Rehoming a dog - seemingly impossible

Rehoming a dog - seemingly impossible

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Discussion

havoc

31,761 posts

250 months

Sunday 2nd June 2024
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Jordie Barretts sock said:
Teddy was on his best behaviour, didn't misbehave at all.
thumbup

Jordie Barretts sock said:
The number of people that ignored it was astounding.
Which is why I'm now very cautious around dogs when my daughter is with me - she's had a fear of them ever since we were out for a walk/push during lockdown, some dumb bint had her dog off the lead along the canal path and it ran up barking, bouncing and excited to Little Miss H in her pushchair, who got scared, screamed and started crying. Dumb bint then proceeded to tell me repeatedly "he won't hurt her, he won't hurt her", instead of dragging the dog away, which I had to do, much to the annoyance of DB. Some owners are bloody brilliant (we've had a few offer to help with on-the-spot dog-therapy, and other have picked up on my physical cues and leashed their dog on approach), others are completely oblivious and self- / dog-centred, and you don't immediately know which category they fall into until you're upon them.

Jordie Barretts sock

6,018 posts

34 months

Sunday 2nd June 2024
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Exactly that.

Despite his 'Nervous' tag, some woman allowed her face painted 3 or 4 year old daughter to run up to him. Luckily he's OK with children, but the stupid woman didn't know that.

And the number of small terriers with Small Dog Syndrome and ambition clearly outweighing ability who wanted to 'have a go'. Teddy wasn't impressed and was regarding them.as potential stay fresh snacks, I think. biggrin

havoc

31,761 posts

250 months

Sunday 2nd June 2024
quotequote all
Jordie Barretts sock said:
And the number of small terriers with Small Dog Syndrome and ambition clearly outweighing ability
biggrin Small dogs are the worst, and IMHO the most likely to get all bitey (possibly as they've not been trained properly due to the sort of people that buy them).

Honestly, if you're likely to go 0-for-12 vs a domestic cat, then you can't call yourself a dog. hehe

QBee

21,694 posts

159 months

Monday 3rd June 2024
quotequote all
havoc said:
Jordie Barretts sock said:
And the number of small terriers with Small Dog Syndrome and ambition clearly outweighing ability
biggrin Small dogs are the worst, and IMHO the most likely to get all bitey (possibly as they've not been trained properly due to the sort of people that buy them).

Honestly, if you're likely to go 0-for-12 vs a domestic cat, then you can't call yourself a dog. hehe
I say to their apologetic owners that they are "getting their retaliation in first", when my calm and amused 33 kg lab is faced with 5 kilos of yapping snapping terrier-tt.
He just calmly walks off with a shrug of his shouders to go and find a proper dog to talk to/play with.

Acorn1

1,638 posts

35 months

Monday 3rd June 2024
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What a wonderful thread this turned out to be, just caught up and it’s a bit dusty.

Beautiful dog.

Mezzanine

10,138 posts

234 months

Monday 3rd June 2024
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Just dipped back into this thread after reading the post when it initially went up.

Amazing outcome - truely heartwarming.


J4CKO

44,292 posts

215 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
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Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.

LimmerickLad

4,108 posts

30 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
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J4CKO said:
Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.
Agreed except, from our recent experience over-cautious is an understatement..............we have a paddock & gardens surrounded by farmland and no neighbours within 1/2 mile............ yet we have been told several times now that we can't have a dog, even though we already have several rescues, because our stock fencing isn't high enough........ apparantly 6ft panels around a postage stamp garden on an estate would have been fine though? ..........we have given up trying now.

AstonZagato

13,374 posts

225 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
quotequote all
LimmerickLad said:
J4CKO said:
Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.
Agreed except, from our recent experience over-cautious is an understatement..............we have a paddock & gardens surrounded by farmland and no neighbours within 1/2 mile............ yet we have been told several times now that we can't have a dog, even though we already have several rescues, because our stock fencing isn't high enough........ apparantly 6ft panels around a postage stamp garden on an estate would have been fine though? ..........we have given up trying now.
I remember, after responding to a "crisis appeal" from a cats' rehoming place, being refused a cat because
  1. "Your house is on a road". Every house in the UK is on a road. Furthermore, we are 100m from the nearest road - further than 99.999% of houses, I'd wager; and
  2. "You have children" Our children had grown up with cats. Apparently they might "sit on the cat" (something they had never managed to do up until that point and never subsequently did ether.

We tried another rescue place. They needed the whole family there. We all trooped over at a weekend and selected a couple of kittens. "Oh they won't be available till Tuesday." My wife said she'd pop over (45 min drive) on Tuesday to pick them up. "No, you all have to come".

