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.

Like with humans, skin issues can be dietary so perhaps try him on a wheat free diet for sensitive stomachs. May also help with the odour. My mum’s dog gets a skin flare up from her harness and collar - a sort of contact dermatitis which goes angry red and her fur falls out - I think it’s likely as she jumps in every body of water she sees. We weren’t told not to wash her, but she has different creams and tablets from the vets and we dry her off when she gets home and take her collar and harness off as soon as she is inside.

I know quite a few people who keep their dogs on special diets for skin and tummy reasons. My daughter used to have eczema but also has food intolerances. With eczema oat based natural body washes can be good - obviously anything perfumed or with a lot of chemicals will cause a flare up.

Don’t get rid of your dog! Find out if it’s a dietary thing or a contact dermatitis thing - try to help the itching! Do you wash the dog bed in a particular detergent? You can get a tablet for fleas that keeps them flea and tick free for 3 months at a time.

Don’t get rid of a nine year old dog, it is unlikely to be rehomed at that age and will be miserable! I would move house before I would rehome my pet! Also who cares what the neighbours thinks!!

I have an enormous mad back garden that it wouldn't be possible to perfectly fence the boundary. DH fenced it in inside the boundary so the dogs can run freely. My rescue would run given half a chance. It's not difficult and it probably cost far less than that second designer dog you have.
It seems like you're looking for an excuse to get rid of the scruffy mutt, but not the pretty barking one who fits the neighbourhood.

You could solve the garden issue quite cheaply. Get some chicken wire type fencing and have that put up.

Look into allergies and changing his food.

contact a good dog behaviourist.

Quite. Disgusting to even think about it. Fuck the twatty neighbours.

Poor dog.
You need to get some decent training.

Raw food and a prescription for apoquel from the vet. Should make all the difference.

This. And this is being kind.

Seems like a neighbour problem not a dog problem. Poor boy.

I agree with @CrazyGoatLady
Also, give less of a fuck what people think of you. Especially on superficial things like how your dog looks.
I do emphasis with having an escapee our dog was always escaping, I've had 5 dogs as an adult and just one escapee. Its easy for those with stay at home dogs to get how sneaky they can be.

Is he barking & not recallable because he’s deaf?
Why do neighbours know how much your dog smells?
Crating dogs for long periods should be made a crime.

I think so-called cockapoos are terribly ugly.

Your neighbours sound utterly horrible. Why are you even taking notice? Any neighbour of mine who insulted my dogs would be given incredibly short shrift.

Grow a pair.

If you send him back to rescue at 9 you’re probably looking at a death sentence. All because your neighbours are dicks and you can’t stand up to them. Pathetic.

We have a rescue lurcher and he came with terrible skin and coat - dandruffy and smelly. For ours it's 100% good related. Raw food or something (expensive unfortunately) like Canagan is what we need to do. If we ever run out and give cheap food for a few days the effect is immediate. Also tinned sardines once or twice a week.

It's a shame you'd give him up based on neighbours. Just walk him on lead and take him to an enclosed field for a proper run every so often. Ours was a wanderer when younger so we had to keep on top of it but we've had him over ten years now and if we accidentally leave the gate open he doesn't bother.

Can you explain why neighbours should have to put up with the barking
the barking has probably made there lives such a misery anything the dogs do now will piss them off they will of lost all tolerance

The barking would be the biggest problem for me. I think you need to work on ways to improve that.

Agree that a secure dog field would be a great way to tire him out. More varied and longer walks may help too.

You need to speak to your landlord/investigate other ways to properly secure the garden or part of it.

Return visit to the vet to discuss skin/bathing/fleas.

I wouldn’t give up on my dog before investigating all of the above.

