What’s in your local rescue?

[FancyBiscuitsLevel]

Another thread about breeding puppies made me go have a look at our local rescue - when we got our puppy I’d been registered with a couple of rescues for over a year and nothing suitable was available. Every now and then I have a look to see if the situation has changed but realised I hadn’t looked for a while.

theres a few staffie crosses as always, can’t be round children, other dogs, strong and pull on the lead etc. tricky to rehome types.

but what’s surprised me is the influx of frenchies. Has the fashion for them ended? They have so many, but they don’t seem to be a problem breed behaviour wise. were they just a fashion accessory that got dumped?

I wondered if it’s just our area and others have very different pattern of dog surrenders.

I just looked at our local Dogs Trust, and yes there are quite a few frenchies, also a few mini daxies along with lots of random terriers. But the inevitable for this area border collies and german shepherds.
One of my dogs is currently having acupuncture at the vets, so I spend 45 minutes a week chatting with the vet, and she was telling me the latest problem she is seeing come through with behavioural problems (she's the lead behaviourist for their group) are the gigantic livestock guardian breeds, and indeed there was one of those too

but what’s surprised me is the influx of frenchies. Has the fashion for them ended? They have so many, but they don’t seem to be a problem breed behaviour wise. were they just a fashion accessory that got dumped?

Frenchies are borderline uninsurable because of their health issues and they live very short, very painful lives. They also tend to be poorly trained (aggressive or reactive) and badly house trained. IMO because of the sorts of people who buy them - as you say, they bought a fashion acessory, didn't realise it was a living creature, and when it failed to do what they wanted they dumped it.

Rescues near me are the same as near you (I'm South-East England). All dogs that can't be re-homed with other dogs, or can't be re-homed with children or are 'Unknown Cross' (when they clearly have some XL Bully in them). A couple of things like Lhasa-Apso crosses and cockerpoos - but again, they all have behavioural issues (even if they can live with children) and realistically not many people will take on a 4-5 year old dog, with behavioural issues.

Not much choice near us if you've got kids - Dogs Trust have a choice of 3 within 50 miles that can be homed with primary school children. Beagle cross, bull terrier cross and greyhound.

Lots of terrier crosses, some bull breeds and the odd collie and lab cross - hardly anything that could live with a cat or younger children…..

We spent a lot of time looking at rescues before getting a puppy but having a cat and my youngest was 11 (nearly 12) just couldn’t get anywhere.

@LandSharksAnonymous - I didn’t know it was hard to get insurance for them. That makes sense for the large numbers in rescue then.

Our local rescue does have a 10 month old cockapoo that can be round young children. Apparently needs training but otherwise fine. Hoping she gets a home soon. (My dog would not cope with another dog in the household right now.)

I do worry about the numbers that can’t be rehomed. Can’t be with kids, need strong owners (so not retired older people). Can’t be round other dogs (so not really going to experienced owners.)

I looked at a selection of ours (East Anglia).
Mostly staffies, sighthounds (inc bull lurchers), various bulldogs inc Frenchies, mastiffs (inc cane corsos and crosses), quite a lot of small fluffies and terrier types, Chihuahuas, GSD types, with a smattering of chows, akitas and gun dogs (the gun dogs mostly crosses), a couple of dachsies, and a dobe, a cockapoo, a poodle and what looks like a Malinois x.

The majority have one or more of no other pets/ ongoing health issues/ can't live with children/ totally untrained.

A 15 or so or so could live with over 8s, and one with over 5s. If you have a kid and a cat, though... Good luck!
This is out of over 100 dogs.

ETA, I do look at some of the dogs and wonder who on earth will take them on. Who is going to have the space, time, household set-up and experience to adopt a 2 yr old cane corso/ bonkers collie with just about zero training? I'm an experienced dog owner and I wouldn't want to.

Lurchers, collies, huskies and bullies. None are suitable to be re-homed with children under 12, other dogs or cats. The huskies also need to go as a pair.

Honestly, it's no wonder people breed or go to breeders.

We’re experienced dog owners and found ourselves with a bull lurcher. Waay too much dog for us but we kept him because we knew if we didn’t he’d bounce from rescue to rescue.

He has a wonderful nature and we absolutely adore him now but he’s a lot of “dog” 🤣

Frenchie
GSD
Malinois
A gorgeous kangal shepherd
Lurcher
Husky
Border terrier
Staffy

The real problem is that most dogs don't just have one of those issues - they have 2 or 3 of them.

My mum has a rescue Spaniel. She couldn't be re-homed if there was a male relative in the house (it took years for her to go from growling at my DH when we visit my mum to just ignoring him - and she still flinches when he moves too fast), couldn't be re-homed to a 'busy area' (I.e. had to live in the countryside, couldn't be re-homed to a family with children (because of previous aggression, but visiting children were 'okay' she just had to be separated from them). Honestly, I think my mum was pretty much the only person who could have taken her.

