Why is adopting a dog so difficult?

FawltyTowel

10 years ago my family adopted a staff whose owners could no longer take care of her. She lived a long life before passing away.

Fast forward to today and I've been trying months to rescue a dog. The vast majority of shelters take weeks to email you back any information. By the time they do I've already moved on. My local sanctuary is barely open. I've called and left messages, filled out a dog questionnaire for various dogs I was interested and heard nothing back.

The pounds I've visited sadly didn't have enough information on dogs as most were just found on the stray.

Now yesterday I found a great little staff on a pretty big animal rescue site. He was good with cats, kids, loved cuddles. Sounded perfect. I left a message, they called back and told me to come up.

Turns out they were hiding a lot of information. Including just how badly abused he was. They didn't tell me any of that on the phone. The dogs were older than the site said they were too, which was surprising.

On top of that, after going all the way to Dublin, they told me I needed a letter from my local council which would say I'm allowed to own this particular dog. As it was a restrictive breed. Of course I'm not allowed to reserve a dog while I sort this, nor do they tell you when a dog you want has been reserved. You just have to go up and get lucky.

I have to jump through so many hoops. I'm seriously better just buying a pup

username123

What do you think the difference between a pound and a rescue is? Most rescues get dogs in from pounds. They make it hard so they dont end up with the same dog back again. Thats a good thing.

Why not just get a pound dog? You will never truly know the history of any rescue dog.

toadfly

Where do you live OP? It's not that difficult to rescue a dog. I have two, a staff and a Yorkie both from a Dublin pound and I live in Galway. No real need to be afraid of pound dogs, a lot of dogs in rescue groups came from pounds with no history. My two are fantastic.

fiounnalbe

I have to agree with OP, it's getting more and more difficult in this country to adopt a dog and I think it's turning a lot of people away from the adoption route.

I've had some truly horrendous experiences with some rescues. I know they are extremely busy, stressed and generally unappreciated, but there is never a reason for being rude and unhelpful when someone is genuinely trying trying to do the right thing and give a homeless dog a loving home.

Now I am not saying that they should just hand out their dogs left, right and centre before I get shouted down. Obviously checks have to made that the dog is going to a loving home after all they have already been through. But even with this research how much does the rescue actually know about where they are going?

One experience of mine a good few years back was I wanted to rehome a dog and was told incredibly rudely, shouted at and all, that I could not adopt a dog, "Who did I think I was". This was because I lived in an apartment and therefore had no back garden, which would be a horrible life for any dog. I wasn't allowed explain further about my situation, that between myself and my partner the dog would be alone for no more than 3 hours a day. We are both big walkers and the dog would get walked 4 times a day, I was planning on training classes and doing agility training with it and every weekend we would go to our house in the countryside. I was kicked out of the rescue straight away.

Upon leaving I met someone taking out their newly adopted dog and they asked was I taking one too, I explained the situation and they laughed and said we should have lied, they told them the dog would be indoors but it wasn't going to be, it was purely going to be outback as a guard dog. Where would the dog have had a better life I ask you??

DBB

I know people are going to post here with their bad experiences, and it is dreadful that anyone gets abused for stupid stuff when they're trying to do a good thing. There's no excuse for it, because belittling people is not a good way to educate them, or encourage them. I also think it's madness, just madness for a rescue to dress a dog up as something it's not... Do they think the new adopter is not going to notice, or something?
However, we're not all as bad as these stories might indicate! I run a rescue, so do one or two others here, whilst others are deeply involved in helping out rescues. I cringe when I hear stories like above, because it's easy to get tarred with the one brush. I'm not saying I don't have my moments (people can be REALLY odd when it comes to pets sometimes!), but I don't consider it to be THAT hard to get a dog from me or most rescues I know... It's not easy-peasy either, but any checks we put in place are readily understood and accepted, and indeed nearly always welcomed by the potential adopters. They are sensible, intuitive, obviously-necessary checks.
The situation described above, where the people lied... Does this place home check? In fairness, it's people like those mentioned above who lied to the rescue who are chief contributors to why many rescues can get a tad paranoid about people's true intentions. Indeed, it is people like this who are making it more difficult for OP, or the above poster. You would not believe the lies I've been told, time-wasters, betrayals of trust I've had to deal with. But nevertheless, I think in most cases, if people play fair with a rescue, the rescue will play fair with you, and I think I've become reasonably good at weeding out the chancers from the genuine, lovely adopters.
There are nutters in every walk of life, perhaps more than the usual proportion are involved in rescues, but please, don't tar us all. We're not all that bad!

