So hard to adopt a rescue, feeling peeved.

[MrsKingfisher]

My dad has been looking for a companion for a little while now, we've had dogs growing up and he has also had various breeds throughout his life.

He has the experience needed for a particular dog he liked who's been in the dogs home 14 months but the receptionist just barked he's unsuitable. Apparently his experience is not enough, she was really quite rude.

I fear this dog will be stuck in this place for years because the manager who's also a behaviourist apparently cannot find the right home. How on an application you can tell I don't know.

Feel sad for my dad and this lovely dog who really needs a good home which dad could've provided.

We desperately wanted a rescue dog - went through so many rescue organisations, had multiple home checks etc and were turned down each time for various reasons including the fact that we work (even though we WFH a lot and would use day care/a dog walker on days we didn't), our garden wasn't big enough (we live in a 4-bed detached house with a medium sized garden) and because we said we might consider having a baby at some point in the future. We got a puppy in the end and he's the most loved and pampered little boy!! So hard when you genuinely want to give a dog a loving home! All of these organisations preach 'adopt don't shop' - well we tried to adopt for the best part of a year so we shopped!

I was laughed at on the phone by a rescue organisation when I confessed that my DC were under ten.

That was years ago, and we ended up not rescuing then and we haven't since.

I do understand that rescues want to find the right home for the dog, but a completely blanket ban on even looking at a family with kids, mother WFH a few hours a week, secure garden, both parents grew up with dogs, DC used to dogs - it struck me as nuts at the time and I haven't changed my mind.

We were turned down for a year old puppy as we were unsuitable as our granddaughter came to our house after school x1. I'm retired and partner works any 2 days a week. Vet was supportive. We had 2 dogs who needed to be put to sleep because of cancer diagnosis aged 13 & 15. I have other experience as I've always had dogs. Wrote a very detailed letter and we filled in the form. My partner was then asked if we would take 2 dogs who were coming to the centre to be rehomed. It just seemed crazy.

I must admit I had a bad experience with multiple rescue centres because I had kids under 12, we had a fenced 1/4 acre garden, walking distance to a large park, under 10 mins by car to open countryside and I was a sahm but apparently we weren't good candidates for any proper dog (we wanted a circa 20kg sized dog but were flexible on breed as long as it wasn't a staffy or similar as I don't trust them due to personal experience), bottom line is we got a puppy.

We gave up on dog rescue centres. We've had dogs all our lives but apparently were unsuitable due to our children's ages and we didn't have 6' fencing all around our land (we had 2.5 acres at the time and ranch fencing with chicken wire). Against all my principles I was looking at buying a puppy from a breeder, but then our preloved beautiful girl came into our lives via our window cleaner! That was 12 years ago, and she's been the best dog we could have wished for.

I feel so sad for dogs in rescue centres. They don't seem very motivated to rehome.

There's no way on this planet I would have passed the home checks for DDog - working full time, in inner London, in a rented flat with a "no pets" clause and no experience of dogs beyond being around some very nice ones as a child. Hell, I wasn't even looking for a dog.

A reactive, untrained, undersocialised young dog, already looking for his fourth owner? Hardly textbook. We made it work though (and I went through a VERY steep learning curve, with copious literal blood, sweat and tears), and he's now been with me 3x longer than any previous owner.

That said, I'd 100% understand why a rescue wouldn't have rehomed my dog to me - on paper, it really shouldn't have worked!

That receptionist could have been having a very bad day - most rescues are getting inundated with calls, hundreds of calls, you could have been the 15th call in the last half an hour asking after dogs they knew needed something quite particular.

Ultimately a rescue's priority is the dog, not the person applying. They don't owe people rescue dogs.

That particular dog could have a history of being out into homes they thought were suitable but he's lasted a day and returned because said home had over-estimated their ability with dogs with complex behavioural issues. The more times a dog goes out and comes back to the kennels, the more messed up they become. This is why its better for a complex dog to stay put in rescue with a routine they know and carers they recognise for longer than for the rescue to "risk it" and put the dog in yet another over-confident home, or a home that has just plain lied to get a rescue dog (happens way more than you want it to).

