Aphra

If you are a shelter you must be registered as a domestic animal business which means a whole lot of infrastructure. As a CFCN you don't have to be a DAB, but you need to comply with council regulations about numbers and registration. As a CFCN you can take surrenders from the public if they are surrendering their own animals, you can't take stray or lost animals.

Pounds can't give animals to a CFCN without an agreement, because pounds in Victoria must desex animals before rehoming. The agreement basically allows pound to give undesexed animals over to rescue who must desex them before rehoming them under the 84Y clause. There is no system for setting up as a foster care network, inside the pound system there are regulations of a sort. Private groups can just set themselves up, provided they comply with their council regulations.

We lost a puppy who was vaccinated against parvo, but she either contracted parvo just before or just after the vaccination (which was given in the pound), before it had had time to take effect. So some percentage of puppies who are vaccinated will contract parvo because they encounter the disease before the vaccine has been able to take full effect (ie 10 - 14 days after the vaccination). It doesn't mean that vaccination doesn't work, but that vaccination takes time to be effective.

It's useful to give people an understanding of the procedure up front so that' you're managing expectations. People do, naturally, get upset sometimes, if they don't get a dog they wanted. Nobody likes being rejected. We have our adoption procedure on our website, and we let people know how it works in the email they get when they make enquiries. It's also useful to make sure that if there are specific criteria for a dog (needs to be an only dog, no cats, needs another dog, whatever) are made clear up front. It means that where there are unsuitable applicants you can give them really clear feedback about why they weren't successful. Where there are people who you wouldn't give a dog to in any circumstances we just tell them that there were a lot of applicants and we'll let them know when their number comes up. We have a couple of experienced foster carers who we trust to make a determination, but others prefer that we do all the decision making, although they like to have input. My preference is that the decision is shared between us and the foster carer, I don't really want, or expect, a foster carer to be making the decision on their own. An adoption questionnaire is really useful in the process because it gives you a structured way of getting the basic information you need. Our quesionnaires aren't the final arbitrater, but they're useful in weeding out really unsuitable homes (want an outside only dog when applying for a 3 kg dog, for example), and a basis for asking for additional information where you might need it. One of the intangibles, which comes from experience, is watching the interaction between people and dog. It is surprising how often the dog chooses. Sometimes you can just watch prospective adopters with a dog and see it's not right. The things I watch for is the quality of interaction, I like to see people get down to the dog's level and play with them, being willing to take the dog for a walk, being comfortable handling a dog, particularly a larger dog. Listening is really important. By the time people come to meet our animals we've already had some conversation and know the basics, so the meeting for us is not about asking questions so much as watching them handle the animal and listening to them. I listen for things like people telling me stories about their past dogs, their family dogs or their friend's dogs (or cats). People who genuinely like animals will want to tell you about the ones they know or the ones they've loved. People will volunteer information about how they've cared for past animals, even if it's to tell you how much they cost in vet bills! I listen for people who ask you good questions, about food preferences, or training, or sleeping arrangements. I like it when people show you pictures of their past animals and talk about them, or bring an obviously happy, healthy, shiny existing dog to the meeting. I've found that if you pay attention, watch the people with the animal and listen carefully both for what they tell you and for what they don't tell you, you'll learn a lot about someone in a hour or so. Our basic rule is that we won't adopt an animal to someone we don't like, no matter how good a home it seems to be.

I found this article about the appearance of parvovirus. It's fascinating, and scary. http://positively.com/2011/07/14/why-should-you-vaccinate-against-parvovirus/

They're such a clever breed. Look how fast she went from never being in a house to learning all about couches. LOL Good save, she looks lovely and I'm sure she'll be lots of fun to work with.