angeldaisy

I agree with you DBB, it is so easy to tar everyone with the same brush, but there are good places out there.

My own experience however has found no flexibility with the regulations. My local centre specifies a certain type of fencing that must be in place, which I can understand but just wish that common sense would also play a part. My 2 dogs, one rescued as a pup from a farmer before he was to be drowned, the other as a 2yr old who was found straying who I adopted from a boards member, are both members of our family.

Both dogs sleep in our bedroom, there are at least 5 beds for them throughout the house. They are walked through the fields lots of interesting smells. My collie as I type is in his favorite place which is laid at the front of the house watching the world go by and Tara our Jrtx is in hers, which is curled up in bed - usually mine!

If the rescue centre came to do a home check they would find 2 well loved, cared for dogs but they won't come because I can't tick all the boxes.

However I still support their rules because I know there are many unsuitable places and people looking for dogs and if this means that they are not able to adopt also, well then this makes me happy that these dogs won't be mistreated.

OP please look at the pounds please, you would be suprised I suspect.

Good luck with your search

fiounnalbe

DBB wrote: »

The situation described above, where the people lied... Does this place home check?

Yes they home check.

Sorry I didn't mean to tar them all with the one brush, but I did go to 5 rescues that didn't give me the time of and day, each more rude and abrasive than the next. Luckily, I didn't give up and just buy a dog like my partner wanted and found a rescue with the nicest woman ever, who listened to everything I had to say about offering a dog a home, did a home check etc and now we have two gorgeous rescues, who are extremely happy with their living arrangements

Keep trying OP, you too will find your perfect dog in a decent rescue soon

fathead82

I never adopted a dog from a rescue but I tried to volunteer in a big rescue near to me when I was out of work for a few months,emailed them,rang,left voice messages, never heard anything back so I called into them to offer my time & the woman was so rude i decided not to bother.

I rang another well known rescue to offer to foster a dog after seeing an appeal on the internet.Im almost a two hour drive from that rescue. The woman on the phone laughed at me,then asked me to hold on a minute,I could hear her telling another woman"this lad wants to foster a dog & hes from Tipperary" then they both laughed.
From what I can see,its the smaller rescues that are ran from peoples houses that are much better & the people who run them are much nicer to deal with.

Bullseye1

As others have stated its important that a dog who has probably been abused in their previous home don't get similar treatment when adopted. When you think about it it's easier to have a child than to adopt one. You could have the most unsuitable people having children in environments not suitable for them. Yet to could have a couple trying for years to adopt a child and their circumstances are absolutely ideal for bringing up a child. It seems to be the way people in adoption agencies work. Not saying they are all like that but if anything is to be learnt from spending time in this section of the forum is there are people with strong views who like to preach.

If your looking to rescue a dog to the pound route. For the same of a few quid employ a dog behaviourist to help you pick a suitable companion.

DBB

fiounnalbe wrote: »

Yes they home check.

