Some more brave little dogs who needed help...

[rpcrowe]

Romeo is a Rescue Yorkie (Yorkshire Terrier) who came to us with both rear legs broken and a fractured pelvis.

He is doing just fine after some major orthopedic surgery...


Lovely is a Shih Tsu mix who also needed major ortho surgery but, first she needed surgery because of an infected womb...

She has recovered from both surgeries, including surgery for a shattered rear leg and multiple fractures of the pelvis.

Lovely is using all four legs now and is putting more weight on her surgically repaired leg every

Latte, a poodle mix, has a cataract developing in her left eye. Our veterinary eye specialist says that, unfortunately, her type of cataract is inoperable. However, dogs do very well with vision in one eye. She has been adopted into a loving furever home...

[Shadowman]

Great shots.

[rpcrowe]

Thanks John. Good pictures can be a matter of life and death for some shelter dogs. Most of today's research for rescue dogs is done on the internet rather than the prospective adopters walking through shelters.

I try to get several face shots as well as a couple of full body shots. I usually shoot from 10-30 exposures depending on how cooperative the dog is...

Of course, once the dog gets under our auspices, it is safe from being euthanized. However good pictures get the dogs adopted quicker which makes room for more rescue dogs to come aboard.

[Shadowman]

Thanks John. Good pictures can be a matter of life and death for some shelter dogs. Most of today's research for rescue dogs is done on the internet rather than the prospective adopters walking through shelters.

I try to get several face shots as well as a couple of full body shots. I usually shoot from 10-30 exposures depending on how cooperative the dog is...

Of course, once the dog gets under our auspices, it is safe from being euthanized. However good pictures get the dogs adopted quicker which makes room for more rescue dogs to come aboard.

Richard,

Still it must be a lengthy process matching families with dogs; making sure each are compatible? How often are potential adopting families denied?

[rpcrowe]

Richard,

Still it must be a lengthy process matching families with dogs; making sure each are compatible? How often are potential adopting families denied?

I would say that right off the bat, at least 50% of our applicants are denied for one reason or another. We have the advantage that most of our dogs are quite desirable (at least after we get through caring for them). Things would be different if we were working with pit-bulls. Although many pits and pit-mixes are very nice dogs, they are hard to adopt in our area....

We don't generally adopt to families with very young kids because a large number of our rescue dogs have been given up due to their interaction with kids. I will admit that it is often the fault of the kids and the way that the parents teach the kids to interact with animals.

We don't adopt to persons who say that they will sleep the dog in the garage or laundry room.

We hesitate to adopt to very young people because their lives are not settled and the dogs often lose out when the lifestyle changes.

We don't adopt puppies or very young dogs to very old people. We require that old people have a back-up caretaker who would fill-in if the original adopter is no longer able to care for the animal. Many of our dogs arrive because the owner was no longer able to care for them.

Then, we sometimes refuse adoptions for gut-feelings when we see the interaction between the prospector adopter and the dogs.

We do a home inspection to ensure that the house is safe for the dog - no holes in the fence, etc...

My wife will often tell people who get miffed when we don't approve and adoption that we are advocates for the dogs and not in business to make people happy.

One of our previous adopters mentioned that it was easier to adopt their children from China than to get one of our dogs.

[Shadowman]

I would say that right off the bat, at least 50% of our applicants are denied for one reason or another. We have the advantage that most of our dogs are quite desirable (at least after we get through caring for them). Things would be different if we were working with pit-bulls. Although many pits and pit-mixes are very nice dogs, they are hard to adopt in our area....

We don't generally adopt to families with very young kids because a large number of our rescue dogs have been given up due to their interaction with kids. I will admit that it is often the fault of the kids and the way that the parents teach the kids to interact with animals.

We don't adopt to persons who say that they will sleep the dog in the garage or laundry room.

We hesitate to adopt to very young people because their lives are not settled and the dogs often lose out when the lifestyle changes.

We don't adopt puppies or very young dogs to very old people. We require that old people have a back-up caretaker who would fill-in if the original adopter is no longer able to care for the animal. Many of our dogs arrive because the owner was no longer able to care for them.

Then, we sometimes refuse adoptions for gut-feelings when we see the interaction between the prospector adopter and the dogs.

We do a home inspection to ensure that the house is safe for the dog - no holes in the fence, etc...

My wife will often tell people who get miffed when we don't approve and adoption that we are advocates for the dogs and not in business to make people happy.

One of our previous adopters mentioned that it was easier to adopt their children from China than to get one of our dogs.

I was viewing one of the pet programs recently and one of the pet owners stated that they were not familiar with the breed they adopted. Months into the adoption they noticed behavior changes and decided at that point to do some research on the breed, afterwards the relationship improved for the better. I believe the breed was a herding animal and the dog would exhibit the behavior towards family members; preventing them from moving around the home in certain areas.

[rpcrowe]

Yep... Border Collies are a wonderful and very smart breed. But, they and some other herding dogs have inherent genes which manifests in herding humans - this is especially true with small toddlers.

Along those lines, it is my personal opinion that in many cases involving dogs snapping at kids, it is the kids behavior that initiates the snapping. This happens in two ways, the kid being somewhat fearful of the dog and putting his hand out. Then when the dog attempts to smell or lick the hand, the did withdraws the hand quickly. Especially with a younger and untreined dog, this seems like play and the dog may grab at the hand. This can escalate quickly.

Another scenario is when the kid is chasing the dog when the dog doesn't want to be chased. The kid (and often the parents) do not recognize the dogs body language. The dog is telling the kid, "Back off, leave me alone!"

We do an arbitrary minimum age of 8. However this is not carved in granite and it depends on the kid and the parents as well as the personality of the dog. We have refused adoption to a family with a 12-year old and adopted to a family with a six-year old.

Of course, additionally, some dogs have suffered trauma at the hands of kids and just don't like them.

BTW: I was raised with dogs for before I could walk. Dogs have always been a part of my life. However, I never thought that I would be sharing my home and my life with this many dogs. But, all the effort is worth it...

[kaneohebud]

Noble work, my friend.

[wilgk]

Great images & always a joy to read about what you do, form a fellow dog lover & committed non-puppy family!
Our golden came to us at 13 months, she is now 11 yrs...I am startng to research for when the time comes for another.

[Ziggy]

A tip of the hat to you and what you do.

[rpcrowe]

Great images & always a joy to read about what you do, form a fellow dog lover & committed non-puppy family!
Our golden came to us at 13 months, she is now 11 yrs...I am startng to research for when the time comes for another.

Kay: You might include Goldendoodles (I think they are called Groodles in Oz) in your research. We own one and have fostered a half a dozen or so of these wonderful dogs (both Labradoodles and Goldendoodles). They have the wonderful and loving personality of a Golden retriever yet don't have the shedding inherent with the Golden Retrievers.

Some of them (I am prejudiced and think mine is) are beautiful like Golden Retrievers



Other Goldendoodles and many Labradoodles are not quite beautiful here is an album of over 150,000 Goldendoodle and Labradoodle images...

http://www.doodlekisses.com/photo?xg...ations=&page=2

Another advantage is that, the Doodle is a bit more of a watch/guard than the average purebred golden retriever. People often mistake it for a large terrier...

[NorthernFocus]

More great success stories, Richard, accentuated with excellent photos. The shot of the family dog isn't too shabby either. You're doing excellent work there. On both fronts, rescue and photography.