Rejected for rescue dogs

[Kepner]

I am home 24/7, I live in the countryside, I have no other pets, no children, very few visitors.

I love dogs, as a kid/teenager we had a spaniel, two collies and a (crazy) lurcher. As well as chickens, horses, goats, cats, and any animal I found injured was nursed. Basically I understand and appreciate the responsibility having a dog requires.

I've looked after friends dogs, my ex had two labs and we lived together for three years, during our time together I walked them, fed them, took them to vets appointments etc.

Now is the perfect time for me to finally get my own dog, and I really want a rescue. I've been keeping an eye on the rescue dogs in my local rescue centers (two small independent ones and a Dogs Trust).

So I phoned to register myself as interested - only they've said they won't even consider me. Because I don't have a fully fenced garden.

My garden is 5 acres. It has a stock proof fence but not the 6 feet high fencing they want.

I said I can purchase and erect some fencing to create a secure 'pen' of around half an acre but they all want to tick the box of 'fully secure garden'.

The cost to do this would be thousands and thousands.

No wonder people just buy puppies!

I had similar issues trying to get kittens from rescues. We had to buy privately too. Kittens/cats were well cared for and loved!

We have a secure garden but the 200yo stone wall is only 5 and a half feet high. We had to jump through an insane number of hoops (adding trellis in the end) to rehome a Bassett hound - one who sometimes looked at a kerb like "wtf is this insurmountable cliff before me." No common sense at all.

When you watch the Dog House on Ch4, it looks so lovely and simple.

If you still wanted to go ahead, I would securely fence off the bit you're happy with and reapply stating that is your garden. Anxious/rehomed dogs can be escape artists so I can understand their reticence at the moment. Some rescues re okay with 5ft minimum rather than 6ft high, but obviously that depends on the breed.

oops just read the bit about it not being able to be secured from the house. Some people have access paths and then secured gardens.......this is not an issue if owner takes dog to secure bit on a lead.

We were rejected from 2 rescues because we’d never owned dogs as adults. Didn’t care that I grew up with rescue dogs and routinely cared for my parents very difficult rescue. Bought a puppy in the end.

I tried 17 rescue centres including RSPCA, Dogs Trust etc across southern Wales and England from Swansea to Portsmouth, no luck. We’re retired, have a reasonable sized garden backing onto countryside and woods, miles of walks from the front door. We’re at home most of the time, take holidays in this country so the dog would come with us. Had dogs much of our lives, all rescues, yet we’re turned down. I didn’t mind if it was an older dog. The most often reason was that you had to have a dog already, absolutely bloody ridiculous when so many dogs needed rehoming.
So we got our wonderful Romanian rescue, she’s a lovely dog who is currently fast asleep after a 5 mile walk, off lead, along the beach.

We were assessed by RSPCA for as a rescue home some years ago. The person inspecting came with an enormous multi-page form on a clipboard to complete. It was really tedious, time-consuming and ambiguous to fill in. The fencing was not 6ft all the way round but there was loads of space with a sheep fence round. In the end she got fed up and said that as an inspector the bottom line was whether or not she would be comfortable placing an animal with us. She ticked the boxes and we were approved

This sort of shit is why Rescues are spilling over! No fucking Common Sense.

im with @BarnacleBeasley this calls for some creative licence.

@MyEyesMyThighs

😂😂

😅 my old rescue would have loved the idea of a 6ft high fence! Not a problem, she'd say and happily start digging!

We also had a conifer type hedge & foxes, so the groundwork was perfectly hidden from unwanted attention.
She also watched us putting "rabbit fencing" in ... and knew the weak spots plus where to pull the wire & staples out. 🫣
Just keep this one to yourself, otherwise you'll have to get 6ft high fence and at least 2ft dug into the ground.

As someone said above, have you thought about Romanian or Thai rescue dogs? I follow Niall Harbison on Twitter and some of the stories are heart breaking.

Otherwise I would say puppy is your best bet, having done all the necessary stuff.

The Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai has about 200 dogs, some wee crackers. You might need to email though as their website isn't up to date, but they can arrange international transport.

This is a situation where you’d need to speak to them and ask for a home assessment if necessary.

I can absolutely guarantee most rescues would jump at the chance to rehome to you - they do consider on a case by case basis but for logistical reasons need to have tick boxes that work for the majority.

Yours sounds more akin to a farm setting, which many rescues are crying out for.

(I say that assuming that if you were to open your back door to let the dog out for a wee, it wouldn’t walk straight out onto a main road- obviously that would be completely unsafe for any dog whether rescue or breeder)

I hope l am not making this up, but l think l read somewhere that the 6ft fencing (and therefore possibly other criteria) has something to do with being a requirement for charity status/keeping it.
The actual height of fencing might be to do with minimalising theft opportunities rather than Your great escapees.
Are you on Facebook? Perhaps put it out there that you're interested in rehoming. Something might come by word of mouth as it were.
Good luck btw!

I'm looking forward to this joyous conversation when the inevitable happens to DDog (acquired from a friend years back, so never went through the usual pathways to getting a dog).

We've got 5' high brick walls around our urban back garden and would only want a small dog.

I'm pretty sure we'd run into planning permission issues if we were going to raise the height of the garden walls - we're next to a road and in Wales so need planning permission for any garden fence over 1m (3ft) tall. No idea how we're meant to square that particular circle.

I've actually been there - and wandered around to the dog rescue centre; not everyone does.

I did come away with a strong sense that they were keeping some dogs alive who needed to be euthanised - one appeared to my uneducated eyes to have a very large facial tumour.

I presume this is due to widespread Buddhist teachings that you cannot ever euthanise an animal.

But apart from that, they're doing their best, and the dogs are better off there than the alternative. Chiang Mai is a wonderful holiday destination, so if I were going to go down that route, I'd probably go there on holiday and choose the dog in person.

@CastlesOnTheBeach we were there last year, I think they just keep every animal, no matter how injured or damaged. There were some really friendly, well socialised dogs though. Clearly a few that will never be rehomed, but at least they are safe.