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Apr 2020
11:15am, 23 Apr 2020
22,427 posts
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Dave A
Have a look at Dogs a Trust, if you have a local centre. They’ve started up an online process.
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Apr 2020
11:21am, 23 Apr 2020
10,968 posts
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SarahWoo
Rehoming a dog is very rewarding but a lot of them (unless you get a puppy) do have 'issues' of some sort which you may or may not need help with to resolve. Find out as much about their history, their behaviour and any training they've had since being rescued as you can.
Hope you find one that suits you 
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Apr 2020
12:07pm, 23 Apr 2020
8,302 posts
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Mazlin
Rory came from a charity called Breton Spaniel Rescue who I found on Facebook (they’re part of a bigger charity called Animal Angels Global. I’m not sure what they’re doing at the moment as Rory was from Spain which is not really an option at the moment, but they may have dogs in foster homes in the UK.)
I don’t think getting your dog via Facebook is necessarily to be recommended...but it has worked out for us. Rory is...er...not always easy, but not in ways that were surprising, if you seen what I mean. I knew what he was like, and what traits his breed often has when I agreed to have him.
I do think it helps if you know going in what you can and can’t do - for me, I absolutely need to be able to leave him on his own for periods of time, but I don’t have children, so it’s not as important to have a dog who gets on with them. Also finding a good trainer - I used to take Rory to see ours, and tell her all about how annoying he was, and she would say ‘yes, that IS extremely annoying’, and then I’d feel better.
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Apr 2020
12:29pm, 23 Apr 2020
8,255 posts
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BaronessBL
Wanda came from Battersea and is part Staffy. She has been (and sometimes still is) EXTREMELY hard work. In my opinion training is a really valuable thing to do particularly if the dog is active/gets bored easily. Obviously basic obedience/good citizen scheme is a good starting point but further training could be agility, scent work, further obedience or anything that gets the dog thinking and thus gets them tired. A tired dog is a good dog.
We had no idea that in our semi-rural part of Suffolk the Staffy would be hated quite as much as it is - perhaps if we lived in a town where there were more of them it wouldn't be so bad. If we had known that in the first few weeks of having her people would give us the abuse we got (for example walking on the local recreation ground people would say 'You shouldn't be allowed to walk that thing near where children play') we might have thought twice about having something with Staffy looks - but a high number of dogs in rescue are part Staffy.
Some friends of mine (and also I think fetchie Blotts Mate did) got a dog via Labrador Rescue. With them you are assessed (in quite a bit of detail) and then when a Labrador that is suitable for you comes up for rehoming it may come to you. Obviously because they don't have dogs sitting in kennels looking for new homes you don't know when this might be - my friend was rather impatient about that aspect but I think for BM it was much quicker. The dog goes straight from its old home to its new home with one night in between with the person from Labrador Rescue. My friend's dog was about 5, fairly well trained and ideally suited for a couple who had never had a dog before (and in my opinion perhaps did not really realise quite how much work they can be). I think with Labrador Rescue the person rehoming their dog perhaps puts more thought into it than just dumping them at the local rescue centre so perhaps most of the dogs have had a better start that some that end up in rescues such as Battersea but that is - I appreciate - a big generalisation. I think there are other breed rescues that operate in a similar way too.
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Apr 2020
12:36pm, 23 Apr 2020
343 posts
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EdJ
I'd echo SaraWoo's advice about understanding as much of the back story as possible.
For what it's worth, here's our case history, happy and horrible...
1. Daisy (greyhound) had been found, as a young dog, by the side of the road with a suspiciously cleanly broken leg (the suspicion being that she had been dumped and her leg broken to stop her following). The local vet knew my (now) wife was after a dog, so offered for adoption. A definite success story - lovely dog, coped very well with me arriving on the scene and then our daughter arriving on the scene.
2. Otto (black lab) was not really adopted, after Daisy died my wife was missing having a dog, and basically rescued Otto from her brother's somewhat dysfunctional family where he wasn't really being looked after. He came with a few behavioural issues, but with a bit of work soon settled down into being a brilliant pet. It's him in my avatar picture. He's now under the veg patch alas.
3. Sam (greyhound) was basically a psychopath. We adopted him as some company for Otto, and as my wife fancied having another greyhound. He was apparently up for adoption as he was a rubbish racer. Our suspicion, subsequently, was that he just had a nasty streak in him. Unpredictably reactive with other dogs, unpleasantly assertive over Otto - and increasingly our then quite young children, and insisting on opening his bowels precisely two minutes after he had been fed, regardless of whether the back door was open or not. Although not his fault he also put a couple of stitches in face of a friend's small child. Which was awkward. And he demanded attention, which if he did not get reacted by chewing stuff. The final straw was when he chewed the side off the freezer. We stuck it out for nearly a year, but in the end made the difficult decision to return him to the rescue as we clearly weren't meeting his needs within the constraints of our family life.
