# Why so hard to rehome a dog from the RSPCA?



## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

Ok, so I have had two rescue boxers in the last 18 years. One lived for 8 years and the other died in the last month, he was 10 years old. My family and I love boxers and I have been looking for the last two weeks for another rescue boxer. I have seen one that I think would fit in great in my home, on the rspca website, however, when I enquired about it I was told I am not suitable because I have a 9 year old child. Did not matter about my experience with this breed and rescues, did not matter I had a 6 ft secure fence surrounding a large garden, did not matter there would be someone with the dog every day. Did not matter I live in the countryside and would walk it 2 hours + a day. Did not matter my son has been brought up with boxers all his life and we as a family know how to train boxers to be around kids and strangers. It was a straight up no because you have a 9 year old child. There was no mention of the dog ever being aggressive to anyone, in fact the advert said it was a big softie like 99% of boxers are. In fact I have never heard of a boxer biting a child.

I mean there is no wonder so many dogs are still in shelters if this is the criteria that they use. My last two rescues were from small local animal charities and they were fine once they seen my garden and that the dog would be going to a loving home that would give it all it needs.

It makes me wonder if they actually want to rehome these dogs to be honest. Anyway, I will keep looking in different smaller charities as it seems it's pointless trying to rehome a dog from the rspca unless you have no kids and never see kids, don't work and have a massive garden with a 6ft fence around it.

Hopefully I don't have to buy a puppy, but if cannot find a boxer in the smaller animal charities then it might be my only choice.


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

Of course they want to rehome the dogs, but they want the adoptions to have the highest chance of success.

Unfortunately one of the most common reasons for dogs being handed in to rescues is because of children.

You may feel blanket restrictions are unfair, but if they don't rehome because of young children the worst that can happen is some people complain about it on the internet, if they rehome to a family with young children & there's an incident involving the dog there are a lot more serious ramifications.

It's not personal, they need to cover their backs & they don't always have the resources to treat each case as an individual.

ETA: A lot of smaller charities are more flexible with childrens' ages so would be a better option, also try the regional boxer specific rescues.


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## Ian246 (Oct 27, 2018)

Just to put your mind at rest, Boxers do bite - when dogs bite they don't discriminate based on age. This one bit an adult and his two children, apparently.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/pictured-dad-two-children-who-6089512
Either way, not homing with young children is only one of the criteria. As has been said, they need to cover themselves. A lot of the dogs going into rescue - as you might know - are quite anxious, for all kinds of reasons. They're often not well socialised. All dogs are assessed when they go into RSPCA care, but the way they react when they're taken into a new home can be unpredictable. Children don't understand that they perhaps shouldn't approach a dog when it's eating or when it's asleep, or when it's got a toy. So, the results can be 'unwanted' if the dog is guarding, or if it's frightened. That's really why the RSPCA have the rules that they do. It's a slight chance perhaps, but hopefully you can see that they don't want to be held responsible because a former RSPCA dog has bitten a child.
You're clearly not happy about it - you went to the effort of joining the forum to say so, after all - but my advice is the same - find a local rescue home and see if they are a little more flexible. That's all you can do, really.


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## Linda Weasel (Mar 5, 2014)

Have you tried the Boxer breed club rescue, via the Kennel Club?


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## kimthecat (Aug 11, 2009)

It might have been that that particular boxer was not suitable to be rehomed with children.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

As others have said, a rescue, large or small, will only be confident to rehome a dog with younger children if that dog has a history of being absolutely fine with younger children. And by fine I mean not jumping all over them and knocking them flying.

The majority of dogs signed over to rescue do NOT have that history, they may have been signed over the specific reason that they’ve sent toddlers flying like bowling bins, or growled at kids who haven’t understood they should let sleeping dogs lie or shouldn’t bother them when they’re eating. No rescue in good conscience would rehome one of these dogs to another home with small kids.

A rescue’s priority is finding the dogs in their care the perfect home, it’s not their priority to rehome a dog to anyone who applies.


