How many of us do dog rescue? What breeds? Mixed breeds? Horror stories?

I do Golden Retriever rescue. I've also helped in all breed, or mixed breed rescue and even kitty rescue. I also help by trying to teach people to train their dogs and not add to the pet overpopulation problem.I work with dogs that have been 'damaged' by harsh handling.I rehabilitated a Golden Retriever that had been used as a Guard dog. When I first met him, he threw himself at the chain link fence in the shelter, barking and snarling at me. After a few days of talking to him and chucking him treats, I went into his kennel with him. In a couple of weeks, using Positive Reinforcement and clicker training he came around.Eventually, I fostered him, and he is now a lovely boy with an excellent home.Any dog can be made mean.I can't pick a best answer. Everyone who spends time rescuing deserves all the good things that are possible. It is noble work. Thank you everyone who shared their stories.

My family rescued a Manchester Terrier mix. He is the most perky, playful dog I have ever met! My parents also rescued our first dog, Tippy, and she was the most obidient, kind, loving dog. When my husband and I get our into our new home we will definatly be rescuing a dog!

I do rescue as well, any breed but mostly Dobermans. I have seen some horrific things that I honestly did not believe people could possibly do to these sweet animals. Also, the ignorance is hard to deal with. People will do zero training with their dogs and then surrender them to us telling us how awful the dog is and the dog turns out to be one of the best with just a little training. We had a Dobie in our rescue not too long ago that the owner surrendered after chopping his ears off in an effort to crop them themselves and then surrendered the dog becuase the ears didn't look good. All in all it is rewarding, but I must say I am more homicidal since I started doing this, but I love dogs even more than I used to.I can honestly say that not one dog that has gone through our rescue that had any issues that weren't caused by the owners and weren't totally fixable. So when I hear people say, "don't adopt from a rescue, they are bad dogs" I want to scream!!But anyway, hard job, but good to know we make a difference to at least some of them!!

We didn't start out trying to rescue dogs, but it seemed that dogs that needed rescuing started finding us. It felt so good to help them, yet I was so horrified at the treatment some of these animals had endured. One mixed breed we rescued would just about turn herself inside out to avoid our hands when we went to pet her because she had previously been beaten so severely. After that we couldn't not rescue. These animals have been completly domesticated and rely on humans for their well being. They are like children but without a voice to ask for help. We have since adopted 3 of our own and fostered and placed several more. It is so rewarding to see a happy dog!

I do large breed rehabilitation. Most of the other foster carers can only do small dogs, but i have a large enough property to do large dogs, and i have grown up with large dogs. The worst story i have is actually that of one of the girls i kept. She was a rescue from a puppy mill, she had a prolapsed uterus, a dead litter in utero, was only about 4 years old but we estimated that she had already had 5-6 litters. She was in such a bad condition when we heard of her, i went straight in, took one look at her and decided to help her. I had to pay most of her vet bills up front as we werent sure she would make it, or even if it would be worth the effort, but i knew this beautiful black and tan doberman would be well worth it. It took 3 months to get her well enough to leave the veterinary hospital. She was so traumatised, plus had never really had much human contact, she was almost unmanageable, so wary and skittish. In the first week i was rehabilitating her, she bit me twice, but by week 3, she had begun to realise i only meant good things for her, and while it was a slow process to get her to trust me, she eventually became such a beautiful, confident, and the most loving dog i have ever owned. I have 2 small children, and she is more patient with them than i am. She loves everyone, in fact it is almost becoming a problem with how trusting she is, most people get a little scared by her when i am walking her, she is just so anxious to meet everyone and make friends. She tries too hard and overcompensates for the lack of human affection she had earlier. The other great dog i had the pleasure of rehabilitating, was a regal looking rottweiller cross, that had been severely beaten, he actually ended up as a therapy pet in a nursing home, he was just so quiet and careful about everything he did, all the oldies love him, and he loves the quiet life of loving attention, quiet atmosphere, and the unconditional love goes both ways there.

I am living in mainland China and have been for the past 7 years, the situation here is terrible! loads of people here buy puppies because they are cute but just let them go as they get bigger because they are too big for their appartments. currently we have rescued a boston terrier who has huge fear issues especially when you lift your feet. we also have a huskey who has mange, and two pugs. we have fixed them all and treated them with love. we are currently working with the local vets to raise awareness but sometimes I feel like we are wasting our time. But every once in a while we get a young guy come by and rescue a dog or cat and work really hard to learn! that makes it all worthwhile! at least puppymills are illegal here. keep up the good work!

