How do we adopt a dog?

[WeWouldLoveADog]

This is long.
Me & DH are empty nesters. Our last DC left home in March last year.

We always planned to get another dog, even before our youngest DC left home.

We would love a puppy but we emphatically want to avoid buying from a puppy farm. I'm aware of how cunning those people can be and we desperately don't want to support that industry.

Personally, I am wary of rehoming. We did rehome a dog from an RSPCA place about 8 years ago. The dog started having fits within a week of getting him home. It transpired that the dog had a brain tumour and had to be euthanised, there was no alternative. We had owned him for fewer than two months.

My DH says that this is unlikely to happen again and that is true, but given the extensive medical testing the RSPCA performs on animals I find it hard to believe that they didn't know at least that the dog was having fits, let alone that he had a tumour the size of an orange in his brain.

Regardless, we thought we would try again to rehome a dog, we thought that after Christmas and, especially with Covid, there would be loads of dogs needing homes available. Nope. In our area there are very few dogs available for adoption and those that remain have been there for years.

I would take on a dog with behavioural problems, I have extensive experience with dogs as I grew up on a farm we always kept the dogs indoors! As an adult we have had dozens of pets, including 9 dogs. However, the dog who had a tumour became angry towards the end of it's life and our guilt for the dog and that we couldn't do more, was difficult to live with.

We would like a young-ish dog e.g. under 4 years. I would be ok with fostering but DH says that he couldn't let them go!

We don't want a Romanian dog because of the previous dog with a tumour.

Does anyone have any suggestions, please?!

Forgot to say:
There is jus me & DH at home.
We have plenty of room, a large, secure garden.
We have a large room for the dog to be in if it doesn't like visitors.
DH is home during the working week, except for 2 days (post Covid).
I can be at home for the days when he isn't.

Wait until lockdowns have lifted, then rescues are going to have tons of dogs signed over. Right now they're all vastly oversubscribed and a lot less dogs have been signed over since the first lockdown - dogs are getting hundreds of applications, the rescues can pick and choose from a multitude of perfect homes.

When lockdowns lift, people have to go back to commuting to work, kids go back to school, and people want to go on foreign holidays, all those "lockdown puppies" will suddenly seem like less of a good idea. Many of them will be hitting their "teenage" phase as well, so be quite the handful for the unprepared.

Give it a few months, then rescue dogs will be plentiful. Unfortunately.

Get a greyhound!! They're usually retired from racing by the time they're two - it can be younger if they're not very good at racing. Wonderful pets, they just need a wee bit of love but they're great dogs!

A greyhound is a good idea though we definitely want a young dog. We would have say, a younger greyhound with an older one.

Thanks bunnygeek that's terrible for the dogs but hopefully it will mean that we can find a young dog. I don't mind a teenager in the slightest. I used to help my Granddad train up the sheep dogs so I'm used to it! I was so enthused by the training that with love I made them an assault course it wasn't a patch on Crufts but the dogs loved it.

@WeWouldLoveADog I have PM'd you

I’m sorry that you went through that with your last rescue dog but I think that it’s highly unlikely to happen again. I also think that you’re overestimating how extensive the RSPCA’s routine medical testing is (or medical testing carried out by any other rescue for that matter). No rescue (or breeder) routinely carries out tests to check for tumours.

I doubt that the RSPCA would ever knowingly rehome a dog that suffered seizures without informing potential adopters. Dogs can become aggressive after seizures and the RSPCA has to be overly cautious about rehoming dogs because the fallout if one of its dogs mauled someone would be massive, e.g., national news and potentially high-profile legal action.

Was your dog living in a kennel or foster home prior to being adopted? If it was living in a kennel, seizures could easily have been missed because the animal care staff can’t monitor all the dogs all day long and the dogs are left alone for the majority of the night.

It sounds like you can offer a dog a great home!

You can adopt from the larger rescues but there are a lot of smaller rescues and also breed specific. When lockdown eases off there will be plenty of dogs needing homes once people have to go back to work. I dare say many will have some behaviour problems too. Contact them now as they may have a waiting list.

Happenchance he was living in an RSPCA kennel which is incredibly busy (pre Covid) so I find it very difficult to believe that if he's had a fit during the daytime that no-one would have seen him.

The RSPCA had only had him for a 2/3 weeks before we adopted him from seeing him to adoption took about two weeks. He wasn't even on their website yet. They had neutered him, chipped him, ensured that he was inoculated we had to take him back for boosters and given him a complete medical checkup before they let him go. Those were the words they used.

We called the RSPCA when he started to have fits because he did become aggressive after that. By this point we had only had him just over a week. He had nipped at my husband 2 days after his first fit with us.

Given all of this I do still find it different to believe that the RSPCA didn't know.

sitdowncupoftea aside from Google is there another way to find small local shelters?

The complete medical check-up would have been an examination of the dog’s eyes, ears, mouth, skin, coat, anus, genitals, paws and claws. His body would have been checked for lumps and injuries, his heart would have been listened to and his limbs may have been checked for signs of stiffness. No diagnostic tests (including blood and urine tests) would have been carried out unless there was a physical and/or behavioural sign that there was something wrong with the dog.

To alleviate your worries, have you considered adopting a dog that has been living in a foster home, with more one-on-one monitoring?