Sorry I didn't mean to tar them all with the one brush, but I did go to 5 rescues that didn't give me the time of and day, each more rude and abrasive than the next. Luckily, I didn't give up and just buy a dog like my partner wanted and found a rescue with the nicest woman ever, who listened to everything I had to say about offering a dog a home, did a home check etc and now we have two gorgeous rescues, who are extremely happy with their living arrangements

Keep trying OP, you too will find your perfect dog in a decent rescue soon

Oops! I didn't mean to imply that you were tarring everyone with the one brush, it was just a general plea to everyone
I have to say, I think it's awful to hear these stories of good people getting short shrift, and made feel inadequate. You know, save the vitriol for the time-wasters and liars!
We have rules here, but sometimes people contact us who may not have a perfect set-up, but we know that they're not going to do anything stoopid, we know by talking to them that they're every bit as committed to their dogs as we are to our own, so we take everyone on a case-by-case basis. As I said above, you learn with experience who's genuine and who's chancing their arm, and sometimes, some of the rules can be rubberized a bit!:D
A case in point is my wee Shih Tsu x Spaniel, who I adopted 10 years ago. At the time, I rented a small house in a garden that wasn't secure. The rescue knew fine well that I wasn't going to let the little one run riot in the neighbourhood, and the adoption went ahead without any glitches. Like you fiounnalbe, they could see I had two beds ready for her in the house, a great routine with the dog I already had, and time to spend with her. So, whilst it would've put the heart crossways in a purist, they bent their rules in my case. That little dog is sitting here beside me 10 years later
It's probably easier for smaller rescues to do this, because one person takes ultimate responsibility (in our case, me! And me wee dog above also came from a small rescue), and I deal with every adopter personally, rather than larger rescues who have to delegate the duties out to a few different people, which probably means they need to be more uniformly strict? Maybe?

TooManyDogs

Sometimes I think people go about looking to adopt a dog a little backwards. Each rescue will have different policies, those policies will be generally based on experience. Some rescues will allow more wiggle room in the policies and some remain rigid to them. For what it's worth, my opinion is that firstly you should research the local rescues and what their policies are, have a chat with them about adopting a dog in general and see if that rescue is going to be a good fit for you. After that keep an eye on their dogs on the website or facebook page to see if the type of dog you're looking for comes in.

I am heavily involved with a rescue and have to say that the internet is both a blessing and a curse. People are browsing the internet on all the sites and fall in love with a dog's picture and then are bitterly disappointed if it doesn't work out, and sometimes it doesn't work out for a huge variety of reasons - the dog genuinely won't suit the particular circumstances, the dog is already booked but the volunteer updating the website hasn't been given the changes yet, the dog needs a really experienced owner, the prospective adopter lives too far away from the rescue to make doing a home check practical, etc etc

A disadvantage of the internet from my point of view is the expectation that everything will happen instantly, people seem more and more reluctant to pick up the phone and ring, they're texting and emailing asking for more and more information and photos of the dog rather than simply ringing to arrange to come out and meet the dog and chat to the person in charge of the rescue. And then they're getting thick when their messages aren't answered quickly enough. The rescue I volunteer with doesn't have internet access onsite so all emails and site updates are done by me at home, and the lady who runs it can't text, and even if she could there's that many texts come in she'd spend all day with her head in the phone trying to answer them.

For us there's 3 opportunities for us to suss prospective owners out, once on the phone when they ring about the dog and to get directions, second when they come out and meet the dog and we see the interaction, and thirdly when they're getting their home check done. Yes people will say Mass in order to get a dog, so you're depending on intuition and impressions so it's crucial that people actually come out, often that's why rescues don't allow people to book a dog over the phone.

The other side of that is that there's absolutely no excuse for a rescue to be rude to people, it's not good for the dogs, the adopters or the rescue. Sometimes in this rescue world all I can think when I meet some rescue people is 'Good with dogs, sh!te with people'

thomur

fathead82 wrote: »

I rang another well known rescue to offer to foster a dog after seeing an appeal on the internet.Im almost a two hour drive from that rescue. The woman on the phone laughed at me,then asked me to hold on a minute,I could hear her telling another woman"this lad wants to foster a dog & hes from Tipperary" then they both laughed.
.

Sorry to hear that OP. I adopted a dog from the local pound in Dub in Feb and they couldnt have been more helpful. I work in Mayo and had rang the rescue centre up there a few times to inquire about a dog on their website but I never got a call back. A few other people told me the same story. I think some centres are turning people off rehoming as its not worth all the hassle.

