Trying to adopt a dog - any advice?

mrkds

Hi everyone. Me and my partner are looking to adopt a dog. We prefer to adopt than buy from a breeder since, aside form the cost, we don't really agree with the principle of buying dogs when there are many homeless dogs in shelters. We have put in a few applications to adopt some of the dogs at our local rescue centre but all our applications fall on deaf ears. They don't even give us explanations as to why our application was unsuccessful. We check carefully to make sure the dogs we apply for are suitable for someone with little prior dog-owning experience.

I have never had a dog, but my partner has.  We have a stable relationship, with a stable, above-average income. We own our own home which has a large living room and a decent sized garden . No children.  I work from home the majority of days, so  the dog will rarely be left at home on their own. We are physically active so our dog would get plenty of exercise with us. We don't have any other pets, but a good friend of ours has a dog we go walking with regularly so our potential dog will have another doggy friend to play with. I think all this makes us very good candidates for adoption.

It is frustrating as we know other couples (and single people) who have successfully adopted dogs with no prior experience of dog ownership. Can anyone give some advice on what we can do to make our application stand out? Is there some critical deciding factor that we're not hitting on?

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

theoretica

mrkds said:

when there are many homeless dogs in shelters.

At the present time, that does not seem to be true in many areas with the number of other people wanting to adopt at present - there was a news article recently about shelters receiving 1000 applications to adopt certain dogs.  No wonder they don't have the volunteer time to reply in detail to each applicant!

mrkds

Wow! I didn't realise demand was so high right now.

donnac2558

Yes, it was actually on the national news.   Charities get over 1000 people applying for one dog.

Artytarty

What a shame! 

Instead of pitching low I would be inclined to play up your prior experience with dogs.

Perhaps detail your partners experience and embellish it a bit.
emphasise the security of your garden.

Im sure plenty of people are doing this and you do sound like ideal candidates to me at least,  with your availability and active lifestyle.

Aranyani

Are you willing to take a staffie?  Or an older dog?  Those are the ones most people don't want, so can wait longer in rescue before getting a home.

Puppies and small, cute looking dogs get the most interest/competition.

KxMx

Try elsewhere other than the local rescue centre, most areas have more than one, sometimes a FB search throws up the smaller ones not well publicised. 

I came across a cat rescue that way, they only have a FB page as it's run by one couple who take in some cats and foster out others.

Also don't be afraid to look further afield, regional places rather than local. 

greensalad

Have you considered adopting from abroad? With so many dogs wanted in the UK right now a lot of the major charities don't have them to spare! I have two family members who have adopted dogs from abroad. One from Cyprus and one from Romania. These countries have a lot of stray dogs who needs homes and there are charities that work to get them into foster care in their home country and then moved over to the UK for those who want to adopt.

Fosterdog

Have you considered fostering? As already mentioned dogs are in high demand right now, at least certain dogs are, others are still long termers with no interest in them but any "designer" breed, extra cute dog, or any dog under a year old is getting so many applications there aren't enough hours in the day to read them all let alone respond to them.

A number of rescues are still in need of foster homes though and this is a really good way to get involved in rescue and then if a suitable dog for you to adopt comes up you are top of the list because the rescue already knows you well and they don't have to redo homechecks etc.

If you can wait until the new year there will be thousands of dogs dumped at rescues when all the lockdown puppies are no longer wanted.

Titfield

May I just suggest that a better way to describe your "quest" is that have a "forever home" to offer.

elsien

Aranyani said:

Are you willing to take a staffie?  Or an older dog?  Those are the ones most people don't want, so can wait longer in rescue before getting a home.

Puppies and small, cute looking dogs get the most interest/competition.

This ^^^ Or the slightly more “difficult” ones if you’re willing and able to put in the work.  What age/type of dog are you applying for? 

I was after a calm (for the breed) comparatively well trained pure bred bull terrier. What I got (and I knew what I was getting -ish) was a completely mental untrained BT cross that no one else wanted. Best decision I ever made.

Although my groomer who works in an animal sanctuary said that at the moment there’s an influx of rabbits and cats, rather than dogs. Which surprised me as dogs are more expensive to keep.