Why is it so hard to adopt a dog in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is so much romance attached to getting a dog from a shelter. Most of them have real problems and they are not the expensive breeds like a wiemeraner or sport hunting dog. Mostly they are beagles or mixes. And the hoops are just crazy. Some of the shelter people will put you through anything and then give you a dog that is part “some very popular breed” like corgi.
Corgis are hard to find and expensive just to give one example. The breed rescue groups are the same. Many animals that are very old or have significant medical needs
OP you will need to contact a Breeder. And they have LOTS of paperwork.

I have a beagle I got from a local shelter when she was 9 weeks old and she is a perfect family dog. The process entailed walking into the shelter, filling out a one page form, and voila, I got the dog. I am not sure what you are trying to insinuate - that shelters are for suckers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you to the posters with substantive information. I was able to call and set up appointments at several shelters in southern VA that have large inventories of surrendered hunting dogs. I was assured that if the shots are up to date, we can expect to take home the new member of our family that day.


Thanks again! I was looking at shelters in the wrong geographic location for what we required.

Seems your #1 goal, which is to walk away with a dog same day, is a bit short-sighted but I hope it works out for you the way you envision.

[Anonymous]

OP, have you ever had a dog before? I get the sense that you have not, and are in for a rude awakening. I hope you don't end up ditching the animal when the novelty wears off.

[Anonymous]

Good luck OP - I hope you and your family have a wonderful time with your new dog. Thank you for adopting over buying from a breeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, here. I am looking for a 2-4 year old (40-60 lbs). While we are open to a mix, I would prefer it to favor the sporting group with short hair. Think, English Pointer, Weimaraner, Vizsla.

These are awesome breeds. IF you have 3-5 hours per day for them to run and preferably a job for them to do. I grew up in the South and knew tons of gun dogs like this. Once they were tired out from chasing birds all day they were great family dogs. On the days they weren't hunting they were running free on the back 40.

These arent breeds for your average suburban home where the family is gone for 8-10 hrs per day. Maybe for a distance runner who can do 7 miles in the AM before work. They can be very destructive if not given enough activity and prancing in the postage stamp behind a house in Arlington and two 10 minute walks won't cut it.

So if you don't have 30 minutes for a home visit....how are you going to exercise a dog like this?

+1. My family breeds and raises these dogs on 11 acres.

If you get a surrendered 2-4 year old 40-60 lb. hunting breed, that dog will be young enough to be high-energy plus if it is a former hunting dog from a rural area that was surrendered, it will be used to having lots of space to run around in.

A lot of these dogs also do terribly on a leash or around cars because they're not used to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rescue organizations need to rethink they’re processes for adopting out animals. We tired once to adopt a dog and we’re turned down because we don’t have a fence yard.

If I can buy an AR15, a car, or a house quicker than I can adopt a pet, something needs to change.

We got our awesome dog from Craigslist. Screw crazy rescue places.

So....stricter gun control?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's ridiculous. My friend was turned down because she had never had a dog before, and because she worked out of the home. She wasn't trying to adopt a puppy and she would have been a good pet owner, and it's just life that most people have to work during the day.

Meh, I didn't get a dog until I could afford a dog walker. It's really not fair to leave a dog home along all day.

Yeah much better that they get put down at a kill shelter, right?

It's not an either-or, but look. It's not fair to get an animal you don't take care of and then say, well, it's okay because it would have died anyway. That's terrible logic.

PP animal welfare person - unfortunately it is a little bit either/or. We can look for perfect homes, and let more pets be euthanized, or we can look for good homes, and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We have to draw lines about what we think is good v not good enough - and that's art, not science. But you have to be aware that every time you make it harder to adopt, more shelter pets will be euthanized for lack of a home. That's just how it is, given our current situation.

At the same time, it's good for you to think hard about when you think you are ready for a pet. For you, it sounds like you felt you didn't have enough financial stability to do it - until you did. That's great.

+1 Working out of the home doesn't mean you are going to be a neglectful pet owner. Most of the people I know don't have someone home with the pet full time during the day-that's the nature of life in DC. Some shelters are looking too hard for unicorn families, and dogs are going to get put down because of it.

[Anonymous]

Greenbelt Animal Shelter. You don’t have to live in PG county to adopt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rescue organizations need to rethink they’re processes for adopting out animals. We tired once to adopt a dog and we’re turned down because we don’t have a fence yard.

If I can buy an AR15, a car, or a house quicker than I can adopt a pet, something needs to change.

We got our awesome dog from Craigslist. Screw crazy rescue places.

So....stricter gun control?

And house control too, man those houses are dangerous. Do you know what percentage of people have been exposed to the interior of a house within 6 months of their death?

[Anonymous]

Montgomery Country Adoption Center.

[Anonymous]

Try Lost Dog & Cat Rescue. We got our dog from her, as did a friend. Both dogs are great, and you can fill out the paperwork and take the dog home in the same day.

https://lostdogrescue.org/

[Anonymous]

The PG county shelter in upper Marlboro.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Good luck OP - I hope you and your family have a wonderful time with your new dog. Thank you for adopting over buying from a breeder.

This is how I feel too.

[Anonymous]

It can be tough - we got turned down by a breed specific rescue after a home visit and it really was disappointing. We have a very nice suburban home with a yard and two sweet elementary school kids. My husband had the particular breed of dog growing up. We both work, but are only out of the house 2-3 days a week and we are committed to hiring a walker. I don’t know, the person who did the visit was retired and it seemed like she wanted someone that could focus on the dog like she could as a retired empty nester. We would give a dog tons of attention but, yes, we are a normal busy family like many that are successful dog owners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rescue organizations need to rethink they’re processes for adopting out animals. We tired once to adopt a dog and we’re turned down because we don’t have a fence yard.

If I can buy an AR15, a car, or a house quicker than I can adopt a pet, something needs to change.

We got our awesome dog from Craigslist. Screw crazy rescue places.

+1 NP here and ditto. I lived in a large english basement adjacent to a dog park and got told by one place I needed a fenced yard, another told me I work too many hours to have a dog. One of them I was emailing about coming to see the dog I had inquired about and then they informed me they had adopted it out to an 18 year-old about to leave for college in the fall. I was so over it by that point that I went to a backyard breeder and have never looked back.

And anyone who thinks rescuing is so noble and selfless needs to read up on the shadow industry where rescue organizations are using donated money to buy dogs from dog auctions or "breeders" usually from other parts of the country (and paying companies $$ to transport the dogs) when they still have shelter dogs from their own area that are without homes.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/investigations/dog-auction-rescue-groups-donations/?utm_term=.0b7e73301843