Rescue dog dilemma

[eemie]

We have been on the waiting list for a rescue dog with four different organisations for several months. I wanted a labrador, or preferably two, because I grew up with them and they are such good all-rounders.

I thought that by going through a rescue organisation and getting an adult dog I was being ultra-careful, as the dog's temperament would be known. We have one child aged 7 but lots of children of all ages come to the house so temperament is all-important to us.

One lab rescue organisation lost our first application and has never acknowledged our second; one assessed us in September and we have never heard from them since (no response to phone calls or e-mails either). The third offered us a quick home assessment but then the assessor failed to turn up.

The third lot then offered to place two dogs with us without a home assessment. I didn't mind as I have no concerns about the suitability of our home.

The dogs were healthy, being rehomed because of a marriage break-up, supposedly good with children and no behavioural problems.

In fact, though they were lovely dogs, we had to return them after three days. They were severely stressed with multiple behavioral problems. These we could have got over with time, but the younger one was seriously traumatised, had clearly been brutally treated, and would have been a long-term risk around children.

This seemed to come as a total surprise to the rescue lady who had apparently taken the owner's word for what the dogs were like.

Is this typical? Are the rescue organisations all as chaotic as these seem to be? Now I really don't know which way to turn. Any thoughts?

Please advise if you can - am v. upset at having to return the dogs and don't know which way to turn now

You have to go by your gut instinct and if you feel either of the dogs is a danger to your child or will simply not fit in with your lifestyle ie what you can and to what extent you can provide for them, then you have made the right decision imo. I would imagine any previous owner may have alluded to the dogs negative qualities in the hope of them being re homed sooner - so the re homing lady may well have been in the dark but that is not your problem, sad though you may feel iyswim.

A family member of mine got a dog from a dachshund rescue. The lady from the rescue bred dachsunds herself and she had been given the information about the dog from the elderly couple who could no lomger look after him. In this particular case, the previous owners identified problems which the dog didn't turn out to have at all, while other aspects that were supposed to be fine turned out he had problems with. In the end she had to have the dog rehomed.

I don't know if this is typical or not, and though there are lovely family dogs to be had from rescue centres, I don't think you can really be sure about a dog unless you have raised it yourself or have known its owner personally.

Personally, I wouldn't take the risk around children which is why we got a puppy in spite of having to go through all the toilet training etc.

I've had 4 rescue dogs, 2 prior to kids (although one was still around when dd was born). Of the other two 1 went back after 24 hours (behaviour probs - our vet said should never have gone to home with kids)and had the other for a year without any problems before we had to have him put down. Got two puppies after as didn't want to take any risks - although they have their own problems!

In my experience of rescue organisations they all seem quite unorganised, they have to rely to a great degree on what they've been told as dogs are very different in kennels. As we've got young kids we wanted to know the dogs history and if their were behaviour problems they would be of our own making and so we could get advice on how to fix them!

We're down to one dog - a beagle who is fantastic with 2 year old dd and 6 mth ds. One reason we chose this breed is that they are really good with children, dd stands on Ruby to reach biscuit tin and then they share them! We got recomendations from the breed assc. about a good breeder with laid back dogs.

In a few years will definately get another rescue dog but I think the children need to be old enough to understand dogs and warning signs.

Good luck with getting a dog - I think they are worth the work (sometimes!!!!)

Hi, have worked with dogs all my adult life in various fields and in my experience not all but some of the breed rescue organisations can only go on the word of the owner who wants the animal re-homed which as said before can be far from the truth. Going to a large allbreed rehoming centre such as Battersea or the various Dogs Trust homes you may still be able to find the breed you want and a dog that has been assessed in all aspects whilst in their care so that it can be rehomed successfully. Well done by the way for wanting to rehome and don't be disheartened you had to send the dogs back you mentioned, you made the right decision, you cannot risk your childrens safety. Good luck for the future and Dogs Today magazine is a good reference for rescue homes and lots of other good advice

Have no experience of Rescue Centres but I would have thought that any who really care about the welfare of the dogs would insist on vetting the home where they are going. No reflection on you at all but there are plenty of people who aren;t suitable for all sorts of reasons.

Have you thought about Guide Dogs for the Blind who sometimes want homes for dogs that turn out to be unsuitable to "graduate" as guide dogs. They all have a basic degree of obedience training and have already been vetted for temperament. Our beautiful Buster came from there (he died 9 years ago now) - his problem was he chased pussy cats which wouldn't have been much fun for a blind person! He was a lovely pet with a wonderful temperament (though I'll blot out the time he jumped the garden fence to chase a rabbit (it turned out it wasn't just cats). This sort of thing could of course happen with any pet dog and once we got wise (and especially got higher fences) everything was fine.

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Thank you all for your advice.

ggglimpopo it was (three different) lab rescue organisations that we tried. We are also approved by Battersea, but we live a long way from there and so far our experience is that by the time we get there the child-friendly dogs have all been claimed. I would certainly have more confidence in Battersea's assessment.

sylvm - of course you are right. I should have realised that if they hadn't done a proper assessment of us the same might well be true of the dogs .

My mum had a home check for cats and she was really pleased that they bother. She got two cats and was meant to have a follow up visit to check they are settling in/feeding ok etc. Noones ever came back.
Which if ok as she is looking after the cats, but she could have skinned them for rugs for all they care.

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Eemie, back to the original question... given your experience with rescue organisation and your specific desire to adopt a particular breed I would only suggest to get yourself a puppy and "raise" it as you feel it's convenient for the needs of your family unless you are preparing to pay a trainer to help you sort the problems out.

In terms of rehoming an older dog... we rehomed a 6m old yorkie because the owner (a wannabe breeder) said she was too small to breed. One weekend in our house and I realised that the rehoming had nothing to do with her breeding potential, she ruined all dining room chairs, damaged two doors and a sofa (to a point that we needed to replace the three of them) and dug a hole in a wall (replastering and painting was needed) all this in a single weekend. I supose people lie in order to get a difficult dog rehomed, or sometimes the dog change (said Yorkie is now properly trained and it's adorable but, if you allow her a little forbidden treats -like sitting in someones bed... her old self can return within a week).

In terms of finding a puppy with a docile temperament, there's a test for puppies that allows you to have an idea about how docile (or not) they are. We have tried it with 4 dogs and definitively showed a rather accurate indication of what we were heading for: Look for a puppy that show you its tummy when you pat him, or ask the breeder about the puppy who is the last in the peckin order (not difficult to spot when all the brothers are present, if you pat him, all the others try to bite him). Once you get the "docile" puppy is up to you to educate it to your own expectations.

Good luck.

P.S. Although, thinking of Labradors.... the work is sometimes done, associations who train labs as guide dogs (or helpers, etc) normally select very docile dogs but even then, some dogs are found not to be suitable (for other reasons) well into their training and need rehoming. These dogs have been through a well planned socialisation program, sometimes with in a family and are in general well behaved. HTH

The Dog's Trust (formerly NCDL) seem to carry out pretty comprehensive assessments of dogs before offering them for rehoming. I guess many of the individual breed rescues aren't as strictly regulated as the national organisations.

Thanks all - v. helpful