Wednesday 26 January 2011

Rescue Centre After Care

Hi,
We had an email this month from a gentleman  in Scotland who had recently acquired a rescue dog from a prominent Scottish dog rescue centre.

Unfortunately, his experience after collecting the dog, was not as he had hoped. He encountered various problems with his new dog, mainly to do with behaviour and settling in to the new environment.
He contacted the rescue centre for help but he was unable to get any guidance or advice on how to correct the problems.

This was very distressing for the new owner, although in this case, he was eventually able to sort things out for himself.

We have purposely not named the rescue centre because we know that it is a caring and responsible organisation. However, it is important that any rescue centre finding new homes for dogs (or any other animal) should ensure that they have in place a back up and support system, even if it is just an email support or a referral to some other source of help and guidance.

It can be a very worrying experience for someone taking on a new dog, especially a big dog and should things seem to be going wrong. Having a point of contact for help and guidance would be very reassuring for new owners.

Many centres that find new homes for dogs are very stringent in their criteria for "would be owners" and this is good. It is essential, however, that backup and after care are available - after all many dogs end up in care simply because their owner does not know how to cope. It is thus self defeating for a rescue centre to place dogs into a situation where the new owner has problems and no one to turn to for help.
The dog may just end up back at the rescue centre.
If you have any connection with a Dog Rescue Centre anywhere in the country, find out what back up your centre has available for anyone who is providing a new home for your rescue dogs.

Regards,

Dog Care and Training Centre
www.dogtraining-tips.co.uk

.

No comments :