Has anyone had a good experience with a rescue dog?

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

I’m having an interview today to discuss adopting a rescue dog.

she is 2, apparently house trained, okay to leave (although she won’t be left often, and then only for 2-3 hours), and good with cats.
Ive spoken to a few people who have ended up with unsociable, needy and anxious dogs and I’m a bit worried.

we have had dogs before and I was brought up with having dogs.

My spaniel collie cross was a rescue aged two. He is now approaching fifteen and has given us no bother once he learned trust us although at first he was jumpy and made his feelings about a bath known. He has also been a terrifically healthy dog although suffering with incontinence now we are approaching the end game.

Yes I’d be a little concerned at that. If they’re pushing you to get the dog as soon as it comes to the U.K. then they probably don’t have any back up kennels or fosterers in the U.K. if anything goes wrong. That’s something very important if you’re getting a rescue. The Romanian rescue ours came from is superb in their support and back up. I was involved with fundraising and the committee for that rescue for a few years and it was rare a dog came back, but they could take them and help if they did. They also had a kennels in Romania with staff and their own vet, so the whole process was safe and sensible- for the dogs and owners.

All my dogs have been rescue dogs. All have been UK adoptions except one- a street dog from Romania. All brilliant, bar one, who clearly was meant to be an only pet- we rehomed her successfully.

We’ve had seven all together, but have three presently.

For me, the most difficult time is at around four months, when they start chewing everything. So I would always opt for an older dog.

My current dog is a rescue we got when she was around nine months. Not house-trained, in fact she had never been in a house and hated our wooden floors. Hated men. She was house-trained very quickly but it took about two years for her to trust us. She loves DH, thankfully.

So if yours is house-trained, that's a bonus. I think if you're prepared to put the work in to make him/her to feel secure and understand him/her then you'll be OK.

Yes, we have three! And two that have crossed the bridge, and we've fostered, but we don't any more due to having other animals. Our oldest dog now, after our Border x died in September, is our 8 y o collie x who has always been a dream - very obedient, was house trained, etc. Adopted him at just over a year old. We also have a 4 y o pointer x who was very scared and nervous, but came out of herself after about 6 months of consistency and.the companionship of the older dogs. Our most recent addition is a Maremma x from Italy, 10 months and a bundle of energy, tests the boundaries but no more so than any other pup. We live in a rural area and have a smallholding, so there is a ton of space for the mutts to run, space to do training, etc. We have active working breeds who need that, so your home setup needs to suit the dog.

We had a very poor experience back in lockdown - we were inexperienced and naive, dog was young and from abroad, rescue was (in retrospect) borderline negligent when it came to home checks. I should have twigged something was off. Long story short we had to rehome, fortunately pup settled really well in an adult only home. About half that litter ended up being rehomed so there were issues across the board and I think the journey itself from Europe to UK was a traumatic factor in that.

A good while later we decided to foster with a local rescue - totally different experience with a conscientious and supportive rescue - and ended up with a foster fail. She’s just the perfect dog for us, honestly can’t put into words how much she’s added to our lives and how much we all adore her. She was older and that was a big factor in how well she settled I think.

I would say trust your gut and if you have any reservations about the rescue, walk away. Small local rescues are awash with dogs in foster who haven’t had to do the long journey from Romania or Cyprus or wherever and it’s worth hanging on for the right dog so there’s no regrets further down the line.

I am sorry but
are you seeing any red flags yet ?

1. You didn't meet the dog today
2. The dog is not in foster with this fosterer
3. Any info she has is 2nd hand, as she is not the dog's fosterer
4. The dog is in Cyprus - I thought it was a Romanian dog
5. She suggested you get a dog sitter ! for a newly adopted dog because you are going on holiday and are unable to adopt to their timescale
6. Please tell me she wasn't expecting you to adopt the dog on Friday/Saturday

These red flags are horrific. I know some dog owners who have been rescuing from abroad for a long time and know what they are doing and trust the rescue centre but I also see a TikTok/Instagram trend for rescue dogs from abroad and that worrying. The idea of first time dog owners taking on a street dog from Thailand or wherever because the follow an Instagram account is worrying. Some people are no doubt attracted to the idea of ‘our dog was found lying at the side of the road in Phuket and now look at the wonderful life WE have given him.’ However too many of these stories end badly.
if you want to rescue, go to a UK based rescue centre first, learn how to be a dog owner of a rescue dog knowing you will definitely get the support you need. Don’t do something because it’s a TikTok trend.

Yes, tried to persuade me to collect from the airport on Friday!
back to the search….

@Lobbygobbler i don’t use TikTok at all.
we had rescue dogs when I was growing up, but from local places. It’s the potential for a place from abroad to be unscrupulous which was concerning me.

