where would you look for a new best friend?

Bearsmum

Bearsmum

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There's a large black fluffy hole in our house at the moment and I know I need to fill it, but not sure where to look, has anyone had experience of re-homing an ex sniffer dog? my sons work occasionally has these up for adoption so not sure if I should wait to see if something becomes available there, I've tentatively looked at rescues,but the ones which seem to match my requirements are reserved maybe I need to put my name down with my wish list and get the home check done?
 
Have you looked at pounds, that’s where we got our rescue dog from….the ones that dog wardens take stray dogs to, the pound also takes in dogs from people just wanting rid of their dogs (yes makes me furious) litters of puppies etc…
Not sure where you are , but Mid Ulster Rehoming is owned and run by amazing people…
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
What are your requirements?

My ideal is the same as when we got Fred = small Lab or a spaniel , 6 years +, up for lots ( and I mean lots) of long walks -we got Fred as my recovery dog after a stroke, I said to my husband if we got a dog it would get me walking and driving again (I'd just managed to get back to work full time ) we're both now retired . Have a large bungalow and totally enclosed garden, only other pet is a Tortoise no children ; both grown up and moved away I've been looking at Norfolk greyhound rescue as hubby's favourite dog as a teenager was his parents lurcher and I know he'd love another one
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Bearsmum said:
There's a large black fluffy hole in our house at the moment and I know I need to fill it, but not sure where to look, has anyone had experience of re-homing an ex sniffer dog? my sons work occasionally has these up for adoption so not sure if I should wait to see if something becomes available there, I've tentatively looked at rescues,but the ones which seem to match my requirements are reserved maybe I need to put my name down with my wish list and get the home check done?
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If you can get an ex sniffer dog, I'd be keen on that - you'd have a full history and probably a lot of support if required - but even a 'retired' dog is going to need to be kept busy and if previously kenneled, house training.

Rescue is a great option but depending on your requirements, could involve a wait but as long as you can seperate a new dog and the tortoise (one of my rotts thought a small tortoise was a frisbee and trotted up with him in his mouth and asked for him to be thrown...luckily he was very soft mouthed and no harm came to the tortoise) with being experienced, retired, enclosed garden and no kids living at home, you should have great options. But do contact the rescues directly rather than waiting to see dogs advertised - many dogs never make it that far, they are rehomed before then.

I'm always wary of rehoming from pounds directly - they have (generally) no history, they only have the dogs for a very short time, minimal/no vet checks and no support if you have any issues. Most pounds now try and find rescue places for any unclaimed dogs after their 7 days as rehoming direct to the public is a huge amount of extra work and liability for them.
 
Bearsmum said:
There's a large black fluffy hole in our house at the moment and I know I need to fill it, but not sure where to look, has anyone had experience of re-homing an ex sniffer dog? my sons work occasionally has these up for adoption so not sure if I should wait to see if something becomes available there, I've tentatively looked at rescues,but the ones which seem to match my requirements are reserved maybe I need to put my name down with my wish list and get the home check done?
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I think an ex sniffer from police/customs would be great. The ones I know have been kept by the officer when retired and aren’t necessarily housed outdoors (I know, I know!) but obviously have lovely temperaments and are a known quantity.
 
cbmcts said:
If you can get an ex sniffer dog, I'd be keen on that - you'd have a full history and probably a lot of support if required - but even a 'retired' dog is going to need to be kept busy and if previously kenneled, house training.

Rescue is a great option but depending on your requirements, could involve a wait but as long as you can seperate a new dog and the tortoise (one of my rotts thought a small tortoise was a frisbee and trotted up with him in his mouth and asked for him to be thrown...luckily he was very soft mouthed and no harm came to the tortoise) with being experienced, retired, enclosed garden and no kids living at home, you should have great options. But do contact the rescues directly rather than waiting to see dogs advertised - many dogs never make it that far, they are rehomed before then.

