My dog passed away, trying to rescue a new one. What a PITA!

I like rescuing dogs.  We've rescued our last two dogs, both yellow labs.  Both were great dogs.  Cooper passed away last week, which has been really hard for me since we had him for 13 years. 

So I reached out to the rescue I got Cooper from and filled out a new application to get another lab.  They have quite a few on their website, in contrast to most of the other rescue organizations around here.  (Denver is dog crazy, everyone has a dog)

I hadn't heard from them, so I emailed them.  They got back to me saying they'd reviewed my application and decided we weren't a good home because we have a doggy door.  No doggy doors allowed, for the entire life of the dog, no matter what.  Wait, what?! 

So I emailed them back asking them to explain themselves, which they did.  Which still made no good sense to me, unless you're a bad dog owner and just leave your recently adopted dog out in your yard all damn day, which I don't do.

So they decided to reconsider my application and called my vet for a reference.  They said my vet said I was a good owner but had declined heart worm testing and never bought heart worm meds from them.  I literally don't remember them ever asking me to have Cooper heartworm tested.  It's not that prevalent here and no, I don't buy heart worm meds from the vet when I can buy them from Petsmart much more conveniently and for less money.

So they denied my application again!  At that point this was my response:

"Forgive me for saying this, but policies shouldn't be made in stone.  I've owned rescue labs for over 20 years and have successfully adopted from your organization in the past.  I know what I'm doing and how to care for a rescue lab.

We're a good family for a lab rescue, I'm disappointed that you don't seem to agree with me.  It really seems like you're going out of your way to look for reasons not to let us rescue a lab from your organization, which baffles me given the fact that we've rescued from you before and gave Cooper such a good home and life."

So at this point I'm super irritated at these guys.  They seem to want to control every last aspect of the dogs they're adopting out vs trying their best to get them into homes where the dogs will get taken care of and loved.  I wonder if you have to also be on your HOA board to become a volunteer for this organization.

I've put in applications at some other organizations.  Some I haven't heard back from, which means they're probably having a hissy fit over my doggy too, and two have gotten back to me.  We're on wait lists for dogs from both of those.  Sigh....

I've dealt with rescues a couple of times. Never again. It would be easier to get a dog from North Korea. 

Head to your local SPCA. They are actually interested in matching pets with people and happy to do the work to make it happen. 

We went through the process with one rescue group and, yes, lots and lots of questions. Found two pups that looked so cute, too. But before we could meet them, we found a dog at the local humane shelter that just clicked with us. So not much to add other than, yeah, been down that road. 

I've tried adopting cats from similar places. We've managed multiple indoor cats, cared for barn cats, kept most alive into mid or late teens, etc. and were still deemed not good enough.

At some point it's like they don't want to give them up.

We're looking for a dog 1-3 years old, either a lab or a golden retriever.  Those do pop up at the Dumb Friends league here and there, but not that often.  Ironically if we wanted a puppy it'd be no problem at all, tons of puppies available.  I'm just going to have to be patient and wait...

Someone recently pointed me to the site https://www.adoptapet.com/  Seems than many of the pets listed are listed by Human Societies or local dog warden shelters.  Some are private parties like, "moving and cant take with..."  You can sort by your zip code to find local dogs.

What is the difference between a humane shelter and a rescue place?  We are 9 years in on our second pound puppy after 12 wonderful years with her predecessor.  I really don't recall adopting either to be difficult at all.  What has changed?

Anybody can start a dog rescue group and make up whatever rules they want. Some of them want somebody at home all day. Some of them are run by people like me who leave their dogs at home all day. Some are run by dog hoarders and crazy people. I have started three of them in the last 20 years and I am still involved with one. If one group won't give you a dog, go somewhere else. Since dog rescue groups run on volunteers it always takes a while for them to get back to you. That isn't really a sign of rejection. They just don't have enough volunteers to go through applications fast enough. I got a husky from the Denver Dumb Friends League many years ago when I was a graduate student living in a mobile home. I'm not even sure I would have given myself a dog back then. I would go looking at the local animals shelters. Also go to shelters in the suburbs and in small towns nearby. That's where rescue groups get them. A couple of years ago I found my purebred Aussie at the Dallas shelter for $10 and a minimal application. I would also look on Petfinder. There are lots of rescue groups and shelters on there. You might also look on neighborhood sites like Nextdoor.com. People find dogs and if nobody claims them you can step up before they take them to the pound. Dogs are everywhere. Sometimes they even find you.

I've posted on NextDoor, people have been helpful but no dogs we'd like.  We're really looking for a lab or golden retriever.  I'll start looking on petfinder too...

einy, the rescue's tend to focus on one breed, which makes it easier to find what you're looking for.  They also put the dogs in a foster family for a bit, so you have some sort of idea of what they're like vs the shelters, which have no clue.

This not so little princess came from a rescue.  Have been dog owners for many years prior.  It would have been easier to spend three days being interrogated by the KGB.  They try to dictate every aspect of the dogs life.  It's ridiculous, we have had many battles with them since.  I understand they want the dogs to have good homes, but they pretty much make it so that you are discouraged from adoption.

http://www.home-home.org

Is another option.

