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I, too, tried the rescue route and got no where for 2 or 3 months. They wanted to choose a dog for me and bring it to our house, others did not answer at all. This started 9 years ago after we lost our 14 year old dog. I was going to go the adult dog route and worked really hard at it. I was trying to avoid the animal shelter, I knew nothing about it except they had a lot of animals there. I looked on line and picked out a puppy since I decided if I were not going to know a lot about the dog, I wanted a young one. We went to see her and saw a couple others. Brought her home. The other dog, we tried humane societies and they wanted to pick a dog for us and put pressure on us to take dogs I was not interested in which was VERY frustrating. We started looking at the animal shelters and 2 years ago found a second older dog that was well past her stay but the shelter worker was holding her back and I had talked to the worker before and knew that she kept "good" ones for as long as possible. I brought home a yellow lab female, crate-trained, housebroken and leash trained.
I do suggest a mix breed since I believe as some others that they are healthier. I also would not count on whether they were housebroken or not since you will still be working with them on schedules when you take them home. Also, look into crate-training and understand it as that can save a relationship with any dog.
I do think that most animal control facilities have a return policy in place but keep in mind that it takes time for everyone to adjust. Hope you find the dog you are looking for as I have been in your shoes and I know how disappointing it is. I just wanted a dog and there were so many available and it was like some of them were just hoarding the dogs.
It can be harder to go to animal control to chose a dog but I just kept telling myself "I can save one." I went in with the idea of saving one that might not otherwise be saved. Don't let any workers push you into taking a dog that isn't what you are looking for. On the puppy since I picked her out online, we took her home that afternoon. On the older dog, we went to see her and "slept" on it calling the next day to put her on hold until we drove over that day to pick her up.
Let us face it , none of us would be having this conversation if people would learn to spay and neuter their pets , I get so sick of hearing people say
well it is not natural to cut parts off an animal etc yes I have heard this . Older people mainly think that way because they were raised to think that way instead of being open to altering their animals . I wish people would learn to spay and neuter .
Let us face it , none of us would be having this conversation if people would learn to spay and neuter their pets , I get so sick of hearing people say
well it is not natural to cut parts off an animal etc yes I have heard this . Older people mainly think that way because they were raised to think that way instead of being open to altering their animals . I wish people would learn to spay and neuter .
Agree that spay and neuter is critical, but there are at least 2 other important elements in play; 1) there would be significantly fewer animals in shelters if people kept their pets for life and didn't surrender them as soon as they became inconvenient e.g. new girlfriend doesn't like dog or the owner surrenders a lovely dog that became unmanageable due to never being trained. 2) People need to stop supporting puppy mills; puppy millers need to be forced out of business and we need to support reputable breeders who produce puppies with strong lineage and temperaments.
I am a my wits end and about ready to throw in the towel on adopting a dog through a rescue group. I have emailed a few about dogs I am interested in....never heard anything back.
what is WITH rescue groups? They NEVER have enough volunteers. So contact one of the groups and offer to be the person who handles the email account, answering all those inquires. Depending on the size of the group it probably won't take you more than one or two hours a day.
I handled the email for my small, local, all volunteer, foster based group and I'd guess it was about 10 hours a week on average. Oh yeah, I also fostered 2 to 4 dogs most of the time, got them to their vet appointments, wrote up their biographies, got pictures for the website and Petfinders, got them to adoption events and helped staff those events, pulled dogs from the pound, helped out on the monthly spay/neuter shuttle, trapped and transported feral cats to the low cost spay/neuter clinic, helped transport dogs to other rescue groups in metro areas, helped out at various fund raisers, attended regular meetings, meetings of the foster people, served on the board and attended those meetings, used my vehicle to pick up pallet loads of cat and dog food from the pet food bank located 3 hours away, scooped tons of poop, provided some basic training to each foster, etc, etc, etc.
I also donated thousands of dollars of equipment and supplies over the years.
So if you're done whining spend a year volunteering in some capacity with a group come back and tell us about why rescue groups do such a crappy job and have such a low opinion of most of the general public.
We were once rejected from adopting a cat. This really soured me from adopting a pet from foster care. Since there was absolutely nothing about us that could be considered negative, we assume the foster woman was really more of a pet hoarder than a legitimate rescue group.
We will probably adapt a dog someday, and if we encounter this sort of thing again, I will go to a breeder instead.
I hate to say it, because I know there are some very dedicated people, but in many cases these pet rescuers are people wo get off on being in control.
I am a my wits end and about ready to throw in the towel on adopting a dog through a rescue group. I have emailed a few about dogs I am interested in....never heard anything back. I was asking them if the dog I was interested in was going to be at their adoption event they were having so you would think they could at least tell me that.
Then I find one that I am really interested in and email a rescue and ask them a little more about her. All I get back (almost right away actually) is I need to fill out an application. OK - I don't know why I need to fill out an application just to have you answer a few questions but I really like this dog so I go ahead and do it. About 10 minutes after I submit the application I get an email asking if I am open on Monday to meet the dog. I wrote back and told them that I had a few questions about the dog before I met her to make sure I am not wasting anyones time. I had about 5 questions about the dog. they were pretty basic questions like how long the dog had been with the rescue and things like that. I NEVER heard anything back from them. I am sorry, did it ANNOY you that I had a few questions about the dog? I mean, I answered about 100 of them (some very personal) so that you would actually communicate with me and now you cannot even answer some questions? WTH is with these people?