4. Gabby (great dane) came along after Otto died. My wife had always fancied a great dane. Gabby was about six when she came to us, her previous owner having died and none of her family having space for her. She was great - laid back but fun - and lived happily with us until old age. That was a big hole to dig in the garden!!
5. Sam (black lab) was a rescue from Romania, and apparently had a bit of a wonky back end. After a slightly dodgy handover in a lay-by late one evening, it soon became clear that Sam had a completely paralysed back leg, and was doubly incontinent. He was also very reactive to Gabby. Our vet's advice was that he should be euthanased but the rescue wouldn't allow this. And he barked all day - to the point that when our (by now teenage) daughter was left with him in the house she ended up locking herself in the toilet in tears. He went back after a couple of weeks, although it was a fairly unpleasant relationship with the rescue (who basically accused us of not trying hard enough, and plenty of other stuff). Had we done a bit more digging on this particular rescue organisation, we probably wouldn't have offered in the first place. I'll leave it at that.
6. Buzz (golden lab) came to us initially just for fostering as a juvenile. He had bad hip dysplaysia in both hips, and needed a nice quiet environment (he had been living with another dog) where he wouldn't run around too much until he reached full size and could have surgery. After a year or so, the rescue paid for him to have both hips replaced, which required a fair bit of nursing care from us. After all that time, we decided to convert the fostering into adoption, and he's still with us now - and other than pulling on the lead is another lovely dog. He's sitting looking at me now with two tennis balls in his mouth wanting to play...
7 & 8. Luna & Lexi were supposedly brother and sister labradors from Romania. They certainly weren't labs, and we doubt they were brother and sister, but apparently had been rescued from fairly traumatic circumstances (the rescue wouldn't give us the back story as they said we wouldn't sleep...) The deal was that we were fostering (to get them out of kennels) until adoption could be sorted. Two very very scared dogs, who spent their first two days with us cowering in a corner. It was probably a month before the more confident one would allow you to touch her, and we had numerous issues. To cut a long story short, they were eventually rehomed (after a false start for one) but it was quite a struggle that took a toll on family life and relationships.
9. Oscar (black lab) was supposed to be an emergency foster. He's an older dog, who we think was basically dumped in favour of a new puppy. He came to us with very little notice as the planned foster's son had a severe allergic reaction to him. But he pretty much just wandered in, hopped up onto the sofa, laid his head on someone's lap and seemed to say "I like it here, I think I'll stay". So another failed foster in that we adopted him. He's still going well a year later.
Apologies for the long post - but as you can see, some good, some not so good. But I think the more you can get to know the dog and the rescue in advance the better. Good luck!!
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Apr 2020
12:43pm, 23 Apr 2020
15,980 posts
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Sharkie
An excellent post, Ed! Interesting and illuminating stories.
Definitely worth being careful about WHO/WHERE you adopt from. The best places - including Battersea - are pretty strict about matching owner to dog. I think some even do home checks first - demanding high fences for some breeds for instance. Not hearsay, we came across this.
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Apr 2020
12:43pm, 23 Apr 2020
8,256 posts
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BaronessBL
EdJ you and your family are complete saints. I now take back what I said about Wanda in my post above as by comparison our experience has been a walk in the park.... (albeit one interrupted by a lot of lunging at other dogs....)
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Apr 2020
1:18pm, 23 Apr 2020
8,303 posts
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Mazlin
Yes, I had a home check for Rory before I was allowed to adopt him.
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Apr 2020
1:33pm, 23 Apr 2020
8,304 posts
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Mazlin
Knowing the background is equally important if you get a puppy though, I know D2 did loads of research into Indi’s breeding and I’m sure everyone else who had their dog from a puppy did too. This is a terrible misquote but our trainer says something like ‘genetics loads the gun and environment pulls the trigger’ - both of those are unknown with a rescue dog but they are with a puppy too if you don’t know exactly where they’ve come from.
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Apr 2020
1:58pm, 23 Apr 2020
29,951 posts
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LazyDaisy
Fascinating read, Ed, I'm so glad sl many oc your rescues turned out well and I suspect the ones that didn't maybe wouldn't have with any new owners
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