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

bunnygeek said:


> As others have said, a rescue, large or small, will only be confident to rehome a dog with younger children if that dog has a history of being absolutely fine with younger children. And by fine I mean not jumping all over them and knocking them flying.
> 
> The majority of dogs signed over to rescue do NOT have that history, they may have been signed over the specific reason that they've sent toddlers flying like bowling bins, or growled at kids who haven't understood they should let sleeping dogs lie or shouldn't bother them when they're eating. No rescue in good conscience would rehome one of these dogs to another home with small kids.
> 
> A rescue's priority is finding the dogs in their care the perfect home, it's not their priority to rehome a dog to anyone who applies.


Plus they can only go on the history the surrenderer provides, which may or may not be truthful.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

simplysardonic said:


> Of course they want to rehome the dogs, but they want the adoptions to have the highest chance of success.
> 
> Unfortunately one of the most common reasons for dogs being handed in to rescues is because of children.
> 
> ...


My issue was that they never took anything else into account, specifically my experience with this breed (almost 20 years), it was just a straight up no. I mean it would be easy to arrange a 5-10 minute dog walk to see what they are like with you. I did this for the lat two rescue boxers I had and it was fine. The advert never mentioned any aggression just that it was a big dog. I know boxers are big and clumsy I have owned them for almost 20 years, I am 100% sure I could train that boxer to behave around kids and strangers.

I am sure they think that having children is a bigger factor than having experience with the breed when it comes to training and giving the dog a good home. Well i think it's just as likely that someone with no kids and no experience with boxers would have no clue and find it hard to care for a boxer and fullfill its needs. Yet they would have been higher on their list of acceptable owners.

Also I am sure the RSCPA put down dogs in their care when they say they cannot be rehomed (probably because no one meets their over the top criteria). So is that a better answer for the dogs in question? Basically we cannot find this perfect owner so we have to put you down?

Anyway, whatever, I give up searching on the RSPCA, every single dog they have for rehoming regardless of breed says "no children" so there is no point wasting my time looking at them.


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

Unfortunately, there is no way they can guarantee you’re telling the truth about your knowledge and experience.

Personally, I wouldn’t take on a rescue with a 5 year old.

I waited ... partly because dogs aren’t usually allowed in all the places we wanted to go with our son especially on our holidays (sea life centres, play centres etc.), having his young (noisy and active) friends over to our to house play, football at weekends (dogs aren’t allowed on school or sports fields) etc. but also not knowing the history or temperament.

I waited until he was 15 and it worked brilliantly with no hassle tbh.


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

zidangus said:


> My issue was that they never took anything else into account, specifically my experience with this breed (almost 20 years), it was just a straight up no. I mean it would be easy to arrange a 5-10 minute dog walk to see what they are like with you. I did this for the lat two rescue boxers I had and it was fine. The advert never mentioned any aggression just that it was a big dog. I know boxers are big and clumsy I have owned them for almost 20 years, I am 100% sure I could train that boxer to behave around kids and strangers.
> 
> I am sure they think that having children is a bigger factor than having experience with the breed when it comes to training and giving the dog a good home. Well i think it's just as likely that someone with no kids and no experience with boxers would have no clue and find it hard to care for a boxer and fullfill its needs. Yet they would have been higher on their list of acceptable owners.
> 
> ...


There are plenty of other rescues that will rehome to families with children, rather than wasting your time decrying policies you have no control over, accept that they have these measures in place to protect their dogs, move on & find one that does.


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## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

kimthecat said:


> It might have been that that particular boxer was not suitable to be rehomed with children.


That was my thought as well.



Linda Weasel said:


> Have you tried the Boxer breed club rescue, via the Kennel Club?


And this.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

Yep as LurcherLad says, rescues will get hundreds of people who apply claiming they can manage tricky dogs, but every rescue will have had their fingers burnt by people totally over-estimating their experience and having to deal with dogs who've had to be returned to the rescue, potentially in a worse or more confused state than they were the first time they were signed over. 

It may be the case this dog has already been in a home with a child, and it didn't work out. Maybe the dog was too bouncy, or was wary of kids not respecting their boundaries. NO rescue, regardless of how convincing a potential adopter tries to be, is going to put a dog in a situation they know it will not be comfortable in. As I said, the rescue's priority is the dog and the dog's welfare, not the potential adoptee having a dog just because they shout loudest and throwing your toys out the pram won't get you a dog. 

