Is it Really the Dog?


Sometimes I really wonder is the dog a bad dog or is the person a bad dog owner or was it just a bad match? As with any rescue organization or shelter you get returns. Sometimes people change their minds on the idea of having a dog. Sometimes life gets in the way and there is nothing that can be done but to re home the dog... loss of job, illness, child not expected... etc. I do feel sometimes people give up too quickly though. I mean have you truly tried to make it work or do you think it will eliminate some of your stress if the dog was just gone so bye bye doggie? Sometimes I think rescue "hurts" themselves in the fact that we take our dogs back no matter what... well at least I do and most reputable rescues / shelters do. People always have an out. Granted you don't get your money back but still it is no risk to the adopter... if I have a bad day or an issue with the dog I am too lazy to work on fixing I can just call the rescue and eliminate the problem. But there are way too many people out there who will just dump a dog on the side of the road like trash or take it to the kill shelter or God only knows do whatever with the dog. 

Cute dog

By rescues and shelters agreeing to take the dog back is truly the best thing for the dog but at the same time it is making people lazy. Lazy because they don't have to work it out. They don't have to figure out how to find the dog a new home. They just dump back on the rescue. I sometimes wonder if it were harder to return a dog if they would make it work? I guess in a way I have answered this questions a few times with adopters... In my adoption contract it states if you want to return a dog you have to give me 5 days notice and I can only take the dog when I have room so you may have to wait a few days. A number of times I have received the call of "I need to return the dog" after I talk to the people and find out exactly what has been going on and it is totally correctable I say to them well I can't take the dog back until X day and in the mean time you have to do the following. Then when I call them to say Ok X day has arrived , they say "Oh well what you told us is working and the dog is much better and we ware keeping him/her. Can't stand to let him/her go". Oh really! So, honestly you just had a bad day and were stressed out and thought giving up the dog would eliminate that stress. Ok got ya!