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.

On further reading, of those five dogs who can live with older children, two have never lived in a home before and the other three all have extreme separation anxiety.

We bought kittens a few years back because we weren't able to rehome cats, because we had kids, autism, a pre existing cat, lived within a half mile of a main road (honestly), had a cat flap, didn't have a garden but had a yard. Though we were experienced cat owners with the money to keep them and a desire to give them a good life.

Having volunteered at a cat rescue and have 2 rescue cats. The easy to home cats especially kittens didn't make the website. The staff didn't have much time for updating with new animals. I remember one lot of 6 young cats beautiful and fluffy came in and we're all homed before I was back in the following week.

I live in a very upmarket village close to a very rough town.

The local dog rescue has multiple bull dogs, staffies, pugs and huskies with a few randoms thrown in - lurcher, german shepherd, cross breeds

@VikingLady
On further reading, of those five dogs who can live with older children, two have never lived in a home before and the other three all have extreme separation anxiety.
You have to wonder how extreme separation anxiety works with children. Dog must come on every school run. Someone must be with the dog whenever any member of the household needs a medical appointment. The day a parent has to take the DC for a dental check-up, the other parent or a neighbour or ?? must be with the dog. The day one parent is off with one DC helping on a school trip but the other DC cuts their head open and the other parent has to rush to A&E....

I read the descriptions of some dogs and think, what that really means is resource guarding ('can be over-protective of her favourite people' or 'really love this toys and wants them just for himself') or is a bite risk to other dogs or unknown people ('Fido is most comfortable wearing a muzzle on walks and prefers to stay on the lead') or is terrified of other dogs ('Fluffy loves people but finds other dogs overwhelming and would prefer a home with no doggy neighbours!')

I feel so sorry for many of these dogs who have been ill-served by the people who bred them and brought them up, but I suspect that 30 or 40 years ago a lot of them would have been PTS.

Yes a few frenchies. As with the other dogs at the rescue they seem to want to be the only dog, no cats and no children under 12.

The ones with separation anxiety are probably lockdown dogs, or became used to their owners being home during lockdown.

When I was a kid dogs were often let out whilst owners were out, or kept with other dogs so they were never entirely alone. Or taught to cope with it, given it was more understood that they'd have to be. Shops had tie up points outside, which was probably a decent halfway option. These days I don't know anyone who'd leave their dog tied up outside - they're so expensive to buy that they're a theft risk.

Goodness knows how owners cope. Neediness is why we have cats!

Mines full of shih tzus! Loads of them.

A few greyhounds, lurchers and SBT.

Suprisingly no GSD or collies for months and months. Think they are loosing popularity.

I quite fancy a shih tzu @Princessponies but think current ddog is far too happy being the sole princess. She's tiny but very clear about her place in the world, especially the sofa!

The one I've looked at in Dumfries has a mix of all sorts and handily it has a tick list of what each dog is good with and a wee write up.

www.caninerescue.co.uk/dogs/meet-the-dogs.html

I really don't understand crowd funding for an unwanted dog to have £4k of surgery so it can breathe, in the knowledge that it's likely to have more serious health problems and die by the time it's 6 because of terrible breeding. Put it to sleep and use the 4k to save dogs that have a chance of a healthy and happy life.

Also dogs who can't be rehomed because of biting/health issues - staying in kennels for the rest of their life is not preferable to pts.

One thing my local rescue did is let me take a dog for the day
It got them out of kennels, we would go for a walk, to pets at home, I would eat lunch etc
Then I could do a write up for the website with some nice photos and say how they were in a house, around food etc

It didn't quite work as it should because I also cross posted it to my Facebook and 2 of the 6 dogs I took home got adopted by my friends

I’ d say that worked perfectly :)

A friend of mine has just rescued a Frenchie. The poor thing has had to have surgery just to enable it to breathe. It's got no energy for walks and it's barely out of puppyhood. There is no justification for breeding these poor creatures anymore.

Rescues here see pretty busy, lots of staffie x’s and frenchies. We are looking for a staffie x and have lots of experience with them, we are an adult household but have children visiting and dd (18) is severely autistic, because dd can stim (flaps around) we need a confident dog and not a nervous dog. I’m struggling with the choice and finding the right dog for us as many don’t fit what we need. We need a dog that travels well in the car and is good with other dogs (as I walk other dogs) and ideally a dog that doesn’t jump up too much as dd is a little wary of dogs that jump up. A lot of the dogs in rescues seem to have behaviour issues or are dog reactive but there are a few that fit our criteria.

When a dog breed becomes fashionable (frenchies, sausage dogs) then it’s obvious there will eventually be many in rescues…because people don’t research the breed before buying, often these breeds don’t suit the owners or the don’t want to take the time to train them.

French bulldogs are really a sad group, they just don’t function well. Poor things.

Not surprised at all to see there are so many frenchies. From what I know of them, even disregarding the health issues.they are extremely stubborn and really difficult to house train. I suspect the stereotypical frenchie owner might care more about their flooring than persevering with the puppy they just had to have 🙄

The larger, status type dogs, again, idiotic owners that bite off more than they can chew... unless the dog beats them to it 🙈

Interesting to see the lack of poodle crosses though. There was a poster a few months ago on a doodle thread that reckoned they worked in a rescue and spun the whole narrative that rescues are overrun with doodles as they're all neurotic and bought by fools who don't train them.

Lurchers
Greyhounds
Bull types
Dashunds
Chihauhaus
Belgian Malinois

Mostly lurchers, one spaniel, a small terrier and a large bull breed

Lurchers, Staffies, spaniels, Gsd X, terriers...

We have rehomed two lurchers over the last 12 years. We have 2 children and we both work which would be a huge no to some rescues...but if you look hard enough and are willing travel then it is 100% possible.

Our dogs are left 9am -12pm then 1pm-3.30pm. Our children adore them and have gained so much from choosing a dog that needs a new home (the first dog came before them).

I'm a huge advocate for lurchers/greyhounds. So often overlooked, but quite often then best family pets .

I've just looked at our local rescue (small market town) and was surprised as there are 7 DDogs and 3 of them are Frenchies, one of which has continued health problems and they are after a long term foster with vets bills paid for by the rescue. Another has behaviour problems and this is the second time he's been at our rescue.

There's a Staffie and a Staffie/Mastiff/Huskey cross and two older small DDogs (over 10) who need to be rehomed together.

We don't tend to get any Greyhounds as there is a specific rescue for them not too far away.

I love lurchers, especially the wire haired variety 😍. The breed is on our list of possibilities since we now have no cats.

That's been my experience with dogs too - both as a volunteer and getting my own rescue dog.

Greyhounds and lurchers.
They make great pets, incidentally. I have one.

It's probably the same for other rescues, but Dogs Trust will go through existing applications before they list a dog on the website, so dogs that can live with younger children or other pets are likely to never need to go on the website.