Trying to adopt a dog, any advice?
Discussion
Think we might a victim of our location, south of Manchester and Cheshire, most of the dogs for adoption are either pitbulls, greyhounds or very elderly.
Also finding a lot of strange reasons that may be familiar to dog owners, but not us.
Some of the things that have stopped us having family friendly dogs were:
Not living in an open plan house.
Having more than one adult in the family unit
Not having other dogs
Having a 15 year son why a dog is less inclined to bite him now rather than when he is 16 I don't know
Being unable to guarantee that no children will visit our house, ever.
Not having a big enough garden. 60 foot of lawn and a similar sized back yard were not enough for one.
One decided our neighbour had cats, which she does, so that wouldn't do at all.
All we want to do is give a mutt a home. but a lot of the large adoption sites we've been looking through and contacting.
Ideally something low allergy, or low shedding, would be nice. We'd been trying to adopt a Spanish Water Dog for a year from rescue centres in Spain for this reason, but with Covid that became unworkable.
Any other charities or centres?
We're not fussy about the dog, just don't want another yappy terrier as there are a lot round here already - seems to be the elderly woman dog of choice! Preferably something that would be active, run, walk for a couple of hours would be great.
Also finding a lot of strange reasons that may be familiar to dog owners, but not us.
Some of the things that have stopped us having family friendly dogs were:
Not living in an open plan house.
Having more than one adult in the family unit
Not having other dogs
Having a 15 year son why a dog is less inclined to bite him now rather than when he is 16 I don't know
Being unable to guarantee that no children will visit our house, ever.
Not having a big enough garden. 60 foot of lawn and a similar sized back yard were not enough for one.
One decided our neighbour had cats, which she does, so that wouldn't do at all.
All we want to do is give a mutt a home. but a lot of the large adoption sites we've been looking through and contacting.
Ideally something low allergy, or low shedding, would be nice. We'd been trying to adopt a Spanish Water Dog for a year from rescue centres in Spain for this reason, but with Covid that became unworkable.
Any other charities or centres?
We're not fussy about the dog, just don't want another yappy terrier as there are a lot round here already - seems to be the elderly woman dog of choice! Preferably something that would be active, run, walk for a couple of hours would be great.
Personally I think alot of the rescue centres are being cautious, they don't know the full history of the dog so best to place the dog in a house with no other pets and no children incase the dog has issues the centre aren't aware of.
Always go and meet the dog and assess for yourself, also ask if the dog has been returned before, my parents adopted one and it had anger issues and tried to bite any animal which came near it,they later found it had been returned twice before.
Ncar just over the border usually have some lovely dogs available, we got our cat from there
Always go and meet the dog and assess for yourself, also ask if the dog has been returned before, my parents adopted one and it had anger issues and tried to bite any animal which came near it,they later found it had been returned twice before.
Ncar just over the border usually have some lovely dogs available, we got our cat from there
My parents in law have been looking for a dog for about 6 months - the “major” places have been worse than useless in terms of responding, and then dreaming up a load of reasons why they could not have a dog - despite them having had dogs for 40 years,
Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
One issue may be the shortage of dogs in rescues as a result of people WFH/being on furlough and wanting dogs.
Those that are being given up are often being sold on because people want to make back some of the ridiculous amounts breeders are charging for puppies at the moment. I've also seen numerous older dogs being sold in the free ads 'due to change in circumstances' 'through no fault of their own'. No doubt this is true in some cases, but I suspect some people are selling dogs they would have given up to rescue before.
There was an interesting article on the BBC website on this topic recently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54602197
As has been suggested, rescue centres have to be cautious (sometimes overly so) in ways that private sellers/rehomers don't. They also don't want rehomings to fail for the sake of both the dogs and the adopters.
It may be worth considering smaller independent rescues rather than larger/national ones. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your geographical area, so can't recommend any.
Sorry you don't want to consider a greyhound or staffy (I presume you mean staffies not pitbulls - a rescue centre would not legally be permitted to rehome a pitbull). They are both wonderful breeds (I speak as someone who has had both).
Those that are being given up are often being sold on because people want to make back some of the ridiculous amounts breeders are charging for puppies at the moment. I've also seen numerous older dogs being sold in the free ads 'due to change in circumstances' 'through no fault of their own'. No doubt this is true in some cases, but I suspect some people are selling dogs they would have given up to rescue before.
