Is a Rescue Dog a good idea? Rescue dogs (or Rehoming) can often be the perfect pet. Many rescue centres will have assessed the dog, treated any health issues and will be aware of any problems that may make the dog unsuitable for you and your family. If so they will be able to offer you an alternative dog that would perfectly suit your family and your living conditions. In general, you may have to pay or “Make a Donation” but this cost is generally a lot less than buying a dog from a breeder.
A Rescue Dog Can Save You Training
Because a lot of rescue dogs are not puppies this solves the obvious problem of ignorance in the dog owner, particularly those for instance that have no idea how to train a puppy not to pee on the carpet or spend time working out how to teach their cute little friend how to ask to go outside.
A Quick Look at the Pros and Cons of Adopting a Rescue Dog.
Cons
* There is a cost, they don’t come free.
* They may have some strange habits.
* You may need to train them in variety of differing ways.
* It will probably take time for them to readjust to you as their new owner.
Pros
* You rarely have to toilet train as this has usually been done by previous owners or by the rescue home.
* Once you have won their trust, they are likely to be a very affectionate and loyal dog.
* Most rescue dogs are easily trained as most are very keen to please their new owners and already understands the loyalty reward structure for learning.
Rescue dogs come in many shapes and sizes and often just need a dependable home with a little care and love shown, other rescue dogs however can need some hard work even to simply gain their trust, particularly if they have had an abusive owner.
To make this simple I am going to give you some examples. I am going to cover some of the rescue dogs myself and Jan at Top Lap Dogs have taken in. It may be worth noting though that Jan and myself will take on dogs that for some may well be a lost cause.
Talk thoroughly to your chosen Rescue or Rehoming Centre and take their advice when it comes to choosing a dog.
Some of the Dogs we have Rescued :-
Murphy A Westie (West Highland Terrier)
Murphy came to us from a rescue home that specialised in westies.
He had been severely traumatised having had his hips and back legs broken by some children after escaping from his owners garden.
Unwilling to put him down the vet referred him to the rescue home and they nursed him for some months before allowing him to be put up for adoption. There were some obvious conditions put on the adoption agreement such as no young children, and some less obvious conditions such as a fenced garden and someone able to handle a dog with possession issues and aggression towards children.
We fitted the bill and after inspecting the garden to ensure that Murphy was unlikely to escape, they agreed to a trial stay.
Needless to say Murphy stayed with us until his death some 8 years later. Despite his problems when he came to us he became an extremely loyal and loving dog and was loved by all that visited even eventually small children.
Bailey A Shih Tzu
When Jan first saw Bailey he had just been taken to a local groomer to be shaved as he had been removed from his owners that had kept him in just a kitchen and not sharing the rest of the house. He had clearly been ignored for some time as his hair was so matted and knotted that the only option was to shave off all of his hair.
He had already been offered another home by an inexperienced family and we were asked if we would be prepared to be a second choice if the family could not cope.
Sure enough within 24hrs we received a call and we took Bailey in. His new found family could not take the howling from Bailey when he was shut away overnight.
It remains to be said that this is unusual behaviour for a Shih Tzu so clearly something was very wrong.
Once Bailey was with us we soon discovered that he was suffering from separation anxiety (I have covered this in a separate article Click Here). Once we had dealt with this issue Bailey settled and has now been with us for some years and is a happy normal Shih Tzu if a little dim as he didn’t actually know how to be a dog, probably because he had been separated from his mother too early thus not learning normal dog behaviour.
Bella a Terrier Cross
Bella was with The Dogs Trust and had been rescued from a home of multiple dogs. An old man had taken in some dogs several years earlier and had kept them with him rather than take them to a rescue home. Despite his best efforts the dogs multiplied considerably until he had over 160 dogs living with him in a 2 bedroom bungalow.
The dogs were not mistreated by the old man but pack order had ensued which meant that some dogs were bullied by the pack leaders.
When the dogs trust were notified they took in all 160 dogs and despite their best efforts had to put down about 30 of them with a large number of them suffering from hip displacement and seized hip formation.
They operated where possible to mobilise those that they could. This condition was caused because the dogs concerned had not had enough exercise causing the hip bones to fuse.
Bella had a number of problems when we met her.
- We were the 5th people to attempt homing her as all the previous families had failed to cope with her needs and the trust had actually considered not attempting to rehome her.
- She had managed to avoid surgery, JUST. The veterinarian would not operate on her hips because she was so nervous that he was concerned that the operation itself would cause far too much stress.
- When we first met her she had to be kept on a long leash, as hands on was practically impossible, in fact we met her outside so that she did not feel confined and she immediately hid under a wheelie bin.
Clearly we had some issues to sort and the Dogs trust were not convinced that anyone would be able to handle her. We though at Top Lap Dogs do not give up easily and determined that we would take her home and begin the process of retraining her thought processes to make her feel safe.
I will cover her recovery in more detail in another post but the short answer is that it was several weeks before we felt happy enough to remove the lead and a yet couple of years later she is a bouncy happy dog that wants to sit on our laps. So YES it is a rewarding thing to do.
So the original question was Is a rescue Dog Good Idea. Well for us, yes. For you, provided that you choose the right rescue dog for your home circumstances then absolutely yes.
The Rescue and Rehoming Centres have a wealth of expert knowledge so let the rescue home help you to choose the right character of dog for your family and you will find that your gorgeous new furball is more than worth the effort and often can be a lot less work than taking on a cute little puppy.
