Looking for big, friendly, 'nice' dog!

[OwlFeathersFluff]

Looking for dog No2. Must be medium or bigger, very good temperament, able to be let off lead (so no sight hounds etc). Must be fairly intelligent breed.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Labrador, ideally show bred but I'm biased! They are likely (but it is a generalisation) to be less wired and driven than a lab from trialling lines, but most are more than capable of intelligent family pet, giving lots of dog sports a go.

Just make sure you look into the relevant health testing for any breed you decide upon. The KCABS is a good place to start- but make sure you still ask all the regular questions!

We have two labs. Aunt and puppy. Aunt is now 4 and dream dog. She is obedient, desperate to please you, "gets" things quickly and loves training and doing new stuff- she has recently started agility with 12 year old DS and they are having a whale of a time. She comes running with me. Recall is fab, even around dogs, livestock, balls. She is always happy to "go" but at home she snores a lot and follows me room to room. SO easy.

(However, as puppies they are bitey little demons who can demolish a lino kitchen floor and skirting board inside ten minutes- yes i speak from experience).

Labradors - especially brown labs - they are big, cuddly teddybears of dogs. Not the brightest bulb in the box, but the most loving dog you could ever wish for!

Goodness hopping that sounds a bit odd to me, demanding that you take him this weekend or else

We've got a holiday cottage booked in Northumbria Friday to Monday.
We couid come home Sunday night instead and drive down to Wales to collect Tuesday but as these puppies are so popular they think they can have them homed by the weekend.
It's a shame as we have Retriever experience, someone is always home and a large house with secure garden but I suppose there might be other people with all those things who couid collect Saturday/Sunday.
I'm not sure how they would have arranged a home check by Friday but if it's not meant to be then it's not.

I know retriever pups shouldn't be hard to rehome, but it seems unusual to offer you the pup but not be prepared to keep him a couple of days.

Apparently we were number 1 on the list, kicking myself now not saying " oh yes no problem" and then stalling!!!!
I doubt we couid have been home checked until Thursday at the earliest but they rehome dogs all the time so there must be a reason for the policy.
Apparently I can reapply on Monday when we get home but he will probably be gone by then.
He must not have been "our dog" after all

I personally would like to think that a perfect home set up for a lovely little dog could wait a day or two. If you are prepared to wait to be home checked and pay a deposit why on earth can't they wait until next week.

Bonkers!

Thanks Lavender . We also have great references from people we dog sit for ( including a vet) .
I'm just really glad the DC know nothing about it, they know we are getting a dog obviously but not about this specific one.
This rescue does amazing work I know and I'm sure they have good reasons for their policy but it is disappointing. When they phoned I could hardly speak I was so excited!!!!!

I am disappointed on your behalf Hopping!!!

Cheers x
Anyway, OP, get a Retriever!!!!!

There are other rescues out there! What about Baxter - he only needs a bit of lead work.

Thanks Lougle
I have been looking at lots of rescues for a while now but we really would like a puppy.
I am on Black Retriever Rescues Facebook page and I contacted them recently about a younger dog but didn't get a reply. We've also applied for a failed Guide Dog
Will keep looking but have set a deadline and if we don't find anything by then I will be looking at Breeders.

Do try BRX again - the lady who runs it does so around a very busy full-time job, so while she is keen as mustard to find dogs new homes, applications do sometimes slip through the net. We got our lovely rescue from there and my parents have got one rescue and one foster (well, let's face it, he'll end up staying) from there and they follow up very carefully and put the dog first when matching homes to dogs.

I can tell you that there is no way they would have dropped your application because you needed an extra few days to pick a dog up!! They keep their fosters for weeks or even months until they are sure they're ready to rehome.

I will Lougle, I was after that little 6 month old boy from Spain that was on there last month so if he is still available we would love to have him.

BRX have a couple more six month pups on the way ..... see pic upthread
I think ideally they will want homes with other dogs for them though

Hoppinggreen you may already have done this, but join the Black Retriever X FB page - you can contact them through there and it might get you an answer more quickly than other methods. Keep trying!

Thank you bagel but I have already done that.

