Rescue/rehoming a dog - primary age children? is there a minimum age for children?

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We'd love to adopt/rehome a dog, but my DS are currently 6yo and 8yo.

Am I right in thinking most rescue centres won't rehome dogs with young children? Is there generally a minimum age for the children?

I guess it always depends on the dogs, but I wondered if there was a general guideline/policy that most places have?

Just don't want to to start looking and get our hopes up, when it might just be better to wait a couple of years.

Thanks

Some rescues have a blanket policy of no under 5s...

Mostly it depends on the dog, the history they have for it and their assessment of it.

Usually they categorise children as under 5s and 5-12, over 12 they’re much less cautious.

So no reason to not start looking, but... there are less dogs available suitable to live with children always because they have to be very sure the dog will be happy living with children and that no children are put in danger.

And at the moment, it’s blooming hard to find a rescue dog at all - the same issue as puppy prices going up, everyone working from home or furloughed suddenly wanting dogs.

So it’s definitely worth looking, but also, don’t get your hopes up too high just now as it might take a wee while to find one.

Yup a lot of rescues don't generally have a blanket rule but will rehome depending on the individual dog instead.

This of course depends on what they've been handed in. They can only rehome a dog based on any history they've been given during hand over and what they see when the dog is in their care. Rescues have no psychic ability ;) unfortunately hand overs from families with children may often be the reason they've been handed in - too boisterous for young children, may even have nipped the children or developed behaviours like resource guarding which isn't good for a family with kids.

Right now demand for dogs is UTTERLY MENTAL. It feels like everyone with kids wants dogs right now. There are not enough being handed over to rescue to keep up with the demand - those that are signed over are more likely to have issues that mean no kids in the home or at least teenagers who don't mind being barged about. When rescues get litters of puppies, they'll get hundreds of applications. Any rescues that did have puppy waiting lists, are generally closed as they're full. Owners that may have previously handed a dog into rescue - are selling it on freelistings for hundreds or thousands instead. Kaching and all that.

You may be better waiting until next year, spring time onward when the weather is better for introducing dogs into new homes (no one likes going for long dog walks when it's howling, gloomy with horizontal rain). Maybe this virus madness will have calmed down and more hand overs will be for more peaceful reasons - such as normal work hours suddenly not compatible with dog.

You’ll get lots of people insisting they do, in theory there may be some truth in this, in practice it probably won’t happen, even if you were to wait for a couple of years.

The rescues I volunteer 4 say 7 as a general rule

We adopted a greyhound from retired greyhound trust when our children were 3 and 4 years old and they were happy to consider a few different potential dogs for us. That's about 10 years ago though so I'm not sure if their criteria has changed and obviously, a greyhound isn't suitable or desirable for everyone.

The 2 general, none breed specific rescue centres near me seem to have a rule of children over 9 or secondary school aged for the majority of their dogs

Personally it's down to the rescue and the dog. I have dogs and cats and adopted a rescue. A friend of mine has a dog , cats and kids and got one. I think the main criteria is why you want a dog and if its because your WFH then the answer would be no. The reason why many dogs are in rescue is because they have to go back to work and have got a puppy due to lockdown. Rescues are full and some have had to stop taking dogs as they are overwhelmed by the amount.