# What kind and how much support should a rescue give to an adopter?



## FurociousHotdog (Dec 25, 2020)

Happy New Year everyone. I preemptively apologize if the tone of this post is negative. It has been weighing on my mind lately.

A common complaint I hear from people about rescues is that they don't support the adopter adequately after the dog is adopted, leading to returns. I fully agree with this, and that's why the shelter I volunteer for has informal dog help open to everyone at certain times so that they can get the help they need without having to pay.

So my question is, what other ways does that "support" look like? The main problem at present is that the "support" requires some degree of contact and interaction between the shelter/rescue and adopter after the deal is done (the dog being adopted) in order to get relevant and/or up to date information on issue/s the adopter has. My observations have shown me that even if the latter is not required in the adoption criteria and is fully in the adopter's court to initiate, it's a negative to rescues specifically. But I rarely hear actionable alternatives. The informal dog help thing at my shelter is basically a walk-in type deal during the set hours, and if an owner wants more help, we give them a number to reach out so a knowledgeable volunteer can work with the dog/s on the owner's terms. Even when we did a lot of tweaking to make sure it doesn't come off as too invasive and/or controlling, there was still a lot of negative feedback. There was a lot of "stay in your lane" and "I want a dog, not a relationship" type of complaints.

Our shelter obviously doesn't require people to use our auxiliary services. If anything, we already don't require much from adopters. As a result compared to other shelters/rescues, our return rate is relatively low, but not as low as it can be.

I really hate going there...but it does seem that a lot of even experienced dog people just want to take the dog they want, when they want it, and never have to talk to the person they got it from again. I already have a lot of mixed feelings about the above, and I know that the desire for that isn't inherently bad and comes from a lot of genuine grievances towards how dogdom is structured.

Is the "support" from a reputable breeder all that different? Because from talking to and being acquaintances and friends to all the reputable breeders* in my area, it seems that their "support" is either "give them up to date contact info and forget about it" or "require the owner maintain contact with them in the contract after the dog changes hands otherwise no dog for you from me". Which, at least from where I sit, is not that much different than the types of "support" shelters/rescues can and do give. Is it because of the return clause thing? A lot of shelters/rescues have that too; the dog has to be returned to them specifically**. I know that plenty of people would think poorly of shelters/rescues and even reputable breeders taking measures to enforce the latter though. Heck, two days ago I was catching up with two of my friends (one of whom is a reputable Yorkie breeder in my area), and they got into a debate about primary/secondary contacts on the microchips the pups go home with and whether the owner should be able to change it or not. So that if the pup ends up in a shelter/rescue and gets scanned, who should the shelter/rescue contact.

If I am missing something please tell me.

*I say "all" instead of "most" here because I actually do know all of them in my area. Some on first name basis, most of the others more formal acquaintances. It's mostly a combination of happy coincidences and helping my friends and family who don't want a shelter dog find a reputably bred one.

**I know of reputable breeders who don't have return clauses, just not personally. They have other means to keep the dogs out of shelters/rescues. I asked my reputable breeder friends about this, and it usually comes in the form of requiring the owners to have a rehome plan that's written into the contract or requiring the breeder to lead or be involved in the rehome process. It's not as popular as the return clause for obvious reasons, but they do exist.


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## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

Honestly, this feels like a case of "you can't please everyone". If you had no walk-in program, people would complain you're not doing enough to prevent returns or rehoming. If you had a mandatory program, people would be even more upset about the process being invasive. If you hypothetically had enough money to pay for everyone to hire whichever dog professionals they choose for the lifetime of the dog for any issue without needing to be approved by the shelter, someone would probably STILL be upset because that money could go towards saving more dogs. 

It sucks. People need to realize that shelters have limited resources and also aren't psychically able to predict who needs and/or wants help and proactively reach out to ONLY those families. I'd be delighted to find out that a shelter I was adopting from had a walk-in assistance option, even if I wasn't planning on using it myself for one reason or the other. It is important that such programs are as non-judgemental as possible so that nobody feels shamed for using them, and that they know their limits and when they have to say "I'm sorry, you need to seek more specialized/experienced help", but I know I'm preaching to the choir there. 

I do think some people chose to adopt from a shelter, get a puppy from a classified ad, etc. BECAUSE they don't want to feel like they have to report to anyone. So I'm sure that's where some of the "I don't want a relationship" reactions are coming from - there's probably some concern that they'll be judged and/or harassed for not using the service, even though it's not mandatory. I'm not sure what you can do to assuage these kinds of concerns, other than assuring the people who bring it up that they don't have to participate, and that not doing so won't impact their ability to adopt from your shelter going forward.


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## RonE (Feb 3, 2007)

We have three dogs through the same great rescue organization. All actually came from the same shelter in Texas. 

I am in regular contact with their fosters. They provide all kinds of support and insight. All have told me that if things don't work out for any reason, they would come and retrieve a dog and personally refund my adoption fee. 

That won't happen, but it's reassuring to have a plan in case we became unable to care for them.

The rescue itself offers training but they are 90 miles away, so we have not used it.


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## GSD_and_Mal (Jan 19, 2017)

Rescue vs breeder support.....

A little background about us....we've been off and on fostering for various rescues (from GSDs to mix breeds to labs to Poms to ACDs) for over 10 years. Our younger Malinois is from a very reputable breeder. She is a sport dog (IGP). Her breeder is very successful in IGP and is a professional dog trainer with many years of experience. 

Rescue support from the shepherd rescue we currently foster for/work with......
--They have a private Facebook group for volunteers and alumni. Adopters can ask questions (behavioral issues, health questions, local trainers/facilities/boarding places) in the group and experienced owners will chime in to help.
--Alumni in the Facebook group sometimes organize pack walks for local adopters so they have an opportunity for socialization.
--If the adopter is not able to take care of the adopted dog for any reason, our rescue will take him/her back.
--If an adopted dog is having more complicated behavioral issues, depending on the situation, the rescue will either refer the family to a professional trainer, pay for the initial consultation with a professional trainer (usually if it's a newly adopted dog), or pay for a consultation with a professional trainer to see if the issues stem from a poor match between family/dog.

Breeder support...... 
--They have a private Facebook group for dog owners to talk about anything, most of the time we just share stories/adventures with our dogs, a good number of these dogs are sport dogs. Owners sometimes will also ask about behavioral/health questions.
--Owners are scattered throughout US, some are located in other countries. So very few opportunities for local meet ups.
--Breeder will sometimes bring in other successful IGP trainers from Europe and offer us the opportunity to sign up first, before the seminar is opened to the public. 
--Breeder will take his dogs back at any point in time, if the owner doesn't want the dog anymore/is unable to care for the dog. 
--Our Malinois had some behavioral issues when she was younger, breeder would ask us to send videos and gave us suggestions. He really tries to make himself available as much as possible and always encourages us to contact him if we have any problems.


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