Dog - where to get one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:City of Alexandria animal shelter. We adopted 2 hounds from them. The staff were great and were very honest about the dogs but not whacko with their expectations.

+1 on the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. Fantastic shelter.

[Anonymous]

We love Lucky Dog and have also heard great things about Lost Dog. Most of the dogs at our dog park play so well together and seem to all be from one or the other!

Don't pay a breeder!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We love Lucky Dog and have also heard great things about Lost Dog. Most of the dogs at our dog park play so well together and seem to all be from one or the other!

Don't pay a breeder!

I have breeders who are well known and compete in agility, conformation, etc. They have much to benefit from proper breeding for temperment and animal health. That being said it is difficult to find a non pitbull or some similar breed mix. Petfinder for lab looks like pitbulls. Anything large with some similar feature to a lab now is a lab.

Meanwhile this looks like a non bully breed lab [or lab mix puppy]. Possibly a field lab since the muzzle is narrow. I would look at him:
http://lostdogrescue.org/dogs/88062/b-pups-bear

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love Lucky Dog and have also heard great things about Lost Dog. Most of the dogs at our dog park play so well together and seem to all be from one or the other!

Don't pay a breeder!

I have breeders who are well known and compete in agility, conformation, etc. They have much to benefit from proper breeding for temperment and animal health. That being said it is difficult to find a non pitbull or some similar breed mix. Petfinder for lab looks like pitbulls. Anything large with some similar feature to a lab now is a lab.

Meanwhile this looks like a non bully breed lab [or lab mix puppy]. Possibly a field lab since the muzzle is narrow. I would look at him:
http://lostdogrescue.org/dogs/88062/b-pups-bear

I agree with you on the Pit Mixes. All "labs mixes" right now seem to be pit bulls. The puppy you posted is adorable.

[Anonymous]

We also got our dog from WARL and had a great experience with them. They had a lot of different breeds and mixes, although admittedly a lot of pits bulls as well. We adopted a beagle mix from them and he has been an amazing addition to the family.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried the rescue of the specific breed you want? They are more sane.

[Anonymous]

There were 7 puppies listed as B pups and 11 weeks old. They don't appear underweight but are far below Labrador purebred weight for 11 weeks. I and family have owned multiple Labs and they are usually 20 pounds or more by then.

Based on all of them and the ears, markings, coat, faces my guess is lab mixed with a smaller herding breed like a sheltie or aussie. Some have tippy ears.

I would have put in an app for Bruni but is already adopted. http://lostdogrescue.org/news/adopted-dogs

[Anonymous]

We went through Lucky Dog, but I'm on the fence if I would recommend them. They're goal is to find homes for the animals, I don't think there is a lot of thought put into making sure it's the right home. We adopted off of transport, and never got a call or follow-up after bringing the dog home. Friends who have gone through other organizations (Homeward Trails, k-9 lifesavers) have experienced much more involvement with the rescue volunteers (repeated follow-up after the adoption process to make sure all is well and to be a resource when questions/issues arise).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through Lucky Dog, but I'm on the fence if I would recommend them. They're goal is to find homes for the animals, I don't think there is a lot of thought put into making sure it's the right home. We adopted off of transport, and never got a call or follow-up after bringing the dog home. Friends who have gone through other organizations (Homeward Trails, k-9 lifesavers) have experienced much more involvement with the rescue volunteers (repeated follow-up after the adoption process to make sure all is well and to be a resource when questions/issues arise).

My experience with Lucky Dog was exactly the opposite. They inspected our house and showed great care and concern and follow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went through Lucky Dog, but I'm on the fence if I would recommend them. They're goal is to find homes for the animals, I don't think there is a lot of thought put into making sure it's the right home. We adopted off of transport, and never got a call or follow-up after bringing the dog home. Friends who have gone through other organizations (Homeward Trails, k-9 lifesavers) have experienced much more involvement with the rescue volunteers (repeated follow-up after the adoption process to make sure all is well and to be a resource when questions/issues arise).

That is exactly my experience with Lucky Dog, too. I felt like their goal was just to increase the number of adoptions. I volunteered with them for a year before I gave up because I couldn't stomach their assembly line process of adopting out dogs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are ready to get a dog but I am just really really really sick of dealing with these "rescue" orgs. The shelter in FFX county seems to have mostly pit bulls. Not an option for us with our 9 year old DD and a cat. And dealing with these rescue places has actually made me want to go pay several hundred dollars to a breeder. Homeward Trails, Lab Rescue (seriously folks can you return a call or email), K-9 Lifesavers (worst of all). Wow! Anyone have a place they can recommend? We'd be okay with an older dog even. Just not okay dealing with the rescue folks.

