What was you experience with Dog rescues?

[rekees4300]

My question to the group, is this a thing now with these rescue groups formed as tax shelters and way to finance their and their friend's pets?

I've worked with/for shelters for 20 years. The answer to your question is .. NO Shelters aren't run by the dogs, they are run by people. Generally speaking those people do the job for the dogs and not for themselves. For course there are exceptions but those people are rare.

Adopting a dog is a big decision. One needs to carefully analyze the dog to determine if it fits into ones situation. If it doesn't then continue the search. There are millions of shelter dogs available.

 

[tomplum]

It will be a very good thing for the shelters to open back up for viewing etc. We've adopted from the Humane Society years back and the system seemed to work. This looking at pics, waiting and waiting before you can even meet the dog is for the birds. We don't even consider the rescues that require you to pony up before they bring them in from a thousand miles away. How is it right to commit to a dog without the knowledge he /she will work in our household with our resident cat and older other dog? Hard for my pea brain to wrap its thoughts around that...

 

[Sigarms]

Use to do rescue work for a very long time.

The reality is you have crazy people fostering / sheltering dogs, and you have crazy people trying to adopt dogs.

Our requirements when we fostered
1 - Where is the animal going to be kept and for how long? (inside, outside or both)
2 - Do you have a fenced in yard?
3 - If you don't have a fenced in yard, is the animal going to be left outside unsupervised?
4 - What other animals do you have in the house and how to they get along with new animals in or around the house?
5 - Vet references
6 - Personal reference.
7 - In home visit (to verify what you're telling us is the truth)

An animal is no different than a child, costs money. When we adpoted out, we always wanted the best fit for the animal in our care.

Shelters should be easier to adopt from if they kill, but the reality and truth is a shelter is the WORST environment for a an animal IMO. The additional issue is the adoptive family really has no insight to dogs behavior other than in a shelter environment. How many shelters actually do dog aggressive tests and let you know what they are without asking? There is only so much money to go around and shelters aren't at the top of the list for local governement funding in general.

Our standards were somewhat higher than a kill shelter, but if you adpoted an animal from our care, we would take the animal back, no questions asked at any time (which we did at least on one occasion after 6 months the dog was adopted because the guy took a new job and the animal became our lifelong pet because we didn't want to put her through that again).

I can assure you, I've heard all the horror stories about trying to adopt from foster families. Just remember, it's a two way street when it comes to crazy LOL

Our last 2 dogs and one cat we found on our own and we stopped fostering animals because we got into fostering children, and working two full time jobs we only had so much time to give to try and to it right.

However, although our standards were somewhat high, we always adopted out all of the animals in our care and the adoptive families for the most part became good friends as we'd keep in touch over the years about the animal.

 

[rekees4300]

"How is it right to commit to a dog without the knowledge he /she will work in our household with our resident cat and older other dog?"

Yes, choosing a dog that is compatible with your current pets is very important.

 

[Sigarms]

Yes, choosing a dog that is compatible with your current pets is very important.

Generally speaking, older dogs are like old men. They don't care for the company of younger people 24/7 and they can get cranky pretty easy LOL

Thing is, people look for companionship for an older dog and don't realize that the dog just wants them.

That said, no two dogs are alike, but that's where it's nice to take a potential pet home "and try it out". When we did that, it gave us invaluable feedback so if the adoption didn't work out, we had more information on the pet being adopted out on our end and what to look out for when the next person came around asking about the pet.

I can assure you, I'm dumb, but I have common sense. The issue is most people on this website use their common sense IMO. Try fostering animals and dealing with the general public. I had one lady who didn't know me accuse me of stealing money from the humane society because we had a puppy in our care and wanted to "trade" a kitten in her care for the puppy in our care, and I was left scratching my head what kind of idiot am I dealing with and just said "no, sorry, we can't do that". She got pissed and flew off the deepend in the pot of crazy.

Still remember one woman who bought movies and told me she couldn't wait to take the dog home and watch movies with the dog. At least I'm not a cop and have to deal with crazy people where life and death decisions have to be made in seconds.

 

[rekees4300]

You're correct Sigarms. The biggest challenge when working in animal rescue isn't the dogs it's the people.

