Refused to rehome a dog ...aibu to think it's a ridiculous decision?

[brettsndsal]

We are a massive dog family.
Over the years we have had a lurcher,a border collie and a poodle all lived a happy long life.
They are part of the family and spoilt rotten.
Birthday ,Christmas presents,taken to the park daily and walks etc etc
We love them like a child basically.
Our last dog Lucy passed away aged 16 six weeks ago.
She was a rescue dog and had a bad start to life.
Anyway I've applied to rehome a dog through two rehoming places.
Both Declined us because we don't have a garden.

We have never had a Garden but that hasn't affected the dog in anyway.
We love opposite a huge park and 5 mins away from the beach.
They've refused to even do a home check because it's not suitable home for a dog.

We applied for a Jack Russell and another poodle.
Even if we had a garden I wouldn't let the dog out alone.

I'm really upset and I don't understand how a garden makes any difference.
They have lots of dogs in at the minute crying out for a new life.
We couldn't love them anymore if we tried

Aibu to think it's a bit shit?

@DancinAtTheDisco

This springs to mind

I was just about to come on here to post this! I saw this on TWTTER a few months ago, and I haven't stopped laughing about it since.

It's as funny as fuck - AND it's bloody TRUE.

Also, why should people always adopt a rescue anyway? What about all the new born puppies? Someone has to have them.

@brettsndsal YANBU at all. Da rools and regz of dog adoption (and cats too, to a degree,) is bonkers. When we adopted our kitty from cats protection some 10 years ago, they did a home check, to make sure we didn't live on a main road/busy road, that there were no children under 10, and that at least one of us was in half the day, and that we had secure 6 ft high fences.

NEWSFLASH dudes, cats can jump up and over 6 ft fences!

Looks like you're gonna be getting a new puppy brettsndsal

@Teenangels

I was turned down from a rescue place because I didn't have fences over 6 foot they were 5 and a hale foot on a foot wall. We wanted to adopt a Shih Tzu!! Unbelievable we went on to buy a puppy, who is amazing.

The rescue centre phoned me to ask if I would reconsider and put higher fences in! When I said that we have a puppy, the man on the phone was outraged that I had bought a puppy, when there was so many dogs needing a home - and said that I was part of the problem.

I told him he may have to reconsider who was the real problem!

Yep, this in spades. As I said, these rescue places make it SO difficult for people to adopt dogs (and, as I said cats too sometimes,) that people ARE going to just go for new puppies, and kittens that people are selling online/in the papers etc...

@Polkadotties

My friend’s mum is retired, late 60s, very active, wanted to adopt. Was told she couldn’t as she might die before the dog.

Bloody hell! How rude.

Yes, that was another of the breed rescue’s criteria! There was a sliding scale of the age of dog you could have once you got past a certain age. And you couldn’t have a dog if you were allowed to take it to work in case your job changed. And if it was your business you had to prove that your workplace had a securely fenced area for the dog to exercise in. There were more rules too. It was incredibly off putting and restrictive.

it is about box ticking. I know you need to have basic criteria but common sense needs to be applied depending on the home offered and the dog available and the wider circumstances.

@MyPatronusIsACat we couldn’t believe it! She has recently lost her husband to relatively early onset dementia and just wanted a little dog to keep her company. She didnt even mind if it was an older one who could last out it’s final years being a loved pampered pooch.

Could you privately rehome e.g on Preloved or a site like this? I got my cats from Preloved from a family who needed to rehome them due to allergies. The family obviously cared about them and where they were going to, but far less rigorous than a rescue

www.ra-na.com

It might be worth trying Rana, we are in the process of adopting a cat from them, they are a great charity rescuing cats and dogs from abroad

@Noodleted

Have you tried a charity rescuing dogs from other countries? I think the Romanian rescue dog place tends to be better about this kind of thing.

Hungary Hearts are fantastic. My sister got her lovely little dog from them, and they really take care of the dogs too.

www.hungaryheartsdogrescue.co.uk/available-dogs-in-hungary/

www.facebook.com/hungaryhearts

So they'd rather a dog lives in a cage in a shelter than a loving home with a family that doesn't have a garden.
Nuts.

Yanbu.
There's an animal rescue place near us and the last thing they seem to want to do is actually rehome any of the pets. I've experienced it myself and heard so many similar stories. I feel so sad for the animals some of the dogs have been there years when I know people have rung up about them. I would love to know what they're playing at.

There's a greyhound rescue place at Merrybent on the A67 just outside Darlington.

@Niffler92

Try greyhound rescues, the overseas rescues and small local rescues.

perfect.

It is much easier here as people advertise . We had two JRT puppies from the same litter. We went to the home and chose etc
The collie I later took in was at a rental. Tied up as the owner of the house had died and his family could not take the dog. All were very happy with that solution.

@Plantlady10

Could you privately rehome e.g on Preloved or a site like this? I got my cats from Preloved from a family who needed to rehome them due to allergies. The family obviously cared about them and where they were going to, but far less rigorous than a rescue

Here we use donedeal and adverts ie BUT since lockdown when so many were getting dogs without too much thought, they stopped advertising dogs.

I got my three latest cats via those pages.

It is so sad - I have been turned down for rescue dogs because I am too OLD, live on my own, don't have a six foot fence (lived rurally so it was a good field hedge between my garden and the outside world)

One of the most annoying rules seems to be - must be rehomed with another dog - some dogs are happy with just people.

