mikemusic
pfm Member
Similar or worse story ...When we tried to adopt a rescue initially we thought the rescue places would be pretty keen to let us have a dog - both in our early 50's, detached house with a decent garden and a 6ft fence, my wife at home all the time as she'd retired, on the edge of the Pentland Hills with excellent dog walking from the door, no kids at home etc. Unfortunately we hadn't owned a dog before so weren't of interest (and the Dogs Trust were very dismissive, despite having loads of dogs in) although I thought it was mental of them not to at least give us a chance.
We finally got a dog from one of the smaller rehoming places but in future I'd probably look at one of the places that brings dogs into the UK from Romania - although given we've now had our dog for a couple of years I don't think we'd have an issue with the Dogs Trust etc. this time.
Reading of a partially sighted, long stay Staffie at Battersea Dogs home, for 2 years we decided we would take him on.
Big garden, fenced and our other dogs could help him.
Visited Battersea with 3 of our pack to check all ok.
He was boisterous, just coming out of his kennel and was put in his place a couple of times by our JR/Staffie Rosie who coincidentally came from Battersea. She being half his size. Seemed normal dog behaviour and fine to us.
Two 'behaviourists' said she was aggressively attacking him and our pack was also too attached to us, following us around. So we couldn't have him. (what ?!)
We had previously been looked over by Battersea, Old Windsor when we took Rosie. All fine
We read he was there a while longer then was taken. A year later he was back at Battersea. Same behaviorists ?
Lost faith in Battersea after that. The manager at (Old Windsor) Battersea apologised profusely knowing our track record and a friend of a friend
Dogs Trust looked good on the TV programmes I saw.
We now go local
https://dogsinneed.co.uk/category/dogs-for-homing/