I'm always wary of rehoming from pounds directly - they have (generally) no history, they only have the dogs for a very short time, minimal/no vet checks and no support if you have any issues. Most pounds now try and find rescue places for any unclaimed dogs after their 7 days as rehoming direct to the public is a huge amount of extra work and liability for them.
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I do totally understand your comment re pounds, but Mid Ulster are different, they are completely honest re history of dogs brought in by wardens and try and find out about these dogs, the ones brought in by people “dumping” dogs they make sure they get as much honest information as they can, the puppies are either born from the dumped bitches or found abandoned….
Mid Ulster I am sure are not the only pound who try their best by the dogs they have….
 
cbmcts said:
If you can get an ex sniffer dog, I'd be keen on that - you'd have a full history and probably a lot of support if required - but even a 'retired' dog is going to need to be kept busy and if previously kenneled, house training.

Rescue is a great option but depending on your requirements, could involve a wait but as long as you can seperate a new dog and the tortoise (one of my rotts thought a small tortoise was a frisbee and trotted up with him in his mouth and asked for him to be thrown...luckily he was very soft mouthed and no harm came to the tortoise) with being experienced, retired, enclosed garden and no kids living at home, you should have great options. But do contact the rescues directly rather than waiting to see dogs advertised - many dogs never make it that far, they are rehomed before then.

I'm always wary of rehoming from pounds directly - they have (generally) no history, they only have the dogs for a very short time, minimal/no vet checks and no support if you have any issues. Most pounds now try and find rescue places for any unclaimed dogs after their 7 days as rehoming direct to the public is a huge amount of extra work and liability for them.
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YesI think the ex sniffer would be my go to, if one becomes available, tortoise isn't an issue at the moment as he's hibernating in the garage and won't be out till spring, when he'll probably think 'so I've out lived yet another' - he's about 100 years old and far too big to be picked up by a dog, but I wouldn't want to risk him being chewed
 
I wouldn’t want to go for long walks with a retired greyhound or lurcher, but I’m extremely lead averse! And if you are used to a trainable breed going to not so much ones can be difficult.
If on fb there’s a lot of shooting groups (eg beaters and pickers up) where people occasionally offer Gundogs that have failed or a bit older. Or spaniel aid always seem to be inundated.
I also follow Gundog rescue and rehoming on fb, they are Irish but transport to the UK.
 
I don’t know if you can do this in uk but you can in Ireland you could adopt from a pound they have less requirements than rescue. Most people give their dogs to pound when they no longer want them so you can get access to a lovely train dog which aren’t even advertised in rescue because they are automatically adopted.
 
midnight Legend said:
I don’t know if you can do this in uk but you can in Ireland you could adopt from a pound they have less requirements than rescue. Most people give their dogs to pound when they no longer want them so you can get access to a lovely train dog which aren’t even advertised in rescue because they are automatically adopted.
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In the UK most pounds are private kennels that have a contract with the local authority/council to take their strays for 7 days. The LA/council will only pay for the legally required 7 day hold, emergency vet costs and PTS if the dog is unclaimed or a rescue space isn't found quickly. There are so many unclaimed dogs that the kennels don't have the space or the funds to try and rehome them 'privately' and many just don't want to take the liability if something goes wrong plus rehoming done properly - reviewing applications, phone calls, homechecks and meets with new owners etc - is not cheap and is really time consuming. They don't tend to take owner surrenders - Battersea is the only one that I can think of that does but that is a charity rather than LA funded (they do have contracts with various London boroughs to take strays as well I believe)

Funnily enough, most of the UK police forces will put quite a bit of time and money into trying to find a rescue space for seized dogs. They microchip, neuter, vet treat to a decent standard before signing them over but they will only let them go to rescue after stringent temperment testing. They also contract out to private kennels but quite specialist ones that are set up to deal with potentially very dangerous dogs and of course, they do tend to have them quite a long time due to court processes so know them well.

There are a few places that you can just rock up and pick up a dog that you like the look of, old fashioned Dogs Homes if you like but that can be risky. It's likely that they don't know much about the dog, no history, minimal if any due diligence re health or the new home...similar risk profile to buying from Gumtree or Pets4Homes type websites. It can work well but when it doesn't, you're a bit stuffed.
 
