Rehoming solution for friend help please

[Soubriquet]

A friend of mine recently lost her 15 year old staffy and is looking for another one

She’s contacted several rescues, enquiring about older dogs 6+, especially those who have been in rescue for a while.

3 different rescues have turned her down because she’s a single woman who works more than 2 hours a day.

She starts at 3am and finishes by 9am at the latest.

The dog is very likely to sleep through this

Why are they happier leaving a dog in a kennel with no contact for hours, for years, rather than see it in a loving home?

She really doesn’t want a puppy.

What else could she do?

Can you suggest any more flexible rescues?

We are in the Lincolnshire area but I’m pretty sure she would travel for the right dog

Thought she'd have her hand bitten off if I'm honest. I'm guessing you've tried Dogs trust, RSPCA, local small rehoming centres? Or a specific staffy rescue group?

What about Battersea, it's a trek I guess.

I

Has she tried some of the rescues rehoming dogs from abroad? Possibly not a staffy but they seem realistic about people’s lives more than U.K. based rescues.

Alternatively look for someone rehoming on pets4homes. The website gets a bad rep but if you are careful it can be ok.

Here we go again sigh Rescue bashing

Why are they happier leaving a dog in a kennel with no contact for hours, for years, rather than see it in a loving home?

yep this is just what rescues want........

Why would it make any difference what time the 6 hours it’d be left for happens to be?

Dogs don’t naturally have the same sleep patterns as people, it’s not necessarily going to be asleep just because it’s when she leaves.... and presumably she sleeps as well

So it’s no different to leaving a dog for 6 hours through the day - except it’s going to be impossible to get any sort of dog care for it.

Has she registered with DogsBlog? They pool together dogs from lots of smaller rescues who tend to be less black and white than some of the national ones.

I know one of my local shelters will definitely consider people who work outside the home for a few hours a day

She is out of the house for 6 hours plus (assuming commute), the time is irrelevant. She’s not a suitable home for a dog

Does that six hours include travelling time? As you say she 'starts at 3am and finishes at 9am' I'm guessing not.

So in effect the dog will be left alone for more than six hours and then again while your friend sleeps herself during the day. That might seem the same schedule as for a person who works days but as a previous poster has said, finding 'night care' instead of day care will be very difficult.

An older dog already established in the home might cope with it, a rescue dog not so much; she wouldn't be able to leave a puppy unattended for that long, either.

Having said that, the right dog might be out there. She could try having a look at the Oldies Club website.

@Ludo19

Thought she'd have her hand bitten off if I'm honest. I'm guessing you've tried Dogs trust, RSPCA, local small rehoming centres? Or a specific staffy rescue group?

What about Battersea, it's a trek I guess.

I

Same here

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll mention them to her

@PollyRoulson

Here we go again sigh Rescue bashing

Why are they happier leaving a dog in a kennel with no contact for hours, for years, rather than see it in a loving home?

yep this is just what rescues want........

I used to work at a rescue centre.

Probably not a very good one as it closed down now, but apart from being walked and the kennels cleant, the dogs really were left alone

I used to work at a rescue centre. Then you should understand . It not just about rehoming but rehoming to the correct suitable home for hopefully life.

Rescue centres offer support for life for the dogs and you will have heard the ridiculous excuses people give for giving back their dogs. I would have thought you would be able to explain the situation to your friend.

6 hours in a home alone is surely better than all the time alone in a dog shelter?

@PollyRoulson

I used to work at a rescue centre. Then you should understand . It not just about rehoming but rehoming to the correct suitable home for hopefully life.

Rescue centres offer support for life for the dogs and you will have heard the ridiculous excuses people give for giving back their dogs. I would have thought you would be able to explain the situation to your friend.

Yes but they also need to be flexible

If she had applied to the rescue I worked at, because she was a single woman, with no dependents or other animals, an older staffy would have placed.

Now if she had children, then there might have been some hesitation.

In a kennel a dog can't injure itself by chewing on inappropriate objects. It also can't annoy neighbors by howling for hours on end.

Lots of dogs that develop separation anxiety after adoption don't show signs of separation anxiety when in their kennel.

Being returned to a rescue can really mess with a dog. I have seen negative behaviour changes in dogs that have been returned to a rescue, even if they have only been gone for a few days.

www.nawt.org.uk/rehoming

Has she tried Rescue Remedies in Crawley? They specialise in staffies/bulls

@Snackz

6 hours in a home alone is surely better than all the time alone in a dog shelter?

Most reputable rescues they're not really "alone" but will have constant kennel staff monitoring them, taking them for walks, offering them environment enrichment and toys etc. And as others have said, they'll be in a safe environment, not somewhere they can cause serious damage to the home chewing on furniture or doors or pissing off the neighbours howling and barking.

While many rescue dogs maybe could be left for 4 hours, maybe even 6 at a stretch, it may take months to build up that time. She would need to allow for that, either working from home, using holiday or using dog walkers/dog sitters/doggy daycare - but some dogs won't cope with doggy daycare either. You can't adopt a dog and then go off to work the next day on your normal hours.

Also, a LOT of dogs are being signed over with separation anxiety right now. Thank you pandemic. They've already been messed up by people not preparing them for being left alone. Those dogs won't be able to be left, maybe even never be able to be left for more than an hour.

@Snackz

6 hours in a home alone is surely better than all the time alone in a dog shelter?

Also... it’s not a choice between that one owner and staying forever in kennels, as soon as someone suitable applies, they’ll be rehomed.

Try senior staffie club
Google it

Stray Aid in Co. Durham usually have lots of staffy types and seem flexible, Ive no idea if they are rehoming during lockdown and would be quite a trek. I hope she finds a dog soon.

Second recommendation for Battersea. I am an older woman with a job, who lives alone, and they were fine with me having a 4-year-old Staffie once they had found out about my dog experience and provision of dogwalker on work days. If she is prepared to travel to Battersea, get her to register with them online initially and she will then be able to "reserve" any likely dog she sees on their website by giving them a quick call - she has to be able to go and meet it within a short period of time though. Otherwise, they all go really fast (staffs especially at the moment) and every one you ring up about has already been reserved and you've already missed out.

I think it helped that my previous dog, another rescue, had just been PTS and I had had her for more than 10 years so I was obviously used to caring for a dog.

You can get dogs from Romania.?