It was a spectacular waste of time. We got our kittens free from a mad cat lady.

QBee

21,694 posts

159 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
quotequote all
LimmerickLad said:
J4CKO said:
Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.
Agreed except, from our recent experience over-cautious is an understatement..............we have a paddock & gardens surrounded by farmland and no neighbours within 1/2 mile............ yet we have been told several times now that we can't have a dog, even though we already have several rescues, because our stock fencing isn't high enough........ apparantly 6ft panels around a postage stamp garden on an estate would have been fine though? ..........we have given up trying now.
Its utterly mad. It shouldn't be about stock fencing, it needs to be about how you care for them, exercise them, and the love you give them.
By all means give some pointers about safety etc to new owners, but bear in mind people's track record.

We too tried to adopt from a rescue, but they wanted to insist that we returned an hour each way to them weekly for 12 training sessions at £50 a time with the dog , an English Setter. The "trainer" was barely out of secondary school. We had had dogs longer than she had been alive. They clearly knew less about dogs than we did, as we proved by walking their "nervous" dog and ours for half an hour in perfect happy harmony around the woods nearby. The poor thing needed a home and a friend, not a cage, but we weren't prepared to jump the stock fencing they had erected around the dog.

Our latest addition was actually adopted from another family, not rescued,. They did their level best to check that their beloved dog was going to someone who would give him a decent home. But that was done with a couple of long phone calls, and photos of our garden etc., which proved to them that our garden is about 10 times the size of theirs. What made much more of an impression with them was the feeling they got from those long chats that we were decent people who care about their pets, had had dogs for over 20 years and knew how to look after them.

Marley has settled in just fine thanks.


Jordie Barretts sock

6,018 posts

34 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
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Considering we live on the edge of Exmoor, surrounded by fields, I wonder how these charities would have assessed our suitability for Teddy. laugh

When the big lummox arrived he was defeated by a foot high wire boundary. biggrin

vaud

54,957 posts

170 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
quotequote all
AstonZagato said:
I remember, after responding to a "crisis appeal" from a cats' rehoming place, being refused a cat because
  1. "Your house is on a road". Every house in the UK is on a road. Furthermore, we are 100m from the nearest road - further than 99.999% of houses, I'd wager; and
  2. "You have children" Our children had grown up with cats. Apparently they might "sit on the cat" (something they had never managed to do up until that point and never subsequently did ether.

We tried another rescue place. They needed the whole family there. We all trooped over at a weekend and selected a couple of kittens. "Oh they won't be available till Tuesday." My wife said she'd pop over (45 min drive) on Tuesday to pick them up. "No, you all have to come".

It was a spectacular waste of time. We got our kittens free from a mad cat lady.
They seem to be run by a certain "type" who set up lots of rules that are almost impossible to comply with and so preventing the adoption but allowing them to keep being the charity than needs donations and "homes for our much loved cats" whereas ultimately they are depriving them of a full life.

LimmerickLad

4,108 posts

30 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
quotequote all
Jordie Barretts sock said:
Considering we live on the edge of Exmoor, surrounded by fields, I wonder how these charities would have assessed our suitability for Teddy. laugh

When the big lummox arrived he was defeated by a foot high wire boundary. biggrin
biglaugh

havoc

31,761 posts

250 months

Tuesday 4th June 2024
quotequote all
Jordie Barretts sock said:
When the big lummox arrived he was defeated by a foot high wire boundary. biggrin
I think I'm getting towards that age too.

QBee

21,694 posts

159 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
havoc said:
Jordie Barretts sock said:
When the big lummox arrived he was defeated by a foot high wire boundary. biggrin
I think I'm getting towards that age too.
Me too smile.
Thanks to a dodgy knee and questionable balance, I have to concentrate hard when stepping over the lower strand of electric fencing that is part of the gate to my horse's field.
The top strand is around waist height, the lower one about a foot off the ground, so I have to duck and step at the same time.
Getting it wrong involves falling over and face planting into his bowl of equine ready brek, while he looks at me bemused.
Yes, I feel stupid, no, I don't care


trails

5,215 posts

164 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
vaud said:
AstonZagato said:
I remember, after responding to a "crisis appeal" from a cats' rehoming place, being refused a cat because
  1. "Your house is on a road". Every house in the UK is on a road. Furthermore, we are 100m from the nearest road - further than 99.999% of houses, I'd wager; and
  2. "You have children" Our children had grown up with cats. Apparently they might "sit on the cat" (something they had never managed to do up until that point and never subsequently did ether.