DBB

TooManyDogs wrote: »

A disadvantage of the internet from my point of view is the expectation that everything will happen instantly, people seem more and more reluctant to pick up the phone and ring,

Lol, more than once I've had people ring me at the most ridiculous hours of the night asking can they adopt X dog they've just seen on the interweb. I think the worst was at 4am. All of them stone cold sober!
Some of the phone stories are hilarious (they might not have been at the time, but time heals all wounds :pac:), but I'll bet the lady who runs TMD's rescue could write a book on it.. maybe she should?!;) A great lady!

NuckingFacker

I'd have to agree with the Op. I live on a farm, admittedly a big hobby farm, but loads of space, two kids and always had dogs. A delivery truck ran over our family dog, kids were distraught, so I said "lets get one from a pound - give a good home to a dog that needs it". Moreya.

We went, looked, picked, they did home visits, the crap dragged on and on. In the end, i went and bought a staffie(I like them, they're good, loyal dogs). I just couldn't be bothered with the ludicrous hoops they wanted me to jump through. They seemed happier to have the dogs cooped up and then put down. Absolutely mad IMO, but there you go.

Mr bought Doggie is now perched on the couch with the youngest kid and the cat, watching worlds most shocking car chases. I'd say adopting a kid would be easier than adopting a dog from a pound.

toadfly

I think you are confusing pounds and rescues. Pounds pick up stray dogs and hold them for at least 5 days and then the dog is either rehomed or killed. I have never heard of them doing home visits you go pay for the dog and a dog license and off you go.

Rescues on the other hand do home visits/neuter/vaccinate the dogs etc before rehoming and the fee is more than the pound as all these things have to be paid for.

boomerang

I have the phone for our rescue group right now. It is exhausting, the amount of calls coming in, the difficult callers, the situations I'm trying to help. I have to keep reminding myself that every caller is contacting us for the first time and has high expectations that we can fix their problem. Sometimes it's very hard, when you've had a few bad calls in a row. Don't forget that people ringing the rescue can be just as rude and awkward as the person you get on the phone when you ring! You get burned out, answering the phone, and that's when you get short and abrasive with people. I used to work in a call centre and tbh answering this phone is just as hard! There's only five of us in our group, and two are working full-time. We share the phone between us so that we all get a break from it, but it's still not easy.

I don't think the rescue were "hiding" information from you. In fairness it was probably easier to talk you through it in person than go through it on the phone. They probably didn't have time for a longer call. They gave you full disclosure when you visited, when a lesser rescue might be tempted not to, to get him into a home. However abused he was, or wasn't, the important thing is the dog in front of you. If you saw for yourself that the dog is everything the rescue described him as, that is what to focus on.

I am sure the dogs are older than advertised on the website because they have been there a while now so they are not the age they were when their info was posted on the website. They may not have time to keep the website updated.

The red tape is not the fault of the rescue - they are making sure that you're not forced to get rid of the dog because you are a council tenant and you are prohibited from keeping a restricted breed. In fairness this only applies to a small fraction of applicants and wouldn't be one of the first questions I would ask of someone phoning about a dog.

You are not allowed to reserve the dog while waiting from the letter of confirmation from the council, because in the event that you can't take the dog, it may have lost out on other prospective homes. There's nothing worse than when a good home falls through for a dog you've earmarked for someone, and in the meantime you've turned other interested people away.

I think you have to look at it from the rescues POV. These people offer their time because they love dogs. They try to make the adoption process as straightforward as possible, but understand that as dog lovers, they feel responsible for the animals in their care and want to be sure the dogs get great homes and never end up on the street or in a pound again.

There has to be a bit of give and take when dealing with rescues. They don't have the financial or personnel resources you might expect. That said, I think people in rescue should hold themselves up to the same professional standards expected of them in their working lives. Difficult as it may be, there's just no excuse for being rude or dismissive on the phone. I hate how it gives all rescues a bad reputation.

boomerang

angeldaisy wrote: »

My own experience however has found no flexibility with the regulations. My local centre specifies a certain type of fencing that must be in place, which I can understand but just wish that common sense would also play a part.