I picked up two puppies from a rescue sort of place in Ireland some years back.

They didn't really ask me any questions. Just handed over the money and gave me the puppies.

It's shut now I think. Was called Collun animal sanctuary maybe?

Anyway, they had loads of different adults there of a multitude of different breeds.

I don't know how easy it is to just bring a puppy back these days. It was very easy back then. They just stayed in the car on the ferry. No paperwork etc required.
 
We've had three labs from the Gundog Rescue and rehoming people in NI. We've also found homes for another two. They have all sorts come into them, some from private homes who can no longer keep them, some from pounds. They all have vet checks, are assessed by their fosters and vaccs restarted if necessary.
They have transport to the mainland most weeks.
 
Probably a good idea to get a home check done, if it’s carried out efficiently some rescues will accept them from other organisations. There are lots of spaniels available and some rescues have foster with a view to adopt. The one l help with prefers foster homes to help by fostering a few before allowing homes to keep a dog, otherwise we’d have very few foster homes. The purpose of fostering is to ensure any vet work / assessment is carried out in advance of rehoming and the ‘match’ is then more likely to succeed.
Good luck, but be aware some rescues will close to new applicants until the New Year, others might be desperate to find homes for dogs!
 
gallopingby said:
Probably a good idea to get a home check done, if it’s carried out efficiently some rescues will accept them from other organisations. There are lots of spaniels available and some rescues have foster with a view to adopt. The one l help with prefers foster homes to help by fostering a few before allowing homes to keep a dog, otherwise we’d have very few foster homes. The purpose of fostering is to ensure any vet work / assessment is carried out in advance of rehoming and the ‘match’ is then more likely to succeed.
Good luck, but be aware some rescues will close to new applicants until the New Year, others might be desperate to find homes for dogs!
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I was surprised to see bunnies still for sale yesterday in PAH, they normally close that down near Christmas.

I keep getting adverts for Spaniel Aid, I’m aware that they have fosterers who test out temperament, they neuter/spay and have costs but it strikes me as really expensive to adopt from there. I understand they won’t re-home to owners with unneutered dogs, but they are surely limiting themselves there? My two are extremely sociable and love other dogs (would need to be older/calmer for one of mine and we wouldn’t want to disrupt the current dynamic) I get the impression, from speaking to others locally that vets no longer neuter as standard, don’t know if this is common outside of my area?
 
Cinnamontoast said:
I was surprised to see bunnies still for sale yesterday in PAH, they normally close that down near Christmas.

I keep getting adverts for Spaniel Aid, I’m aware that they have fosterers who test out temperament, they neuter/spay and have costs but it strikes me as really expensive to adopt from there. I understand they won’t re-home to owners with unneutered dogs, but they are surely limiting themselves there? My two are extremely sociable and love other dogs (would need to be older/calmer for one of mine and we wouldn’t want to disrupt the current dynamic) I get the impression, from speaking to others locally that vets no longer neuter as standard, don’t know if this is common outside of my area?
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Most people who are adopting an adult will normally be advised (and want) to have an opposite sex dog. Rescues often don't know when a bitch was last in season and do not want to hold them for potentially 6 months and then another 3 months to spay at the optimum time so a lot of bitches are already rehomed and get spayed in their new home (rescue will normally pay) Could you imagine the chaos if a bitch unexpectedly came into season in a home with entire dogs, especially in the first couple of months? Also, while your dogs might be very social, as entires, there are still hormones in play that can cause issues with same sex rehomings - might be fine - but when it isn't, there tends to be a lot of damage to one or all dogs. That is expensive, behaviourally, financially and reputationally so is a risk that many rescues are not prepared to take...and to be fair, dogs that can go homes with other dogs are relatively rare so rescues can put these conditions in place and still find a home. While their rehoming fee - £500 - is high, it does say 'up to' and when you consider the cost of a pup + vaccs + vet bills + incidentals, it's not stratospheric. I doubt they are doing more than covering their costs on the average dog and in the case of long stayers or those who need vet treatment, it won't even touch the sides of what the rescue spent.
 
