Thanks for all of the support & personal experience! Connie, great idea with the scents! I'll be sure to check out that book!

Home checks are a really big deal for me, due to a bad personal experience. We had a great dane that became dog-aggressive at one year old. After repeatedly breaking up dog fights, we chose to find him a new home. (Unfortunately, at the time we were living in an already full house, with relatives' dogs too, and hadn't come across this site and Ed's suggestions for safely breaking up fights). The last draw was when my husband and father in law both ended up in the ER with severe dog bites fro splitting up a fight when the two were accidentally released into the same room. Animal control was informed, but fortunately nothing went on record because it was a 'handler bite'.

Anyway, we had an interested guy come over to meet the dog. He seemed great! His story was that his mom used to have Danes, and he wanted another; and that he had just put down his female Dobie do to medical reasons, and wanted another dog. All sounded great, so he took him home. We never heard anything else, except him repeatedly calling wanting his papers. (We GAVE him the dog free, and he was only CKC (continental kennel club, not Canadian) so we never complied. About a week ago, we received a call from a woman that this guy had given the dog to. The agreement was that if he couldn't keep him, he was to give him back. Apparently, he didn't get along with this guy's MALE DOBIE. (That he never told us he had). We felt sick that he had to bounce through this home, but he's now in a great home, so we're leaving the subject alone.

Anyway, due to this, we now understand the importance of home-checks. ESPECIALLY for dogs with special needs.

Fortunately, anyone adopting from this rescue knows the special issues, as all they adopt are the lethal whites, and occationally the 'normal' dog that came in as a companion to the deaf dog. The hardest part for me is seeing all of the adorable, sweet puppies that have been just dumped because of their 'disability'.