Considering rehoming a dog from a rescue... any tips? Advice?

[Fairylea]

Both dh and I grew up with dogs but have never had one of our own.

We have two dc - dd aged 15 and ds aged 6 and we live semi rurally. I am a stay at home parent and dh works- so apart from an odd hour or so at the gym or doing shopping / chores I am at home all day. We never go out in the evening. Once a year we have a uk based holiday - we could take the dog with us.

So that’s our set up. We are considering all options really but I think I’d like to rehome a slightly older dog rather than a puppy... I’m guessing this might mean we skip through the toilet training stage? Well, apart from maybe a settling in period? (If accidents happen that’s absolutely fine, but if we could shorten some of it that would be great...)

Are there any breeds I should be looking to avoid for health / child reasons? (Sorry if that’s a totally stupid question)!

Is there one sort of pet insurance that’s better than another? What should we be looking for with that?

We are completely open minded about types and size of dog. The main thing is just being child friendly really - which I know is like gold dust from a rescue (!) but we are in no rush whatsoever.

Any tips / thoughts appreciated! Thank you.

Little update for you all....

We received a phone call from Blue cross today about one of the dogs we expressed interest in (a lovely complete mongrel, part lab, part springer part god knows what) and he ticks all our boxes on paper... young ish (11 months), child friendly, active etc etc. So we are going to meet him on Saturday! I am trying to remain calm and sensible as it all depends on how he is with my 6 year old more than anything to be honest. I am very open minded and don’t want to push it or rush into it. But you never know.... He is a lovely looking dog.

I am prepared to do training and am not worried about accidents house training wise. I realise a dog from a rescue is going to come with some baggage, but I do think it would be very rewarding to offer a loving home to one if we could find the right one.

(I’m only looking at registered charity rescues).

When I say complete mongrel - I mean a complete mixture of breeds. He has been neutered and wormed and had his first set of jabs.

Sounds very exciting Let us know how you get on!

TBH any dog can come with baggage! Our pup took an age to toilet train and had separation anxiety.
Good luck OP. Here's hoping it's the perfect fit.

we have a springer spaniel that we have had for 6 months. He came as a 3 year old rescue.

We started by fostering some dogs for our local rescue, without intending to adopt. On paper this springer would have not been our choice at all, he apparently weed everywhere and was a complete over excited idiot.

He was with us for 5 days and we had all fallen in love. Lots of exercise, and careful handling and he calmed down and he doesn't wee everywhere if he is taken out for a wee often enough. Turns out he is also bright and trainable.

Every month we realise he has settled to another level. He is a hyper personality, but he is 100% calmer than when he arrived. Walking him has been a joy (mostly!)

Two tips for you as a new rescue owner - 1. however he is at the beginning, he will improve as he trusts you, settles and gets used to your routines. 2. Training takes much longer than you think, but it is worth it - I lead trained him (he pulled madly) 4 months of daily training, and he now walks to heel, or on a loose lease, and is very easy to walk. The first month he pulled my arm off and was really hard work to walk.

Great news!
Hope you have a very happy life with him should you choose to take him. :)

Fantastic! Best of luck with him :)

Good Luck with the rescue dog OP. My GSD was from a rescue shelter. He took a while to settle in. He was a nightmare to train as he hadn't had the training and social opportunities as a young pup. As a result his owners gave him up to a rescue centre at 10 months old. They couldn't cope with him.... Seems he was bought on a whim, crated all day, taken for a 10 minute walk if they could be bothered and that was his life.

After over a year of patience (and believe me it took some patience) amongst lots of tellings off from other dog owners - as mine was a rude dog who got in the face of any other dogs. He could not be let off lead to have a run around. He had no recall whatsoever 😣 He had never been toilet trained. He was walked on a leash for 10 mins max previously. He had a lot of pent up energy to release.... He nipped constantly, he bit my children enough to mark but not enough to draw blood, he jumped on anyone who called, bearing in mind he was a big dog! I lost lots of friends because of his jumping and nippiing. He barked constantly, he growled, he wouldn't allow anyone near him when he was eating.... He was a nightmare!

However he is now 14 and I can honestly say the past 10 or so years have been amazing. I have found patience I never knew I had. I have gained new friends who understand.
I booked him.into agility class to burn off his energy and give him a focus. He did extremely well at agility and in a mad moment I entered him in the Crufts agility section. To my amazement he came runner up. He also won best of breed in five national dog shows.

I have to be honest here, the first year was hard work... trying to train a dog when the window of opportunity had long passed. But knowing what I know now I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Ben truly is my soul mate. We have spent so many happy and tearful, frustrating times together. I feel so sad that Ben's life is at an end but so grateful for the time I had with him. I have a mixture of emotions. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

I have 2 young border collies from pups. Both amazing dogs, zany, full of life and energy, extremely intelligent and demanding but a lot easier to control indoors and out than my rescue GSD.

If you have the time, patience and commitment go for a rescue dog. Pedigree papers are worth zilch unless you want to enter Crufts. Most dog owners don't. I wouldn't have either if I didn't have his papers to hand. But as I did I took advantage of his pedigree. My collie pups don't have KC papers. Not worried. They don't need papers to show they are Collies They are loved for simply being them.