I don't think asking for secure fencing is so unreasonable. They don't want their dogs to have access to the road, or the ability to wander. Not only is it against the law, it increases their chances of being hit by a car, stolen etc. I sense you appreciate this. I do homechecks for rescues and I would never rehome a dog to a home with a garden the dog can escape. I couldn't, in good conscience. The risks are too great, and if anything happened to the dog, I would feel responsible. That is how folks in rescue think. And they're not going to give the option of an invisible fence or a chain link run, because they have well-founded objections to those.

Most homes don't fail homechecks on the set up of the garden, because the majority of people (in my experience of doing homechecks) are living in an estate and the house automatically is secure at the back. Or they have young children and have already secured the garden, for that reason. For a lot of people, the only thing they have to do to prepare for the dog is to raise the height of their fencing. The prospective adopters who get caught out are those living in a detached house on half an acre in the country. Rather than turn them down flat, I would always suggest ways they can keep the dog safe without having to fence in the entire garden and put in gates, which in fairness is more than most people can afford.

mgbgt1978

TillyGirl wrote: »

I think you are confusing pounds and rescues. Pounds pick up stray dogs and hold them for at least 5 days and then the dog is either rehomed or killed. I have never heard of them doing home visits you go pay for the dog and a dog license and off you go.

Rescues on the other hand do home visits/neuter/vaccinate the dogs etc before rehoming and the fee is more than the pound as all these things have to be paid for.

I think he is just mixing up the names, rather than 'confusing' pounds and rescue centres.
It's fairly obvious from his post that he is referring to rescues.
We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.
We have a Lab/Collie X and a German Shepherd, both got as pups (the Lab was dumped as part of a 4 week old litter in a hedge near us).
They are fonder of children than anything else and will allow any child to pull them, push them, and always come back for more.
Yet a few years ago when we rang both of our local rescues we were more or less told by bossy know-it-alls (I will not be getting into any arguments here about this description, I made the phone calls-not anybody else on Boards) that because we had children (5 and 12 at the time) it would be almost ridiculous to have any of their dogs in our home..... :rolleyes:

boomerang

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.

And that is the fault of the rescue, why?

It is quite possible that the kind of dogs they had at the time wouldn't have been suitable for a home with kids. Rescues don't get to pick the dogs that come in. In my experience, most collies coming into rescue are timid because of rough handling. They are a particularly sensitive breed. As a collie owner and in rehoming them through rescue, they are not the first breed I think of as a good family pet. They generally politely tolerate kids. And even though tons of people have Jack Russells - largely because they are a compact little breed - they're not the best choice with kids. I'm not saying this holds true of every individual dog in a breed, but there are definite patterns. You learn that with the amount of dogs coming through your rescue.

Maybe it's not that the person was a know-it-all, but that you just didn't like being turned down. That's human nature. If it is the rescue I am thinking of, you quite possibly spoke to me!

DBB

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

We have tried rescue centres before but apparently 'every' Jack Russell hates children, 'every' Collie (or Collie-cross) is shy and liable to bite children, etc.

In fairness, maybe most of the JRTs and Collie/Collie X's they get in come with baggage, including lack of adequate socialisation, which means they've no provenance, or have been shown to have a problem, around children?
I don't rehome the dogs I rehome with small children. That's a rule I don't bend. Some people don't like that, because they know of one person whose dog of this type was great with kids. But I know these dogs like the back of my hand. Most of them aren't great with kids. I'm not going to put a child at risk to test anyone else's theories... if that makes me a "know-it-all", I can live with that.
Again, please be careful about the language that's being used: there are thousands of people who have had great experiences dealing with rescues. To use such forceful language ("know-it-alls") is a little hard to take, I'll be honest with you.

angeldaisy

I don't know how to quote on my phone, but Boomerang and DBB make some excellent points
Whilst I know that I will not be allowed to rehome dog from my local rescue that doesn't mean I don't or can't support them or their policies.