Bubble, why would they want homes with other dogs, just curious. There are many single dogs in homes, I don't understand why they would do that. probably thick here.

lavender ( not thick at all :) )
It is purely for the benefit of dogs who haven't known much - they can benefit hugely from moving in with another dog or dogs who are already settled in a nice routine.
The little guy I am fostering at the moment is fairly typical - six months old but had clearly never been in a house or on a lead and probably not been around other dogs much. My dogs have taught him how to play nicely, and to have manners and he follows what they do - for example when they settle down for the night he goes with them quite happily. He absolutely loves being around other dogs and I think has really benefitted by being introduced to a nice calm pack.
There are of course dogs who are extremely people focussed and do very well as only dogs. A good rescue IMO will recognise this.

I'm not sure these rescues are doing themselves any favours to be honest. I know they are really busy, but on the phone they are unwilling to talk about the dogs in any detail at all - it's all 'have you filled in the application form?'. Well no, I hadn't, as I wanted basic information like when it had been weaned from its mother, what the other half of the breed was likely to be so that I could try and work out if it was out of its socialisation period and would be a breed likely to be good with kids - all important things with children in the family.

I have also offered to foster dogs as has someone else I know - in both cases the charity didn't come back to us - even to say they were busy. I'd offer volunteer to work for these charities if I could find a way in, but they are hard work to deal with, which is a real shame.

I know owl but they are mostly run by volunteers and it's a labour of love.
It's (rightly) all about the animals and customer service and admin can get relegated to second place.
To be fair to the lovely lady at Many Tears she phoned me within a hour of me sending the adoption form in.
I used to Homecheck for a well known national charity but took a break when I had my DC, when I wanted to volunteer again I couldn't get anyone to respond to my calls and emails so I know how frustrating it is when you want to help but when an organisation is swamped they have to prioritise.

Hopping, I know. Frustrating though.

Hopping, I know. Frustrating though.

Hi Hoppinggreen - I currently have Nudge, NickNack and Nosey sleeping on my feet. They are gorgeous, gentle, loving puppies. They are already reserved for 3 families and their homechecks have been arranged for Thursday and Friday. If all goes well then all 3 puppies will be adopted on Saturday and so I will foster 3 more on Sunday. The MT foster van travels from Wales down the M4 as far as Reading every Sunday and the foster carers collect the dog/pups from the nearest service station. If a dog/pup can be adopted before the Sunday morning then there is a spare foster space and another one gets a space on the foster van and out of the Rescue and creates a kennel space at the Rescue so another one can be saved/rescued. If you multiple this by all the foster carers/spaces all over the country then it is a large amount of spaces. The foster run only happens once a week because it is so expensive to run the foster van from Wales to Reading. If a family/person needs to delay the adoption until the Monday then there is an empty foster space for the rest of the week and a pup/dog has to stay another week at the Rescue and the kennels get full so the rescue spaces run out. This is the reason why MT really try to encourage adopters to adopt before the Saturday evening if possible. I think you were probably offered Never? He is reserved now also. Please do keep a eye on the website because there are always lots of puppies/dogs being abandoned so it won't be long before there are more retriever crosses.

Hi Owl - please do fill out a MT foster application form if you want to be a fosterer. There is a desperate shortage of fosterers and the more people that foster, the more dogs/pups get out of the rescue and create spaces to save more. Unfortunately quite a lot of the puppies I have fostered have been found dumped in plastic bags / suitcases/ boxes etc so nobody knows the answers to many questions about them apart from a vets estimate of their age. MT try to get all the pups out to foster as soon as possible to ensure they get socialised as early as possible. What happens then is an applicant fills out the application form and after a quick chat with the MT office their number gets sent to the foster carer who will call the applicant to discuss what they have learnt about the pup during the days/week or two that they have been fostering and socialising them. The foster carer will know the pup/dog the best.

I hope I have answered your questions a little bit - this doesn't apply to every single case but it is the norm. Fingers crossed that it works out for both of you, x

Thank you Pootle. We really wanted Never, but I hope he finds a nice home. He had such a mischievous look in his eye and I thought he would be lovely company for our mischievous dog!

I grew up with dogs, but have only had our own dog as an adult for a year (since puppyhood) and have attended training sessions weekly since 10 weeks or so. Do you think this is enough experience to be a fosterer?

Also, in terms of adopting, what I really wanted to know was at what age the puppy had been found/abandoned? There is a dog in our training sessions that was separated from its mum far too early and has such issues - I am trying to avoid that sort of thing with children in the house (or maybe I am misinformed about this issue, I'm not sure).

Thanks