Your Dog Forum

There are many rescue organisations- both general and breed specific- that will have both puppies and adult dogs in need of good homes. Contact your nearest shelter to see what is available, and if they would be prepared to homw a puppy with you. You will need to make an appointment, and your home and garden may be inspected to ensure they are suitable first. If you are seeking an adult dog, be prepared to allow the staff to assist in choosing the dog that in their opinion will be most suitable for you. They will have a good idea of the temperaments of the dogs in their care. It may be there is an individual that is only suitable for a home without children, or cannot be housed alongside a cat.

i think that many rescued dogs are treated with too much sympathy with regards to their past bad experiences! Eg.

My grandma rescued a staffiexjack russell terrier who had been deemed un-rehomeable by the rescue centre staff, due to his high energy and volume in his kennel, however my gran fell in love with him, and viewed his stubbornness and tenacity as a challenge.

From the beginning it was unquestionable;he had been beaten before, and he cowered shakily, terrified when put into a situation where he felt cornered. He also bit quite nastily when anyone went to stroke his back, a reflexive reaction that had us doubting the treatment of him by his previous owners.

My gran forgot about henry's (as he was named) past and stuck to rigorous training, both positive and corrective, where appropriate.

She used a can of compressed air to correct his biting from a long distance, and he hated it, so stopped as soon as he saw my gran reaching for the can.

She also used rolled up newspaper to hit his bum wen he was naughty too. (i dont agree with hitting dogs like this but it never made henrys fears worse at all and in fact helped in many ways. Also, like with th can, henry would stop watever he was doin as soon as he saw th newspaper comin out, so my gran probably only smacked his bottom as she calls it once or twice. Plus, the woman (and my grandad) has owned several huge, working GSD guard dogs, who were always friendly when my nanny showed them someone was alright, all it took was an introduction (my grandparents leased and ran several pubs when my mum was a kid, so they needed th guard dogs!))

He is now the sweetest, friendliest, most undaunted little guy ever!

He even gave me a nosebleed jumping up to kiss my face!!

Your story shows how good ownership can work with rescue dogs. However, there are some rescue dogs that simply cannot be helped...

When my mum was 13, her family got a lurcher puppy (definitely has german shepard in there). She first knew about the litter from the local paper - they had been found nearly starved to death, bruised, whiskers pulled out - they were only 10 weeks old. The puppy they chose also had its tail broken in places.

This dog was fine, 50% of the time. Other times he took sudden dislikes to people and other dogs, jumped 7ft gates, etc. The final straw came when he was 5. Mum was out (having just met my dad), and nan was sitting on the floor. Suddenly this dog just jumped on her, and she lost part of her ear. There was absolutely no warning before this, and my grandparents are experience dog owners. They had tried various methods of training (all have worked for previous dogs they had had), but nothing could make this dog reliable.

In everyone's opinion, it was his early life that did this to him.

Makes me sick, that some people can treat dogs/puppies like this, and wreck their whole lives.

All rescue dogs can be helped. Which is why I love the fact that Dog's Trust claim they never put a healthy dog down. Like you said if you just stick to what they do best- training- all dogs can have some sort of normal life even if it's not what it would have been. All dogs have a right to a life without fear and pain and I believe that even if that's what was in their past we can help them to get through that and begin to live life to the full.

dannii7696 wrote:
All rescue dogs can be helped.

Sorry but that's wrong. Some rescue dogs have been so behaviourally scarred by their experiences that can't recover. Some rescue dogs have neurological problems that lessen their quality of life so much that they lose the will to live. Some rescue dogs are in so much pain from physiological conditions that the kindest thing to do is to give them peace.

Sorry but not all rescue dogs can be helped and it's up to rescue staff all over the world to cope this horrific reality every single day without being made to feel guilty about it.

You have to have been involved at the sharp end of rescue for a long time to fully understand the sheer scale of what's involved. Not all stories end in happy ever after.

I know some dogs are very traumatised and take a long time but to say some dogs are untreatable- Just ask Caesar Millan, im sure he'll disagree.
To see what he has done with some dogs that were deemed unable to domesticate or turn their behaviour around is unbelievable but not impossible.