This last one is the 4th rescue group in the area that I have try to contact and I am about done. I don't want to go the breeder route but I am so sick of this! I just want a puppy for my family for crying out loud!
I totally agree, hammy. I appreciate the goal rescue groups have: to find wonderful homes for pets in need. They take excellent care of their animals, and none of them profit from what they do. However, the majority or rescue groups I have dealt with go overboard in screening and turn away great potential adoptive homes. Ironically, after turning away many great potential adoptive families, they then talk about how overloaded they are with dogs, and how people should rescue instead of buy from breeders! I (and other people) would, if the process were easier.
Rescue groups will disqualify people for the most arbitrary reasons: they only allow people who own their homes, not renters, they only adopt to married couples, or couples living in the area, etc. I also don't like the fact that they choose the dog for you and you have no say in the matter. The rules vary according to the rescue, but they usually are something like that. They make you wait for an indeterminate amount of time until they decide they have a dog that may be the one you deserve. I don't go for that, and I've always bought my puppies from breeders for that reason. I don't need rescue groups sizing up my ability to be a good dog mama. I already know I am
I would expect that there are some good rescue groups out there but the very recent experiences I have had were all negative. I used the various pet search sites very recently after losing our last of three. I found many at rescues we were interested in and emailed 5 different rescue groups all that were suppose to be reputable. Four of those never answered initial or follow-up emails. The 5th just responded a week ago (after 2 months from last follow-up) asking if I ever found a new "pet"? The 5th group had four Lab mix litter mates we were very interested in and although we were only looking for three we planned to take all four so as not to split them up. When we were first looking over two months ago that same rescue group only had about 20 dogs. When they finally answered my email I checked and they were up to 96 dogs!
My dislike of rescues only really came after we started reading their "Adoption Agreements" and other assorted paperwork. The amount of questions go well beyond what is needed to ensure they are placing a dog in a good home. One was demanding in depth financial information as well as many personal questions that had no relevance to adopting a dog and were more akin to some type of psychological profile test! Most of them want to invade your home with some type of "In Home Inspection". One of the groups contracts was written where you as the new owner would assume all responsibility for the pet even for anything that occurred before you even adopted it! As already stated you can go through all their rigors, provide all their demanded information and all of the contracts I have seen stated they have the right to deny you for any reason and not provide that reason. Quite frankly these rescue groups need to get a grip on reality and realize why their numbers of unadopted dogs are growing!
If you are interested in finding a new family member do visit the shelters and pounds as there are many good ones to be found there and they do not get ridiculous with their adoption requirements. Another potential avenue, which we used to find our two new family members, is talk to the Veterinarian office you are using now, or the local Veterinarian offices in your area, and ask if they keep lists of people trying to adopt their pets. For ours one of our Vet's clients had come across two Lab pups that were running loose/abandoned and listed them with our Vet who immediately called us.
Don't give up completely on rescue operations but be very careful what they require you to do, what information they want you to provide, and how long they might decide to take to adopt a pet to you. I can tell you right now if I don't know you you're sure as heck not coming in my house! As for intense financial and personal information you're damn sure not getting that either!! Unfortunately once you give up personal information it is fair game for however they want to use it or distribute it. As far as coming into your home would you allow a stranger off the street in your home? If you look at any of their agreements I have yet to see anywhere that they will protect your information and/or privacy!
I agree with the OP. If she is expected to answer a lot of questions before meeting any dog, I don't think it's out of line for her to get some answers before meeting the dog. She's trying to save the volunteers' time. Ok, and her own.
There is sure to be more questions when/if she meets a dog.
and, phonelady, I don't think it's an age thing. I think twelvepaw hit it: more lack of responsibilty.
I would expect that there are some good rescue groups out there but the very recent experiences I have had were all negative.
I've heard nothing but negative experiences with rescue groups as well.
One friend had a Cavalier King Charles spaniel for many years, and her dog eventually succumbed to congestive heart failure at about 14 or 15. She wanted another Cavalier King Charles, so she contacted a local rescue group. They determined that since she and her husband worked full time that they would not be good candidates to have a dog (never mind that they'd had one for the previous 14 years or so). So they went to a breeder and bought a puppy.
Another friend had 2 dogs for 10+ years. Within a year, both passed on. She approached several rescue groups, and because she lives in a townhome, rather than a SFH, she was denied. So she went to the humane society and got a puppy there.
I'm sure a rescue group would reject me as well, despite the fact I've had cats and dogs my whole life. I am not married and I don't have a fenced yard and I work full time. So I guess I'll just get my next creatures from breeders or the humane society.
We also tried the Rescue Dog groups to no avail. We've had dogs we have gotten from the SPCA for the past 30 yrs. All are loved, spoiled, and pampered. I decided to try a rescue for our latest edition and ran into a lot of the same situations some of the rest of you have. Although I know they mean the best - many I contacted go overboard - we ended up waiting for a few more weeks and found the goofiest, most loveable pit bull dane pup at the SPCA. You'll find that pup when you least expect it - but don't give up on the SPCA dogs - as stated - you're paying as much as those from the rescues, they have vet care, microchipped and now with the behaviorists on staff at many SPCAs - they could answer your questions about the puppy without wasting anyone's time.
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