Have you considered fostering for a charity like Spaniel Aid. That way you get to 'try before you buy'

Fosterers get first refusal on rehoming foster dogs. Also you don't just get a random dog dumped on you. There is a page with a description of dogs needing fosters so you can offer to faster something that seems like a good fit.
 
I could never have a bitch, mine are quite keen on girls, even ones spayed years ago. I don’t do bitches anyway, always had boys, therefore I didn’t reference bitches in my post. I’m surprised you say people adopting will be advised and want to have an opposite sex dog: surely it’s best fit as opposed to opposite sex or the rescue is even further limiting the dog’s chances of being adopted? And why would anyone necessarily ’want’ an opposite sex? I’d love to know how you know this? Were we to adopt, we’d only consider dogs and if I were in the market, I’d be looking at geldings, I just have a preference.
 
Cinnamontoast said:
I could never have a bitch, mine are quite keen on girls, even ones spayed years ago. I don’t do bitches anyway, always had boys, therefore I didn’t reference bitches in my post. I’m surprised you say people adopting will be advised and want to have an opposite sex dog: surely it’s best fit as opposed to opposite sex or the rescue is even further limiting the dog’s chances of being adopted? And why would anyone necessarily ’want’ an opposite sex? I’d love to know how you know this? Were we to adopt, we’d only consider dogs and if I were in the market, I’d be looking at geldings, I just have a preference.
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That's fair enough, my personal preference is large breed dogs/small breed bitches (I will never have another male terrier!) but in many breeds, same sex aggression is a trait and it is generally accepted that it is easier to mix opposite sex as adults. Note, I say generally :D When I was looking for a second dog, I would have preferred a terrier bitch but ended up with a castrated male with my castrated male. Ok, it was 2020/21 when I was looking so there was a shortage of uncomplicated dogs - which I needed for my fruitloop - and I ended up with a private rehome but that allowed for a very slow introduction which was 6-8 weeks of nearly every day walking together. Even then, despite both being very social, there were a few scraps once I had both home albeit noise and fury with no injuries. Now, if we had added hormones into the mix, it is likely those scraps would have gone further and you would have had a returned dog or even worse, serious injury to one or both. It's an even bigger risk when there is more than one resident dog as they are likely to gang up on the newbie which will not go well. That's not to say that it can't work as we know it can but when rehoming, a rescue is looking to minimise risk where possible and as said before, dogs that are suitable to live with another dog are more in demand, so a rescue might decide to add conditions such as not rehoming with resident entire males. If I wanted to add a same sex dog to mine now, I would only consider a pup 6 months or younger so that puppy licence was still in place. I would happily add a bitch of any age but preferably adult so that they could be spayed ASAP as mine do take a little too much interest in an in season bitch despite being neutered (too) young.

I know that some of the conditions that rescues have can look bonkers, I roll my eyes at them regularly too but I can guarantee that something has happened that has made them decide to have this condition in place. In the rescue I'm involved in, I worked out last year, that we have a nearly 25% return rate on failed rehomes despite homechecks, full assessments on the dogs as best we are able to in kennels, complete honesty about the dogs. Yes, on occasion the dog displays behaviours that weren't seen in kennels which mean the home can't work them out but nearly all the returns are avoidable if only people had been honest (with themselves if not the rescue) and realistic about their abilities/how much they're prepared to give or do. Yet we regularly have people say our criteria is too strict, often slagging us off all over social media, telling everyone that they were 'forced' to get a pup/eastern european rescue/buy from Pets4Homes, at least that's what they tell us when they want us to take the dog within the year...But what they forget is that if we get it wrong while rehoming and a dog bites (even if it was while a fight was been broken up), yes of course we take it back but we are now in a position due to changes in insurance coverage that the only option is to PTS. And I'm sorry, while I accept that not every dog is rehomable and will make the horrible decision and hold that dog at the vets, I did not get involved in rescue, giving my time, energy and a fair bit of personal resources - and I'm nobody special, there are many more doing much more than me - to take risks rehoming that could mean I, or somebody else does that horrible one way trip to the vets. I got into rescue, like most people who are involved, to try and give dogs a second, sometimes even a third chance.
 
