Ok Will here goes but u could be in for a long sit.
I started this rehoming about a year ago, first 7 mths on a voluntary basis but it was taking up so many hrs a day I decided to go full time and also decided to start charging some registration fees to cover my huge phone bills.
The reason for starting this was amongst other things this case:
A woman had an ad on the net and was searching for a lost X mal/dutch shep. We emailed back and forth a while. She had rehomed the dog because she had less time for training and she wasn’t coping too good with him. A guy bought him from her who was going to train him himself and he was looking for a dog. They talked a long time and made arrangements. She wanted to make sure the dog wouldn’t be sold on and that he would be getting more training than she could offer him. That was agreed, so the guy pays her 125 euros and leaves. For mths after she tried to contact him but nothing. He didn’t like her asking and tried to get rid of her by saying the dog had got run over and was dead.
The two of us did a long search for about 6 mths for this dog and found out that he’d sold the dog that same evening for 1250 euros!
After that case I was approached by other people who had the same story…….by now we are talking 9 missing/sold dogs. Not all bought by the same guy, but also a few puppy mill breeders. Ok as the law is here, when you give or sell a dog to someone else its their property to do with what they want and that’s fine, but what peed me off is that these people are screwing people over to get dogs under false pretences. All were members of the general public and yes too naive and well trusting.
The number of owners I have had in tears on the telephone, totally upset not knowing where the dog is, where its ended up etc. I decided that the only thing I could do to help this out was to jump in the middle. Being a mal addict and shep fan I wanted to do something to save the dogs from the puppy mill dealers and out the hands of these so called brokers. No way were they good brokers but guys looking to make a quick buck. I did so much research into all this its too much to mention right now but it took me mths looking in to it all. Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with the brokers but in my opinion just be honest about it………don’t say u want the dog for urself when ur gonna sell it a few hrs later for huge bucks, but maybe that’s me im just straight up and what u see is what u get no BS!
I set up the website, sorted how to approach all this and off I went. Officially I started this in July and I am inundated with calls daily. Im not in it for the bucks, I just want the dogs placed where they are sposed to be and well taken care of.
Many of the mals en gsd are from the general public. A lot are sitting in front of the fireplace and get taken two walks a day while the owner goes to work. Yep u guessed it….they come home, house is trashed and dog is all uptight , nervous and being a pain in the a**. Frustration all round. Some have divorces coming thro and don’t know what to do with the dogs, allergies, baby’s on the way, wrong choice in breed etc etc I hear it all.
A lot of the dogs originate somewhere along the line from a working line and are high drive dogs. I try to rehome them by people such as sporters, security, k9, etc and some can be rehomed by a new member of the general public if the drive is very low to 0.
I will never rehome a high drive dog gsd, mal dutch shep or whatever by people who have no idea what they are getting into. The dogs have “baggage” anyway from being taken from the one house and being put with a new owner and if your talking a frustrated high drive dog and and a new owner who has 0 experience your not making things better but worse. I reject people who phone for the dogs on the site because they haven’t a clue what they are getting into.
Its impossible for me to view all or most dogs seeing that they are all over Holland, Belgium and some in Germany. Id never be home. I do all interactive work thro the phone and through registration, questions, trick questions, u name it I do it. And believe me have I caught a lot out . There are many tricks to do this work and im lucky to say in the year that I have been doing this I have had not one dog turn out to be anything other that I thought and all dogs are still with the same owner I rehomed them with. It takes many many calls just to rehome one dog and the rehoming dog owner gets a contract and back up whenever they need it. Not just the first week but for as long as they want. The contract HAS to be signed by both partys. If one wont sign well tough then no dog! All dogs go on a contract.
Dogs with a great potential are often dogs I come across from the general public. There are also dogs that I will not place in a family so they can just make it a family dog. If the dog has a high drive then let it work is my opinion. But don’t coup it up in a house and make it into something its not cos its always going to backfire. For these cases I would call in a k9 center here that works with export to the states, Germany , Italy etc. I have got to trust the guys and like their style of work. They don’t drag the dog from the one place to the next. If hes good he is , if not they leave him where he is at that point. I have had about 15 dogs, not ever been on the site that I sent them to view and they are now abroad.
During the summer I had contact with a shelter here and she phoned me to ask if I knew anyone for 3 dogs( 2 mals and a Xgsd). I asked her a lot of questions about them and straight away I had a gut feeling these were good dogs. So I called in the k9 and they went to view them. The 3 of them are now in Florida doing narc and doing really well.
A lot of people say how can u do all this over the phone? How do u get it right each time? Will, I don’t know but listening is half the work and like I said it works.
From one thing comes the next and now I find myself rehoming dogs for the airforce, police etc for the dogs retiring. They deserve a good retirement home after all the yrs of good duty , and not all handlers can keep the older dogs. It was just two days ago that I maganged to rehome a 10yr old police dog from Belgium. He went to a lady who trains KNPV with her female dog and hes been there two days and is having the time of his life.
The people who take on the rehome dogs( the older ones) I make sure take on some training where they live to bond with the dog. That’s also part of the deal. The sport handlers will train anyway and know what they are doing and the dogs who got to the k9 center come to experienced people anyway.
This is just a basic description of the general lines but of course its much more involved.
Least it keeps the dogs out of some hands that I wouldn’t want my dog in. As long as I can imagine myself in the same position that the rehome owner is in and I can do it well then and get the best for the dog and the owner I will keep the work going seeing as I love it. The moment I cant give myself 100%....... I will stop tomorrow.
I will see if I can do a part2 of this once everyone has recoverd from a sore butt sitting so long having to read this one!
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Greetings from the Netherlands
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