst option.... as much as people don’t wish to admit that.

As for rescuing dogs from abroad, personally I think given the vast numbers of dogs in rescue in this country rescues from abroad need to be banned and more effort needs to be made to rehome rescues in this country. There are enough of them here already, we shouldn’t be importing more. But the rules need to change so people don’t feel compelled to go abroad....

YANBU. I think rehoming a dog requires an experienced dog owner. I had grown up with dogs but had never been responsible for one so I felt a puppy from a good breeder was the right choice. I think my next dog will be a rescue from the same breed (beagle) as lots of people give up on them because they are hard work. I feel more confident now and I'll likely have the time for one as the kids will be grown up. I don't think it's fair to put a dog with 'issues' in a busy home with people with no dog experience. Not everyone can take on a rescue dog.

I used to foster for a local rescue. My youngest was 9 at the time.

All the rescues that we fostered could have gone to homes with both kids and cats (we had both) one of them would only have been ok with older kids as he was an older dog. And another one was Great Dane puppy, so obvious limitations on space and experience required.

The rescue was happy to send them to families with kids and cats. They always have too many dogs and not many of them have big problems.
I think they tend to rehome a lot, rather than rescue a lot, if you see what I mean, so the dogs are less likely to be traumatised.

We then adopted one of the dogs we were fostering. He is a great dog, the only rescue trait that hangs on is that he is a dustbin raider.

I think that right now the pandemic is skewing things.

I also got my first dog through rescue. His previous owner went to prison hence going to rescue. He sadly waited a long time in rescue but this wasn’t due to behaviour problems. He was an ‘unpopular breed’ and considered elderly. He had no significant problems and fitted into our family life just fine. We had two cats, no kids at the time but his foster family had children. He passed away and I got my girl that I have now. She was a little more work but she was only seven months when I adopted her so still a puppy.

It sounds like rescues have been overwhelmed with applicants recently so finding the right rescue may be difficult but please don’t assume all the dogs in rescue have significant behavioural problems. Some do but many are there because something happened with the owner affecting their ability to care for that dog. Although if you do have a little more time to time on a dog with additional needs then that’s a really great thing to do and it will be worth it in the end. I’m laughing at all these people who think a puppy is easy in comparison to your typical rescue 🙈

YANBU. Rescues are a great option, but it's not for everyone.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a puppy from a backyard breeder, someone who lets their own pet have puppies a time or two (often with the intention of keeping one for themselves and selling the rest for a reasonable price).

I'm sure there are horror story exceptions out there, but every dog I've ever owned has been "sourced" in this way, as have many dogs belonging to my family and friends. There have been rescues in the family, too, btw, as well as expensive, "professionally bred" dogs. All have been fine. There's been no demonstrable difference in "quality", health, personality, etc.

Choosing where and how to get a dog/puppy is like so many things in life. You should research and then do what suits you, without worrying about what anyone else thinks. You don't need approval from the masses to know what's best for you in your own set of circumstances.