To consider rehoming rescue dog due to negativity from neighbours?

[LimeslemonsPomegranates]

Am I being unreasonable to think about rehoming my rescue dog? Other solutions? He was 4 years old when he came to us. He is a mixed breed lurcher and has had 4 different homes before us, he has been with us longer than anyone else. He was adopted from a rescue centre by a relative who then found the dog too much to manage, the children became attached so we took him on. We have had him about 5 years now but we've moved to a new area recently, but now he is causing us problems with our new neighbours and I think is being percieved as a pretty poor reflection on our family. It is a very tidy, affluent sort of area, and people here seem to be assuming the dog is neglected. We have another dog who is beautifully behaved that we bought and trained from a puppy who looks beautiful and never draws negative comments.

1. He escapes the garden occasionally, once every 6 months maybe, he would escape CONSTANTLY if not for the fact that I stand by the door and watch him or put him on a long lead. It is a rental, there is a very thin hedge and an unusual design feature of the landlords, with no fencing and no way to seal any of it up. I took my eye off the ball due to the toddler yesterday for 2 minutes, and he disappeared. Heavily pregnant, with a toddler, walking up and down scrubland and peering in gardens calling for the missing dog in the pouring rain ensued. A neighbour later knocked on the door, apparantly he had somehow got through into the street and been recognised. Neighbour gives me a polite telling off about being irresponsible for letting the dog escape as poor dog ownership and acted as if I had sat in the house oblivious. Obviously him escaping even occassionally is terrible, but expecting him to 100% never escape is completley unrealistic bar rehoming given his urge to wander is so strong, hence wondering if I am being unreasonable to consider it to avoid being labeled a bad dog owner. My other dog never leaves the garden, she is a velcro dog.
2. He smells really doggy, he has wiry terrier fur, washing causes him eczema, and when he is outside he has very strong wet dog smell. Everyone around here has a cockpoo or similar pretty/pedigree sort of dog that always look very well groomed, the lurhcer looks extremely out of place and 'mangy' just by virtue of appearance I suspect, I feel he is being discirminated against on some level for his looks. Our other dog is a very elegant pedigree and never gets any negative comments or assumptions of neglect. Should I wash him anyway? He is regularly trimmed and brushed, but still smells.
3. He has fleas apparantly. He has been flea treated, I am forever treating him for fleas. My other dog is treated on the same schedule and doesn't scratch or have signs of fleas, but he just seems to constantly be itching. I'm not sure this is truly fleas or just eczema/sensitive skin but the neighbours want to assume it is fleas it appears.
4. He barks all the time. Actually my other dog is the one that barks all the time while he is silent, I will give him that he is not a barker. My other dog has severe seperation anxiety and the neighbours are probably fed up of the barking every time we go out without her. I appreciate this must be very annoying for them, and I'm really not sure what to do about that. So rehoming him will not solve the problem of the barking for the neighbours.
5. He has to sleep in a crate, or be in the crate when not under supervision or he will without fail poo/wee on the wooden floors the moment eyes are off of him. I have tried everything and he still does it (and of course letting him out 8 times a day increases the risk of him running off!). Fortunately he will not soil his crate. This is just about manageable but is still a potential reason to rehome.

The children adore him, we are all attached to his quirky character, he is a lovely, friendly, playful dog, but very difficult to own. As a parent, the dog is causing me unnecessary stress I don't need and must be reflecting poorly on our family. Maybe we aren't the right family for him? Maybe he needs more than we can give him? Our other dog (apart from being the real barker) doesn't attract negativity on sight, and I feel we are being blamed for the rescue dog's bad behaviour and feral appearance as nobody knows he went through 4 homes before us. I assume this was due to these very reasons, but we thought we were doing a good thing by taking him on.

So he needs OP to take him to a vet, secure the garden, train him. The common factor here is OP needs to do more to take care of her aging dog. Not put it to sleep now she’s having kids and one neighbour moaned. Do you think she should have the anxiety riddled barking dog PTS too?

