Rescue Organisations

[Dame Aussie]

if you work full time when does the dog get a chance to play 1 hr exercise and interaction a day isnt very much is it ?

I'm sorry I completely disagree with this shocking generalisation.

My dogs definently get more than one hour of my time a day- they are walked twice a day, do obedience training every day, go to obedience school and have started agility. they are inside with us 15 of 24 hours a day being part of the family.

just because someone doesnt work full time doesnt mean they spend 24/7 with their dogs.

each person should be taken on merit, not their working status.

in this day and age of rising costs everywhere it is a reality that a lot of households have both adults working.

if we exclude these families from adoption you will be excluding a large pool of the population and making it harder to find the perfect home as your choices are so limited.

having a blanket 'no full time workers' policy is self destructive in my opinion.

Totally agree, not everyone who works spends only an hour with their dog then locks it outside alone all night. My dogs sleep on my bed FFS.

I wish I had the option of not working full time but unfortunately I have to in order tobuy them food and pay for their training and health requirements.

Oh what a shocking owner I am.....

[Greytmate]

Good point Gayle K - and further to that (police check) if you supply your home address and answer yes work fulltime to said question how do you know where that information is stored and if it is kept in a secure location? As opposed to in a box somewhere in a shelf or worse tossed into a general bin when no longer required that anyone could access. Yet another home invasion last night not that far away so of course people get more and more cautious about security of personal info.

this is the issue for me. with the information requested it would be very easy for someone to use this to break into the house or as identity theft.

so the questions to be asked:

how is this data stored?

is there a secure place for all data storage?

what is the rescues data policy, including how they manage non successful application data?

who gets to read the info?

do the people reading the info have a clear police check?

personally, i would never give anyone who couldnt answer the above questions to my satisfaction my data.

Organisations are required by law to protect this information and work within the privacy act. So all you need to do is ask them how their organisation is structured and what is in place to protect your privacy.

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Common sense tells you not to hand over drivers licence or credit card to anyone without an ABN or other organisational credentials.

[Gayle.]

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Normal businesses generally don't send staff around to check out peoples living arrangements either. But if they do send staff out, they are covered by public liablity insurance. This is a genuine question.......are rescue organisation employees covered by the same? If they are carrying out their business on private property, I would think they'd have to be.

if you work full time when does the dog get a chance to play 1 hr exercise and interaction a day isnt very much is it ?

the dog may be out of a pound but its not fair on the dog to be stuck behind 4 walls i think!

dogs that are bred and instinctually have characteristic that show they need alot of mental and physical deserve to find the right home for example a working kelpie no way in hell i would give that dog to a family that doesnt include it in activities where he wont be worked,like in agility herding or obedience.

My dogs definitely get more than one hours attention a day, in fact I'd go so far as to say they get a lot more attention than some dogs where the owner is home all day. They come inside when we're home, they sleep in our room, we bought a property because it was more suited to the dogs than our previous place.

Dogs need more than exercise, and mine definitely that and more.

[Greytmate]

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Normal businesses generally don't send staff around to check out peoples living arrangements either. But if they do send staff out, they are covered by public liablity insurance. This is a genuine question.......are rescue organisation employees covered by the same? If they are carrying out their business on private property, I would think they'd have to be.

Yes, they should have a public liability policy covering their staff/volunteers.

There are dodgy rescues around, but there are many good ones that are run like businesses or properly organised clubs, and they are the ones that will have insurance and other safeguards in place to protect volunteers/members and the public.

[Dame Aussie]

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Normal businesses generally don't send staff around to check out peoples living arrangements either. But if they do send staff out, they are covered by public liablity insurance. This is a genuine question.......are rescue organisation employees covered by the same? If they are carrying out their business on private property, I would think they'd have to be.

if you work full time when does the dog get a chance to play 1 hr exercise and interaction a day isnt very much is it ?

the dog may be out of a pound but its not fair on the dog to be stuck behind 4 walls i think!

dogs that are bred and instinctually have characteristic that show they need alot of mental and physical deserve to find the right home for example a working kelpie no way in hell i would give that dog to a family that doesnt include it in activities where he wont be worked,like in agility herding or obedience.

