To think there must be another way? Dog shelters

[Steppingintome]

I get it. Some of these dogs have had a crap life. These guys see dogs in some right states and they must be paired with the right homes. I get it I do.

But some of the rules just seem so bizarre!

I grew up with dogs as did DH. We haven’t had a pet since the early days of our relationship and this pet passed away 8 years ago. We live in a large house. Our children are adults/older teens. We have a large secure garden. DH works from home so is in all day. We love animals.

We wanted to adopt a dog as we go walking a lot and thought we’d meet ideal criteria. Ideally the dog would be small to medium breed, we’d consider a bigger dog if it wasn’t too boisterous and ideally the dog would be older than a year old but again, not too fussy.

All seems ok right?

We applied to the shelter. They came to do a home check and said our home was lovely. They met the kids and agreed they were older and calm so most dogs would suit. Then they asked for a reference from a vet. I said we couldn’t provide this as we don’t have a pet. They asked for a reference from an employer but we are both self employed. They asked if we had employees? I said no.

Sorry we can’t let you adopt!! :( we asked if a friend or family member could give us a ref, no it can’t be from them. One of them is a dog groomer. No sorry

We applied to another rescue. Straight no because they are still building on our new build estate. Even though our street is finished and they are nowhere near us now.

Wtf am I being unreasonable to think something has to change? No wonder they are all overrun?

I don’t think you are being unreasonable at all. The rules are so strict that people look elsewhere, which increases puppy farms and in turn, more people accessing dogs who can’t properly care for them (as no rules whatsoever) which are later abandoned and hence back into rescue they go! It’s a vicious circle! The sooner they re-evaluate their rules the better.

Btw, you sound like a lovely family to adopt a dog, please don’t give up yet!

That's utterly batshit.

Some of the "rules" that rescues have in place make absolutely zero sense to me.

You sound like the perfect family for owning a dog, please don't give up.

I think it is fundamentally deeper a problem. The dog shelters have far too many dogs which are actually unable to be rehomeable. This needs addressing. I suspect at heart this is as pp says fuelling the breeding explosion - puppy farms, unsuitable crosses etc. Too many people can get hold of an unsuitable dog. Give it up with extensive problems (rather than admit mistake and euthanise). Would be Sensible owners can't get a rescue dog. In essence the rescue is saying we have no dogs suitable for regular homes.

Would like to know how many successful rehomes there actually are (dog stays with new home 2+ years)?

How many dog shelters properly assess and rehab dogs with a qualified behaviourist?

What is the support for the rehoming household?

This should be mandatory for any dog returned and any complex case.

Too many people can get hold of an unsuitable dog

Yup. The dog rehoming business is getting very odd.
Our 2 local rescue places are importing dogs from Ireland and Romania to meet demand.
They've got a waiting list of people wanting to adopt. When we got our girl from them we knew she'd come from Ireland but didn't realise they were having a regular shipment of dogs every month.
Round here there's now a large contingent of Romanian street dogs being adopted by well intentioned but utterly clueless people.

A couple of years ago I had a look at rescue centre. Every single dog had a note “ not suitable for home with children and other animals”

That's crazy! YANBU.

I would honestly never rehome from a shelter. For the cash, restrictions and poking into your life they expect, often for an older animal that is going to be a lot of hard work, I would spend a bit more and get a nice young animal.

My dog should have a few years left in her, and cost me £700 13 years ago when I got her as a puppy.

How bizarre. I’ve rehomed from Battersea three times, once with primary school aged children. Never had a home visit.

We gave up after 3 years of trying to adopt a rescue and bought a puppy, which is what we should have done in the first place.
Solvent
Responsible
Garden
Work from home
Older secondary age child

Try specific breed rescues instead, they’re nowhere near so bonkers. I think to adopt from my local rescue, you need to be retired, not have other pets or children visiting the house. Proper mad.

And this is exactly why people get puppies instead! Madness

This to me would be a red flag that they all have behavioural problems, and very few of the rescues have enough behaviourist support.