It all goes back to irresponsible puppy-farm breeders (and I include the nitwits who breed because their dog is pretty and should have babies in that) who breed for greed or some other selfish reason. Those people do not properly vet owners - they just take them at face value - and they are the reason these rescue centres are overflowing. Vetting a prospective owner, if done properly, should take weeks if not months. If these people who relinquished their dogs, had gotten their dogs from ethical breeders then the ethical breeder would have taken the dog back - no matter what - and these poor dogs wouldn't end up in rescues.

Lurchers, greyhounds, staffy cross, gsd, a couple of bull breeds, a cross breed. Most need adult only homes. But the easy to home dogs don't stay on the website for long. They have puppies fairly often that don't hang around. I don't think a one time look at a rescue page gives the true story of what dogs come in, you'd have to keep looking over a period of time.

No frenchies but another localish one that mostly has dumped pound dogs gets loads. I can understand it. They serve an area with a lot of poverty. Frenchies are riddled with health problems so I guess the moment the owners realise it needs £1000s in vet fees, they dump it. The appeals for money to cover surgery for these dogs from the rescue centre is endless. Personality wise, frenchies are horrible ime, every one I come across lunges for my dog. They look completely deformed and miserable to me. I cannot understand the appeal and can only hope the fashion has died a death so we see less of them in the future.

What does make me sad is how many dogs need to be an only dog. I can only imagine living in kennels when you need to be an only dog is very stressful, and it will make rehoming them especially hard. I think there are way too many unsocialised dogs about. At one point I thought I over socialised my dog as she loves other dogs and I had to keep her on the lead over her teenage year to stop her saying hi, but now I think some of the popular training of the moment that basically says make your dog ignore all other dogs and only want to be with its human is partially to blame. Dogs should be able to be around their own species.

I find it so depressing that we breed ill health into dogs and charities have to pick up the pieces while the breeders make a profit. And anyone inexperienced who takes on a cane corso I don't have words for. I've had dogs all my life, different breeds. Some rescues, some from puppies and am nowhere near experienced enough to take on a dog which needs specialist training and trust it around kids. Give me a waggy terrier cross any day!

It’s not necessarily that dogs cannot be rehomed with children because of behavioural issues etc. Dogs Trust will only rehome to families with children where there is a proven history e.g. dog has previously lived with an 8 year old child so will be listed as can be rehomed with children 8+. We recently rehomed again from DT and our dog was listed as suitable from 10+ because she had lived with an 11 year old. She is great with our dog savvy 9.5 year old. She could probably live with younger kids, but DT need the history.

Agree with frenchies it’s the cost of BOAS surgery that ends in them coming to rescue. Our local small rescue has just taken one in and it’s 2k for the surgery - I think they can only do one side at a time also? So 4k for the lot.

If I look I’ll want to bring them all home 😭

Tell a lie, 5 of the 11 dogs can live with children at my local rescue centre. And now I've seen a lovely lurcher boy who would fit right in here 🙈

Frenchies, staffy crosses, beagles and various doodles here. Most of which seem to have health problems or can’t be left alone at all. I’d love another dog but live on my own and do occasionally like to go out with friends and certainly don’t have the necessary funds for lifelong serious health issues.

Looking at our local, it's enormous breeds! Presa Canario, Sharpei crosses and a boerboel.

Also a "lab" cross that's blatantly 99% boxer. And several spaniels with a bite history 🙄. Oh and a collie cross we enquired about 5yrs ago who is still there. He was 11 months when we contacted them, never heard back. Poor wee soul.

Doesn't surprise me but it does worry me greatly to see this about Livestock Guarding Dogs. A lot are being imported from Eastern Europe. Makes me sad, makes me angry.
I've had a Livestock Protection Dog breed for 47 years, and they are absolutely not a dog for a novice owner. They're incredibly strong, independent minded and stubborn, due to their heritage of working alone. In the wrong hands they are an accident waiting to happen and that could have massive implications for those of us who are long-term, responsible owners of this type of dog.

@CornishPorsche - if it makes you feel any better about that collie, many dogs at our rescue aren’t actually there, they are living in the homes of foster owners, who get all the costs covered but has the dog as a family member. If someone perfect come along the dog might get rehomed.

What I can't understand is why we import rescue dogs from various counties?

Money, unfortunately.

UK rescues are pretty strict on their criteria for re-homing but you can pay to import a dog or puppy from overseas and as long as it has "paperwork" there are no questions asked. So many of these dogs end up in UK rescues or being PTS because of their behavioural issues, sadly, and the original rescues suddenly go "awol" as soon as the pups go to their "forever homes".

They're let down by so many people - it's awful.

The breed the local rescue is having greatest difficulty with at the moment is chihuahuas. Which surprised me when I dropped off a few donations at the end of November. They have no problem rehoming Staffies, which are perennially popular with families. But it's the nippy wee feckers that they're accumulating and no one wants.