We tried another rescue place. They needed the whole family there. We all trooped over at a weekend and selected a couple of kittens. "Oh they won't be available till Tuesday." My wife said she'd pop over (45 min drive) on Tuesday to pick them up. "No, you all have to come".

It was a spectacular waste of time. We got our kittens free from a mad cat lady.
They seem to be run by a certain "type" who set up lots of rules that are almost impossible to comply with and so preventing the adoption but allowing them to keep being the charity than needs donations and "homes for our much loved cats" whereas ultimately they are depriving them of a full life.
Depends entirely on the organisation; Cats Protection have a simple and transparent process to ensure homes are appropriate for the cat they are rehoming, and it's all on the internet, if they won't allocate a cat to you then they will have a good reason, which they have to justify and document...can't speak for other organisations though.

Sadly "getting your kittens from the mad cat lady" makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution and perpetuates breeding animals for money when there are thousands of recues that need a home. Obviously if she was giving them away, you can discount that statement smile




pinchmeimdreamin

10,390 posts

233 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
trails said:
Sadly "getting your kittens from the mad cat lady" makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution and perpetuates breeding animals for money when there are thousands of recues that need a home. Obviously if she was giving them away, you can discount that statement smile
How is he part of the problem if he tried to rescue them but wasn’t allowed ?

trails

5,215 posts

164 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
pinchmeimdreamin said:
trails said:
Sadly "getting your kittens from the mad cat lady" makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution and perpetuates breeding animals for money when there are thousands of recues that need a home. Obviously if she was giving them away, you can discount that statement smile
How is he part of the problem if he tried to rescue them but wasn’t allowed ?
Not quite sure how I can articulate that in a different way...the rest of the post was important for context though, so perhaps looking at just that sentence in isolation isn't helping.

Muzzer79

12,003 posts

202 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
LimmerickLad said:
J4CKO said:
Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.
Agreed except, from our recent experience over-cautious is an understatement..............we have a paddock & gardens surrounded by farmland and no neighbours within 1/2 mile............ yet we have been told several times now that we can't have a dog, even though we already have several rescues, because our stock fencing isn't high enough........ apparantly 6ft panels around a postage stamp garden on an estate would have been fine though? ..........we have given up trying now.
I experienced similar but got very lucky

We contacted several rescue centres before we got our boy 6 years ago. There was either no response at all, despite multiple attempts, or hoops of fire to jump through in respect of lifestyle and home setup.

In the end, we found him in a local kennels that rescued a couple of dogs, kind-of "on the side" - they used leftover resources from the kennels to support a couple of rescues at a time.
We went to see him and met the owner, who let us take him away the same day on the basis that she would only let "dog people" have dogs and she felt that we were "dog people" smile

Risky perhaps, given some folk around, but it worked for us.

LimmerickLad

4,108 posts

30 months

Wednesday 5th June 2024
quotequote all
Muzzer79 said:
LimmerickLad said:
J4CKO said:
Just read it all, marvellous !

Wonder why the re-homing charities are so choosy, big disparity between buying a dog, i.e. anyone can do that, but rehoming is so difficult. I get the need for the checks and balances but it seems a bit over cautious.
Agreed except, from our recent experience over-cautious is an understatement..............we have a paddock & gardens surrounded by farmland and no neighbours within 1/2 mile............ yet we have been told several times now that we can't have a dog, even though we already have several rescues, because our stock fencing isn't high enough........ apparantly 6ft panels around a postage stamp garden on an estate would have been fine though? ..........we have given up trying now.
I experienced similar but got very lucky

We contacted several rescue centres before we got our boy 6 years ago. There was either no response at all, despite multiple attempts, or hoops of fire to jump through in respect of lifestyle and home setup.

In the end, we found him in a local kennels that rescued a couple of dogs, kind-of "on the side" - they used leftover resources from the kennels to support a couple of rescues at a time.
We went to see him and met the owner, who let us take him away the same day on the basis that she would only let "dog people" have dogs and she felt that we were "dog people" smile

Risky perhaps, given some folk around, but it worked for us.
We are still keeping our eyes out for similar situations like Teddy Socks and, although possibly a bit "risky" as you say, I know from personal experience a deserving dog will come along at some point but it will have to be right for the dog and us as well (We already have a Frenchie someone bought in Covid but couldn't keep)........Ironically last year we put a neighbour who was splitting up with her hubby in touch with some friends of ours that were looking for a dog after retiring ( big, bouncy young lab) so I know it can happen.........just a matter of timing.