Rescue dogs - how did you pick yours?

Something I just read made me think about this, and I wondered how other people had made their choices.

Kip
Before we got to the shelter we had no pre-set notions of wanting a particular breed or crossbreed and our criteria was purely for an older, middle sized dog/bitch.

There were so many dogs and the shelter were too busy to spend time making suggestions, so we had to walk round them all and narrow down the potentials. In the end we decided that we would ask all the possibles to 'sit' (from the other side of the kennel bars) and dismiss all those that ignored us.

That brought us down to two - a border collie and a curlyish coated lurcher. The shelter said they didn't have time for us to meet them both and we would have to choose which one we wanted to meet. Both seemed really sweet and I was actually more tempted with the lurcher, being aware that bcs are not normally your 'average' pet dog. But OH was strongly in favour of the bc, so I let him have his way.

I think we both knew within about 1 minute that Kip was for us; I have to hand it to OH, he made the perfect selection.

Hoki
When we decided to get another dog to join Kip, we started looking around. We had the same criteria - middle sized, not too young.

Maybe we had become more picky because we had been spoilt with Kip, but for whatever reason, this time it seemed to take a little longer. We wondered around various shelters but none of the dogs seemed to stand out. We did get as far as taking one for a walk, but it didn't feel right - there was just no connection there. I felt guilty as I'm sure with time, a bond would have developed, but knowing how quickly we connected with Kip, I was reluctant to take the risk.

In the end we met Hoki when we were actually going to see a choc lab (The Choc Lab had had a seizure just a couple of days before and they had decided to keep her at the shelter).

At the time Hoki was just a big white blob - weighing about 35kg and she had been chewing her tail. She looked much more like a sheep than a sheep dog, but there was something about her that appealed to me. We met her and again, immediately felt the connection.

Stumpy - well I was a Dogsey member when we got her, so most of you will know how we chose her already

So, I'd love to hear how other rescue owners made their choices

All I knew was that I didn't want a Greyhound or Greyhound cross, having had a bad experience with a previous dog.
I got a phone call from the rescue centre asking me if I would take a Greyhound/Saluki cross.
I said "no, no Greyhound anything"
I got another call telling me this was a beautiful dog who would suite me exactly.
I said "no"
Then I got another call to say that as she had a bad heart she was becoming very stressed in the kennels and would I just come and see her.

Well, as they say, the rest is history

We have had Mo for two years now and she really is the most gentle loving dog anyone could wish for.

Well we had just got married and we could afford a week long honeymoon, we decided to go for a few days to scotland and spend the rest of the week off work and just hanging round the house. That didn't last long and before we knew it we were at the dogs trust! (i had been iching for a dog after it was decided we wouldn't take Kiska to our new home). We knew we wanted a lurcher as my OH has always had lurchers and there are so many overlooked in rescue.

After looking around we narrowed it down to 3, Lock a dark fawn boy, Jed a young 9 month old white and brindle and Mara (soon to be Cassie) a 3 year old black and white bitch. After meeting all three we really liked Jed and Mara so we then went to talk to the kennel staff. It was decided Jed would not do well being left during the day so that left Mara. I must admit i was draw more towards Jed (sorry Cassie!) but i think thats because Mara was so nervous and didn't want to know. Anyway after meeting her again she had me under her spell as well, i was sure with love and time she would come out of her shell and be happy (she had such sad eyes). A few days later the home check was ok and we picked her up and changed her name to Cassie.

The rest as they say is history . . .

my first one was a rottie called Kash.. I got her from the glasgow cat and dog home...

we looked around the kennels.. and nothing sprang out at us.. we got chatting to one of the staff.. He asked loads of questions...

He took a large dog out and asked me to walk it... for a few mins with him... when we got back.. he said.. I have one dog thats at the back of the kennels.. {at that point in time rotties were often PTS.. they never made the public viewing.. these kennels were for dogs that had not been in for seven days.. boarding dogs.. and dogs not open to the public....
Needless to say... we collected kash..that weekend..

the bullmastiff's came directly from BM rescue.. I didnt see them first, they just came as difficult cases...

We went to see some working springer pups and in a shed (not even a proper kennel) was Dillan all on his lonesome - we overlooked all the pups and came home with him instead.

Not rescues but 2 private rehomes came after much discussion on line and then I went off to meet them and brought them home. The decision to bring them home had been made prior to seeing them.

When we lost our first jack Spotty, we knew we wanted another. She stole our hearts so completely there was no other breed we wanted.
So we went to Battersea and asked for a jack russell bitch.
We didn't tour the kennels as I thought it would be too distressing. We passed the interview, were told we could have any of Battersea's jacks, we asked the rehomer to computer match us. So she asked what age we'd like - did we want a 1-2 year old? We said no, we thought anyone would take a younger dog - what did they have was older? ( Spotty lived to 18 you see)

So the oldest two they had were both 7 years old.
The defining thing for us was Missy had been in the home nearly 2 years and Mitzi only one month.
We thought 2 years would send any jack stir crazy, so we opted to see her ( despite the lady trying to put us off)
We told the rehomer if we didn't click with Missy we would come back and see Mitzi.
So off we went - and saw darling Missy in kennels.
She was the opposite in looks of our Spotty. Missy was long legged and rough coated. A parson jack. I liked that - it meant we would be able to let her be her own self, and not keep comparing her to Spot. (who was the best girl in the whole world)
She came to me when I called her name, and when I offered her a treat she took it from my fingers, oh so gently - just the way Spotty did.
Paul reckons at that point SHE PICKED US!

In the meeting room Missy let us do al the things she never let other people do, we held her by the collar, she sat on my lap for a fuss, and when Paul put a treat between his lips, (much to the rehab lady's horror) Missy took it from his mouth so gently. Now that was something it took us a few months to teach Spotty. We looked at each other, and we knew. We just knew.

After that the other things like taking her for a walk, seeing how she interacted with other dogs were all formalities to us. We still had to have two more visits to do those things, but in our hearts she was already our girl.

Nippy, I never knew that about Mo. I suppose knowing the ending before reading that first line, I knew what was coming, but it really made me smile .

Razcox, lovely story, thanks. Do you ever wonder about Jed - I do with 'Ugly Dog' (as my OH described the lurcher i liked - just because he looked like he'd had a perm gone wrong - he had clumps of curly hair and clumps of straight hair)

Shona, many rescues still put the 'big dogs' well out of sight and my local rescue centre very rarely puts them on their website because they say unfortunately, 9 out of 10 wanting them are the wrong people. They do manage to find homes for them though, mostly via word of mouth to people they know have the right experience.

I really admire you taking on those cases without even meeting the dogs first - you obviously saved quite a few dogs from a sad ending.

Poor Dillan (well not anymore )...wonder why they had him all by himself..was he a failed worker they just didn't know what to do with?

Do you think anything would have changed your mind, once you got there - e.g. if you found out that the owners hadn't been entirely honest about something?

I must admit, I know Missy's story well now, but it still brings a lump to my throat. I'm sure Paul was right - she picked you as much as you picked her

Well he was on the website for a few months afterwards (which made me feel RESALLY guilty!) but i checked everyweek on a thursday when the site gets updated. I was so happy when he left the site!

Another dog we met but decided against (a young GSD X pup) called Alfie we saw again nearly a year later at the Roden dogs trust show. Wow he had grown and it was lovely to chat to his owner as he was nearly on the short list.