Yes, yes, because they aren't overworked or busy at all. Dealing with the 100's of calls a week from people wanting to give up their dogs, cats, bunnies, birds, etc. Dealing with the vets to work out bill payments, all manner of shots and medical treatments (and then have people bitch about the adoptions fees). Dealing with pet stores for deals on food and supplies. Finding foster homes. Answering the calls of a non-homing nature (how do I train my dog to XXXX). Fundraisers. Finding volunteers and foster homes. Singing off on community hours for girl scouts, boy scouts, schools. Vetting homes of adopting families so that they don't get returned in 2 weeks when it "doesn't work out."

Look, they are not all perfect (I volunteered for almost 10 years, including fostering). Some of them can absolutely be difficult to work with. But, in every case, they are doing shit jobs cleaning up the messes people leave behind. Most are not the friendly, slobbering labs. They've been abused. They have been discarded, neglected. They have heartworm, parasites, viruses. They are doing good work b/c they love it and their hearts are into it. Their intentions are good. So, you will forgive them if they don't jump to give you a call. Why don't you get off your ass and go to an adoption day? Or see if you can do any better?

Sorry, but your insufferable post really was ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are ready to get a dog but I am just really really really sick of dealing with these "rescue" orgs. The shelter in FFX county seems to have mostly pit bulls. Not an option for us with our 9 year old DD and a cat. And dealing with these rescue places has actually made me want to go pay several hundred dollars to a breeder. Homeward Trails, Lab Rescue (seriously folks can you return a call or email), K-9 Lifesavers (worst of all). Wow! Anyone have a place they can recommend? We'd be okay with an older dog even. Just not okay dealing with the rescue folks.

OP, what is wrong with K-9? I have been looking at their site for possible adoption.

[Anonymous]

I also would recommend Lucky Dog. We adopted ours from a South Carolina kill shelter through lucky dog and the process was great. They really seemed to want to make sure that we go the dog that fit our lifestyle and preferences. They had a good variety of breeds when we were looking. Bonus for us was that we got a two year old dog who was housebroken. Would not have been able to handle a puppy with their constant need to pee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are ready to get a dog but I am just really really really sick of dealing with these "rescue" orgs. The shelter in FFX county seems to have mostly pit bulls. Not an option for us with our 9 year old DD and a cat. And dealing with these rescue places has actually made me want to go pay several hundred dollars to a breeder. Homeward Trails, Lab Rescue (seriously folks can you return a call or email), K-9 Lifesavers (worst of all). Wow! Anyone have a place they can recommend? We'd be okay with an older dog even. Just not okay dealing with the rescue folks.

Yes, yes, because they aren't overworked or busy at all. Dealing with the 100's of calls a week from people wanting to give up their dogs, cats, bunnies, birds, etc. Dealing with the vets to work out bill payments, all manner of shots and medical treatments (and then have people bitch about the adoptions fees). Dealing with pet stores for deals on food and supplies. Finding foster homes. Answering the calls of a non-homing nature (how do I train my dog to XXXX). Fundraisers. Finding volunteers and foster homes. Singing off on community hours for girl scouts, boy scouts, schools. Vetting homes of adopting families so that they don't get returned in 2 weeks when it "doesn't work out."

Look, they are not all perfect (I volunteered for almost 10 years, including fostering). Some of them can absolutely be difficult to work with. But, in every case, they are doing shit jobs cleaning up the messes people leave behind. Most are not the friendly, slobbering labs. They've been abused. They have been discarded, neglected. They have heartworm, parasites, viruses. They are doing good work b/c they love it and their hearts are into it. Their intentions are good. So, you will forgive them if they don't jump to give you a call. Why don't you get off your ass and go to an adoption day? Or see if you can do any better?

Sorry, but your insufferable post really was ignorant.

Actually yours is quite ignorant. Maybe if you put the same effort into dealing with people…? And it wasn't about returning calls it was about every aspect of dealing with folks who put more effort, time and thought into animals than the people they are trying to connect them with. You epitomize the typical "rescuer".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a great experience with WARL in DC, as have other friends of ours. You might want to give that a try before throwing in the towel on a good rescue.

+1 on Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL) in DC, we got our dog there 10 years ago, and while that is a long time they have done a substantial renovation since so as far as I know they still have plenty of dogs to choose from.