The other thread got me wondering about how rescues and shelters figure out their guidelines on how to place animals into homes.

Around here property is very expensive, and having a fenced yard means that you are either rich or lucky. I can't tell you how many good dog owners I know have given up and purchased a puppy after trying to rescue a dog and being turned down for not having a yard. Myself included.

A friend of mine tried to adopt a rottwieler from a kill shelter and was turned down. He has thirty years of experience in owning rotties. He actualy said to the shelter worker "You would rather kill this dog than
give him to me?" And the reply was " sorry, that's our policy"

Meanwhile, I know a nice family who adopted from a different shelter and were guided to a dog that was WAY too much dog for them. Pushy,
high energy, driven, dog aggressive. The dog should really be with someone who is seriously interested in dog training or very experienced.

Now I see this same dog on the shelter website as the featured dog looking for a "family". She's really cute, too. I bet that's what they will find for her.

Anyway, the other thread made me so sad. Then I got to thinking about all these people I know who have had these experiences.

So how do the shelters figure out their guidelines for placement?

I think that every shelter/rescue does it differently. I don't think our pound asks any questions and will adopt to anyone who shows up with the fee.

The rescue I foster for each foster is allowed to pick the best home for their foster. There are a couple of people who are pickier than others. And there are a couple of things that are deal breakers for the group as a whole. Beyond the deal breakers it is up to the foster. Some fosters will require fences for certain dogs for one reason or another sometimes it depends on the dog.

.it can be subjective sometimes..with my breed (in my area) personal assessment and home checks are standard...and skilled shelter staff are pretty good at weeding out the idiots with sketchy intentions..but the yard thing? I think yards can be over-rated...can be a crutch in lieu of interaction and active walking/exercise..no one in NYC would adopt a shelter dog then..

I can understand bully breed rescues being extra picky. With insurance issues and BSL being so widespread, it makes sense to try to adopt the dogs out to homeowners.

People who work in the shelters must really care about the animals. I can't imagine doing that job out of any reason other than good intentions.

It just kills me when I meet someone with a new purebred puppy who really wanted to rescue and couldn't.

With the rescue I managed (now closed, had apx 30 dogs at a time, places 2-15 dogs a month) we did home checks for every dog. Our 'policy' was that a fenced yard was required. You'd NEVER adopt a beagle from us without a very secure, fenced yard. A senior, arthritic dog, yeah, maybe we'd let a non-fenced yard slide. The real deal breaker for my rescue was a home with invisible fence. Our owner had a real issue with the stuff.

First and foremost though, we didn't bother catering to what the prospective adopter would like the dog to look like, or even really a particular breed they were interested in. Through an extensive screening process, we figured out what the lifestyle was close enough to offer them a few specific dogs we had that we felt would be a good fit. On our mandatory home visits, the dog they liked best would come. If the dog appeared comfortable in the home, then they stayed!

We were one of those rescues that was a royal pain in the ass to adopt from... I'll admit that happily. That said, we rarely had dogs returned to us because of a poor fit into the family. Our rescue was also different in that it was not a kennel, our dogs lived as a pack (I know, I know... but it worked for this place) and lived in the house with the owner of the farm. We had many many senior residents that were 'permanent' pets.

RIP, Furrytale Farm. I'll miss you, and so will the dogs and cats of Kitsap, King, and surrounding counties.

While I think that shelters definitely need guidelines for adopters, I also think they should be flexible and not so rigid as to deny very wonderful folks the opportunity to adopt a dog and save a life.

Fences are a sticky subject for a lot of people. I don't have a fence. I do have an in-ground fence... so I guess I would not have been suitable to adopt from furry tale... While I don't have a fence, my dogs are never out without supervision, and they are not loose until I have a 100% recall on them. I have 6 acres enclosed in the invisible fence, and my dogs enjoy each inch of it... they will also reach me in about 30 seconds with one HERE command.

Other pets... some rescues don't let a dog go to a home with other dogs. I have 5... so I would not be able to get a dog from a place like that.

I like to think that most rescues and shelters are flexible with their guidelines. Those that aren't are denying a wonderful life to a needy and deserving dog. The people who have a bad experience with a shelter, say they were turned down because they didn't have a fence, well, they aren't likely to go looking at another shelter are they? I think it only takes one time of being told that you are not good enough to take a dog out of a cage and save it's life before people will give up. They will instead go to a pet store and buy a pup... no requirements there except the check has to clear.

I greatly admire shelters and rescues. They do wonderful work. They do work that I could never do.

I hope for the day when we won't need rescues...

Just my 2 cents

--Kel

I think home checks are a really good thing.

Its just that I think the fenced yard policy is stupid in an area that a fenced yard will run you upwards of $700,000. Sometimes well over a million depending on your neighborhood.

To have the rescues stretched beyond their means, while shelters are euthanizing perfectly good dogs, and everyone is waiting for the Cleaver family to show up just dosent make any sense to me.

Just as a note, my friend that was interested in the rottie was really just looking for a dog when he went to the shelter. He met this rottweiler and fell in love. After being turned down at the shelter he ended up buying a BYB jack russel mix puppy for fifty bucks from someone he knows. Preemptive rescue, I guess.

We tried adopting from rescues twice. Both times I wrote maybe 60 emails (most rescues never return calls or don't even take a message). Each time I received maybe 4-6 replies. It took about a month each time to find and adopt a dog.

It almost looked like most of these rescues were running some kind of scam - same dogs on their websites listed as "available" for months, nobody answers phones, no contact info anywhere, no replies. "Tax exempt"? Have a pack of dogs, list them as "available for adoption" and get tax-free dog expenses?

When we decided to adopt the 3rd dog we drove directly to the largest high kill shelter within our reach. They were happy to adopt their dogs out, very short application, no questions.

I probably won't be dealing with rescues if we decide to adopt again.

Ana were you trying to rescue from breed specific rescues? I only ask because when I was trying to start fostering I didn't get a response from an of the breed specific rescues I e-mailed. I am currently fostering from the only rescue that returned my e-mail.

Funny story our director who is fantastic is with us because we are the only group who replied to her e-mail inquiring about fostering. One of the other rescues in our area said they wished they could have someone like her and she said you could have had me but you didn't respond to my e-mail.

That is one thing I can say that we do really well is respond to every e-mail we get. Occasionally one falls through the cracks but not often. More often than not people hear from multiple volunteers.

They were mixed breed rescues. We weren't looking for a particular breed, just a nice dog.