You shouldnt have asked because my answer is yes, if the dog cant be trained. The op has had this dog 5 years. Its 9 now, you arent retraining these behaviours out of a geriatric (yes from age 8) dog. If op cant handle the dog whats to say anyone else can , no one is privately buying him thats for sure with this ad. Whats the alternative? Rotting in a shelter? Let him pass at home with family.

You HAVE to stop him escaping....if that means going out on lead everytime then so be it.
Take him to the vets to get help with his skin.
Remove if you can't do these things for him

I think you must set aside some money and time to tackling the problems. As soon as you can, so they are as under control as possible when your baby is born.

I would book your rescue in to see the vet to get his skin checked. The vet may take a skin sample for a proper diagnosis. Then if people comment, “he is seeing the vet for his skin issue”. If he is a rescue, it really could be anything. Was he from abroad?

You must make sure he is secure if you use the garden for him. Forget talking neighbours for a moment. He could run onto a road or come to some other harm. People have suggested a long line for the garden, and perhaps some other temporary structure that a landlord would approve of to contain him. Google ‘temporary dog fencing’.

The other alternative is to not allow him to use the garden unsupervised and to walk him more. When I had a dog, he was only allowed into the garden to have a wee first and last thing. Other than that, he would go for two longer and one short walk a day, every day. Sometimes he would also be out in the car with us, but at other times he would be asleep in his bed. If you go for this option rather than containment in the garden, make sure you have a dog walker recruited so you can keep it up when the baby is born.

The other dog - please see a dog behaviourist in order to tackle his barking.

I know it probably doesn’t feel like a priority if you are pregnant with a toddler, but a dog really is for life. As someone else pointed out, the chances of him being rehomed successfully if you give him up are slim, and it sounds as though you love him too much to put him down. I think you will really regret it in the future if you don’t try to resolve this. Good luck.

The barking is what is doing it!

Hopefully a trip to the vet/changing his food might help your nice scruffy dog. He sounds lovely. The other barking one, not so much.

neighbours will only put up with so much
having live with neighbours barking dog making out lives a misery I’d complain to anybody who would listen it’s not fair

also you say it stinks and has accidents indoors I’d worry about KL inspection and getting kicked out

I despair of humanity sometimes, I really do. You’d give up a dog you’ve had for five years because of a comment from a neighbour? Disgusting attitude.

I can’t get my head round having neighbours that would offer any criticism of someone else’s dog. Hold your head up and ignore them. You’re doing a good thing. I wouldn’t want to rehome a dog that on its 5th home and isn’t a biter.

Poor dog.

maybe he'd be happier with someone who loves him & he's not competing with a 'pretty' mummy's favourite & coping the flack for her barking.

I can't be bothered to read all the comments, but I'd definitely be looking at his food for intolerances.

Also, I have images of Lady and the Tramp! Bless his scruffy soul.

Poor dog! You're worrying too much about the neighbours. Please keep the poor dog.

From reading your OP it’s really confusing as to whether you actually want to regime the dog, or whether you’re just concerned with appearances. From reading your updates I see that you say you DONT want to rehome him, in which case I’m confused as to why you are so deeply affected by the views of strangers that you are seriously considering getting rid of a beloved family pet!? I’m not sure why you would move to a house that is unsuitable for the dog, but given that the area/neighbours don’t sound very nice, plus the fact (you say) you want to keep the dog, I’d start looking for a more suitable house, that should fix the majority of the issues you’ve listed.

It is possible to house train an 8-9 year old dog. We have done it. It took about a month. The thing is to give them run of one room at a time- dogs keep what they see as their territory/home clean- this dog is already doing that with his crate. So next he needs to be working on crate + room crate is in etc. Until you can give him access to where ever he is allowed to be. (Poor boy, shut in a crate while Posh Dog runs free.)