I know that every thing they do is for the good of the animals. Today they have an open day, so I'm taking my 8 yr old son off to it. I hope that I'm already raising him to be an animal lover and a future responsible pet owner but want him to see what can happen to animals through no fault of their own.

We also throw some spare cash (not much these days:)) into their collection buckets and also that of the organisation looking after feral cats, who tnr them and rehome the kittens. We tell ourselves we are paying for kitty cuddles - don't think my two would appreciate a kitten coming into the house! I just hope that I can pass on my love of animals to him!

As I type this morning, my lady is sat on my tummy in bed having tummy rubs whilst my collle is snoring his head off. It's a hard life!

Btw my collie tolerates the child as does the jrt x neither would have been selected as pets for the child but I think sometimes for unknown reasons they pick you rather than you pick them! Both times I wasnt really looking for dogs but it just happened!

inocybe

Just want to point out that the OP and another poster have mentioned Staffies. Rescues have to be really careful and a bit paranoid when people come looking for a staffie. Someone who is prepared to wait and go through all the process is probably a safer bet.

borderlinemeath

inocybe wrote: »

Just want to point out that the OP and another poster have mentioned Staffies. Rescues have to be really careful and a bit paranoid when people come looking for a staffie. Someone who is prepared to wait and go through all the process is probably a safer bet.

The breed doesn't really matter. All the hyperbole about baiting and fighting and some of the ridiculous facebook posts that give people downright paranoia about their dogs doesn't help. If somebody wanted a dog for nefarious purposes, approaching rescues that have strict criteria and a rehoming fee wouldn't be their first port of call. Unfortunately stealing or indiscriminate breeding would be more their thing. I would imagine that the majority of people working in rescue have a fairly intuitive nature when it comes to rehoming and if 'a hard man' etc came in looking specifically for a restricted breed they wouldn't even get to fill out the forms.

Again, the breed doesn't matter. The dog itself matters because at this point it's in a rescue, it's either been lost or strayed, abandoned, given up for various reasons or was part of an accidental litter. Unless it's a puppy then it's probably already got some psychological battle scars from removed/lost from it's original family and the rescue have a duty of care to protect the poor confused dog from further trauma.

I think people who don't know a whole lot about dogs will pick a dog purely on looks and then get pissed off when the rescue says..
"no that dog can't be rehomed with children", or "that dog can only go to a single dog home" or "that dog will only suit an active household" etc. It may seem like the rescue are putting nothing but obstacles in your way but they are just protecting the dog, ensuring it gets the right home as opposed to any home, ie one there's a chance it might end up back in rescue.

kylith

I went to a breed rescue and found them quite sympathetic to my situation; that I wanted two dogs because I was away 08:30-17:30. They checked my accommodation and that my garden was secure, and that I didn't have a van with 'Furrier' on the side or anything, and then they said ok.

The thing that annoys me most about some rescues is when they insist that someone must be home during the day. Do they think that only people who are rich enough not to work should have dogs?

Sam Kade

FawltyTowel wrote: »

10 years ago my family adopted a staff whose owners could no longer take care of her. She lived a long life before passing away.

Fast forward to today and I've been trying months to rescue a dog. The vast majority of shelters take weeks to email you back any information. By the time they do I've already moved on. My local sanctuary is barely open. I've called and left messages, filled out a dog questionnaire for various dogs I was interested and heard nothing back.

The pounds I've visited sadly didn't have enough information on dogs as most were just found on the stray.

Now yesterday I found a great little staff on a pretty big animal rescue site. He was good with cats, kids, loved cuddles. Sounded perfect. I left a message, they called back and told me to come up.

Turns out they were hiding a lot of information. Including just how badly abused he was. They didn't tell me any of that on the phone. The dogs were older than the site said they were too, which was surprising.

On top of that, after going all the way to Dublin, they told me I needed a letter from my local council which would say I'm allowed to own this particular dog. As it was a restrictive breed. Of course I'm not allowed to reserve a dog while I sort this, nor do they tell you when a dog you want has been reserved. You just have to go up and get lucky.

