So many young dogs coming through local pound

[MrsRobbieHart]

Is this the same where you are? Today in the pound for rehoming we have a 5 month old, a 7 month old, an 11 month old and several others all under 2 years old. Most owner surrenders, the rest found as strays. Most weeks it’s the same. Mostly young dogs under 2. A few older dogs that are usually strays. I rehomed my own girl through there a few months ago and she too was less than a year old, found as a stray. Are these pandemic purchases that no longer suit because of returning to normal routines? I don’t remember as many dogs pre pandemic and certainly not as many young dogs in the pound.

Not really - I looked at the first dozen on the websites of the four large shelters within an hour or so of where we live. Only one of them had a large number of young dogs (6-12 months) in the first dozen advertised. Lots of the dogs were over 2, and quite a number were 8+.

I'm not sure how this compares with their usual intake.

It has long been the case that adolescence is the time a dog is most likely to be rehomed - because they're at peak twat stage.

It just so happens that pretty much every dog currently in the adolescent stage was born after March 2020.

There's also been an awful lot of puppies bred to meet demand - so you'd expect higher numbers to be coming through rescue simply because there are more young / adolescent dogs around at the minute.

We'd need cold, hard, comparative numbers to work out if things are any worse than normal - both in terms of raw numbers of dogs being surrendered, and an estimate on what % of dogs are rehomed by the age of 18 months, pre and post March 2020.

That’s a really common age for them to be given up, it’s when untrained puppy behaviour becomes not cute and harder to live with.

And yeah - I’d agree that I’d expect to see higher numbers than normal because of how many were bred to cash in on the lockdown price rise.

I always keep an eye on labrador rescue websites and there are far fewer dogs than normal available. Which is good.

Where are you based?

Not in our area! All that's ever available to adopt round here are "golden oldies" with very specific requirements for their future home ("must be rehomed with a calm female dog over 8 years old, no cats, no children, no furniture, isn't able to go for walks due to arthritis, owners who are happy to pay her vet bills which already come to £££ every month and are likely to increase as she gets even older")

Just checked 2x local RSPCA:

9 dogs available at one, median age 5 yrs, range 10m to 14 yrs

2nd branch: lots of rodents & cats: 1 adult dog

Mine has 34 dogs, 10 under 2, one of whom is under 6 months and one looks like a muppet dressed in a dog costume so just 9 really.

Just seen a really sad faced greyhound who was surrendered and shakes with nerves and hates going back to kennels after his walk. I want to go and get him but he can’t live with a cat. He’s been there since March.

No, not round here - and those that do come through appear to need a home with someone in all day, a vast fencedgarden, no children under the age of 16, someone with experience of owning a dog, no other pets in the home and so on and on. It’s no wonder that people give up and buy a puppy - thus creating a vicious cycle.

There are ALWAYS lots of teenage dogs in rescue - it just so happens that puppies bought during the first lockdown are currently bang in the middle of their teenage phase.

Teenage dogs are a nightmare. I found the teenage phase 10x harder than the puppy phase - you're dealing with a strong, adult-sized dog with a puppy brain. Many regress with toilet training, chewing, destruction, barking and recall - it's hard.

I was committed to our dog 100% but he still had me in tears several times during the teenage years. I can imagine for people who aren't fully on board with it, that it would be enough to tip them over the edge.

Still virtually no dogs in our local rescue which is good but feel like we'll never find a 2nd dog.

Pandemic pups in our shelters its shocking.

I've just taken on a 9 month old from the dogs trust, and there were several others around the same age.

As PP said, it's around the age an untrained pup goes from cute to terrorist.

This one is 6 stone, almost as tall as my hip, and I don't think anyone has ever said 'no' to him . He was allegedly given up due to a chance on circumstances, but I think they just realised how much they'd messed things up! It's going to be a long few months sorting him out...

Thanks all for your responses. Pandemic or no pandemic, it’s so sad to think of all these young dogs having such disrupted starts in life.