ive just returned from a slighty foolish idea of visiting battersea in Old Windsor, ive fallen in love with a dog there! hes called Cane hes a RotweilerXDoberman cross, he is stunning, much larger than either breed, he kept licking my hand, very soft. hes only 1/2 year old!

but i mean im looking for a new dog, having only had small/meduim breeds, would i find it hard to keep such a dog under control, he is very boisterous.  he cant live with kids.

If anyone loves rotties, dobes, visit him, hes sooo beautiful and deserves a good home!
your fall in love when you see him, he is truly magnificant!

I find I have to stay away from rescue centres as I tend to leave them in floods of tears as I want to take them all home with me - the way they all look at you with sad eyes, trying to tell you "Give me a chance, I need love"!!  God, I'm welling up at the thought!!

Hi i know the feeling about going to dog rescues,i have been visiting Battersea(Windsor)  and R.S.P,C.A. at Chobham for the last month ,Chobham is where we found Lola ,they are so good,  nothing is too much trouble the dogs really do come first in every way ,i am afraid i do not feel the same way about Battersea (Windsor) having visited two to three times a week for the last four weeks i have got to know them quite well ,the interviewrs i met (except one )couldnt have been more help if they had tried ,but after three times finding what we thought was a dog that would fit in with us and us with them ,the fun began , it takes me 40 mins to get to the rescue and when the interview i was waiting for took longer than i expected i had to return the next day it was 3.45 they close at 4.15! (i dont care how long the interview takes as they cover everything )but when i asked if they could reserve the dog for us until the next morning  (a dog the interviewer had told us would be perfect for us ) the answer was no ,so next morning i called to check the dog was still  available ..he was !still they would not hold him for us, 40 mins later we arrive, in my rush i had forgotten the form i had filled the day before ,i had to go through two more interviews ,again,! when after all of this we got to the last interview again ,(with the form ) the interviewer told us the dog was not what she would recomend for my mother in law ,(the same dog we were told was perfect only the day before ,) ,too much red tape and a dog who desperatly wants a home ....stays in rescue ,another guy we met there was turned down for a dog because he had not had a dog in his adult life (only when he was at home with parents !!) he was approx mid thirties married with an eight year old son ,he said he had waited this long to get a dog  as he felt his son was of an age to understand all having a dog entailed !!(they turned him down ????) he later got a beautiful dog from Chobham  ,that the dog should always come first is never in question ,but i thought this was supposed to be a partnership between the rescue home ,the dog and you !i will not be going back to Battersea at Windsor ! Bye Sue & Lola xx

Battersea have changed alot over the years. I know they have to be careful to vet people but some of the reasons they turn people down are a bit trivial. I was talking to a lady the other day who was turned down because when asked where the dog would sleep, she replied anywhere it wants and also because she refused to have her 12 year old dog castrated. Why couldnt they just have had the dog or bitch that they had castrated or spayed and just informed her that the dog should have a bed of its own. My dogs both had their own beds but now sleep on our beds at night so does that make me a bad owner who should be turned down to rehome a dog. Also I think they interview you first and choose the dog that they think would suit you. I would rather make that choice myself.

We got Lily our deaf lurcher pup from Battersea @ old Windsor.  The staff and home checkers couldnt have been more helpful I was so surprised because I have previously experienced rather "know it all" staff from rescue centres and I was really worried about the interview.  They wouldnt reserve her until we had had an interview but they did reserve her after that and pending a home check.  She also had to meet the entire family (those living in the house) before we could take her home.  I really thought the staff there were wonderful, I think one of the reasons we may have had such an easy time was because we had previously owned 3 Afghans all who had lived to a good age therefore they knew that we knew what we were getting ourselves into.  They do have to be careful who they home a dog to, there were lots of people after Lily, mostly because she was a puppy, we have had a lot of trouble with her and I think alot of families would have returned her by now :)