My dogs definitely get more than one hours attention a day, in fact I'd go so far as to say they get a lot more attention than some dogs where the owner is home all day. They come inside when we're home, they sleep in our room, we bought a property because it was more suited to the dogs than our previous place.

Dogs need more than exercise, and mine definitely that and more.

Every house we rent is a sh*thole because we get it for the dogs, not us, huge backyards don't seem to come with nice new houses

We make many sacrifices to keep our dogs happy and healthy and these far outweigh any negativity that comes along with working full time.

Edited September 27, 2010 by Aussie3

[Guest Tess32]

Every time this topic comes up, people start posting about standard, fairly normal rescues that aren't even the issue.

Why not just accept that there are some psycho, control freak rescuers out there and that the acceptance of this doesn't mean you think EVERY rescuer is!

[rubiton]

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Normal businesses generally don't send staff around to check out peoples living arrangements either. But if they do send staff out, they are covered by public liablity insurance. This is a genuine question.......are rescue organisation employees covered by the same? If they are carrying out their business on private property, I would think they'd have to be.

if you work full time when does the dog get a chance to play 1 hr exercise and interaction a day isnt very much is it ?

the dog may be out of a pound but its not fair on the dog to be stuck behind 4 walls i think!

dogs that are bred and instinctually have characteristic that show they need alot of mental and physical deserve to find the right home for example a working kelpie no way in hell i would give that dog to a family that doesnt include it in activities where he wont be worked,like in agility herding or obedience.

My dogs definitely get more than one hours attention a day, in fact I'd go so far as to say they get a lot more attention than some dogs where the owner is home all day. They come inside when we're home, they sleep in our room, we bought a property because it was more suited to the dogs than our previous place.

Dogs need more than exercise, and mine definitely that and more.

Id also add how do the organisations that dont rehome to full time workers actualyl KNOW that the people they do rehome to actually interact with the dog all day. People at work who live on properties have 'working' line kelpies and their dogs seems sane - its a generalisation to say that active dogs cant be with a full time worker. AN earlier post said they wouldnt rehome a dog they couldnt tire out with a 2hr walk with a full time working home. Youll never tire any dog out from a walk as they naturally get fitter over time but going for a walk activates their senses and once in a routine thats it the walk done with - there is more to a walk than a dog getting tired.

Edited September 27, 2010 by rubiton

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

Good point Gayle K - and further to that (police check) if you supply your home address and answer yes work fulltime to said question how do you know where that information is stored and if it is kept in a secure location? As opposed to in a box somewhere in a shelf or worse tossed into a general bin when no longer required that anyone could access. Yet another home invasion last night not that far away so of course people get more and more cautious about security of personal info.

this is the issue for me. with the information requested it would be very easy for someone to use this to break into the house or as identity theft.

so the questions to be asked:

how is this data stored?

is there a secure place for all data storage?

what is the rescues data policy, including how they manage non successful application data?

who gets to read the info?

do the people reading the info have a clear police check?

personally, i would never give anyone who couldnt answer the above questions to my satisfaction my data.

Organisations are required by law to protect this information and work within the privacy act. So all you need to do is ask them how their organisation is structured and what is in place to protect your privacy.

Normal businesses do not require their staff to undergo police checks just because they handle customer details.

Common sense tells you not to hand over drivers licence or credit card to anyone without an ABN or other organisational credentials.

ty greytmate i didnt know that. from some of the posts i have read on dol i was concerned that these procedures may not have been followed, it is good to know they are

eta that catheroine.b's posts is exactly what people are talking about. i give up. some rescuers are not realistic and i would not ever rescue in case i got someone with such a narrow mind.

my dog gets 15 hours with me and 9 alone, so what if i work full time. oh and thats the days that i dont work from home

it means i can meet all her needs because money isnt an issue

Edited September 27, 2010 by Jaxx'sBuddy

[k9angel]

I am a little saddened to hear of these stories where people have to jump through hoops or not able to adopt a rescue dog because they work FT.