Rescues are vastly oversubscribed right now. A lot less dogs have been signed over in the last year. There are actually empty kennels out there. Dogs that can genuinely live with children could potentially receive hundreds of applications. I've heard of puppies receiving THOUSANDS of applications. I feel for the poor stressed out staff and volunteers who have to wade through these applications to find the right home for the dog. 

Give it until after the summer, when lockdowns have lifted and the reality of having a dog and trying to work normal working hours, or go on foreign holidays, or doing the school run, has hit and these people who've bought lockdown puppies will be signing over many more dogs to rescue.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

Lurcherlad said:


> Unfortunately, there is no way they can guarantee you're telling the truth about your knowledge and experience.
> 
> Personally, I wouldn't take on a rescue with a 5 year old.
> 
> ...


I literally have hundreds of photos and videos spanning 20 years of my family with my dogs. Also my son is 10 years old not 5. Anyway, I can understand wanting to wait, but as I said my last dog was brought up with my son, my son was one year younger than him and they both loved each other. I had zero problems at all.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

simplysardonic said:


> There are plenty of other rescues that will rehome to families with children, rather than wasting your time decrying policies you have no control over, accept that they have these measures in place to protect their dogs, move on & find one that does.


I have accepted it. I'm just stating how daft I think their policy is.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

lorilu said:


> That was my thought as well.
> 
> And this.


They are closed because of lockdown. In my area anyway (the north)


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## lorilu (Sep 6, 2009)

zidangus said:


> They are closed because of lockdown. In my area anyway (the north)


Well then you will have to wait. It sucks, but sometimes it's just the way it is. Can't always have everything the minute you want it.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

You have to be aware that the majority of the dogs taken in by the RSPCA are 'pigs in a poke'.

The only history they have is what they can glean from the circumstances at the time they were taken or what they're told by donors/owners/relatives.

Rehoming to a family with a child carries a risk and not a risk to be taken lightly. Undoubtedly, you're familiar with the Breed, but you're not familiar with this particular dog. You would be prepared to take the risk of bringing him/her into your home, but the RSPCA cannot be casual about such a situation.

They have to err on the side of caution.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

zidangus said:


> I have accepted it. I'm just stating how stupid their policy is.


It's not stupid to want a dog to go to a safe and responsible home. You were probably one of 30 people in the last half an hour to enquire about that dog and had kids. Everyone with kids seems to want a dog right now. It's exhausting for rescues. Utterly exhausting. Especially when they get verbally abused down the phone for it. This happens a LOT.

Most rescues actually DON'T have blanket "no kids" policies. It's mainly done on case by case basis now. Unfortunately many of those "cases" (the dogs) are signed over without the background that would make them kid-safe or signed over because they didn't get on with the kids in the household.


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## Guest (Feb 23, 2021)

zidangus said:


> I literally have hundreds of photos and videos spanning 20 years of my family with my dogs. Also my son is 10 years old not 5. Anyway, I can understand wanting to wait, but as I said my last dog was brought up with my son, my son was one year younger than him and they both loved each other. I had zero problems at all.


I'm not at all attempting to dimish your experience, but bear in mind that you've had two dogs of the same breed, and there is always differences between dogs of the same breed. Just because your boxers were great with kids, that doesn't hold true for every boxer.



zidangus said:


> I know boxers are big and clumsy I have owned them for almost 20 years, I am 100% sure I could train that boxer to behave around kids and strangers.
> ]


That's a big call to make for someone who has owned 2 dogs. But what if the dog just doesn't LIKE kids? Should the rescue be rehoming the dog to you where it may be unhappy/stressed/conflicted/anxious, when they can rehome it to someone who has the same dog experience as you but has no kids? Or does every boxer like kids?


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

McKenzie said:


> That's a big call to make for someone who has owned 2 dogs. But what if the dog just doesn't LIKE kids? Should the rescue be rehoming the dog to you where it may be unhappy/stressed/conflicted/anxious, when they can rehome it to someone who has the same dog experience as you but has no kids? Or does every boxer like kids?


If the Boxer had shown aggression towards kids or to anyone then I am sure they would have stated that in the advert. It did not state that, the advert seemed to state that it was because it was a big dog so it might knock over a child. Again all boxers are like this if they are untrained.