Hi, God Bless you for the work you do. We (me, my hubby and our son-well he's only 3 doesnt help much !) foster animals for our local rescue group. We live in a TINY town (est. pop. is 1200) and a rural/farming county where animal overpopulation is more of a problem than actual neglect/abuse, although that does exist, unfortunately. All of our animals are either strays we have taken in, have special needs so we didnt want to adopt them out, or adopted from a shelter.Our dogs: Achilles, a neutered male Beagle/Husky mix who is a little over a year old. The first dog we got as a family , we got him before we started fostering. He was adopted from the county shelter.Doc, a neutered male Rottweiler who just turned 3 in February. We got a call in late Feb. about possibly fostering an abandonded Rott. Our county animal shelter will keep Rotts and Pits only one week until an owner comes forward, then they are euthanised regardless of temperment, so it was kinda an emergency situation. His owners had moved and left him with no shelter, food ,water, etc . in the backyard in the middle of a blizzard. A girl that runs a dog grooming business is his neighbor, so she knew the family had moved, she just assumed they took ALL pets with them. She saw Doc the second day they had been gone and her and her mom fed him over the fence. She thought they would come back for him. She took him and put him in a large crate/kennel in her business area she has for dogs that are waiting for their owner to pick them up after a bath. She figured out the next day , that no one was coming and called our rescue group. We were contacted and I called my dog trainer, who has 2 Rotts of her own, to go with me to evaluate him. All dogs are given a temperment test and made sure they can be handled safely before the enter our home, with our son and other pets, we make that our policy that an informal evaluation has to be done. Our trainer concluded he was really sweet ,but shy and lacked confidence. We came back home with him and inroduced him to Achilles with them both on leash, then to our current foster dog, Pogo, who is an Akita/GS mix. They got along ok. After a couple of weeks, we fell in love and decided to keep him. We got him neutered, all his shots, he was heartworm neg. so put him on prevention meds / flea control,etc. got him a crate,etc. Our backyard has a 7ft privacy fence, deck, and 2 car garage the dogs have access to when they are outside and after a couple months, we have gotten to the point that all 3 boys can play outside safely, unsupervised. Doc and Achilles are best friends. Docis currently on week 4 of a 6 week Basic Obedience group class. Achilles took it last year, and our trainers policy is if a dog has taken it once, he/she can take it again for free, so Achilles is taggin along for Doc's morale. My husband and I take turns working each dog. Pogo is our current foster dog. He is a 3yr old neutered male Akita/GS mix. All we know is his time was up at the shelter and we were chosen to be his foster parents. We only foster one dog at a time since we have 2 of our own. Any more wouldnt be fair to the dogs as far as time for attention. Pogo got his name cause he jumps like a pogo stick!Out housecats are:Church-a 3yo male neut. black/brown marbled cat; his sister's name is L2 and she is a tortoise shell gray with patches of peachish pink.Columbus is half Siamese and his mom was black/br. tabby. He is a very light gray with dk. gray stripes and cream color on his cheeks and belly. He has BIG ears like a Siamese and a face shaped like one. He "talks" all the times like Si's do too.Copper-Our baby. We found him in November at approx 6 weeks old. His eyes were matted shut due to bronchitis. I scooped him up and took him to the vet. The original plan was to board him at the vets office , then take him back to my Grandmas (where he had been found; she lives in the country and lots of "barn and field" cats run wild around there) after he was better. He was at the vet s office one day and we went to visit and all the girls were talking about how sweet he was. Well we took him home cause we were like it s gonna be SO cold and he is SO tiny, we'll just foster him. Needless to say, he was one we fell in love with. Plus, the vet said he had some permanent lung damage from being so sick at such a young age, so that was another factor in our decidion to keep him. He has gorgeous dark brown and black fur in a marbled pattern and a white muzzle/chin. Our current fosters are Pogo - dog and our foster cat is Sox. She is a spayed female, dark gray with a white belly, chest and 4 white feet. I found her at a local park. 3 boys age approx 10 had placed her in a plastic bag that had a drawstring on it (like a bag you buy bedding in or an Old Navy shopping bag) and were riding their bikes around here throwing firecrackers at her. I rescued her and she had a broken leg, resp infection, malnourished, and had a grub embedded in her neck. She is 100% recovered today physically, but is still skittish around anyone but us, which I can understand. She is approx a year old. Oh, and we have a Beta fish named Orion! I would love to save all the animals that need help, but we just try to do the best we can and take care of the ones we do get. Our rescue group pulls animals that their time is up at the shelter and that are healthy and friendly. We also do some owner surrenders. We host adopt a thons and our adoption process is fill out an adoption application, we check the county shelter and some shelter and rescue groups in other counties to make sure the person isnt on a "do not adopt" list, then we do a home visit. IF all works out, the pet gets adopted! After adoption, I usually check with the vet to make sure the animal has gotten treatment if needed like if I adopted an animal out and I know its shots are due,etc. Also, sometimes I do a random home visit after adoption to check on the animal. Our rescue group also tries to do education about spay/neuter and we help low income pet owners spay/neuter their pets and we do some trap, spay/neuter, medical attention, release of wild cats. Good ? looking forward to the answers!

