Have any of you used a rescue group to find your dog? We lost our dog Chelsea to cancer this past APril. We have another dog at home,a golden retriever mix. Ive always liked this breed. Ive looked all over the net, at all the local spca's and shelters, and cant find anything like Im looking for. So I decided to try the local Godlen Retriever rescue group/organization. I filled out a very detailed application, and now I wait for them to contact me.
Im not sure if this is the best route to takeIm . Im hoping they will be able to find the right dog to fit our family.
Im always nervous when I try something new, and didnt know if anybody else ever used a rescue group to find their dog and how it worked out.

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 08:37 am:

My sister's dogs came from a rescue in New Orleans, which she was loosely involved with. One of her dogs was so severely abused and malnourished. She has before and after pics, it is amazing what love and care and proper feeding did for this animal!

ShellyG is involved with this, I hope she sees this thread.

By Pamt on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 08:47 am:

We got our basset from a rescue. I'm off to work but I'll post about it tonight.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 11:48 am:

We got a wonderful dog from the Doberman rescue group, and I have met several grayhound owners who got their dogs from the grayhound rescue group. Most good rescue groups will house the dog with a group member for a few weeks to get a sense of personality, will have it checked by a vet, and will be able to tell you whether the dog gets along with children, cats, and any idiosyncracies. If the group you are dealing with has a detailed application form and did not "give" you a dog immediately, sounds like they are being careful. You could always call your vet's office and see if they know this group.

By Shellyg on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 12:06 pm:

Hi Jackie, I run a non profit animal rescue www.noahsbark.org
I can tell you that I am VERY picky who I adopt my dogs to. You can not imagine that horrible places my rescue dogs come from, and what has been done to them. For example we are having to have a dogs leg amputated this morning from abuse.
When I do adopt, the potential adopters have a six page app to fill out. All of our senior volunteers have to approve it, a home check is involved also.
All of our dogs have been to the Vet, have all of their shots, spayed or neutered, and have had some training. NONE of my dogs are boarded, they are all in foster homes. That is a HUGE bonus to me. We can tell you what the dog likes or dislikes.
In whole, the adoption process is a long one. We are concerned first and foremost about the well being of the dog. I only adopt to my immediate area Los Angeles and will always take back an animal for the remainder of its life.
I hope that might answer some questions. Feel free to e-mail me or check out my website for some more info.

By Jackie on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 12:24 pm:

Thanks for everybody replies. The application was detailed. According to their website they will call in 2-3 weeks after getting the application. The required a 10$ application fee. I figured if nothing else, Im donating to their group , then they set up a time to come to the house and interview the family and look around I guess. They dont start making any matches or looking until they meet the family. Then after that, they contact you when they have a dog in mind, and set up a place to meet. They say if you already have a dog, they like the dogs to meet on neutral grounds first.I figured the whole process will take awhile, and Im not in a hurry to get a dog. If it takes months to find the perfect one for us then so be it.Ive just always loved Golden retrievers. The one we have now is a Golden Mix, and is the sweetest dog ever. Also the website said all the dogs are up to date on shots, fixed, and medical problems are taken care of before they are adopted. They even charge 250$, which I thought was alot, but if its a good dog and healthy thats all that counts. Ive just always loved dogs, and never went about it this way to find a new one.

By Jackie on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 12:26 pm:

Oh forget to add, these dogs are all in foster homes. They are with families who evaluate them with different situations, kids, other dogs or cats etc..They seem very thorough to me. Im crossing my fingers it will work for us.

By Andi on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 06:42 pm:

My friend has adopted two Boxers from Boxer rescue and they are such wonderful pets.

We looked into Rottweiler Rescue when we wanted a dog but we ended up finding the perfect Rottie at a local shelter.

Good luck in you search.

By Ginny~moderator on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 06:51 pm:

Yes, $250 sounds like a lot, but think about it - they put the dog in a foster home (where it has to be fed), they have it checked by a vet and make sure it has all its shots, they check the dog's history, they check you out - and they have ongoing expenses taking care of a batch of rescued dogs.