Anyway, it does not matter, I will just know not to look at their website anymore. I still think it's a stupid policy when there is no evidence at all for aggression towards adults or kids from the dog. But whatever, that's their choice to have that policy.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

I would say that it would be very unlikely this dog has had contact with children whilst in RSPCA kennels so yes, at this point, he may not have shown aggression towards children.

I would have reservations though about your young son potentially being the 'guinea pig'.

You may have owned two Boxers previously and experienced no problems, but, that doesn't mean all Boxers, or any dog for that matter, will behave similarly.


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

My female dachshund dislikes small children intensely due to lack of socialisation wth them as a puppy. She's not agressive as such, just scared stiff , but I suspect that if cornered by one she could snap out of sheer stress. If ever rehomed she should defnitely go to a childless home even without any suggeston of a bite history.
It could be that this boxer hasn't been exposed to chldren either or the rescue have no information about child tolerance.


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## EmCHammer (Dec 28, 2009)

I volunteer for a rescue and we have a guide of 10 or over for children.
Most of our dogs are ex strays, or via the dog warden and we receive very little information if any on their past history.
Its just not worth the risk with anyones children sadly. Not saying this is the case for the OP but i've never met a family who have said their kid was not good with dogs, and we only have their word for it. A 20 minute walk is not the same as living with a kid.

Its not just aggression have had dogs returned for jumping up, humping kids, knocking them over, being mouthy/ grabby, kids wont leave dog alone, dog won't leave kids alone, resource guarding, and kid scared of dog / dog scared of kid etc. 

We have been getting approximately 100 enquiries per dog at the moment, more for the cuties and some people are now just desperate for any dog. Others are great homes but there is only one dog.

We currently have just one dog looking for a home, and bigger rescues are in contact with us asking if we have any dogs they can help with. Rescues have restrictions at the moment, and not many dogs. 

When the dogs are in kennels its hard to assess with children in the home environment. Be patient and try a few different rescues maybe those who use a foster home and to be honest any applicant who shouts at us and says our policies are stupid without trying to understand why they are in place goes straight to the bottom of the list.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

EmCHammer said:


> honest any applicant who shouts at us and says our policies are stupid without trying to understand why they are in place goes straight to the bottom of the list.


Fair enough, maybe I was a bit harsh. If you are getting that many calls for every dog then clearly you can be very picky and choose the 'perfect' home. I just hope that rescue places are taken every step to ensure that the dogs are given to forever homes and not just for lockdown, by not giving the dogs to people that have no history of dog ownership and have recently became furloughed, since once people go back to work and kids go back to school there is going to be a lot of these dogs just brought back to these rescue centres.

Anyway, thanks for the reply and the good work you and the rest of the workers at the rescue centres do.


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## zidangus (Feb 20, 2021)

Ok just thought I would update. I have been looking for a rescue dog for around 3 months now and I have come to the conclusion that all rescue places will not give dogs to people with kids under 13. It's not just the RSPCA it has been everyone who I enquired about adopting a dog. That includes the dogs trust, and local charities around where I live. Every single one of them told me that they would not rehome the dog with any children under 13, regardless of the dogs temperament. I ticked all their boxes apart from the fact I had a 9 year old kid. So I give up I will just buy one from gumtree, petsathome, preloved etc etc. My advice to any family that wants to adopt a dog is, don't waste your time you have very little chance of being selected, just buy one or don't get a dog.


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## Rafa (Jun 18, 2012)

Every Breed has dedicated Rescue/Welfare in place.

If you know what Breed you want, then try the dedicated Rescues.

A quick Google search will tell you where to go. Of course, they're not careless about where dogs are placed, but they tend not to be so rigid about children.

I used to co-ordinate the rescue for the Parson Russell Terrier Club and children weren't a 'deal breaker' for me.


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

Why not just wait until the craziness is over and there are more dogs available? And as suggested, try rescue-specific and loca rescues? 3 months isn't that long at all when you're looking for a potentially 5-10 year partnership with a dog.