I ended up getting dogs privately through online sites - usually by putting an ad in 'wanted adult older dog for loving home' type of thing.
I had 2 lovely lurchers (in succession) in this way, one cross breed who sadly died last year and now have a 5 year old mixed breed who needed a home as a companion dog.

I do wonder what the rescues (some of them) are hoping to achieve by taking in dogs that need a home and then preventing a bit of leeway in rehoming. No dog needs a perfect home - they are very adaptable creatures No owner is perfect but most are good enough to care for a 4 legged companion.

Are they worried that the rehoming could go wrong and the dog turn out to be vicious to children?

I realise that measures need to be put in place for adopting any animal but is does seem to be near impossible in a lot of cases.

Anyone in the Manchester area that wants a cat or ferret try them , I have adopted ferrets from them on many occasions and they have always been very helpful
www.millstreamanimalshelter.co.uk/?p=0_home

This is why we bought a puppy 3 years ago. I'm not going to jump through ridiculous hoops, knowing I'm a perfectly adequate dog owner and always have been, when rescue centres seem to want to keep their cages full. The bigger the rescue company the worst they seem to be for this.

I was refused as well. Enquired about a very nervous collie that needed to have access to a lot of space. We have literally acres of space. A small farm. However we are not suitable as the land isn't securely fenced with 6 foot fences. Of course it isn't, fields have stock proof fences, which tend to be quite a bit lower. We've had collies for years, we are experienced with the breed, know their issues, and can offer exactly the life they were bred for. Poor dog, better off stuck in a cage than on a farm???

The RSPCA are beyond ridiculous!

We would like a dog but they only regime dogs to people with experience of owning a dog! So how are you supposed to get experience of owning a dog if they won't let you have one? I know- get one from a puppy farm!

We tried to rehome a guinea pig last year- we already have two who have an 8 ft long indoor cage- that's not good enough- we were told it needed to have it's own room!!!!!!!

YANBU. Rescue centres often require gardens, the house not to be empty for more than 6 hours a day (my mum works 3 days a week 9-4 and was turned down even though they wanted a small older dog who wouldnt need constant outside access), no children, no other pets

@ilaun

I was refused as well. Enquired about a very nervous collie that needed to have access to a lot of space. We have literally acres of space. A small farm. However we are not suitable as the land isn't securely fenced with 6 foot fences. Of course it isn't, fields have stock proof fences, which tend to be quite a bit lower. We've had collies for years, we are experienced with the breed, know their issues, and can offer exactly the life they were bred for. Poor dog, better off stuck in a cage than on a farm???

And the sad thing is, you know they’re going to rehome the collie with a city family because they have a small garden with high fences and one of them doesn’t work, even though they don’t go for long walks, intellectually stimulate the dog or have any experience with the breed.

My current dog is a rescue from Dogs Trust.

I work full time but pointed out that I would come every lunchtime and I finish at lunchtime on Fridays.

They didn't have a problem with that. Less than a week after filling out the adoption form they called to say they had a dog I might be interested in. I do have a back garden though with 6 foot fencing all round.

They did seem to be sensible in their approach to adoption - although this was in Jan 2019 - things could have changed.

@brettsndsal

The shelter we used before has no dogs in (thankfully for them) at the minute. So it looks like it will have to be a puppy for us. It's just silly we will pay £800 plus for a puppy when we would rather donate money to a shelter and give a dog a happy life.

They are both charities based in Durham /Darlington.

Why can't you wait for a dog to become available at the shelter you've used before?

There's an absolutely massive difference between giving a shelter dog a home and buying an £800 puppy.

Meanwhile, one set of neighbours have a large dog that is left alone for around 6 hours a day, every day. Walked for about one hour in total each day; he is noticeably overweight. In fact, they told us they changed vets as they hadn’t agreed with the first vet pointing the dogs weight out .

My DB has just got a rescue from Romania from a Shropshire-based charity. My DN is 10
and they were accepted, could be worth a try?

This makes me so angry. No wonder people buy puppies. We were declined a few years ago. I had raised a lot of money for a small dog rescue as they were on the radio talking about how they couldn't afford to feed the dogs for much longer. I organised a fundraiser in my job and made a lot of money as well as getting food donated. Made an appointment to hand over cheque, food etc. Owner seemed happy enough and offered us a look around. We immediately fell in love with a Rottweiler called Ruby who had just turned 1. Owner moved abroad so she was sent to the rescue. I asked owner about adopting her as I grew up with Rottweilers. At the time, it was just myself and DH, no children. We had a large home and huge back garden, lived beside a forest walk and beach. She turned us down on the spot, the reason was she didn't want to send the dog to Dublin, Ireland (where we live) but wanted to keep her in Kildare Ireland (where the rescue centre is) The two are literally a 30 minute drive from each other. The poor dog was in a little cage. No home check or nothing, she just decided on the spot. I was disgusted. I heard through the grapevine that the poor dog was still not rehomed a year later. Totally turned me of ever fundraising or rescuing again.

Another breed rescue I followed on social media posted a long rant complaining about people with children wanting to rehome and saying to go and buy a puppy if you wanted a child-friendly dog, which was very welcoming and friendly.

It really doesn’t make you want to take the time to trawl through application forms and websites, I must say.