Dog adoption advice - local shelters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

Stop with that nonsense. There are plenty of not pitbull mixes in rescues (municipal shelters are different story)

But zero non pinball options available in shelters, except for a random senior citizen tiny elderly house dog whose owner just went into a home or died.

Hmm, right now there are at least 5 dogs at MoCo shelter neither pit mix nor seniors (only one fits OPs size requirements)
You welcome 🤗

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

That's not really true, though. Plenty of pit bulls and pit mixes are, in fact, good with children. They live whole lives without you ever knowing about it because 'nothing happened' doesn't make the news. There are also plenty of individual dogs of allegedly 'kid friendly' breeds that aren't. Choose based on temperament not appearance and spend time training/socializing and you'll be fine with whatever breed.

[Anonymous]

We got our border collie mix (no pit bull per DNA testing, for what that’s worth) from Lucky Dog. She is a shelter dog…just one who was dumped at a shelter in Tennessee rather than DC, and Lucky Dog brought up here to a foster home. They do a lot of matchmaking behind the scenes before a dog is actually featured on their website, and they did a great job of matching us with the perfect dog. They did lose our paperwork for a bit (this was during the pandemic and I think they were overwhelmed), but they were one of the few rescues we contacted that didn’t require that we have a fenced backyard, which is a crazy requirement for urban rescues dealing with dogs who would otherwise be in a shelter or euthanized. Good luck!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

Really? Every single dog? All 10 lb mini poodlely things at a shelter are definitely pit mixes?

There are no 10 pound poodle mixes in shelters.

They only have pit bull mixes.

Toby admits that you are correct in that he weighs 13lbs, but doubts he has any more pit bull genes than you do
https://24petconnect.com/PGEOADOPT/Details/PGEO/A501246

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PG county animal shelter has a lot of pit mixes, but lots that are not. In the size range you described, they currently have a German shepherd mix in foster (Star), a shih Tzu mix (rocket), a corgi-dachshund (puperoni), a PBGV mix (Bella) and several others. River the lab mix is a bit bigger than you wanted but also super cute.

pg county doesn't get as many adopters and puts dogs down for lack of space, so if you foster or adopt one you are really saving its life and allowing room for another dog to stay there.

This is an excellent point. A close relative runs the a county animal shelter in another state, and to quote her "the South really needs to get their shit together." Dogs are being rescued down there and being brought to rescues up here because shelters down there kill them right and left, then folks up here go to the rescues and not our shelters and then OUR shelters have to start killing. On top of that, most rescues won't take dogs back (because they're typically housed with foster families and not in a rescue's own physical space), so "returned" rescue dogs from the south end up in our shelters.

Just keep this in mind when you're looking at rescues and not shelters.

Agreed about the south. My aunt lives in Georgia and there are packs of wild dogs that roam and attack people. She can't take walks with her family. There are just soooo many strays. Her county doesn't even have Animal Care and Control. I honestly didn't believe it until I saw it first hand.

Something has to be done about people not spaying or neutering, particularly in the south. People like intact males because they're more aggressive and they also don't want to remove balls (you can neuter without removing balls though).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

That's not really true, though. Plenty of pit bulls and pit mixes are, in fact, good with children. They live whole lives without you ever knowing about it because 'nothing happened' doesn't make the news. There are also plenty of individual dogs of allegedly 'kid friendly' breeds that aren't. Choose based on temperament not appearance and spend time training/socializing and you'll be fine with whatever breed.

I understand what you want to say about temperament, but certain breeds really do have ingrained traits. They're not like humans, they're animals. You will never get a collie that can't herd. Pittbulls were bred for fighting for hundreds of generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

Careful! Your bias is showing! There are lots of dogs with pit who are great with children. I know I am not going to convince you but, I am here to stand up for dogs that can't defend themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

That's not really true, though. Plenty of pit bulls and pit mixes are, in fact, good with children. They live whole lives without you ever knowing about it because 'nothing happened' doesn't make the news. There are also plenty of individual dogs of allegedly 'kid friendly' breeds that aren't. Choose based on temperament not appearance and spend time training/socializing and you'll be fine with whatever breed.

Well said, pp

[Anonymous]

Can we keep this thread free of pit vs non-pit conversation? Don't feed the anti-pit troll, please!

[Anonymous]

OP, I think you're on the right track in terms of establishing a relationship with a local shelter so they can be 'on notice' when a dog that might work for your family comes through. I've personally interacted with the PG County, Arlington County, and Fairfax County shelters via a volunteer role and their adoption staff are all pretty great. PG definitely has the highest need, but it's usually for larger dogs under the 'guard dog' umbrellas (mastiffs, bigger pit mixes, GSDs).

I would not be inclined to go through a home-based rescue to adopt a dog that needs to be good with kids. I've seen too many negative experiences (even from the 'good' rescues mentioned in this thread) where the dogs turned out to have severe separation anxiety, leash reactivity, or other undesirable and potentially unsafe behaviors when in the new adopter's home, and then the rescue guilted them TERRIBLY (and in some cases put them on a do-not-adopt list) when they tried to return the dog to the rescue. I've seen foster homes with multiple dogs where fights break out regularly, leading to dog-dog aggression even in young puppies. I appreciate the work that rescues do in trying to relieve overcrowding at rural shelters, but they simply can't or don't do the level of behavioral screening that I feel is necessary to place dogs successfully.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, I recommend https://kninerescue.com/.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

That's not really true, though. Plenty of pit bulls and pit mixes are, in fact, good with children. They live whole lives without you ever knowing about it because 'nothing happened' doesn't make the news. There are also plenty of individual dogs of allegedly 'kid friendly' breeds that aren't. Choose based on temperament not appearance and spend time training/socializing and you'll be fine with whatever breed.

NFW stop with this crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

Careful! Your bias is showing! There are lots of dogs with pit who are great with children. I know I am not going to convince you but, I am here to stand up for dogs that can't defend themselves.

I think the point is that families with children don’t want to take a risk that their pit mix will be one of the good ones. That’s fair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is impossible to find a shelter dog that is not a pit bull mix. You have to go with breed specific rescues who raid puppy mills. Even then, a lot of the dogs are not pure breeds or the mix that the shelter tells you that it is.

What's wrong with having some American pit bull terrier in them? They are adorable, faithful and loveable

Everything is wrong with them, especially since she mentioned hood with children as her top priority, which rulles out all pit bulls or pit bull mixes.

That's not really true, though. Plenty of pit bulls and pit mixes are, in fact, good with children. They live whole lives without you ever knowing about it because 'nothing happened' doesn't make the news. There are also plenty of individual dogs of allegedly 'kid friendly' breeds that aren't. Choose based on temperament not appearance and spend time training/socializing and you'll be fine with whatever breed.

I understand what you want to say about temperament, but certain breeds really do have ingrained traits. They're not like humans, they're animals. You will never get a collie that can't herd. Pittbulls were bred for fighting for hundreds of generations.

These dogs aren't bred. In the south they randomly mate They aren't fixed so there is no one collecting the toughest 'male' and female and having them have babies.

My friend's parents have a golden retriever who has bitten many people and I have a pit bull mix who has bitten no one. They are both 4 years old.