Good Luck OP 🍀

I volunteer as a dog walker at my local shelter (always desperately need more if anyone out there can spare a couple of hours a week).
We always recommend potential owners come up several times and take a few dogs out on walks to get a feel for them.
Agree about staffies having an unfair press. They are always my favorite ( but do have loads of energy !!) .
Good luck !

I have a JRT and a Springer. They're not really rescues as I took them as pups before they actually went into a rescue centre.

Totally agree with pp. Training is really important and will take longer than you think. Ime, springers are dumb as a box of frogs, then suddenly wake up and realise that they have a brain. Out of nowhere, they become calmer, and less like Tigger on steroids.

I walk mine off lead almost exclusively. I worked on his recall for ages before this though, as well as his socialisation.

The best tip I ever got was to go through the house at the dog's eyeline. Anything breakable or dangerous can be moved. It gave me his perspective, and there was more to move than I thought there would have been. This is a good idea even for an older puppy as he settles in.

Fingers crossed for you, I hope he's the one!

Ime, springers are dumb as a box of frogs, then suddenly wake up and realise that they have a brain. Out of nowhere, they become calmer, and less like Tigger on steroids.
this made me laugh because it is like our springer.

I also have to walk him off lead to give him the amount of exercise he needs. His recall isn't great, but he is reliable when it counts usually for example, he is rubbish when there is a squirrel up a tree, but him sitting under a tree barking and refusing to come isn't a problem usually for anyone except me.

Hello all,

Thank you for all your interesting messages and stories of your dogs!

Well we’ve had an interesting time ... met a few potentials and most of them were much too big and bouncy for my youngest child who was utterly terrified. Which was a shame but he is, of course, my main priority- and wouldn’t be fair to the dog too.

But - yesterday a retired greyhound was added online to our nearest rescue and we went to visit him today and we all instantly fell in love! So calm and well natured and walked beautifully on the lead etc. He didn’t bounce up all over my 6 year old and we just adored him.

So he is due to come home with us next Saturday! I am so excited! I understand the ins and outs of greyhounds having an in built thing to go for cats / rabbits etc and we are learning as much as we can before we collect him.

I was told he isn’t housetrained which is fine, I am happy to crack on with that and will do lots of research. I would rather have a dog that needs housetraining rather than a dog that wants to bounce up all the time - which seems to be the trend from the ones we’ve seen...!

We have a large kitchen diner area that we will put his bed in and this leads into our garden. So he can have the run of those all day and obviously he can come into the living room and slob out with us.

Any tips for housetraining an adult ex racer greyhound?

Sorry meant to add I am meeting him again on Tuesday and will take him for another walk etc. Pick up is on Saturday.

Good luck and enjoy.
There's a great FB group called dog training advice and support which has awesome advice on toilet training.
A longline around the cats and stairgates are a good idea. Has the dog been properly cat tested? The Blue Cross has a good info sheet about introducing a dog to cats.

Aww, brilliant news! Pointies are fabulous.

Housetraining is just the same as for puppies - you watch them like hawks, take them out with tedious regularity, and heap praise on them when they wee/poo outside. If they don't go, watch them even more closely. Most dogs will go after eating/drinking and after a long nap, so whisk them out then - and stay with them, don't just open the door.

You'll need greyhound collars - normal ones will slide off or hurt their neck. I prefer Meggie Moo and Slouching Hound for full martingales as they are really good quality. If you prefer a harness, Perfect Fit are great as you customise the parts so they fit the deep chest of a grey. They'll need a coat for cooler days, and you can't go wrong with Milgi for coats.

Congratulations! In my experience they are extremely food motivated, so that helps Also be aware that they are terrible thieves. A lot of the time it's endearing, but don't turn your back for a second once you have dinner on the table.

He was super keen on the treats we gave him today so I think food will be a good motivator!

Thank you for the suggestions as to collars and housetraining. I will definitely do those things! I will have a look at the FB Page.

Here are a couple of photos -

Sorry not sure if I’ve said anything about cats anywhere, we don’t have any other pets ourselves. This will be our one and only.

Sorry. I just read where you said about greyhounds having a prey drive and cats. I thought you meant you had cats!!
Oh my. That face. Too handsome.
Definitely a decent sighthound collar or harness. And don't forget the tag too!!

Oh, he is a heartthrob. How old? What's his name?

Oh, he is so handsome! I love blue dogs so much

If you haven't see already, greys should never be walked on an extending lead - they can reach 40mph in 6 strides so you and they can get seriously hurt

Oh I see about the cats! That’s ok.

Thanks, yes he is pretty stunning! Well I think so I am so in love with him....! He has just turned 3. We have decided to call him Bolt ... that’s not the name he has at the rescue but we thought it was pretty fitting!

(Usain Bolt )

Loving the new name!

You went for the best breed 👍. Greyhounds are pretty chilled out, is he an ex racer? If he's come from kennels to a home make sure he has his own space where he can go to if it's all a bit overwhelming for him. Let the kids know that's his space and when he's in his space leave him be. One of ours was territorial over his bed and he let me know! They really are lovely and unlike other dogs.