Two days before the bus run a client at our daycare dropped a bombshell that she needed to rehome her really nice, socially appropriate, off-leashable chocolate lab mix. He was untrustworthy with the children at the home, especially when tired (would start to guard space). He's nipped and she doesn't want it to escalate to more than that, which is what seemed to be happening over the last month and a half. He is excellent with children in public, but he is not safe around them in a home. He needs a home where kids are not going to be indoors with him. Poor guy, he was tossed out once before because three young children took all his parents time so they didn't train him or do anything with him. He probably learnt that in order to get the annoying kids to go away, nipping worked. And now, though I understand for safety reasons more than anything, he is booted again. I've promised, #3 is the final home. No one will let Riley down again!
Regardless, he is a fantastic companion. He is awesome off-leash with great recall. He is house-trained and crate-trained and although he comes to daycare twice a week, he stayed home 7-8 hours by himself the other days of the week. So instead of having him sent to the SPCA, I agreed to take him on. (Mostly because our local SPCA has a really shitty problem of placing dogs in inappropriately screened homes -very frustrating! I will not have him placed with children again.) He will be backed by Vancouver Island Dogs Society, who I've worked with in the past.
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| Handsome Riley. He's a really good looking, nice dog. Highly loyal. Typical lab. |
---After these three gets homes, it will be a little break from fostering for a few weeks.
Luckily Riley might have some interest already and you never know. One of those apps for GG might consider Neela anyway. Gotta hunker down for a few days and just wait things out.
Oh, and Floof is off for his dental check up today. He's a good little dude, though is still a bugger with the house training. I'm not sure he'll ever be a dog that is reliably housebroken. Still very much a puppy, he needs lots of chew toys. Hopefully the fact that he is super cute makes up for the annoying parts.
Will get pictures of Neela shortly.
Emily Out
2 comments:
That is one of the tragic downfalls of the SPCA. They don't do home checks. Anyone can fill out an application that sounds good on paper and walk out with a dog..... and..... I really cringe when people with small children adopt dogs - unless, of course, they are hyper diligent about teaching and insisting their kids treat animals respectfully and do so themselves. The dog all too often can wind up the looser.
The SPCA, at least the Victoria one, doesn't even do a check to make sure your information is correct. Over a year ago I went in and filled out an application with almost all incorrect information. They would have let me adopt a dog :S.
I'm not necessarily against people with kids getting dogs, as some dogs and kid combinations are fantastic. My friend has a three year old, and the two dogs and the three year old have always been fantastic together, of course with good supervision.
I find puppies and kids together are a different story. With Riley I'm sure his issues with kids only came as a result of being pestered, and that's the only way of retaliation that worked to get them to go away.
My best suggestion for people with younger children that really want to get a dog, is to get a rescue dog who has a good track record with kids, who they can meet before bringing home. Overall, I would suggest waiting until kids are school-aged though. But there are exceptions. And of course, people have kids and dogs together all the time. It all comes down to management, time for each kid and dog, and give both kid and dog rules, boundaries and praise around each other. And also opportunities to get away from each other.
Comes down to playing matchmaker a lot, and as an adopter making sure you pick appropriately, and that rescue makes every attempt to place appropriately too.
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