[QUOTE=vacation1;6215189]
To say that most rescue dogs lack training - or that lack of training is why most are unwanted in the first place - is dangerously misleading. Yes, you can easily find a “project” rescue dog, but you can also easily find a rescue dog who just walks in and is the family dog. Many unwanted dogs in shelters and pounds are house-trained and have basic commands. They’re often just “lack of time” or “too high energy” dogs - they were acquired as puppies by people who realized too late that they didn’t have the interest in dealing with a young dog’s energy level. You can’t train an 18-month-old lab mix who gets walked around the block once a day; it’s like teaching French to a toddler on a sugar high. I’ve gotten 3 dogs from shelters, all came very well house-broken and all came with basic manners and at least a rudimentary understanding of commands like “Sit” and “Stay.” Were they obedience champs? No. But they were familiar with the ideas, and just needed refreshing and reinforcement.[/QUOTE]
I’m a dog adoption counselor at a no-kill shelter in my area. Our dogs live in a shelter environment (they are not fostered)…they go out 4 times each day (early morning, late morning, late afternoon, evening). When people ask if they’re housebroken, I’ll be honest…it’s a total crapshoot. I can share that the dog’s kennel is almost always dry, there’s no poo in it, etc. and that’s a good sign that the dog is holding their urine/bowels until they have the opportunity to go out which should transfer into a home situation with a good schedule. However, we have many dogs whose kennels are wet, wet, wet. Housetraining on those dogs…probably not going to be as easy.
None of the dogs in our shelter know basic commands reliably. They are walked twice each week by our volunteers, many of whom do so because they love dogs, not because they know how to properly walk a dog on a leash. Very few walk calmly at the walker’s side without pulling. That said, is it fair to expect that of them? Most will go into a sit with assistance. NONE know stay/wait/leave it/ or down.
Are they all trainable, though? Absolutely they are, but I certainly would not expect that a shelter dog will meet those requirements. A foster dog may come with a better understanding of housetraining, loose leash walking and basic commands because they’re living in a home, not a shelter.
As far as the dogs that come into shelters…it’s quite the menagerie. There are many different reasons people surrender dogs to the shelter (as evidenced by what they write on the surrender forms): pees in the house because he’s 15 years old and I’m sick of cleaning it up, chewed up the sofa, bit my wife/husband/child, climbs the fence and I’m tired of animal control fining me, I didn’t realize he would become 50+ pounds, state law requires that dog have rabies vaccination and I’m not paying a vet for it, the dog is sick and I can’t afford to take care of it, I didn’t realize that having an infant and a dog would require so much effort, realized after getting a puppy that we’re not ready for a dog yet, going into assisted living that won’t allow pets over 15 pounds, barks, marks on my toddler…
Generally, as I’m sure most of you are aware…it’s not necessarily a dog issue but an owner issue when dogs end up in shelters. 90% of the time, any issues, if there were any, could have been prevented.
I asked because I knew of certain typical traits of the breed that might make them unsuitable, but I wanted to check with people who had firsthand experience rather than go by hearsay.