We ‘rescued’ a retired greyhound about 3 months ago now. We contacted a few charities, the one we went with in the end were amazing. The process went how you would expect it to. We contacted them, told them what we wanted and if they could help, they asked some questions, we went to see a couple of dogs, saw one we wanted, they home checked us and a week later we had him . We have 2 sons and an existing small dog and they went out of the way to make sure he fitted in with everyone. They gave amazing advice and support and made it clear that any problems or ideas of returning him, we spoke to them. I cannot fault them at all. They were realistic that dogs would be left alone at times (not more than 4 hours), some people with children would want hounds (these were matched with dogs they knew to be placid and child friendly) and also they could be great dogs for older people. There was a more local rescue we initially went to who were awful, our experience was more like that people above have described. I would say just keep trying different rescues, they are not all the same.

So many people who could give a dog a great, loving home are denied. Meanwhile my bedridden neighbour who can't even get himself to the toilet or get himself a drink has rescued a dog via RSPCA. His daughter comes to let it out to the toilet 3 times a day. How does that work?

@VioletSunset

So many people who could give a dog a great, loving home are denied. Meanwhile my bedridden neighbour who can't even get himself to the toilet or get himself a drink has rescued a dog via RSPCA. His daughter comes to let it out to the toilet 3 times a day. How does that work?

I would strongly suspect he's lied to get the dog, and the RSPCA have no idea what's actually going on - unless this is an absolutely ancient dog who can't manage a walk anyway

A lot of rescues are just batshit.

The RSPCA insisted on doing a home inspection when I wanted to adopt a hamster once. Not sure what they were looking for.

A different branch very rudely rejected my application to adopt two rats on the grounds that rats had to live in a cage that was minimum 6ft tall. I'm sorry but that's insanely huge for a pair of rats. My existing rat cage was about 5ft which is still massive (it's a cage intended for a large litter, not a pair, and in the past six rats have lived in that cage very happily) and it still got rejected as too small. Barking mad. The woman sent me links to what she called suitable rat cages, they were all aviaries and wouldn't have been safe for small rodents.

God knows what hoops I'd need to jump to adopt a dog, if that's how picky they are about cage pets.

I often wonder about rescues as you hear them reject people on paper without looking at the whole picture but yet I know someone who was allowed to adopt a reactive dog when the adopter didn't have a clue on what that meant let alone have an understanding of how to handle the dog and it didn't end well.

@BiteyShark

I often wonder about rescues as you hear them reject people on paper without looking at the whole picture but yet I know someone who was allowed to adopt a reactive dog when the adopter didn't have a clue on what that meant let alone have an understanding of how to handle the dog and it didn't end well.

People may have been rejected “on paper” because the particular dog had dozens of also-perfect applications but can only go to one home. Most rescues, big and small, do not have the resources to keep applications on file and match up people to dogs when they come in.

The one case with the reactive dog could be a case of them bending the truth on their own application or maybe the dog did not display so many reactive behaviours in the rescue.

Rescues are not psychic - they can only rehome based on what is on paper and how the people sound on the phone or on a video call (until face to face is ok again). Rescues are allowed to say no.

bunnygeek the reactive dog actually screamed dog reactive on the dogs online description and I tried to warn the person adopting about what that meant but they wouldn't listen. And without going into too much detail also showed fear aggression to humans straight away. I just wish the charity had also questioned them as they would have realised that they didn't understand what that meant and anyway it doesn't matter because the dog ended up being PTS very soon afterwards

I was told by the RSPCA that they didn’t allow dogs to go to “foreigners” as they would abandon them, they really treated us like shit, so we got our dog from a breeder.

20 years later after my 19 year old dog died, I was back in the RSPCA and although they didn’t word the rejection as openly as before, they just took a look at me, told me it wasn’t that easy to adopt, refused to let me see the dog unless I had filled an application AND had a home check, which would take at least a month to do. No other way, they said in a very nasty way.