I'm not a fan of rescues, most the time they don't actually better the animals life because no one could possibly meet the standards so the dogs live in a cage for years. It's dumb as hell

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

This not so little princess came from a rescue.  Have been dog owners for many years prior.  It would have been easier to spend three days being interrogated by the KGB.  They try to dictate every aspect of the dogs life.  It's ridiculous, we have had many battles with them since.  I understand they want the dogs to have good homes, but they pretty much make it so that you are discouraged from adoption.

 

 

What did they do afterwards?

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

Yeah, that dog looks miserable.    Please give her a little skritch behind the ear for me.

Sorry about your troubles with animal rescues.

I thought Colorado had a program to give every person that moved to Colorado a lab or golden when they crossed the state line! In the 70's I think it was huskies, now it seems to be golden doodles.

you'll find one, hang in there 

We've had good and bad experiences with rescues. We've had greyhounds, whippets, and salukis. We know about tall fences, no off leash, yada yada and we follow those rules extremely well. For twenty years. And yet the rescue we've used most in the past have us the most difficult time recently so we found a dog through a different rescue we follow and support. Not sure why this happens but it does. Don't get down. You'll find the right lab retriever rescue soon enough.

I think it started, due to people lying about treating a dog right, and trying to weed those for the decent homes. But like the rest of the folks that think power is meant to be abused, it's a sign of the way things are done now. 

Unfortunately most rescues are more interested in telling you all the good they're doing, and how hard it is, instead of actually doing it. 

My advice is to keep looking, we were declined from one because we had an Invisible Fence. The background checks you go through seem more invasive than if you were applying for top secret security clearance. I'd keep your eye out, find a rescue that seems reasonable, and then try to wait until they get the type of dog you're looking for. 
It's not an easy road, but it's well worth it in the end.

I had similar frustrations with rescue organizations. The humane society is the way to go.

Friends of ours were recently rejected by one rescue because they had a policy against adopting out to any households with children under the age of 12 living there. WTF? Their new shelter dog couldn't be any happier or more loved.

This just kills me...

The shelter I worked with in Kuwait is absolutely overrun with good dogs that cant get to the states because of the CDC ban on "high-risk countries".  I don't care how many doggy doors or kids under 12 you have, whatever your situation it is INFINITELY better than the lives these animals have now. 

Unrealistic expectations of animal treatment don't help anyone.

We lost two SPCA black labs in the last year so I feel your pain.  We have one 2 year old Mastiff now and are going to visit a 1 year old Mastiff at SPCA today or tomorrow.

My rescue org experience was with Greyhound Rescue.  Almost the same experience...I live on a farm, we are dog people (in the traditional sense...we are not dog parents, they are not my canine child fur baby etc) but we were not good enough.  I said "so what you're saying is you would rather euthanize a great animal than subject them to living with me".  

I know there are bad owners they should avoid but .... wow.

Even our local SPCA got really weird. About 12 years ago they started throwing down all kinds of roadblocks....I called a meeting with them, and long story short, that got resolved and we rescued 4 dogs on "death row" over then next few years. 

I'm navigating this nonsense currently. Again.

We're currently on rescue dog #8.  For the first five we went to local animal shelters. Never had a problem finding the kind of dogs we like nor getting them home. Then, pit bulls became the latest craze. I've got nothing against PB's but they just aren't my kind of dog. I'm a herding dog guy. Well, there are none in the shelters anymore. What few they may get are picked up by rescue groups. It's aggravating, because I like the idea of pulling a dog from the shelter that really needs saving. But, that's so 1990s.

Now I have to go through rescue groups. This is way more complicated as others have noted. Our veterinarian told us he wants to come back in his next life as one of our dogs. We are exemplary dog people (I don't like the term 'owners').  Our dogs are well-trained and behaved and live good lives. We have great references. Yet, we've been rejected by a few rescue groups. Most of the time they won't give a reason. It's infuriating. 

We are insta-rejected sometimes before ever applying. MUST HAVE FENCED YARD. This drives me insane. We are only a few miles from a dog park (we are on the Board) which is where free-range activities take place. We don't need a fenced yard, and our dogs are leashed when they go outside for their safety. But, that's not good enough. Even if we had a fence, our current dog is skilled at clearing anything 6' or less. A normal fence would be a useless eyesore.

Because rescues don't get the donations or municipal funding of a shelter they also need to charge way more for their dogs. $400 is now cheap. The local Golden Retriever rescue charges over $1000 for an adult dog. It's nuts.

I've actually considered going to a breeder for a puppy. I don't want a puppy. I'd rather get an adult dog that needs a home. But this new age of rescue makes it almost impossible to find and obtain the kind of pet I'm looking for. The system is now defeating itself.

We went through several "rescue" groups several years back. One wouldn' let us have one because we had a female already in the house. One required a physical fence around the entire property no exceptions. One wouldn' because we had another shephard mix. We ended up getting one from a small breeder instead because these groups were so restrictive. 

A local one has the "must have fence" restriction, but they turned down a buddy because the fence wasn't "restrictive enough" because it fenced in 50 acres. They wanted a 2 acre area maximum? They keep turning people down then posting why it's so hard to find people....