Don’t understand the Dogs Trust’s policy

[Wanttoadoptadog]

I am an experienced dog owner but currently dog free after losing my beloved dog 2 years ago, I really want to adopt an elderly dog to make their final months or years as comfortable as possible, after looking on the Dogs Trust website I found a dog which I really felt I could give a good home to, it is 13 years old, a breed I am familiar with and is suffering from the same condition that my previous dog died from so know how to manage the illness and what to expect, however apparently you cannot apply to adopt a specific dog, you have to send in a form and they will do a match for you within three months, if no match is found you can apply again. This seems ludicrous to me, there is a dog sat in a kennel who I would love to meet, who appears would be a good fit for both of us yet I can’t apply to adopt them specifically, has anyone had any experience with adopting from the DT who can advise? Thanks in advance.

Oh wow I didn't know this

That's a bit sad 😞

What's the point in advertising individual dogs then?? Hopefully if there's a note section perhaps you could write what you've said here and they will see you as a perfect match x

i would never get a dog from dog trust again they told us the dog was house trained it is not

I know! I’m utterly perplexed by their policy.

Does it say where the dog is currently ? Could you meet the dog ? It seems totally ridiculous to let a dog languish in kennels, miserable, when it could be in a loving home. I fully understand the need to make sure prospective owners are a good match, but this seems bonkers.

No it’s not local, about a 4 hour drive from where I live unfortunately, if he was in my local Dogs Trust I could easily go and meet him. Here is how it works

https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/how-to-adopt

Try The Oldies Club OP.
I used to walk with a woman who adopted or maybe fostered permanently from there. They paid for any medication.
I turned against Dogs Trust when they refused a note from me. They said they didn't want money, just my bank account details.

Oldies Club – Helping old dogs find loving homes. Homes & volunteers needed across the UK.

You can "favourite" dogs on your online account. When you send the application you choose which centre(s) you want to send it to. Send it to the one the dog is at. Someone will then give you a call within about a week to chat further. It's fairly commonplace now for a rescue to match you to a particular dog. They may have that 1 on the website but 5 others that haven't made it to the website yet that would be suitable.

The 3 month thing is about GDPR and retention/deletion of personal data.

Thank you @PiggyPigalle I hadn’t heard of the oldies club before, sounds like it would be a better process than the DT.

Thank you, that sounds a bit more positive.

They're shit anyway. They don't do home checks or at least they didn't used to. I reported someone years ago for blatant neglect, turned out that they thought they'd homed the dog to the persons mother. The Mum had fraudulently applied.

This must be a new policy. We got our dog from DT 9 years ago when he was a pup. We saw him on the website and then went to the kennel to visit. There was no nonsense about being matched.

I adopted through the Dogs Trust. I don’t understand why you don’t just apply and state in your application that you are interested in the particular dog. If you are suitable and the dog is not already in the process of matching with someone, presumably you will be considered.

It's a stupid policy- we saw lots similar when we were on the search for our dog. It's ridiculous.

We had this with our local rescue place (again a national charity with a few sites) and it’s because they can’t ensure the website is up to date as it costs a lot to have someone doing that job the whole time.

So they just have a selection of dogs on there but they may not actually be available. So they suggest you send in a more general request and details of you and your preferences and they will match you.

You can always make a note that it is that dog you are interested in and why and if he has died or been rehomed they can find you another that is similar or same breed hopefully.

That’s ridiculous!

I found my old boy on the Golden Oldies website btw 😊

My parents adopted from the dogs trust and specified a specific dog x I didn’t want to make the decision so they chose for me and I ended up with the perfect dog - can only think her original family had a catastrophic change in circumstance making they couldn’t keep her x she is house trained, recall trained , car trained, everything!!

Battersea is the same, you register, then they match you.

@Danceswithweasels it was perfect for me as I didn't want a specific breed or anything, just one that could accompany me on walks, holidays, day trips, to work etc. The DT originally offered me a 5 year old bulldog who could stay at home on her own all day but I didn't feel she would be able to be active enough and tbh I didn't want to have to rush home to get to the dog everyday if I fancied a walk on my way home instead!! I still feel very guilty about not even looking at the bulldog but hope she found a more suitable home in the end.

Just try, say what you've said here, that you are interested in that particular dog for the reasons stated above. I doubt they'll be inundated with applications for an old dog and I'd be very surprised if they don't jump at the chance of giving it an experienced home. It's lovely that you want to adopt an oldie btw.

Ah that’s such a pity op, can you arrange a meeting with the management?

Went to Dogs Trust as we were interested in a particular dog but that dog wasn’t deemed suitable by DT as DC was young. We were asked if we wanted to see a puppy (new arrival to DT) boom- love at first sight for DC.
Had home check - they were particularly interested in our garden and surrounding area. They were also keen that we invested in puppy classes.
(Doggo is 8 now and he’s a lovely boy 😍)

Not DT Where I volunteer has a similar policy. It has the benefit of being able to match people with dogs they might not choose on look alone, or might nor present themselves great in kennels. Some dogs might not make the website for safety reasons or can even then be rehomed quicker than we can upload them.

Say we have two generic looking black lurchery dogs, they come in for a assessment over a few week period then we upload them once we know them better, people overlook them for the cute fluffy thing next door. If 100 people apply with the cute fluffy thing in mind, we can redirect some of that attention to the less good looking dogs that are also suitable without having to wait an extended period for someone to explicitly express an interest

We only hold details for a certain period (longer than dt though) because inevitably after 6 months, you call and they've got another dog or they aren't in the market anymore and a lot of time is wasted trying to contact them

Also... people are sometimes idiots... i could tell you a thousand stories of people insisting on mismatched dogs. Look at any Facebook campaign for who comments. A classic example that sticks in my mind was a dog which says no kids or dogs, someone applied who had both (said her kids spend most of their time in the bedroom and are "great with dogs'). Obviously she wasn't matched because it would be a potentially lethal situation for a dog. When a campaign was started to rehome this dog specifically as it had tricky needs, she tried to start a viral campaign about how she'd tried to rehome the dog but we just wanted it to stay in kennels, she'd had that breed before etc.

I would specifically name that dog if you've got breed experience, they can only say no!

When you fill in the form online, someone will give you a call for a chat within a few days. You can mention an interest in a specific dog at that point and they will take that into account. Also, if you “favourite” the dog on your Dogs Trust profile, the centre will be informed. We saw a dog we liked on the website about a week after the initial chat. We “favourited” her and called the advisor to let them know we were interested. We met her a week later and she is snoozing on our couch right now. Good luck.

I think I will take all the advice on board here and hopefully that will move things forward, thanks for all the advice everyone has provided, it’s been very helpful, I’ve never adopted before so it’s all very new to me.