I know the dobie we got from a rescue group was an absolute love - my mother adored her and she adored mom. It was one of the saddest days of my life when, two years after we got her, she was diagnosed with bone cancer in her shoulder and a couple of months later had to be put down. But for the two+ years we had her she gave my mother a lot of joy and single-minded adoration, which was terribly, terribly important because it was during that time that my father died. I have to say, while $250 is more than you'd pay if you adopted through the SPCA or a shelter, you are getting a lot more because you are getting a dog that has been checked out very carefully in every way, which is no small thing when you are bringing a dog into your family.

I hope they get one for you soon. Goldies are great dogs and wonderful with kids. You have to be careful, because they will eat anything, including inedibles, and you can't leave things around that they can get down their throats, but other than that they are super family dogs.

BTW, Andi, Scott got his Sascha (Rottie) from the local shelter also, but in my township the shelter works a bit differently than many - she was there for over 3 months before Scott adopted her, and we were the 6th or 7th family that had applied for her. She is a joy - a totally ungraceful, inelegant, clown of a love of a dog, and extraordinarily gentle and sweet.

By Pamt on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - 07:58 pm:

Back from working and supper is cooking. As I mentioned, we got our basset through Looziana Basset Rescue. I think we paid $250 also. The rate for puppies is even higher. We had to fill out a four page detailed application, they called our vet as a reference, and did a home visit. We saw dogs online that we were interested in based on appearance, age, and personality/behavior descriptions and then emailed the rescue. Once they reviewed our application they would say "no that dog is not a good match because she needs to be in a family without kids" or "if you like this dog, you might also be interested in these dogs." After we narrowed it down to 2-3 by email with the coordinator of the rescue, she gave us the foster family addresses. We then emailed the foster families and were sent additional detailed descriptions of the dog, their history, any "issues," and more pictures. We also emailed questions and concerns back and forth. Finally we narrowed it down to one dog and then I went to meet her an hour away. I stayed for about an hour and got to know her and learned all about her care. She was in a foster home with 6 other bassets who have a whole room of the house just for them!! She was in doggie paradise.

We decided to adopt her. The day of the adoption the whole family had to meet her. We found out that she didn't like my boys wearing hats (association with past abuse) and would bark and nip at them. The foster mom showed us how to help the dog adapt to situations like that that caused fear aggression. She also taught things like how to clean her ears (a big deal with bassets--LOL), clip her nails, etc. Our dog had 3 homes in 6 months and had a lot of food aggression issues when she arrived at foster mom's house. She worked through those food issues and now anyone can take anything from her mouth---even way back in there--with no problems.

The great thing about rescues is that they love the breed so much so they want the match to succeed. They grilled us, we grilled them, so we could make sure that we all felt this dog was a good fit. We had to sign our life away when we got her. We had to promise that she would never be in an unfenced environment offleash EVER (bassets follow their noses and get easily lost), that we would maintain her healthcare and shots, and that if we ever decided we didn't want her or couldn't keep her for ANY reason (changed our mind, allergies, move, etc.) that we had to relinquish her back to the rescue. Also, if they ever had grounds to prove we weren't fulfilling our end of the bargain they could take her back. We also had to have 2 dogtags on her--one with our name and address and another with the rescue's name and address in case she got lost and one tag fell off.

The $250 paid for a healthy, trained (as much as you can train a basset ), spayed, vaccinated PUREBRED dog with a microchip. The microchip is also dually registered to us and the rescue group. I was very impressed with the rescue's passion for bassets and the seriousness with which they make happy matches. If we ever get another dog we will go through a rescue group again. Good luck and keep us posted!

Here's Montana's dogster page. If you click on her "pup pals" those are her foster brothers and sisters.

By Karefl on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - 02:08 pm:

We have A Golden. We didn't get him from rescue, but he was my BIL's dog before we got him. I'm on a Golden forum goldenretrieverlovers.com . Several of the members there have adopted from rescue or foster with rescue groups.