melrose

A PDF Version of this poster is available each week here: https://goo.gl/5cm8xd The Facbook album for these dogs is available here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ACTRescueandFoster/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10156339273346382 Please note that members of the public must have viewed the dog in person at Domestic Animal Services before a save can be made. Status updates for the dogs will be posted when the information becomes available. Domestic Animal Services is located on Mugga Lane, Symonston, ACT Phone number is 02 6207 2424 Option 3 Normal Opening hours are 10am – 3pm Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday except Thursdays which are 10am – 6pm Sunday and Wednesday they are closed DISCLAIMER The information contained in these profiles is provided as a service by ACT Rescue and Foster Inc. – a volunteer, non-profit organisation unaffiliated. The information represents behaviours observed on the day of testing only. Every effort is made to ensure that all the information is correct however you should always satisfy yourself that a dog is suitable for you before fostering or buying it. ACT Rescue & Foster Inc do not accept any responsibility for matters arising from the use of information provided on these profiles.

I post the DAS dogs (Canberra) when I get the chance for ARF, but there's not much indication that anyone actually reads the posts - if it's been a big day at DAS assessing the dogs, followed by sorting/editing photos, generating a poster, and a facebook album then I often run out of steam by the time it comes to dol. If there's a silent majority that are waiting with bated breath for these posts then please let me know and I'll ensure that the posts are updated more regularly.

The system PR have come up with is a bit of a blunt instrument and I imagine that the majority of rescues won't neatly fit into just one of these categories. The concept of giving a potential adopter a heads-up as to what the process will be like is fair enough though, as I'm sure there's potentially good homes that are put off rescue altogether from one poor experience (either spending forever filling out forms only to be forgotten about, or have an unsuitable dog "posted" to them). I personally don't equate "flexibility" with lax standards or not providing follow-on care. My idea of flexibility is judging every home on its merits and trying to figure out face-to-face with the family whether the foster dog I have will work in their home and, if not, help them find another dog that would be a better fit. To me, "strict" means having a pre-defined view of the home that will work, pages of forms to fill in before even clapping eyes on a dog, and decisions being made based solely on the information contained in the form, which is a scenario I try to avoid at all costs. "Flexible" also means being able to shape your approach to meet the needs of the dog and home, rather than the other way round. Usually we (my wife and I) take inquiries on a "first come, first served" basis and figure out whether the dog fits that home or not, before moving onto the next inquiry. We find that this reduces people feeling that they are in a competition (which can sometimes result in poor choices being made) and I personally don't have a problem with the possibility of 'adopt on the day'. I've only done it once though, on New Years eve 2015. I always take our fosters round to the adopters homes, so the yard check is part and parcel of the meet and greet. We spent a few hours together chewing the cud and it was clear that the dog would fill a huge hole in the adopter's life. We returned later that evening to drop the dog off and had a bbq to celebrate. It's been an incredibly successful adoption and we receive regular updates. They've now moved to an island off the coast of Brisbane where the dog is spoiled rotten :). However, with our last foster dog, we went round to the new home with the dog 5 times over the space of about a month before finally leaving her with her new family. She had some fear issues and there were young kids and another dog in the house, so slowly-slowly seemed like the best plan for her situation. Saying all this, there's a significant variation in the adoption experience within our foster organisation depending on the carer and the dog, which is another reason that the PR tier system isn't really fit for purpose. I get a slow drip of interest for my adult, boofy, dogs, so can provide detailed replies and tend to meet in person most of the folks that enquire about our dogs. If our foster isn't quite right, then there's usually a number of others that might be a better fit - either in care or at the pound - that I can point them towards. This is quite a different scenario from the carer who received 100+ enquiries in a 24hr period for a litter of puppies that came into care recently. Others in our group have successfully gone down the interstate adoption route for some of their fosters too (usually to rural homes that are nowhere near any pound, but in a region that the carer has family ties etc) - it's not something that suits my particular situation though. I guess the short version of the above is that flexible, moderate, or strict policies can all either be made to work incredibly well or incredibly poorly depending on implementation.

Hi Troy, Just wondering what the process is for moving a post into "Past Requests" with the new forum, as I can't see an equivalent for the symbol with the new layout. You must have your work cut out with the forum upgrade, so no probs if you have more pressing issues to worry about in the near term - thanks for all your hard work! Cheers, Melrose