So I filled the application on the spot knowing the dog would be gone long before they completed the home check, which the woman read in front of me when I handed it to her and everything changed... once she read all the dog training experience we had, the age of my old dog and all the work that went into keeping him healthy and comfortable in his old age I was apparently no longer a “foreigner”, they showed me the dog on the spot, took the dog off the list of available dogs and arranged a home check 2 days later.

Mind you, I got the dog and she was definitely worth all the hassle and aggravation but I wonder how many times they immediately dismiss people based on unfair stereotyping.

Having said that, I don’t know why your dad is insisting on adopting a dangerous dog (I guess the rescue knows better) but also, I am very surprised they have a dog with unresolved serious behavioural problems up for adoption.

@gegs73 I’m about to start looking for a greyhound, if you’re SE I’d be really interested to know which charity was good and which one was less realistic. Thank you !

Funny thing about these stories is that... people's circumstances change. My youngest is 13 so we would be eligible according to the criteria that the household mustn't have kids under 10yo. But... I have adult DC. They could procreate at any time and bring the new DGC around lots to visit. Heck, it's not outside biological plausibility I could create another new child. We all WFH now but that could change, back to office. How we look on paper isn't exactly a permanent situation.

@yeOldeTrout

No Ofc there are ni promises but otherwise you would never rehome at all but how you are now is a certainty.

A good example of this is accomodation and working hours. I dont really expect many of the homes my fosters went to have the same job and house by the time the dog passed away. Of course circumstances change but we often here well I'm dropping my hours etc but theres no point homing a dog where the immediate situation isnt right for them eg if the working hours are already over the limit because that's what the dog will have to cope with from day 1.

Anyone might suddenly have kids, or grandchildren but by that point hopefully you know the dog better and you might be able to work around. Theres no time for that adjustment if they are immediately there.

A really controversial one is age. As this poster says about someone in their 70's adopting a reactive dog. If you have a young dog, do you rehome it to someone who has a high likelihood of becoming infirm by the time dog hits old age? Of course anyone can become Ill but sometimes it's easier to predict

This is where my view tends to be that people who are decent will do right by their dog irrespective of redundancy, divorce, bereavement, unexpected arrivals and house moves.

People who won’t, wouldn’t anyway.

[quote tootyfruitypickle]@gegs73 I’m about to start looking for a greyhound, if you’re SE I’d be really interested to know which charity was good and which one was less realistic. Thank you ![/quote]
Greyhound Rescue Wales rehomed to a friend who works full time (no kids / other pets though)

Hi tootyfruitypickle - I have PMed you

Thank you 😊

Rescues do seem to be particularly ridiculous. You can't have a dog if you work (even permanently WFH for years), yet when you retire you are "too old". But also no kids allowed in the household (even visiting ones).

So you need to be a young (but not too young), childless person with enough money to not need to work ever again. It's no wonder dogs sit in rescues for years!

There are dogs in rescues who can go with kids - those are the ones that get hundreds (even thousands) of applications and are out the door as soon as they've come in.

The dogs that stick on the websites are the harder to home ones or the "boring" looking ones - loooooads of Greyhounds available at the moment, often available with kids, as so many of the race tracks and race breeders have been shut down during the pandemic.

Unfortunately the families with kids usually want the cute small fluffy things rather than the hounds. Forgetting that sometimes those small fluffy cute things have been thoroughly messed around - hence now being in rescue. They may be cute but they may also eat your children.

Here's a lovely looking pup that can live with kids 10 years plus. She's a black Greyhound though. Not a whatsitpoo that everyone wants.
www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/dogs/dog/1242819/tazzi

We were desperate for a dog and heeded ''get a rescue''. We registered with 2 or 3 rescues, and were on told on paper we were perfect. My husband's retired, we own our own property with outside space, no kids, close to parks. We've both had dogs as kids, but not adults, and this, it seems, was our stumbling block. We kept an eye on the sites but every time a dog came up we thought was good, we were told we didn't have enough experience with dogs for as there were issues with the dogs that needed experienced owners. All the more suitable dogs were snapped up straight away, I wonder if the centres offer them to friends or family first.

We ended up going to a breeder.

Getting a rescue is obviously a good thing to do but not as easy as people think.