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## O2.0 (May 23, 2018)

zidangus said:


> Ok just thought I would update. I have been looking for a rescue dog for around 3 months now and I have come to the conclusion that all rescue places will not give dogs to people with kids under 13. It's not just the RSPCA it has been everyone who I enquired about adopting a dog. That includes the dogs trust, and local charities around where I live. Every single one of them told me that they would not rehome the dog with any children under 13, regardless of the dogs temperament. I ticked all their boxes apart from the fact I had a 9 year old kid. So I give up I will just buy one from gumtree, petsathome, preloved etc etc. My advice to any family that wants to adopt a dog is, don't waste your time you have very little chance of being selected, just buy one or don't get a dog.


What a strange dichotomy you paint.
Why does it have to be rescue or BYB? 
Not all breeders are bad, not all rescues are good. Some rescues are glorified puppy flippers, some breeders are glorified puppy mills. 
Regardless of how you source your dog, you should do research and expect to be examined as well. Anyone who cares about where their dogs are going to end up is going to vet the future homes. Anyone who doesn't appear to care is not someone I would want to get a dog from.

If it's a rescue dog you want, I second going through breed specific rescue. 
If you want to go through a breeder, please make sure you do your research, look for health testing, not just checks, ask about previous litters (most breeders should be able to rattle off all previous dogs and where they ended up and how they're doing now). Don't just grab the first dog available.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

zidangus said:


> Ok just thought I would update. I have been looking for a rescue dog for around 3 months now and I have come to the conclusion that all rescue places will not give dogs to people with kids under 13. It's not just the RSPCA it has been everyone who I enquired about adopting a dog. That includes the dogs trust, and local charities around where I live. Every single one of them told me that they would not rehome the dog with any children under 13, regardless of the dogs temperament. I ticked all their boxes apart from the fact I had a 9 year old kid. So I give up I will just buy one from gumtree, petsathome, preloved etc etc. My advice to any family that wants to adopt a dog is, don't waste your time you have very little chance of being selected, just buy one or don't get a dog.


Here's a Dogs Trust dog that's down as being able to live with children over 8 years.
https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/dogs/dog/filters/~~~~~n~~pri/1246794/jim

Everyone with kids is trying to get dogs and I expect that to continue now until the end of summer.

It's not the rescue's fault there's an insane demand for child-friendly dogs. It's not the rescue's fault you're impatient. It's not the rescue's fault they get a lot of dogs with unknown or difficult histories signed over to them who can't live with children for the child and the dog's sake.

If you buy a puppy responsibly from a decent breeder you will be in for a 1-2 year wait. If you buy from a greeder on the freelistings you're at risk of buying a dog with expensive health problems or a temperament not suitable for children. I've seen a lot of young dogs for sale because the "kids are scared" or they've been too wild and excitable around children.


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## Ian246 (Oct 27, 2018)

bunnygeek said:


> If you buy a puppy responsibly from a decent breeder you will be in for a 1-2 year wait.


Eh? Why would you have to wait one to two years for a puppy?


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## O2.0 (May 23, 2018)

Ian246 said:


> Eh? Why would you have to wait one to two years for a puppy?


Because most breeders have waiting lists and don't breed every season.

I was going to get a puppy before Penny showed up, I was looking at about 2 years, the breeder did have a litter in November, but it wasn't out of the bitch I was wanting to get a pup from. She won't breed again for another year or so. It takes her and the household a beat to 'recover' from raising a litter


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## SusieRainbow (Jan 21, 2013)

O2.0 said:


> Because most breeders have waiting lists and don't breed every season.
> 
> I was going to get a puppy before Penny showed up, I was looking at about 2 years, the breeder did have a litter in November, but it wasn't out of the bitch I was wanting to get a pup from. She won't breed again for another year or so. It takes her and the household a beat to 'recover' from raising a litter


Lucky for Penny then!


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

SusieRainbow said:


> Why not just wait until the craziness is over and there are more dogs available? And as suggested, try rescue-specific and loca rescues? 3 months isn't that long at all when you're looking for a potentially 5-10 year partnership with a dog.


Indeed. The Lockdown pups and dogs taken on at whim are starting to turn up in rescue (who knew? ).


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## Calvine (Aug 20, 2012)

@zidangus: What area are you based? There are a couple of small rescues near me, I could check, as could other members.


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