I have 2 rescued dogs. And activily participate in the rescues activities as well as fostering dogs until homes can be found for them. We rescue small breed dogs, and I have 2 shih-tzus from the group. Horror stories, there are a million unfortunately. Too many back yard breeders, puppy mills and not enough public awareness that all this is going on. Everyone seems appauled about people hurting other people and we hear and read about that all the time. Yet few people actually believe that animal abuse is more common. Not enough people are aware that that farm down the street, could be a puppy mill..or that pet store you got Fido from really came from a puppy mill! Or even that puppy you got on the internet is from a puppy mill. There are laws against human abuse, but few against animal abuse. You hear and read about a baby being abandoned on a door step, but you don't hear about the animals that are just let lose to roam the streets...or left on the side of a highway. There are headlines about murder and molestation...but small "human interest" stories about 3 chiwawaas born with no front legs. There are federally funded homes for battered and abused women...yet shelters and humane societies are mostly volunteer groups and get little support from any federal, state, or local government. What is wrong with that picture!!?? A while back Oprah did a travel series, which included a trip and visit to the Amish area of Pennsylvania...An area that is noted for having the most puppy mills..yet she chose to show the only seemingly normal family, all smiles, good food and hospitality. And who knows what could have been housed in the barn out back...or what was temporarily relocated because a show was going to be aired. More public awareness needs to happen to get these horiffic situations and breeders shut down. Anyone who reads this, just type in puppy mill on their computer to see the horror stories out there...there are a milion of them.

My husband and I have rescued and fostered 8 dobermans, 1 german shepherd, and 1 American bulldog pup. Horror stories: I don't even know where to begin there. I'd have to say a red male dobe with heartworm. very loving boy, that thrived on human contact. he was cast aside when his family got a smaller breed puppy. he was timid around men, so we'd guessed it was a man that did some ugly punishing.we almost lost him during his h/w treatment, but my dear vet nurtured him back to full health. Rusty is now h/w free and has a family to call his own.Black female dobe: demodex mange.......grrrrrShepherd: her herding instincts went a little haywire. she was driving cows through barbed wire fences. Owner's husband was going to take her to the woods, so she called us to foster and find her a new home.Little white bulldog: born in a hole in the yard. littermates were dieing. Owner's neighbor called and asked if I'd come help. Of 8 pups, only 2 survived. Other 6 pups and mom were dead by the time the pups were 4 wks. We took one pup and my brother took the other one. Both thrived after treated for every worm but heartworm a dog could have. A family drove 5 1/2 hours to adopt her! (yes, we spayed her)

HI i work with all breeds of dogs, when someone reports to me there is a stray at a certain place i try to go get it. Unless of course i just have too many here at the time. I used to take a few cats but cannot do that because of the amount of dogs i keep and also cannot find anyone or anywhere to place cats.The worst story i have at this time is someone set off a mangy mixed breed believed to be a sharpi mix, this dog did not trust anyone, had never had a collar on or anything. I coaxed the dog into a large cage, and cared for him for a week. I would have to make sure my children was inside the house to let him out to potty. I tried to put medicine on the mange but he wouldn't let me, so i had to take him to the vet. He had started trusting me a little in these few days, but i was afraid of what he may do to the kids or another animal. I had to get him into my car to go , i said a prayer and lifted his back end on, into the car, terribly afraid he would bite me in the face. After getting him to the vet i had to ask them to help me get him out. They put the noose around his neck in the back of my station wagon and he started in, if he could have gotten hold of someone he would have torn them up, this guy probably weighted 75 lbs. The lady fought him to the ground and finally after about 10 minutes i said ok let him up, i have to talk to him and get him to go inside. She took the noose off although she didn't want to, but i knew it was scaring him to death. It took me about 15 minutes to talk this dog inside the vets office, making him look at me in the eyes and talking with him. The ending is very sad because although he could have been trained with time and love and patience , i could not do it because of my children. I cryed as i told them to put him down but i knew nothing else to do.

Hi I live in IL & my family is a foster home for a org. called ALMOST HOME FOUNDATION and the take dogs/ puppys out of kill shelters & find then new forever homes.We have been a foster home for almost 2 years and have help save 25-30 dogs and we couldn't be happier. We have alot of mix breeds because that is what is out there. Alot of pepole only want pure breads. but that's not fair to all the loving puppy's of mixs. The family that adopt are dogs could not be happier. We send alot of time with are foster retraining them to live as a family member & not some pet that no one want. Any dog /puppy can learn new tricks!! It just take time, effert & alots of love.I was so excited to see your question. I wanted to start a foster talk group at yahoo messenger .To talk to other that share my love for these pets that need are help. I hope u look it up it's call:FOSTERHOME411.I would love to share more. THANK U FOR ALL THAT U DO!!!!!!!