Hi i agree that they have to be careful finding the right home for the dogs ,also as i said the three women we met at the interviews were wonderful ,at one of the interviews i tried to hurry my MIL along a bit as she was telling the story of how Lucky had passed away ,(with full Italian dramatics ( i said that they had a very long queue of people to see &the lady told us not to worry they could wait ! so all the time you needed was given & more !,in fact it was only one woman we found to be diffuclt ,her reason for not giving my MIL the dog rec by the other interviewer,was that the dog was not a good bet for anyone as it had been showing too much interest in the new baby in the house ?? (this dog had first been found as a puppy as a stray in an old car ,stayed in a rescue for 18 months? then adopted by the last owners and they had him for three years ,then the baby came along and the old story the dog was "interested in the baby ?", so it had to go !! also a dog i had seen for myself (before Lola )i was told she had seperation anxiety issues, and must be rehomed with another dog !,she was eventually rehomed three times in homes with other dogs and returned to the rescue three times ,.....because she did not get along with the dogs !! dont get me wrong .they do on the whole a wonderful job ,thank god someone looks out for these animals ,but surely they dont need to make things sometimes almost impossible to adopt ,anyway hopefully i have found my MIL a dog through this forum ,i will let you know , Bye Sue & Lola xx

unfortunately i cant go to rescue centres as i would flood the place with tears, my heart would break to see all those sad faces staring at me, i would never be able to choose.

Hi Sam ,i cry everytime i come away from the rescue homes ,its impossible not to, it breaks your heart ,and i have been visiting them for four weeks now ,thats what made Battersea so hard to cope with , and it does not bear thinking that had i not persevered with the rescue homes i would not have Lola , they do a great job most of the time ,and i can highly recommend Millbrook Rescue in Chobham. Bye Sue & Lola xx

Years ago my mum and I went to Milbrook and enquired about a 7 year old saluki, they said NO straight away because we have rabbits, they wouldnt listen to the fact that we had had Afghans for the past 30 years (my parents that is - im not that old ;) ) My parents have a 150ft garden with fenced off bit at the end where the rabbits are kept so the dog wouldnt have been able to get to them, or even see them.  It is really sad when you know you can provide a good home but the rescue people wont listen   a plus side to millbrook is - I got Herman my male chinchilla from there and although he is a scatty b#gger he has made my female very happy since losing her last mate :)

This is a moan about RSPCA at Leicester. My friend had rehomed 2 dogs from this place and when she lost the old boy decided to go and rehome another one. She found a nice dog, reserved him and was told to wait for her homecheck (she had already had one with the previous dogs she had rescued), well she waited and heard nothing, in the end she phoned to see what was happening and was told that no one was available to do the check, her poor dog spent nearly 3 weeks in kennels when he had a very good home waiting, finally after visiting him once a week they let him go without the homecheck. What rigmoral!!

I visited Battersea (in Battersea!) a couple of years ago because I wanted to re-home a staffy.  I was told on the phone just to come along but when I got there I was then told that I needed everyone in the household with me - would have been much easier if the person on the phone told me that!!!

When I told the interviewer that I wanted to re-home a staffy, she got a bit narky with me and started going on about dog-fighting and vicious staffys!  They did have a few in the rescue at that time (I still went and looked round)  but it just seemed like she was trying to put me off getting one.  I told her that my aunt had a staff from when I was very very young, he lived for 15 years and I often looked after him and walked him etc etc so I had experience of the breed.  We never had a dog when I was younger but does that mean that I wouldn't be able to provide a good safe loving home for one?  Anyway they said that someone would call me to arrange a home-check and that after that was done, I could come back with the other people in the household (just my partner) and then we could pick a dog once they were satisfied that our home was good enough.

Well the home-check never got done because nobody called me.  I was so angry at the time because it was as if they had decided that I wasn't good enough just from the interview - even though I knew that I could provide a loving home with a big garden for playtime and plenty of time for walks!  I did call and chase them up about it and they told me that someone would be in contact soon - still nothing though.