Don’t go anywhere near this then. They may try to guilt you, but that is in itself is a red flag.
you may not follow TikTok but this rescue centre will probably use it and trade off their social media likes. It’s a growing industry. Go to the Dogs Trust or Battersea instead or one of the many professional and ethical dog rescue organisations in the UK.

Happy to, looking at all options.
this particular dog ticked a lot of boxes for me -
house trained
good with cats
small/medium size (v important as I cannot lift a bigger dog)
scruffy

@Twoshoesnewshoes why does it need to be 'scruffy'?

Breed specific charities/rescues in the UK like Spaniel Aid, ECGR etc, will be far more likely to give you a dog that won't have; (A) been stolen from someone [as happened with my colleague in Eastern Europe - came home and found her dog missing, it turned up at on one of these 're-homing' place a few weeks later] or been purposefully bred for re-homing in the 'west'; (B) a dodgy background that they have failed to manage effectively or have no idea over; (C) serious illnesses or diseases and (D) behavioural issues that only emerge when actually in foster, including killing small 'furries' (i.e. cats etc) which is sadly incredibly common in foreign rescues.

I also wouldn’t necessarily believe anything the rescue tell you about the dog either. The one we had had definitely never lived in a house before coming to us.

I'd definitely swerve that rescue. I've adopted from 3 different places and they've all asked whether we had holidays or house moves planned as I'm assuming they'd want to wait until that's over to rehome the dog.

Have you looked up smaller independent rescues local to you? Often they foster out dogs, so they may have ones which are currently happily living with cats. I think the bigger rescues like Dogs Trust tend to say no cats or small animals for most of their dogs. I'm guessing they're well known about, so probably get a lot of applications for people with no cats, kids etc.

I'd have been put of by that too @Twoshoesnewshoes. Those early weeks are so important and they need consistency, not a whole new person after two weeks.

I've had 2 rescue dogs from being one year old. They are utterly adorable. Dont believe it when people say they are "broken"dogs. Mine were just 2 lovely dogs desperate for love and a warm home. They have given our family years of joy. Not sure who rescued who really. Don't buy a puppy, give a rescue dog a home x

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks thats helpful, thank you
ummm why does it need to be scruffy?
just because 😂

Just having a scroll through this morning, local rescues and individual rehoming - soooooo many French bulldogs! Hundreds! Why??

Really? You don’t know that dogs are disposable fashion items for a lot of people?

And for gods sake don’t consider ‘individual rehoming.’ You have been given a lot of good advice on here and you still don’t appear to any to listen to it.

@Twoshoesnewshoes the comment about scruffy wasn’t a dig, but if you go for a dog where you don’t know what breeds it is (and particular a rescue) my personal view is it’s riskier. Both for being sure about that dogs temperament and for that dogs health.

I, personally, would never put a ‘scruffy mongrel rescue’ around my children - because I want to know exactly what sort of behavioural issues a breed is prone to. It’s just not a risk that (personally) would take.

All breeds have inherent behavioural issues and health issues. Without knowing what those breeds are, you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to managing those behaviours. Resources guarding in Cockers is very different to Golden Retrievers, for example. It requires different handling. We learnt that the hard way when after 30 years of Golden ownership my mother got a cocker with resource guarding. The rescue told us to ‘forget’ everything we knew about how to manage it.

There’s a reason that good breed specific rescues only rehome dogs with behavioural issues to people adept at managing that issue with that breed.

And frenchies are hugely defective, genetically pre-determined to suffer, expensive, hard to train and basically just spend their entire lives costing their owners a fortune and suffering. That’s why they end up in rescues.

I’ve had absolutely no difference in issues between my scruffy crossbreed rescues and my pedigree rescues. And I actually found the pedigree rescue people a little narrow minded and stuck in their ways.

I have two dogs, one rescue and one from a breeder. Since my dogs cannot read, I will be honest, I love my rescue dog more. She is a 12-year-old Samoyed. When I first got her, she was anxious, needy, and quite reactive. Over time, trust was built and her trauma from past experiences slowly healed.

Because of her difficult past, I think she has a very old soul. She understands emotions deeply and can be therapeutic in her own way. Yesterday at the park, we saw someone sobbing and I tried to avoid the situation. She walked over, sat next to him, and quietly stayed there. It really cheered him up, and we ended up having a short conversation.

Rescue dogs need a lot of love and patience, but it is incredibly rewarding. You gain a dog that is more understanding and full of empathy.

Perhaps they just knew more about their dog breeds than you? People who devote their entire life to a particular breed will always know more about it than someone who’s on their first dog of that breed. It’s just logic.