Well done. It's sad that there are so many big guys in need of rescue, but great for their new homes. I know I miss my (late) Neos so much, once you've had one it's hard to imagine life without drool. :-)

All pounds have parvo, although they generally don't like to talk about it. What does happen is that puppies come into pounds, pick up parvo from the pound because it is so intransigent in the environment, stay their week or so, and go into rescue, at which point they get sick because the incubation period is 7-10 days. Even parvaccing at the point puppies come into the pound (which some of the good pounds do) doesn't protect them much, because they might have low immunity already due to poor nutrition/worm load, etc, or there hasn't been enough time for the vaccine to work.

We lost a puppy to parvo earlier this year and it was heart breaking, and all the more so because if her first owner had vaccinated her, it wouldn't have happened. Canine parvovirus first appeared in 1967, possibly as a mutation of feline parvovirus (feline distemper). It mutated and a new strain appeared in the late 70s which was highly infectious. I was interested in the line in the article which says if proper vaccination is undertaken across the canine population we could eliminate parvo. Even distemper seems to be making something of a comeback in populations of dogs in poor areas.

Welcome AAR. I'm sure you and your loyal band of foster carers will continue to do the excellent job of rescue you've been doing for the last several years.

I'd suggest you look for a slightly older dog (say 2+), small to medium-size, with an easy going temperament and moderate exercise needs. Breed isn't really as important as the right temperament, but if there is a breed which you really like, look for an older one who needs a home. If you want a purebred dog, breed rescue for that breed is a great way to go. If you're not fussed about breed, then a nice, well-tempered mutt who has been in foster care would be a good choice. Look for a dog who is really social with other dogs, has a bit of basic training and enjoys people. If you're active and want to have some fun with training a mellow older Kelpie can be heaps of fun. The right temperament is more important than breed, but you might be better off avoiding breeds which are more challenging to own such as the northern breeds or livestock guardian types. We wrote a bit of a blog post to guide people into where to look for a new pet, but there's a little advice on choosing one as well: http://www.headingforhome.asn.au/an-agreeable-friend/ Good luck with your first dog, it's such a lovely thing to become a dog owner. :-)

Are you serious? Maybe if someone was caught unawares, but if you're so frail or unsteady on your feet that a 8kilo dog can pull you over, you might need to reconsider walking a dog at all. I'm a middle aged woman and I've owned dogs of all sizes, including giant breeds and the day a Jack Russell can pull me over is the day I give up dogs. Dogs of all sizes can be badly behaved, aggressive, reactive and dangerous. But all being equal, if something is going to bite me, I'd prefer it was a small dog, having been badly bitten by a giant breed dog I'm reluctant to repeat the experience. I am opposed to BSL on all sorts of grounds, including the evidence base which tells us that it doesn't work. But that doesn't mean that big dogs don't require more responsibility and more management by their owners. If you own a very aggressive Chiahuahua, you can at least pick it up to prevent it causing trouble. If you have a high prey drive 30kg German Shepherd you should have some better management strategies in place, which would hopefully including training and socialization, but at worst should be secure containment. I love large breed dogs and I see no reason why they should not be happy, peaceful members of the community, but because their size is a reality it is up to their owners to make sure that happens. This is not least because whatever happens, big dogs get the blame. Which doesn't give nasty tempered little breeds a get-out clause at all, but size does make a difference.

I have no idea about this case, but I have yet to see a rescue group with enough money to actually mount a defamation case. Under Australian law you have to prove that your reputation has been damage by what has been published, which is a substantial and time consuming process. A defamation trial is a very expensive undertaking and I simply can't see a rescue group being able to afford it. If your friend is really concerned she can certainly just call their bluff. Why doesn't your friend contact Pet Rescue and provide them with the evidence, they can a least unlist the dog.

No Kill sheltering definition: http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/defining-no-kill-sheltering/ And no, it doesn't mean not being open admission, or warehousing animals, it means working very hard and proactively to save the lives of healthy, rehomable pets. As to the LDH, if your friend can find a suitable dog to rescue from them, adopting from them isn't a bad idea, although I'm always a bit torn about supporting them at all. But for the numbers of animals they take in, they often don't have very many available for adoption. GAWS have really changed how they operate in the last year and supporting them would be great. There is also the wonderful Save-A-Dog and Animal Aid, both of which might not define themselves as No Kill, but are definitely low kill.