I have to jump through so many hoops. I'm seriously better just buying a pup

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

borderlinemeath

Sam Kade wrote: »

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

I got one of my dogs from a rescue and got plenty of background information as he was there for 5 months recuperating. I knew I was getting a skinny, nervous, people shy, heart of gold dog . I also knew he had a wee bit of food guarding and also needed a bit of toilet training. Good, reputable rescues don't sugar coat the dogs problems or foibles as they know they'll end up with the dog back if they don't disclose everything.

Rescues use experienced fosters that they know can read the dogs signals and give unbiased information regarding the dogs behaviour, it's invaluable to them as it whittles down the prospective owners for the individual dog, ie good with other dogs, not good with cats. Shows a bit of resource guarding but easily trained etc.

muddypaws

Sam Kade wrote: »

If you want a dog with background information you need to buy a pup or buy a dog from its owner.

Unfortunately not necessarily so. Puppy farmers will spin all sorts of tales to sell their pups, or their ex breeding stock, including using family members' homes to pretend thats where the dogs live. Also, if people are desperate to rehome a dog, they will sometimes lie.

I have a boy here looking for a home, he's been back with us for 15 months, was adopted when he was 8 months old and came back last year, aged 4. He's a lovely, lovely dog, but has a few issues, so it has to be a very specific home. I arranged a hv with someone on the South coast who seemed very interested, a volunteer did the homevisit, I spoke with the prospective adopter on the phone about 8 times, it all seemed great. I live in Sligo, the home was on the south coast, I was willing to drive half way to meet the man so that he could meet Rudi. He wanted me to drive all the way with the dog for him to meet him, and wasn't willing to do an hour and a half or two hour drive to meet me. So whilst he ticked all the right boxes in some ways, his lack of willingness to go out of his way for this dog made me wonder what would happen if there were any problems.

Sam Kade

muddypaws wrote: »

Unfortunately not necessarily so. Puppy farmers will spin all sorts of tales to sell their pups, or their ex breeding stock, including using family members' homes to pretend thats where the dogs live. Also, if people are desperate to rehome a dog, they will sometimes lie.

I have a boy here looking for a home, he's been back with us for 15 months, was adopted when he was 8 months old and came back last year, aged 4. He's a lovely, lovely dog, but has a few issues, so it has to be a very specific home. I arranged a hv with someone on the South coast who seemed very interested, a volunteer did the homevisit, I spoke with the prospective adopter on the phone about 8 times, it all seemed great. I live in Sligo, the home was on the south coast, I was willing to drive half way to meet the man so that he could meet Rudi. He wanted me to drive all the way with the dog for him to meet him, and wasn't willing to do an hour and a half or two hour drive to meet me. So whilst he ticked all the right boxes in some ways, his lack of willingness to go out of his way for this dog made me wonder what would happen if there were any problems.

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

borderlinemeath

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

No pup should be taken from it's mother at 6 weeks. If you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know that it was a puppy farm that sold pups that young.

DBB

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

I don't agree with you, because I rehome almost all purebreeds, and at an estimate I would say 90% of their owners, most of whom would be average dog owners, bought them from puppy farmers and didn't know it. Actually, not so much puppy farmers as Ireland's more insidious bybs. In some cases, the owners look back and think that maybe things weren't quite right... But still bought the pup anyway. Many more had no clue, but I know from the dog's papers, or from what the owner tells me, who they bought it off and under what circumstances.
I know quite a few breeders who are producing dozens of pups in a shed down the country, but are selling them from their lovely residences in leafy Dublin suburbs.
It is very easy to fool people, and the proof is in the fact that many people are fooled.
When you say about the 6 week old pup, do you mean you're just visiting the pup? Or bringing it home at that age?

muddypaws

Sam Kade wrote: »

Buying as a pup at 6 weeks from a breeder eliminates all that. Also if you were fairly clued in about dogs you would know a puppy farm dog even if the president were selling him.

Well, if you're buying a 6 week pup then you are clearly not fairly clued in about dogs at all.