What are rescues looking for...

when they ask "what experience do you have as a dog owner?"?

I was just going to write about completing beginner and novice obedience, and having a lot of experience with dogs that have major health problems (epilepsy, kidney disease and hip dysplasia). But should I also mention being a puppy raiser for a dog guide organization and volunteering in the kennels for a summer and my dog sitting jobs?

Am I forgetting to mention any key things?

I think you're good. If they don't want to adopt to you after that, they are really, really stupid, lol.

I think rescues just want to know if you've owned dogs before and what you're willing to handle in order to make a good match. At least, that's what I'd do.

For us, ferrets not dogs though, we basically just want to know their past with them, want to know what health issues they have dealt with, what behavour things they have dealt with, etc.

Really, just to help set both the potential owner and the pet up for success

The shelter we got Lucy from was really just trying to figure out if we'd ever had a dog before. Zach and I had both had dogs as kids, but Lucy was going to be our first dog as adults, so they tailored their info to us based on that.

Thanks for the replies.

The reason I asked was because they also ask you to list all the past and current pets you had/have, describe the current pets you have, what training experience you have, and other questions that address "what experience do you have as a dog owner".

Yah, it's really redundant, tbh :rofl1: We ask for experiences, then ask to list the pets you have, then the pets you used to have and what happened to them, etc.

I think that's a lot of good information that you should definitely put on your application!

Simply owning dogs doesn't say much about your experience as a dog owner. Some people have owned a number of childhood dogs that lived in their backyard and got little more than a few pets a day. Some people have owned one dog who they competed in dog sports with, trained and exercised and worked with extensively and spent all of their spare time with. Which applicant would YOU rather place a dog with? There is definitely a big difference between just owning dogs and experiences with dogs.