Off-topic mantis, but we just rehomed a Cairn. He was the first pure Cairn I've handled and we were all desperately in love with him. If Dougal was typical of the breed I've found my old lady dogs. :laugh: What a great little dog and such a wonderful character.

Breeders on this forum complain that people are blaming them for dogs in pounds, but I've been rescuing for going on ten years now, and I still have no idea who the "they" is, who keep accusing registered breeders of this. Pedigree dogs (with papers) do end up in the pound, but no rescuer I know would say that that was the majority of pound dogs. On the other hand, there are lots of lots of dogs of identifiable breeds in pounds, presumably some of them had papers at some stage, but the majority are clearly from backyard breeders. As far as I can tell the main sources of dogs in the pound we work with are: random breeders (accidental litters, people who want to breed just because, whatever); working breeds (workers who won't work, working litters surrendered because farmers only wanted a couple of pups); hunting dogs, either dogs who won't hunt, or the excess from big litters; deliberate backyard breeders (they'll often dump ex-breeding stock); and then in diminishing order other kinds of dogs (people moving; old folk dying; people who can't afford the pound fees and so on).

Excellent post. I think changing your mind and being willing to adapt a new viewpoint when an old one starts looking wrong is a signal of a healthy, functioning intellect.

There's a thing called phatic communication, which is basically the kind of cliched small talk we all use to open channels of conversation and build commonality. Like talking to taxi drivers about the traffic or people at the bus stop about the weather. The content is meaningless, the intent is to build a little, safe, social connection. Really, all you have to do is smile and say yes, and everybody is happy. Given how often people come into the forums with examples of people being rude and hostile, I'm not sure why a small attempt at a friendly connection upset you so much.

I'm bumping this discussion because the question about how to pick a rescue group and how to go about adopting seems to be be coming up more frequently , so I've written a blog post to see if I can cover some of the issues in one place. I've also included some information about buying a purebred puppy and pet shops because I think the general public is a bit vague about how all of this stuff fits together. It's a bit of a work in progress, so if anyone wants to have a read and offer suggestions for things that could be included, I'd love the feedback. http://www.headingforhome.asn.au/an-agreeable-friend/

I like "Perfect Puppy in 7 Days" by Sophia Yin (not least because it has an adorable cattle dog on the cover), "The Puppy Primer" by Patricia McConnell and for those more difficult canines, "When Pigs Fly! Training Success with Impossible Dogs" by Jane Killion. And yes to the Ian Dunbar books and Dog Star Daily in general, a terrific resource.

They're local to us so out of vulgar curiosity I did a bit of a poke about a couple of months ago. They seem above board and I've not heard anything about them locally, good or bad. I've only had the vaguest of contact with them, but never had any reason to be particularly suspicious.

There is some recent research about OCD type behaviours in dogs and lack of trace elements and vitamins. I don't have the reference handy but posted it in the general forum a few weeks ago, so if you do a search by my name you'll find it. You might also try fish oil supplements, there is research which links anxiety and aggression in dogs and people with inadequate omega intakes.

Pug x perhaps? Depending on size, although there is a pug x of some kind I see around where I work quite regularly and it's about beagle sized, so not a little dog.

It would be wonderful if some enterprising council or state government department brought Jim Crosby over for some intensive professional development for rangers and police. Some good Australian evidence would make a difference to discussions about BSL. Jim Crosby's blog is really worth reading. http://www.bradenton.com/2012/10/21/4246781/retired-florida-deputy-has-second.html http://canineaggression.blogspot.com.au/

I dunno. For my part I always find serious allegations of wrongdoing so much more convincing when presented incoherently, with no attention to spelling, grammar or you know, evidence. There's just something which makes you go "hey, that accusation is all over the shop, they must have a point". Really.