I'd never go back there again.

xxx Ria xxx

It does seem to depend on which staff member you see at the homes. We toured a few before finding Morse, and some were really helpful while some had the attitude that everyone was indulging a whim. I epected to have to prove I had thought out how the dog was to live with us etc but did find some inconsistencies. We were pressured to rehome a lurcher pup who had been returned by a family whos son was so scared of the dogs he had to be hauled out of the waiting room to see them, and lasted a short time before being returned after "biting" the boy - and the girl thought he would manage a household of 4 kids! However we did meet lovely people who do a difficult job for very little money. I expect the staff have their preferences and prejudices about dogs just as the rest of us do and dont know how much training in "customer care" they get.

Hi
I do sympathise with a good potential dog owner being turned down, or made to feel inadequate. I am a homechecker for an animal rescue centre (not Battersea or RSPCA).

To understand some of the attitudes of centres you would have to see to believe some of the applicants for dogs, and you just know that the dog wouldn't last five minutes. Having said that there is so often a lack of individual common sense applied to homevetting. I had a family who applied for a dog and told me they had been refused by another rescue centre because their garden was unfenced and could not be fenced. During the conversation it transpired that they lived in the centre of a 300 acre farm. The lady asked me if I would just come and see the situation (our policy also requires fencing). So I did, and rehomed the dog to them without any additional fencing. So if the original centre had taken the trouble to discover more information and more importantly go and see the situation, perhaps they would have made the same decision.

On the other hand, it is very difficult to determine what a potential owners true intentions are sometimes, and I would be very wary of someone wanting a GSD, having built an outside area. Instantly there is a concern, as so many shepherds (among others) end up shut outside all their lives. Again, it really needs to be a case of someone visiting and interviewing and making a decision based on a 'gut rinstinct'. Believe me, it is not an easy task, and there is nothing more depressing than getting it wrong. So with some bad experiences, centres and vetters will often err on the side of caution, after all they are responsible for the outcome. Homevetters are also generally volunteer workers who receive no financial gain, nor even petrol expenses - so spare a thought for us.
Kat

hI Kat,i know just what you mean we were home checked a couple of times and both of the home checkers were here talking for ages both genuine dog lovers ,,i think sometimes it can be a thankless task ,i was about to become a homechecker myself for the rescue we found Lola ,when they have the next induction course i shall go ,but i dont think in general it's the homecheckers we have had a problem with ,it's the odd "jobs worth " we have come across, in my case just one person in particular ,i have now heard a number of people complain about her ,as i have said earlier the dog is everyones main priority and as you said you go with your gut instinct ,but from bitter experience i was not allowed one particular dog because it had been returned three times allready,well SHE  chose the homes to send that poor dog and it was returned each time for the same reason ! so then she decides not to give it a home at all ,isn't that just a great way to stress the dog out even more keeping it behind bars even longer ,the next time i visited there she was ,still there and this time a note pinned to the board saying she did not like being there so please excuse her behaviour ,(she was pacing backwards and forwards barking like mad ) now that did make me very sad and very angry ,and this dog had spent time with the behaviorist when she first entered the home ,i never expect an easy ride with any dog/pup .especially a rescue ,the way this woman treated us and others was as if she alone were the expert !!! and the bottom line was right or wrong she had the last word ! and we all went home without a dog !!as i said before it was such a shame because the rest of the staff were faultless ,it was a pleasure to be associated with them ,but all it took was one to put me off and vow not to return ,anyway well done to all the homecheckers and dedicated staff who do their best to unite good dogs with good owners ,after all that's what it's all about ,isn't it ?Bye Sue T.xx p.s.i do apologise for getting on my soapbox a bit ,but i feel so strongly about rescue homes ,in most cases this is the dogs last chance ,let it be a fair one .