Starting to think we are never going to find the dog for us

[lecce]

We are looking for a rescue dog, as young as possible and not too big. Those are our only criteria. However, because we have children it is turning out to be a near-impossible task.

I am looking at rescue centres up to 2 hours away from us, but it seems all we would be considered for is staffies or very old dogs. Pre-dc we adopted an old dog to live out his last years with us, but, at this stage in our lives, we want a dog who will be a bit of a playmate for the dc, and not one they will lose after only a couple of years.

I have been open-minded about staffies but it seems they have such a bad reputation that people may judge us for having one. Someone on here said they wouldn't let their dc come to a house where one lived, and people have talked about other dog owners pulling their dogs away. We are new in this area and don't want anything standing in the way of our dc forming new friendships. Moreover, almost everyone here has a dog but I haven't seen any staffies about, so I assume they are not a popular dog in our area.

I really want a dog but it seems that we could be waiting ages. I can't really justify spending £200 + on a pedigree pup and, anyway, we have always had rescue dogs and feel it's the right thing to do. We just want a mutt really!

Btw, I know I'm being a bit silly and they have to be cautious, but I'm just missing having a dog so much and I know we can provide a great home for one. We are experienced dog owners who would be committed to the dog. Does anyone have any advice for us?

www.pupsneedinghomes.co.uk/4.html A lot of their dogs are suitable with children.

Please consider talking to the Breed Rescues.
Many are happy to home with children, providing there is no problematic history with the dog, and you are responsible owners.

The kennel club provide a site to locate breed rescue contacts here
Or simply look for the Breed Club dealing with your preferred breed, and look at their website for welfare contact details.

Certainly worth talking to them. Pedigrees need rescuing more often than people realise.

Leece - have you seen Kia on the RSPCA Derby site? Chocolate lab, friendly with children. We got our whippy from there. They were very good.

Also try Babbington Rescue. They have a good reputation.

Also, depending on where you are in the east midlands, the ones at Kenilworth Dogs Trust I linked to (the Samoyed and the lurcher) are suitable for children of all ages. They do rehome to the East Midlands.

If you are in the East Midlands there is a fantastic rescue centre near derby. It's called Second Chance rescue and is in Chellaston.
We got our Westie from there a few months ago. They rescue the dogs from puppy farms. There are every kind of dog you could possibly wish for.

We are also in the East Mids and got our rescue from Dog Watch - www.dogwatchuk.com/.

They are based on the West Midlands but will rehome all over and they always seem to have quite a few puppies. We were worried that rescues would not let us rehome because we work all day but these guys were fliexible once they realised that we had arrangements in place for the dogs to be walked when we were out. Hopefully this also translates into them rehoming to people with kids.

Thanks everyone - will be looking through all the links/recommendations tonight .

My lurcher wears my kids out relentlessly chasing balls and frisbees with them. He's always happy to play, but equally happy to snooze for hours while we're busy. Best of both worlds. Surprisingly he is actually got both deerhound and greyhound in him, being a saluki/deerhound x greyhound/border collie. I suspect it's the border collie in him that loves retrieving so much. He has actually just sussed he can throw toys himself at the grand old age of seven and a half and it's lovely to watch him revelling in it.

I would definitely have a look at Evesham (ELGR) the have quite a few pups at the moment and they're not all lurchers. Ant and Dec look really cute and are terrier crosses, so most likely to be bags of fun and energy.

We're also on the lookout for a rescue pup that can be homed with a 4 year old - although we really want another lurcher - and I would be in touch with ELGR like shot, but we have a holiday planned in a couple of weeks, so need to be sensible and wait until we get back to start enquiring about specific pups and organising home-checks etc.

I'm a firm believer that the right dog will come up at the right time, so while I do get frustrated having to wait, I'm trying my best to be patient. It's not easy though.

(By the way, I do get what you're saying about boot space. We have always gone away in our VW camper, so had bags of room - even when we had three dogs. This year it's off the road, so we have to go in our car. Lurcherboy fills the boot, so we've had to fork out to hire a roof box and bars! He's worth it though. )

Mistlehound shares the back seat with DS on long journeys (she has a car seat harness that clips onto the seat belt) On short ones she quite often sits in the passenger footwell.