I will be controversial and say don’t rule out a foreign rescue from a well established place. We are also retired, like a Lab type, experienced caring owners, walk our dogs daily etc. Our latest dog, filling that dog shaped hole in our family is a beautiful cream four yr old Lab type from Cyprus. She has fitted perfectly into our lives and our dog family. It’s hard to adopt in the UK if you are older (even though our daughter lives beside us), so a bit of research brought our lovely girl to us. I hope you find the right one.
 
I am aware that rescues have very tough requirements for rehoming, who could blame them when they are on the receiving end of so many dreadful stories…but council pounds, at least the ones I have rehomed from are not as stringent, of course they ask plenty of questions, ask for proof of identity and address but are generally easier…many of my rescue dogs have come from there and also vets! Who see a dog needing rehomed know what I love and ring me…
I have had maybe 20 plus dogs over the years…I have just one dog now who came from council pound…
I am far too old to have more….every single day rescues/pounds in Northern Ireland put up dogs available….
I do feel sorry for dogs in foreign countries but please could we rescue/rehome the many dogs in the UK who need us, from mini to major from tiny to enormous from mongrel to pedigree….
Let’s face it, there will be even more traumatised frightened puppies from January onwards who were bought as Christmas presents with no proper checks sold by puppy breeders (a puppy breeder in Co Fermanagh has 300 breeding bitches in partnership with a firm in England)
Of course everyone is entitled to get their dog from wherever they please…
 
Can I just say that we recently put feelers out to adopt a little dog from a local rescue. I made the application at 8.00pm one evening, and was contacted at 10.00am the next morning to arrange a home check. For reasons that I won't go in to we didn't proceed. But I was amazed at how quickly (for us) the wheels were put in motion. This is well established organisation who don't home to just anyone.

So perhaps it's not as difficult as it seems, for the right applicant.
 
I think we've tested every possible way of getting a dog in my family.
I currently have 2 private rehomes (I'm at least the 3rd home for both of them) and a pedigree dog bought as a puppy.
My previous (childhood and teenage years) dogs were adopted straight from a rescue and her oops puppies she had at ours.
My sister's dog was bought as a retired breeding bitch after one litter as a 2.5 yo.
Overall, I'd say my sisters dog is probably the easiest of them all.
 
Amy May In A Manger said:
Can I just say that we recently put feelers out to adopt a little dog from a local rescue. I made the application at 8.00pm one evening, and was contacted at 10.00am the next morning to arrange a home check. For reasons that I won't go in to we didn't proceed. But I was amazed at how quickly (for us) the wheels were put in motion. This is well established organisation who don't home to just anyone.

So perhaps it's not as difficult as it seems, for the right applicant.
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This, if people are getting turned down multiple times by multiple rescues, then maybe an attitude or expectation adjustment is required?
 
CorvusCorax said:
This, if people are getting turned down multiple times by multiple rescues, then maybe an attitude or expectation adjustment is required?
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I think to be fair, I may just have been very lucky. Unbeknownst to me the Director and I have a mutual friend (also involved in the rescue world) who they contacted to ask about me. Which probably helped enormously.
 
As an alternative to gundogs but still trainable and up for long walks - Collie or Kelpie? There's usually a fair amount about who need a new home either because people have over-dogged themselves in terms of exercise requirements (younger ones), or because people have had a circumstance change meaning they can't give them the exercise they used to (older ones). So eminently possible to find one that just needs a new home and some decent exercise and avoid the ones with behavioural issues.

Definitely worth getting a homecheck and being 'on the books' of a rescue you like though. Years ago that's how my parents got their old dog, after either being turned down by rescues for one reason or another, or searching and not finding anything suitable. A few weeks after passing homecheck with a supportive local rescue they got a call to say a dog had just come in that the rescue thought would be a good fit. He was, and was taken home a week later. Absolutely perfect fit for them, and probably would never have made it as far as advertising tbh, so they wouldn't have got him otherwise.
 
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