On the whole i am fairly anti routine Neautering, i dont see the point of putting my dog through a GA and fairly major surgry unless i have to. Most vets wont do any op unless required due to the possible risks but then it comes to this subject they seem very laid back about it all. Why though? its still an Op with GA and the same risks apply as with anything.

With rescues though i can see why they do it and why its needed. I dont disagee with a rescues castrating a well balanced adult dog or spaying a bitch. I do disagree with doing this on a young dog (under 12 months) or on a dog who is perhaps nervous. In these cases i think allowences should be made for the dogs welfare in the long run and a bit of grey area being seen by the rescue involved. This is however a problem with some rescues they only see black and white and are unwilling to bend from their own rules.

Yes I mean Joe Public. And I think it's a shame you guys have to see yourselves as a rehoming service

I think when one thinks of 'rescuing' a dog, you think of rescuing it from being pts (due to no home being found for it) - rather than you just rehoming a dog that people want rid of... in which case wouldn't people just sell/rehome their dog on the free-ads? My neighbour 'rehomed' her dog via the free-ads (gave it away no charge).

I don't think we'll agree on neutering of male dogs, I try to live a holistic and natural lifestyle wherever possible and unless the positives (to health) outweigh the negatives I can't see it as a good idea and would not risk my dog having the op done, not just for health but change to personality too (unless there are other mitigating circumstances - like living in a household with female dogs who can't be neutered themselves).

I do however appreciate why rescues feel they must, just think a better vetting procedure should be taken into account - especially if the only concern is whether the person adopting is/may breed the dog.

I can understand why rescues neuter. When I first got Guinness, someone I know asked if they could use him as a stud dog as their bitch was due in season. Even if he'd been entire, there is no way I would have allowed this, but no doubt some people would be tempted by a stud fee.

Have to say though, if he hadn't been neutered, I'm not sure I'd have had it done. He's a very, very nervous dog and I think him being neutered may well have done more harm than good in this particular case.

It's only occurred to me lately that this is probably one reason why my DA dog is fear aggressive. I was told not to get Louie done until later on due to him being wimpy with other dogs as it could cause him to develop fear aggression, so I've left him and he's as right as rain with any dog (still entire). However when reading back over the thread a few weeks back I realised that the in laws didn't just bring home a 9 month old mutt who they failed to train and re socialise but the RSPCA castrating him at 9 months contributed to the cause of this problem.

Which IMO is another issue - if they allowed the younger dogs more time to grow up and get accustom to other dogs etc then perhaps Benjie might be a little less fear aggressive. In most cases this fear aggression would land them back in the dog kennels. Surely the rescues are seeing patterns if this does happen?

Since they also failed to do anything with him I can't se that you can have ANY idea what caused the dog to be the way he is. Speculating is a waste of time.

With any rescue dog you have to look at the dog you have in front of you and the problems/pleasures it will bring and then deal with it and work with it.

You are allowing them a let out for bad ownership by suggesting that it isn't their fault for not trying to work with it.

rune

Can anyone answer the question I asked Jodee? Obviously it is a problem question!

Everyone is great at jumping on the rescues who are very specific in their requirements for new owners.

No one has yet put forward a way of checking that the new owners will be responsible----or that the new owners might have an entire dog of their own who is used all over the neighbourhood. (that can and has happened---luckily Cornwall is a parochial county and people are likely to know about a lot of things!).

rune

That's because ultimately you can't! You can do all the checks, vet reference, personal reference, homecheck but ultimately someone could lie through their teeth and be lovely to your face to get what they want.

There are no guarantees, so as a rescue we have to cover the options. Or that's my take on it anyway. I have had people tell me stuff been totally believable and when I have done a bit more research turns out they have completely lied, in one instance I didn't find out til too late, and the dog was already with them, I did however manage to get dig back and she is now in a wonderful home.

People seem to think that there are all these amazing homes out there for all these dogs sadly that's not the case. You get a 5 star home once every few months, the rest are ones where compromises have to be made.

I should've said - "could've contributed" - thank you for correcting me.

And they don't have a clue about this idea of mine, I don't excuse them for their bad ownership, FiL thinks training ruins a dogs spirit, MiL is too nervous to give it a go - or let me give it a go.. and I can't possibly get anywhere when they won't be consistent with him at all.. I've tried to get them to work on it and show them ways of helping, I've even asked if they can join in at the class I take Louie too, but they won't.. I've just about given up tbh.. and as he lives with them the majority of the time - I can't really help.

But I waffle, I should've said "Could"..

I know where to look to check up on people-for example a couple approached a friend for one of her puppies-they owned their own home, had an estate in Norfolk & belonged to several shoots-something did not ring true to my friend so she contacted me. Turned out they live in a Housing Association property where only two dogs are allowed & they have to be applied for to the Landlord. Their estate was non existant & only one of the shoots existed who had never heard of them. How much did it cost me to find out-zilch. I also do the same investigation(& more)for people applying for dogs from the two rescues I'm involved in-it ain't rocket science-just common sense-there is so much free information out there

That is the physical checking----it does take time but people can do it easily.

What you can't check is how honest they are being about anything else---if they will walk it, if they can afford vets bills, if they can afford kennelling if they go away.

It might seem obvious but dogs are returned to rescue before the summer holidays!

No one can know that will happen.

I got very disheartened once just beofre the summer holidays. So I sat down with files and worked out why dogs were returned and when it happened.

Found some interesting things----care to guess why the majority were returned?

rune