Please give him a chance. He will be miserable in kennels away from all he knows and loves and (emotional blackmail coming up) your kids won't forget you did it. Vet for skin, dog walker for boredom, loads of solutions for garden, let him out the crate if only into dog pen/utility etc. And tell your neighbours the truth about which dog barks!
(Our neighbours' dog barks from 6am onwards- she has dementia and is blind, we put up with it because it's no ones fault and obviously short term, but it drives us nuts,)

Yes I know! But it’s still the only thing that would bother me

He should probably be hand stripped, not clipped, brushed well and often vs shampooed - you CAN wash him if he gets into something nasty, he won't explode, but proper stripping and brushing is far better for his skin. This may well help with his itchy/ponginess, if he has a build up of dead hair and undercoat, that will not help him.

If he pongs then its likely his food.

Clip a light weight chain to a ring bolt by the door (it can be removed and the hole filled when you leave), clip him on it as you open the door, then you can take your eye off the ball for a minute if necessary. Or keep a long line by the door and stand there with him every time - thats on you for renting an unsuitable property.

Fleas - treat the house regularly with something long lasting, the vet will know which is the best (Acclaim or Indorex usually) you DO have to use it properly, whole house, all down the nooks and crannies, crevices along the floors, under sofas etc. I see so many issues when people treat where the dog goes, forgetting fleas jump, walk, and hitch a ride on humans.

Then you only need to treat the dog himself if you actually see evidence of fleas -thats live fleas or flea dirt (its a dark brownish black dirt on the comb that blooms into a reddish brown stain on a wet white tissue).

Likely his itching is to do with whatever is disagreeing and causing his pong, fix one, you'll fix the other.

Walk him more -more enrichment - safe hired fields for hurtling around are great.

Sounds like some of your neighbours assume lurcher = traveller = dodgy. Ignore them, they are twats.

perhaps it's your other dog barking all the time, as you admit, that is pissing off the neighbours, and with this one escaping and running wild I guess they just see you as unfit dog owners. But I'm sure many will come on here to say that the poor dog is far more important than all those mere humans living around you.

Don't you bloody dare.

Sounds like food allergies for the skin.

I would get a tracker collar and set up a virtual boundary so if he escapes you can track him instantly.

Have you considered the barking dog could be stressing him. That can cause scratching and itching

Why can’t you seal off the garden with wire mesh?

She hasn’t said how old the barking dog is

It's definitely the barking dog winding the neighbours up. You need to do what the rest of us have had to do and arrange for the dog to be with family, friends or a dog sitter if someone can't be in the house with him. Did you get the 2nd dog to try and tackle the 1st dogs barking through company?

But also the dog isn't escaping the garden. There's clearly an opening he's going out. So he should never be out off the lead unless you're supervising.

Sympathies though because you'd think you shot the dog rather than just being a bit of a pain of a neighbour.

Get an allergy test done and change things if he is allergic, sounds more likely than fleas if your other dog doesn't show signs of fleas. Try medicated or super sensitive shampoo and make sure he's dried thoroughly afterwards

Buy a heavy duty stake and tie out line for the garden

Hire a secure field and/or use a long line on walks if you don't already, get a flirt pole or (if you can afford one) a lure coursing set up so he can let out his lurcherness in a controlled environment

Ignore the neighbours!

You should simply move to a house that suits him more. Garden that is sealed is essential.

Maybe a house with one room that has a tiled floor to negate the need for the cage (even carpet tiles if carpet is necessary as they are easily replaced if soiled). If you walk him before you leave him alone and he is less likely to foul.

Vet for medical issues like fleas and regular dog groomer appointments maybe.

I’m surprised you couldn’t get a mild/sensitive shampoo for him, get a second opinion.

My dog has separation anxiety - he happens to be a rescue. He's the only dog I have - the comparison was between 2 dogs with separation anxiety, not their rescue dog.
Super dog needs to go to daycare with that level of anxiety.