1/ Secure the garden asap is a must. He’s going to get run over or cause an accident! Use a lead until you do something about the fence.
2/ check if he actually has fleas or not. If you regularly treat him it sounds more like an allergy or skin condition. My son dog get seasonal allergies and I found proflax skin and coat supplement really helped.
3/ Start training your other dog if he excessively barks! My dog will bark excessively at anyone walking past etc. I don’t let him sit by the window, if he starts he’s shut out of the front room /front bedroom straight away. Also we have window privacy film on our front windows which helps. Cheap to get off Amazon and easy to apply and remove.
4/ If you can afford it get a dog walker a few times a week. It will take the pressure off you when the new baby arrives. Even once a week will give you a day of not worrying about walking them.

With the garden issue, could you attach him to a long line when he goes out? My dog can't go off lead so I have a 32ft lead so she can wander about without getting into trouble. You could attach the other end inside your house and he could bumble about as long as he likes outside.

We had, in her youth, an escapee (she could clear 6ft fencing). When we were renting between houses we got the landlord to agree to allow us (at our expense) to fence off an area of the garden for our dog which we then took down when we moved out. Might this be an option? We just used posts and green chain link ( we needed a bit of wobble as she could also climb like a ninja 🤣)

I would go to the vet as he might have a skin condition. My in laws had westies with awful skin that needed special washes etc otherwise if it really is fleas ask about a different treatment, wash all bedding on hot at least twice, and get the carpets washed to avoid re infestation.

Also agree about renting a enclosed field if they can’t be off lead in the garden.
other things to help with Borden are food puzzles and snuffle mats.

We use a swivel dog tie stake at my in laws as they have free range hens , cats and a very open wooden post and rail fence from the garden to the sheep field …. So super low stress when visiting them with two dogs! However, the dogs now have it sussed and it does mean they can still mooch about outside in summer and sniff around and lie on sunny dog beds if the weather is good.

The only issues to affect neighbours are the barking and escaping. He is seen as the problem as he escaped. You need to secure the garden and sort out barking regardless of which dog it is.

Agreed my dogs coats are fantastic on raw

If he is on a good flea treatment and the vet has seen him re skin I wonder if he is allergic to something. Out terrier couldn’t have chicken Protein as it made her incredibly itchy. What flea treatment do you use?
yoy need to fence your garden! We’ve always had dogs, generally well behaved ones but there is absolutely no way they would be out in an intended garden, for their sake. They could be stolen or see something and leg it - they are dogs after all, they aren’t infallible!

Can people please read the OP? Getting rid of this dog will not stop the barking, because that’s another dog. (Obviously OP should address that.)

To me, you do not give any sound reasons for rehoming, and neighbours would not make me rehome.
He must have had the same smell before you moved, and if you do have fleas, both dogs need treating. Go to a vet, as often, over-the-counter treatments are certainly not strong enough
If he has toileted in the house, then he obviously needed to go out, and if you need to lead him in the garden, so be it. He is a young dog, and he needs to go somewhere secure. You can also keep him busy by mental stimulation its not just a case of physical exercise you need to keep the mind happy too.
you admit your other dog barks but you seem to want to heap all the blame on this poor dog
i am sorry but if you rehome him you are letting him have yet another traumatic experience that will have a really marked effect on him.
if you cannot be introducing stimulation and training which i find hard to believe have occured since moving contact the charity you adopted him from
please do not get another dog such as a cockerpoo to match the neighbours

You sound fairly useless.
Have you been to the vet for advice about fleas/his skin? If not why not?
Why are you not taking steps to address your other dog barking? There is plenty of info available and trainers/behaviourists etc to help.
Same for the rescue dog's soiling in the house issue.

And why do you care so much what your neighbours think? They sound like cunts. Dogs smell. Dogs sometimes escape. If a neighbour knocked at my door worried about their escaped dog, I'd be at least polite; and much more likely I'd help them look for it. Especially if it was a pregnant woman with a toddler, FFS. I don't know where they get off telling you off about it and I'd have given them a piece of my mind.

But in answer to your question, no, you shouldn't rehome a nine-year-old dog that's already had multiple homes. What do you imagine are his chances of finding another new home now and being happy there?

Not quite sure what "posh" means here but if it's "the sort of dog an upper class person would have" then a rescue lurcher is a much posher dog than a bloody cockapoo.

I think the meaning is 'expensive'.