As a rescuer of abandoned, abused, scared, untrained dogs - it is my job to ensure the safety of that dog in his or her new life. The process for ensuring safety has many components including evaluating prospective adopter through a rigorous application process that has many pieces (application form, reference checks, home inspection, evaluation of the dog's needs/behavior vs what the adopter's are looking for in a family member, etc).
One piece of the puzzle for placing a dog that causes a lot of discussion, conflict and angry emails with prospective adopters is the fenced-in-yard requirement.
Many rescues will require a fenced yard for every adoptable dog in their care. Others - a fence never even comes into the equation (the second category also tends to have many lost dogs and failed adoptions).
I fall somewhere in between. I try to evaluate each dog's personality and then make a decision as to whether it needs a fence for safety purposes or not.
Unfortunately - many of the dogs that come through this particular rescue end up needing a fence to keep them safe. This is not a random decision or standard requirement - it is just that many of our dogs come from living outside on a chain or from neglectful/abusive situations - which leads to a scared/shy dog with a tendency to run and/or a dog that is a skilled escape artist.
It is amazing to me how many people without a fence will inquire about a dog that has a fence requirement listed in its profile information - and then try to talk me into the adoption with statements such as:
"We have 100 acres for the dog to run on and do not live near a road."
To a rescuer that translates into:
"We have a 100 acres for a dog to get lost in - we have no intention of keeping him on leash eventhough he is a stated flight risk - we will never be able to find him before the bears or the hunters do."
Another favorite argument is
"We would never leave our dog outside unattended"
Rescuer hears:
"We will be standing right there when the dog takes off into the road and gets hit by a car."
Adoptive families often think we are being overprotective and unreasonable - but the bottom line is - rescuers spend A LOT of time trying to catch scared, lost dogs that escape when someone accidentally leaves the front door open or decides it would be a good idea to let their new dog off leash to see if he will come when called.
We also see A LOT of applications that include historical stories of family dogs that accidentally got loose, were hit by a car or never seen again.
So these fears and resulting adoption requirements are based on experience not complete insanity.
Just recently I spent 5 days in the woods trying to catch a scared Pekingese. Not a dog from our rescue - but she became ours once caught. Animal Control would not even send an officer out (that is a future blog entry for another day) - and we ended up having to use a live trap to catch the dog (which still took another 3 days - because the dog became more timid the longer she was outside).
Another lost dog incident touched me a few months back when I let a family without a fence adopt a dog that probably needed a fence. The applicants had such a terrific history of caring for rescued dogs and were very persuasive during discussions about recall training, obedience classes. They assured me that the dog would not be off leash until he had his recall 100% down. I believed them and moved forward with the adoption.
Less than 24 hours after the adoption, I received a call from a stranger which said "I have your dog." Yup - already lost - fortunately he still was wearing his rescue ID tag and he was only right down the road from his new home. That will teach me to second guess my instincts...
But in follow up - the adoptive couple proves again that they are as wonderful as they appeared to be in the application process - they consult with a trainer - who tells them that they are going to need to keep their newly adoptive dog on leash for many months before he will be ready to attempt an off-leash adventure. I was so relieved - as I now knew with the expert advice, the off leash adventure would be put on hold until after much training and bonding time.
A week later I receive an email from the adoptive family stating that they had almost lost their new pup AGAIN! They let him off leash in the yard and all of the sudden he took off and became suddenly ignorant of his name. If his new mom had not almost killed herself by doing a flying tackle - he would have been lost again.
I felt like banging my head into a wall - Both myself and the foster mom spent a great deal of time discussing the flight risk probability and proper training and assessment techniques to determine if and when the dog would be able to run off leash. I was up for many nights after that - sleeping with my phone - waiting for a "I have your dog" or "your dog was hit by a car" call.
Again - I went over the need for recall training with the adoptive mom - who then asked "How are we supposed to exercise him if he cannot be off leash?"
That question actually shocked me. I have 6 dogs of my own - none of which are ever off leash outside of a fenced in area - and all receive a ton of exercise. We walk them on leash. We take them hiking, snow shoeing, running and biking - all on leash. Never had a complaint from them or a lost dog - thankfully.
Fortunately - it has been many months since the last incident - and no escapes that I know of. I think the last episode made the family realize finally - that this dog was nowhere near ready to run free. I did offer to take the dog back into rescue if the off-leash requirement was a deal breaker - but fortunately - they are in love with their dog - running gene and all:) I think it is a happy ending.
Anyway - sorry for going on a rambling rampage - but please - if a rescue is requiring a fence for a dog- believe them - they know what they are talking about. They are just looking out for the safety of a dog who has probably been to hell and back - and trying to make sure that his life with his new family is successful and long lasting. If you are really in love with the dog that requires a fence - put up a fence. It is not that big of a project - and can be inexpensively accomplished with some welded wire and stakes.
To see pets that have recently lost their owners in Maine, please visit:
http://maine.craigslist.org/laf/
http://www.petfinder.com/classifieds/searchclassified.cgi?type=L&user_state=user
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