Prior to having kids I worked fulltime and also had my seven resident husky dogs. I managed fine and they were happy enough. They'd be walked in the morning and the in evening most days. I would come home from lunch and check on them also. So I do not discriminate against those who work fulltime.

In my pre adoption questionnaire I do not ask whether they work or not, as I find that a little intrusive however I will ask how many hours the dog will be left alone each day.

For eg. I am looking for a home for Abbey, a little chihuahua. I honestly do believe she would not cope if left alone for long periods of a day. She loves to have human company and I think would go crazy fretting or go nuts with boredom if left alone for long periods. I have recently refused an application on Abbey because Abbey would of been left alone for 12+ hours of the day. Different dogs fit different situations. This home was not for Abbey, and not just for that reason. I noted when they were here with their own resident dog they shoved him about quiet roughly trying to get him to play with Abbey. The poor dog was scared out of his wits and everytime he'd go to them for reassurance, they'd push him away and tell him to p-ff. I felt sad for him and wondered if they treated him like that here, what the hell do they do to him back home??? I couldn't allow Abbey to go to a home like that. I wouldn't sleep at night with worry.

I have just had a pre adoption questionnaire come back for one of the terrier x pups I have in care atm.

The family sounds ideal and YES both parents work. The pup will be left alone during school hours and even then will have the neighbour and a family member checking in on her daily.

I do believe people are entitled to their privacy and I do believe some rescues take it too far and make it too hard for people to adopt, hence the reason some turn to BYB and petshops.

I have heard of some rescues who have had dogs in care for not weeks or months, but YEARS because NO application is ever good enough. That is sad IMO. So instead the dog spends its life in a kennel waiting and waiting for a home that will most likely never come thanks to the rescuer playing God and being overly fussy. To me, that is not rescue.

I understand the importance of placing the right dog to the right home.

I have had several dogs in care requiring costly veterinary work, I am not about to spend $1000 on a dog (not to mention the time, love and care invested in these animals) and then rehome it to the first home that comes along because they tell me they ARE the right home for the dog. I know the dog better than anyone and after spending that kind of money on vet care, I obviously care enough for the dog to want it to go to the best home possible. After what many of these dogs have gone through in their lives, we cannot afford to get it wrong.

Like old Jasmine. (a husky) She was nearly ten years old when she went in for a routine desexing and ended up being full of infection and tumors. (pyometra)

She'd had a sad and sorry life (her entire life) competing for attention with her son and daughter (who I also rescued) left to fend for themselves in a backyard and fight for their dinner.

A dog who has been through all that deserves so much better, deserves to experience the love and good times life has to offer as opposed to the bad. I had to get it right.

She was adopted to a recently retired couple who had recently lost an old husky girl, just like Jasmine. Now she lives the life of luxury. It was a perfect match for both parties and I could not of asked for a happier ending for the old girl.

Edited September 27, 2010 by k9angel

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Good examples K9Angel. What many people here may not understand is that when you rescue a dog such as you've described, you may have huge vet bills but there's no way you recoup them. I had two in a row last Christmas, $700 and $1000 in vet's bills. Rehomed them for $150 each as they were old dogs. Both had come from horrific backgrounds, I'm not about to let them go to an unsuitable home where history could repeat itself.

On Saturday I drove a long way to do a homecheck, paid tolls, expended petrol, time and effort.

None of this money is reimbursed. You can't claim it on tax (much to people's amazement). This is continual expenditure going in one direction. I'm not a millionaire and most rescuers struggle with finances constantly.

There's not enough volunteers, I wonder why? Most people would not be prepared to do what I do for nothing, no reimbursement etc.

Why do I do it? The only reason I do it (other people may have different ones) is for the benefit of the dogs, and that should be the reason.

Before you denounce everyone that works in rescue, try walking a mile in our shoes, I'm not sure you'd get far.

And it gives me no pleasure at all when I have to turn a home down, only disappointment because my search and efforts must continue and while I focus on one of the dogs I've rescued and house them, other dogs die.