I know a few people with Romanian/other foreign rescues. Most of them are puppies from dogs picked up as strays i.e the pup has never been a street dog. A neighbour home checks for a similar charity. They are fine as pets if health checks etc are fully done. No more risk than random rescue here. Older rescue street dogs - the ones I have met (live near a dog walk area and have my own dog) people have more varied experiences. Not all bad but it is a concern.

See, now while I think some rescues are OTT, this also strikes me as being pretty irresponsible.

There have been a number of threads on here with many posters reporting similar experiences. We had similar with cats. We ended up getting kittens from a breeder, but I would have preferred to adopt.

I work in animal rescue.

I'm sorry that you've bumped up against these rules. The problem is that there are no consistent rules - because rescues set their own, so there is no consistency. One rescue might not mind you having children - another would say no children under 12 etc.

The requirement for vet and employer references are new to me and seem disproportionate. I suspect what's behind it is a desire to ensure that you have the means to care for the dog if it becomes ill (even with insurance, vet costs can be £££). Sadly it's very common for dogs to come back into rescues when they become ill because people can't - or won't - stand the cost of caring for them. That said, I don't think it's reasonable to insist on these as a requirement.

The best advice I can give you is to keep looking. There are lots of rescues out there who are genuinely committed to rehoming dogs. I know it can sometimes seem like rescues are looking for reasons not to rehome!! However try and remember that often the rescue is looking at it from the dog's perspective. Some of our dogs have come from the most horrendous cruelty and neglect situations and have taken months - or years - to rehab to the stage where they are ready for a forever home. Rescues want to make sure that the dogs are genuinely going to go to not just a loving home, but one which will be suitable and safe for the dog.

Rescue dogs are often damaged by their experiences.

These rules in in place so they don't place a dog where there is a risk of it being triggered and hurting or killing Simone.

PS the advice to look at breed specific rescues is sensible. Smaller independent rescues quite often don't have a huge online presence, but can be quite pragmatic and flexible (where appropriate) on their rehoming requirements. They also tend to be supportive for post-adoption care - i.e. if you are having teething troubles with settling in etc.

That’s crazy!

We had similar with trying to get a cat. We were ‘approved’ by one rescue-secure garden, someone working from home, older teens etc but they just didn’t have any kittens at the time so they recommended another rescue to try. The woman there was so rude. She was ‘gobsmacked’ that someone would possibly approve us when we lived on a busy road and they would never rehome to us! We do live on a busy road-we have always had cats and they don’t go out the front because it’s so busy-I have never had a cat hit in the road. My friend, on the other hand, lives on a nice quiet country lane and they have lost every cat they’ve ever had as they get used to wandering around there, and every now and again, a car comes down there very fast.

I still follow the rescue on social media and they are always saying they have so many cats that they can’t rehome. With a bit more flexibility, they might all have happy homes by now!

Very true.

Our rescue has permanent sponsor dogs - those which cannot be rehomed for a variety of reasons, so they live permanently at the rescue.

The no home visit was 16 years ago, we had to provide proof of address and visit with everyone who’d be living with ddog. Having looked after that dog for so long they gave us another one. Both times the process was about a month, I guess ‘sticking with the process’ is some proof you’re going to be a diligent owner. 3 other families in our peer group were going through it the first time round and we were the only ones who got a dog

I had the same with a local cat rescue.
I lived in a cul de sac that was near to a dual carriageway, the house backed on to woodland, fields a quarry and farmers land.
We were told no as too close to the dual carriageway, half of the people on the cul de sac had cats, never had one run over, I ended up buying 2 kittens privately but would have loved to have adopted.
The cats from the street had the sense to play in the fields rather than the dual carriageway.

Yes, my friend is looking for a 2nd small dog. She lives alone, no children, no other animal apart from her small, dog friendly dog.

She cannot get a rescue anywhere. They all say must be only dog in home. She also doesn't officially have a garden for dogs to go off lead but she has greenery all round and a park 5 mins away. Her dog is very happy with this but because she doesn't have an official fenced in garden she is rejected for that too.

It's a shame they can't vet for abusive men though. My friend had to wait til her dc were over 5. Fair enough.. Poor ddog she did get felt the wrath of a bastard man instead of an overzealous dc..
Thankfully my mate told me and I reported him to the rescue and ddog was removed. Hopefully soon enough it wasn't put off men forever..