Dog Rescuers explore expectations, risks and tolerances. Most people looking for their new family member are attracted on looks and familiarity of breed traits. Let’s be honest Rescueremedies dogs have been dumped because they didn’t live up to the demands placed upon them, or families going through changes of circumstance and find they can no longer carry their dog forwards as part of their lives.
We do not go out looking for “easy to home” dogs as most other Rescues do and ignore the dogs with real plights. We are renowned for taking deathrow dogs: Dogs with no more time in council pounds, where other Rescues have been and picked off the easy dogs. We take the dogs from vets who have refused to put to sleep as our emergencies. Very often our dogs have low self-confidence / esteem a factor you don't hear people talk about. They often have deficits in dog skills.
As a Rescue we ask for our dogs to be kept on a lead.
We take dogs in desperate need but specialise in bullbreeds (Staffierescue; Ambulldogrescue) and terriers (Terrierrescue and Patterdaleterrierrescue).
Bullbreeds and Staffies are social beings and will look to run over to people and other dogs. The general public do not want a bull breed running over to them, especially if they have a dog. If a bullbreed is challenged by another dog, few will turn the other cheek. Therefore other dog owners have a point, as they will not be able to totally trust the encounter. We should never inflict our dogs on others. Generally bullbreeds don’t like dogs running over into their personal space, so that is why it is best to be at hand with your dog on a lead to manage encounters and ensure your Staffie’s social etiquette is honoured. People’s views differ but we take this stance as a Rescue.
Terriers have the mind-set of independence. Many are not 100% trustworthy in dog encounters as they can be cantankerous if pushed. We deal with ‘high end’ terriers Fell terriers eg Patterdales, Parson’s Jack Russells who have hunting instincts. IF off lead and they ‘commit’ to some reference point in the distance, they are rarely distractible and will run over roads, down fox holes and to that item of fascination to engage with adrenaline flowing. We all know terriers who have lessened traits but our terriers have been given up because families found they had a “high end” terrier or they were actually found stray and unclaimed.
We had so many incidents where we have homed our dogs into responsible families and later heard of accidents mainly due to being off lead: A Staffie has a control order imposed upon them with “muzzle for life” even though they didn’t start the altercation: Some dogs have been seized. Too many of our terriers are killed after running off, getting out of a front door, running after a fox, or killed a cat.
Accidents do happen but we are looking for responsible families who are astute to risks. We ask for our homing families to step up to plate and give our dogs safety and security for life. WE MAY NOT THEREFORE BE THE RESCUE FOR YOU but we are the RESPONSIBLE RESCUE FOR OUR DOGS.
Our dogs have already lost homes before arriving at our door, and had a close shave with death. Our commitment to them, and ourselves, is their next family will be responsible and offer them safety first: Our dogs need to be under our control in public. Our bullbreed families need gumption to stand firm for their dogs. Our terrier families need to be alert to risk issues and secure their dogs outside; in their car and in the home, to counter their ‘flight’ tendencies. Many of our dogs would have been dead had we not put ourselves out to take them in. We are happy to wait for the right family.
You may not have noticed this before application but if you have stated you want your next Rescue dog to be or ultimately be free running your application will be declined. We will not accept abuse over our Rescue’s policy and if we are not convinced a family is firmly signed up to safety as their key concern, we will close the application down. We wish you well and hope you find a Rescue dog from another source.