Edited September 27, 2010 by dogmad

[tdierikx]

Like k9ange says, the requirements should be applied to the individual dog's needs... not every dog will require round the clock attention from it's family, not every dog will have high energy needs like walks and stimulation for x hours of the day... reputable/ethical rescuers understand the dogs in their care, and will usually tailor questioning, etc, to the individual dog. Blanket refusals based on certain things like working fulltime are a bit extreme IMO...

I work fulltime, have 2 permanent furkids of my own, and I foster for rescue - my fosters are happy and well adjusted and can fit into a home that doesn't spend 24/7 with them...

T.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

k9angel you are spot on. asking how long the dog will be left alone each day is more reasonable than asking if people work full time.

people who do not work full time are not always at home.

[aussielover]

Great post K9Angel, you really gave us some insight into the word of a foster carer/rescuer.

I think one of the problems with *some* rescue organisations is that you do not deal with a foster carer who knows the dog and can explain to you why they think the dog may not be suitable for you, but instead to a volunteer or secretary who doesn't give any explanation or gives an unsatifactory one- like you work fulltime, it is not our policy to rehome to people who work fulltime etc. When really I am sure people would be more understanding if you told them why a particular dog could not cope with being left for long periods etc.

I understand though that you often do get a lot of weirdos calling up and people probably get sick of dealing with them!

[Jsk]

My mum recently wanted to get a cattle dog, so I convinced her to go to a rescue, we got onto the Australian Working Dog rescue and mum sent a heap of emails off and left 3 messages for the woman, I also sent of 4 emails and left 2 messages.

After a week she gave up, I did try the DOL pages with older dogs but there was nothing suitable in state and with the cost of buying the dog and then paying freight costs we could have brought a pup for that price (mum doesnt want a pup).

She got so frustrated that she found a dog out of the paper ;) .

Even now over a month later neither of us have heard back from the rescue.

[megan_]

Before people bag rescues and post lots of angry faces, they need to realise that most rescues are run by volunteers who use THEIR OWN MONEY to spring dogs from the pound, feed them, desex them etc.

It would be great if they could return calls within 24 hours, but many of them have their own full-time jobs, visit pounds to take photos, take sick dogs to the vet, spend all their spare cash on dogs etc.

A bit of understanding would go a long way. If someone doesn't return your call, call them back.

[k9angel]

My mum recently wanted to get a cattle dog, so I convinced her to go to a rescue, we got onto the Australian Working Dog rescue and mum sent a heap of emails off and left 3 messages for the woman, I also sent of 4 emails and left 2 messages.

After a week she gave up, I did try the DOL pages with older dogs but there was nothing suitable in state and with the cost of buying the dog and then paying freight costs we could have brought a pup for that price (mum doesnt want a pup).

She got so frustrated that she found a dog out of the paper ;) .

Even now over a month later neither of us have heard back from the rescue. ;)

Thats really sad JSK. I can ensure you we do NOT all work that way.

I think (as mentioned in earlier posts by fellow dolers) that yes some people have the skills and experience with dogs but they lack the people skills.

Still, it does not take much to return a call or reply via email. It is just common courtesy.

Even when I send out a pre adoption questionnaire I will advise the potential adopter that it may take 24-48 hours for me to get back to them. I also state that I have the right to refuse any application.

I always let them know my reason(s) why. Sometimes they might be an ideal home for A dog, but just not THIS particular dog. (I will usually refer them onto other rescues when this is the case) I am always polite and try to be as helpful as possible. The last thing I want to do is upset or offend anyone, leave them waiting OR make them decide to turn to a BYB, newspaper or petshop to source their new dog instead.

And yes I do get some very forward people calling up occassionally demanding an address so they can come pick a dog.

I had one on the weekend actually. Sounded like a young girl. She wanted to know whether she could come to the adoption drive at Guildford to select a puppy. Don't ask me where she got that from - the only thing I can assume is she has seen an ad on Petrescue about the adoption drive??? She was very blunt and rude in her questions. I remained calm and polite and requested an email address to send through a questionnaire. I KNEW she would not reply back.

