Reply to Dog adoption advice

Forum Index » Pets

Reply to "Dog adoption advice - local shelters"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=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. [b]PG definitely has the highest need, but it's usually for larger dogs under the 'guard dog' umbrellas [/b](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.[/quote]

It's true that most dogs at PG are bigger breeds and that the law requiring pit mixes and certain other breeds to only be adopted out of county is an additional challenge, but if you adopt a non-pit dog from them it still frees up a kennel for another dog and allows more time before they have to start euthanizing for space. I can't believe they've had a PBGV puppy (11 months) and a young corgi mix and other desirable breeds there for weeks...I don't know anything about those dogs' temperments but I bet if they were at a rescue or the MoCo shelter someone would have already adopted them. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics