I'm not bashing rescues either but nor do I think Milan would have ended up with me via a rescue. I have cats too, Milan likes to chase cats but if told not to she will leave them alone. My cats actually sleep in with the dogs, because they are confident cats who were used to sleeping with the dogs before Milan arrived and will give her a swipe if she bugs them and she will only chase if they run, so they don't run.
If going down the private rehome route you need to trust your instincts, ask loads of in depth questions and listen to the answers and don't be afraid to say I don't think this is the right dog for me.

Ask the right questions, Don't let heart rule head & don't see a problem. A FTGH dog still needs a home.

Spencer was a private rehome although not free. Okay, he's only been with us 3 months but so far it's been about as far from disastrous as it's possible to get. But then I went to see him knowing his breed ticked all the boxes and prepared to walk away if he clearly wasn't suitable. I doubt many (if any!) rescues would have placed an adolescent Labrador in a home with no garden. And most out here certainly wouldn't have placed any dog with a military family.

Rupert was a rescue dog, he came from Dogs Trust. And yet look at how that turned out. It's not just private rehomes that can go horribly wrong. I worked with Rupe but how many people would have just moved him on to another home or returned him to the shelter?

If nobody takes these dogs who are advertised then what happens to them? Surely they're going to end up in rescue or put to sleep or suffering?

Hi, if you want to rehome a rescue cat, how do you feel about a indoor one? Coz there are pedigree rescue's like Ragdoll rescues who generally, well from what I know do, want their cats to go to indoor homes?

Pm'd you but your box is full - re a f a c e b o o k group that helps dobes.

The quote says "this can take months", I think a few months isn't a great deal of time to wait. Hypocrite here who rushed into getting Casper and moved house 2 months early to get him but I did at least have rescue backup there!
I think that a blanket rule has been applied here in the sense that it's better to expect the worst. Yes, many free ad/private home dogs are fantastic things but the ones that aren't can cause major problems. Taking on a dog that you think is fine and discovering it's not housetrained is one thing, but if you take it on and discover it has aggression issues, what then? If you have a child in the house or it is aggressive towards adults, you are in a tough situation - will the owner take it back? If they weren't honest with you in the first place then I doubt it. You're then faced with the choice of trying to get it into a rescue or having it PTS, if you can't deal with those issues yourself. Whereas had you gone to a rescue and adopted an assessed dog, you would have freed up a kennel or foster space anyway, that could potentially take in one of these free ad dogs, but the rescue will have the necessary experience to deal with it. Still one dog in a good home, a free ad dog in a rescue ready to be assessed and rehomed, but no one has bitten off more than they can chew. Taking on a problem dog without the awareness of problems or the skills to tackle it could not only put you at risk, but could worsen the dog's issues - e.g. you might inadvertently put it in a position where it feels the need to bite and ends up being PTS as it has a bite history.
I would be very reluctant to get another free ad dog despite my fairly good experience with Kiki - I would be especially reluctant if I had another dog in the household because it's not just me who would be affected by the fallout.

I'm fine with cats who are indoors cats because they want to be, but I really don't like trying to confine them indoors when they want to go out and try to leave at every opportunity. It means you can’t open windows, and it’s damn hard trying to stop a cat sneaking through your legs as you come in when you have a bag of shopping in one hand and a walking stick in the other.