And I was right, she didn't - I didn't hear back from her.

Some people also assume the dog is free. Don't why know as prices are always stated in my ads. ??? I think they assume that because the dog is a rescue dog and would of been pts otherwise that they are freebies. Do they know and understand that the vetwork is NOT free, we have to pay for that, we ARE the ones supplying food and basic care, WE are the ones putting in endless hours, providing all the love and care, we put our heart and soul (and finances) into these dogs to ensure they are right and ready for their forever home when it does come along.

Many of us also get attached to the dogs in care (hard not to) and it is an emotional time when it does come time to say goodbye, we want the best for our dogs, nothing more, nothing less.

We go without weekends and holidays, we don't get to knock off work at 5pm, our job is 24/7.

People do not understand these things. Yes it is our choice- there are so many dogs out there that need us. Without us they have no one (to get them out of pound, if theyre not adopted) Rescue is alot more than just saving a dog from death row. Alot more.

Back to the girl/lady that called on the weekend. Seriously imagine if I had not of sent through a pre adoption questionnaire and just handed her a dog - DISASTER!!!!

The chances are that pup would of grown up, lost it's cuteness and as most pups do, go through the teething, chewing, digging stage - this is where SOME people lose interest and discard the dog, whether it be to a another home or to a pound or worse...this is what we, who rescue try to prevent.

By doing proper checks we can help reduce the risk of this happening.

Edited September 28, 2010 by k9angel

[Snout Girl]

Before people bag rescues and post lots of angry faces, they need to realise that most rescues are run by volunteers who use THEIR OWN MONEY to spring dogs from the pound, feed them, desex them etc.

It would be great if they could return calls within 24 hours, but many of them have their own full-time jobs, visit pounds to take photos, take sick dogs to the vet, spend all their spare cash on dogs etc.

A bit of understanding would go a long way. If someone doesn't return your call, call them back.

Whilst I respect the job rescues do, sometimes they can be their own worst enemy.

I know of a situation where 4 phone messages (over a 2-3 week period) and countless emails were left for a rescue and no response.

person gave up because they didnt want to look like a stalker.

being a full time worker and volunteer myself (not dogs) I understand how time is limited, but believe common courtesy means inquiries should be answered within a week.

[HugUrPup]

People do not understand these things. Yes it is our choice- there are so many dogs out there that need us. Without us they have no one. Rescue is alot more than just saving a dog from death row. Alot more.

See that's where you are wrong.. look at this thread.. people WANT to rescue dogs, but when rescue groups get their hands on them first it makes it hard.

For example, there was a Cavalier in a pound for a week, it would have cost me $150 to get him out. I posted a thread asking for some help getting him to me, and within hours of posting, his ad was pulled from the site. I bet a rescue group saw my thread and jumped on him and I wouldn't be surprised if he is now sold on for more like $300 being a pure bred.

Edited September 28, 2010 by puggerup

[k9angel]

People do not understand these things. Yes it is our choice- there are so many dogs out there that need us. Without us they have no one. Rescue is alot more than just saving a dog from death row. Alot more.

See that's where you are wrong.. look at this thread.. people WANT to rescue dogs, but when rescue groups get their hands on them first it makes it hard.

For example, there was a Cavalier in a pound for a week, it would have cost me $150 to get him out. I posted a thread asking for some help getting him to me, and within hours of posting, his ad was pulled from the site. I bet a rescue group saw my thread and jumped on him and I wouldn't be surprised if he is now sold on for more like $300 being a pure bred.

Sorry I should of clarifed my post. I meant no one to rescue them from the pound. I will go back and edit my post.

[Sheridan]

Sorry I should of clarifed my post. I meant no one to rescue them from the pound. I will go back and edit my post.

It's clear that you don't operate this way but I find odd the sort of semi-suggestion that because a dog would otherwise be dead, an inquirer should just take any old nonsense from a rescue group. If any rescue group operates like this then their dogs won't be adopted anyway.

Edited September 28, 2010 by Sheridan