Reply to Have you adopted a dog from a NOVA area rescue org?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here - thanks all.

I think the process just isn't working right now, for us.  We have basically been rejected twice now for dogs that we  were interested in adopting.

We have talked a lot at home over the past month or two about what we are looking for.  We look at the dogs online.  We go to the adoption fair.  The volunteers are helpful and enthusiastic.  After a couple of times going to see the dogs, we settled on one.  We did the paperwork.  In the first instance, they did the home visit and basically told us that getting that particular dog was not a good idea.  The second time, after another fair and another round of paperwork, they just emailed us and said it wouldn't work out.

I totally understand that they are working hard to make a good match and their reasons, each time, have been understandable.  But we have a 7 year old who keeps getting her hopes up and then it doesn't work out.  So I guess I need to rethink this process.

We also have tried reaching out to the staff to ask them to suggest dogs for us (and have gone into detail about what we think we'd like), but then the suggestions that they send us are not aligned with what we've said we are looking for.  So it's pretty frustrating.[/quote]

Been there, done that!  Personally, I have had a much better experience with county SPCA (I'm in MD, not VA, though) shelters than rescue groups that rely on fosters.  With the SPCA as with the local county animal shelter (the pound), they have space constraints, and I feel like they are actually a bit more motivated to adopt out animals.

My experience (combined with people I know) with the rescue groups that rely on fosters is that they don't understand the phrase "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."  I know personally of several cases where the foster person ended up keeping the animal up for adoption.  And I actually suspect that sometimes this is the intention all along.

I also know someone who works with one of those groups and fosters, and while he is a good person, his is very judgmental!  He is actually very active in rescue groups and he has told me reasons he has recommended that people be rejected, and some of those reasons were, in my view, completely ridiculous (they had very little to do with whether the person would be a good pet guardian or whether it was a good fit and had far more to do with personality differences).

As a result, I usually try to go with either local animal shelter (county or city facility) or with the local SPCA.  There are plenty of fantastic dogs and the people are very reasonable.  The SPCA will do more in the way of vetting, and they usually try to determine if the dog is good with other dogs, cats, kids, et cetera.   The local shelter (pound) usually does little of that.  Try the SPCA first.

Best of luck.[/quote]

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