 

[SoCalRedTractor]

Sigarms nailed it. I founded and ran a breed specific (Golden Retriever) rescue for 10 years. We had strict guidelines and we enforced our adoption contracts. We did it for the dogs, period. We interviewed the applicants prior to even broaching what dog might be suitable for them - we turned down A-List personalities because they would not give the dog the time and attention we required (we heard over and over - "I have an assistant that will do that") We placed dogs into condos because of the love and attention the new owners would give them. We saw the disreputable rescues and did what we could to let people know that they needed to do their own due diligence before they worked with any rescue organization. No kill shelters are finally growing in number out here - but, the cost is substantial for them to house, feed and care for the animals indefinitely. There really is no oversight on private rescues, maybe the ones in other parts of the country do better than out here, out here, there are still challenges to find a rescue that is in it for the animals they have, as opposed to using the funds to buy new vehicles with a magnetic sign of the rescue on it.

Pick

 

[Sigarms]

We placed dogs into condos because of the love and attention the new owners would give them.

Keep in mind, every situation is different.

We had a german short hair pointer mix that was "ball" driven.

I'd have to take him with my truck out back and run him around while I'm driving to tire him out LOL (and the guy was chained 24/7 before we got him and it was a huge success the first day after months when we finally got him to sit on his on while outside in the fence, before he came into the house).

I will always remember this...

Two girls in Asheville looking to adpot this dog. We drive 2.5 hours one way with the dog, it's a 600 sqaure foot apartment with a small fenced in yard for all the people renting in the house. The girls have no idea how often or long they can spend with the dog outside. People, use your brain. Large high activity dog stuck in an apartment with other renters above and below you? They filled out our general questionaire, and we were somewhat hesitant, but they sounded like they had common sense so we decided to make the drive on our own time and money.

I remember cursing on the way home with my wife about those two girls not using one shread of common sense. Point being, there are different types of dogs / sizes for different lifestyles. The key is making a good match that increases the odds that the adoption is going to stay.

That said, woman in Raleigh, in condo, we adpoted a smaller dog out to.

People may get offended by the foster parents asking to see the written lease agreement where dogs are allowed, but the fact is dogs don't lie, but some people do.

At the end of the day, dogs are nothing more than personal property. After a dog has been in your home and you cared for it and love it like it's a part of your family, you want the dog to go into the best "fit" possible.

Terrier breeds (aka pit bulls to everyone who doesn't know the difference between a Sig P220 and a Colt Python) were the worse dogs to try and find a good home for with people having common sense IMO. Seems we always drew people looking for an agressive dog that would protect the home. You want protection, buy a gun and defend the dogs life like it's a part of your family IMO.

 

[Sigarms]

Sigarms nailed it.

I have to laugh when I see your avatar and compar it to mine.

Probably had about 55 dogs in our home over the years. The only dog in my entire life I've ever been bitten by was by a 5-10lb Chihuahua who we took in for an elderly lady moving into a rest home by her family. Dog in my avatar was one of the best dogs in my entire life we ever kept. Gave me a new perpective on the "breed".

Small dogs use to old owners can be very aggressive towards other people they aren't familiar with from my experiences.

We did find that dog a great home (similar owner "type"), but I'll never forget that bite.

 

[SoCalRedTractor]

I have to laugh when I see your avatar and compar it to mine.

Probably had about 55 dogs in our home over the years. The only dog in my entire life I've ever been bitten by was by a 5-10lb Chihuahua who we took in for an elderly lady moving into a rest home by her family. Dog in my avatar was one of the best dogs in my entire life we ever kept. Gave me a new perpective on the "breed".

Small dogs use to old owners can be very aggressive towards other people they aren't familiar with from my experiences.

We did find that dog a great home (similar owner "type"), but I'll never forget that bite.

Laugh all you want - our foster homes never got a say in who we adopted too, that was not their job or function in my organization. I did inspections on our foster homes and would cancel them from our program because they failed to keep up with the standards of our foster home contract - I had the right to do spot inspections, as did certain members of my staff, all spelled out in the contract and enforceable in court, which we had to do, unfortunately, because we failed do the proper and complete vetting of the foster home applicant in the early days of our rescue.