There was an interesting article on the BBC website on this topic recently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54602197
As has been suggested, rescue centres have to be cautious (sometimes overly so) in ways that private sellers/rehomers don't. They also don't want rehomings to fail for the sake of both the dogs and the adopters.
It may be worth considering smaller independent rescues rather than larger/national ones. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your geographical area, so can't recommend any.
Sorry you don't want to consider a greyhound or staffy (I presume you mean staffies not pitbulls - a rescue centre would not legally be permitted to rehome a pitbull). They are both wonderful breeds (I speak as someone who has had both).
I wouldn't reccomend a foreign street dog as a first dog. Most have quirks, ours is a keen escape artist, 6ft fences are no issue if the deer are about.
Lovely dogs but not easy dogs.
I would think the rescues probably have Staffies rather than Pitbulls which are a controlled breed. Staffies on the whole are perfect family pets, up for runs and walks but also happy to snooze all day if it's raining.
Lovely dogs but not easy dogs.
I would think the rescues probably have Staffies rather than Pitbulls which are a controlled breed. Staffies on the whole are perfect family pets, up for runs and walks but also happy to snooze all day if it's raining.
Edited by Jim on the hill on Monday 30th November 21:27
rxe said:
My parents in law have been looking for a dog for about 6 months - the “major” places have been worse than useless in terms of responding, and then dreaming up a load of reasons why they could not have a dog - despite them having had dogs for 40 years,
Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
Funny, the other dog we were looking at in Spain was a Podenco. Don’t know lots about them though but look lovely.Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
tms996 said:
rxe said:
My parents in law have been looking for a dog for about 6 months - the “major” places have been worse than useless in terms of responding, and then dreaming up a load of reasons why they could not have a dog - despite them having had dogs for 40 years,
Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
Funny, the other dog we were looking at in Spain was a Podenco. Don’t know lots about them though but look lovely.Eventually they found a small rescue that barely had a web presence. A phone call established that they had two potential dogs that fitted the bill - older, no major issues and weren’t big enough to pull the in laws over. Next day they went over there, met the first dog, it loved them and they loved it, and an hour later, they were going home with the dog. It’s a Podenco Andaluz, and it is a brilliant dog, everyone very happy.
loskie said:
A lot of these dogs are stolen and not rehomed by charitable organisations but sold by OCG's. A lot of the Romanian ones are originally from the Ukraine.
What evidence do you have for this? I'm not saying it's never happened, but we looked into this in depth before rescuing a dog from Suceava public shelter, and it didn't appear to be something common. Some bad transport companies, apparently, so worth doing your research etc, as well as being prepared for some challenges with the dog, but our Romainan dog (second dog) has been fantastic. The money involved wasn't huge in terms of funding organised crime. Daniel
LordHaveMurci said:
dave_s13 said:
We tried this years ago.
If you already have a cat and kids then you've no chance.
I have both cats & kids, both my dogs are rescues. If you already have a cat and kids then you've no chance.
It is more difficult than it needs to be, or it feels like it anyway but I guess there are so many idiots out there...
The large rescue centres only want to regime dogs with the "perfect" candidates - no kids, don't work, massive garden etc.
Unfortunately, there are more dogs that need homes than these people, so they'd rather keep them in kennels than give them a home.
Several years ago we were after another dog - took ours along to one of the big rescues and they said how lovely he was, we explained all the nice things we did with him etc.
They were filling the form in and as soon as we got to the "work full time" and "sister in law recently had a baby" bit they told us not only would they not rehome us a dog, but that we shouldn't have a dog at all. Charming.
We borrowed one for a weekend to see how we got on - they had no such hangups - hounds needs homes!
4 years in and he's still here...
Unfortunately, there are more dogs that need homes than these people, so they'd rather keep them in kennels than give them a home.
Several years ago we were after another dog - took ours along to one of the big rescues and they said how lovely he was, we explained all the nice things we did with him etc.
They were filling the form in and as soon as we got to the "work full time" and "sister in law recently had a baby" bit they told us not only would they not rehome us a dog, but that we shouldn't have a dog at all. Charming.
Pothole said:
Why not a greyhound? They're lovely!
^ this!We borrowed one for a weekend to see how we got on - they had no such hangups - hounds needs homes!
4 years in and he's still here...
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