Puppy rescues make it hard to adopt?

[mojozen]

My dad is in the Reserves and he made the comment once that its easier to get into the Pentagon then to get a dog from rescue sometimes.

LOL - my dad made a similar comment when I was going through the adoption process for Mojo. I went up to the school where he was at, visited once. I had to see every dog before they'd show me the ones that THEY thought would be a good fit for me. They were right on who would be good for me...

I then filled out a 4 page application that seemed to be mostly essay questions. How will you train? How will you correct the dog? How do you plan on treating the dog? What will you do if your landlord changes their pet policy and stops allowing dogs in their apartments?

I had to leave the name of my vet, my landlord, my job, and two of my friends. I was told that they would be calling each of those to see what they had to say about me and the information i had provided them. And yes, they did call all of those people... fortunately I got rave reviews from everyone.

Then I waited a month to hear back from teh Shelter that actually "owned" the dog to get back to me on whether or not I could adopt. I started calling them once or twice a week after the first two weeks to see if I had been approved. I was very polite in those phone calls, just stated I was inquiring on the process... They seemed to understand, and said that they were happy I was calling in because it showed how much I really wanted the dog.

Obiviously I was approved.

Unfortunately because I lived in another state from the school, I could only visit one other time. And then because he was a model dog at the vet tech school he was at, i had to wait until the end of the semester to bring him home. So between the time i first met the dog who would come to be known as "Mojo" until the time I brought him home - it was a 3 month process.

My dad told me at the time, that it was the longest adoption process he had ever seen outside of adopting a human child. He asked me on the first day I brought Mojo home - "Was all that waiting worth it?"

Oh my goodness yes!

 

[tinksmama]

I agree, the process and costs can be very off-putting. I do understand about costs,rescuing,medical care,etc- BUT... if these dogs need homes, why not make it a LITTLE easier to find them?
my story... I already own a pound mutt,10 years old, and wanted a puppy now, the tiny little variety... I also have kids ,13 and 6. If any of you have researched these sites,you now understand my problem. NO ONE wants to adopt out a small breed dog to a home with young kids. Just flat out,NO! This was so disheartening to me, I'm an experienced dog owner,extremely responsible for the life of my pets,(been rescuing various animals for 20 years)- my kids aren't toddlers- and I completely educated myself on the care and delicacy of little ones. Did any of this make a difference? NO!
I am an intelligent person, I know the work of training my kids to properly handle such small pup-not to mention the costs? 300-500 dollars to 'rescue' in my area! Sad to say, I could go to a pet store for that money! (I know better, i wouldn't,which is why I was looking at petfinder shelters in the first place)
And please, don't say" well, if you can't afford exorbitant upfront costs, can you afford upkeep on a dog for life?" that makes no sense. Obviously,most decent pet owners can and do pay for vet care,while it's just not in the budget to spend a months worth of grocery money on a dog,that's a lot of vet care in fell swoop! So I agree with the OP - many places do make it prohibitively hard to help an animal-
I have a new puppy, a chi mix,she's 10 weeks old, came from an accidental litter, through a nice family who devotes their lives to finding homes for MANY unwanted animals. She's thriving,happy,and we love her a lot! She had an adoption fee of $100,this after they kept mama dog for weeks,and the litter,found homes for them all, (mama dog was spayed by the time pups were going home,by these people),and for young ones, like my pup, a partial return of adoption fee upon proof of spaying. That is the way to find homes for the 1000,s of unwanted animals.
Will there be a failure rate? Most likely,some foolish people won't be as responsible as they should be, that's the (sad) way of the world. But it happens in rescue groups too,all the time,and shelters,and humane societies,even after filling out long questionnares!
I'm so happy that I was able to find these nice folks, who helped my dream of being a small dog mama come true!
Just my .02, and I do care a lot about the welfare of animals!

 

[Fran27]

That's really weird, the rescue the OP mentionned is the one I got Tips from, and they were very fast to contact us, didn't have any problem with them.

 

[bubbatd]

I do know that the Golden rescue I work with seem to have " special " folks waiting for pups.... they never are on the web site long.