I had a message from a chap saying he was interested in 'Taking a Staffordshire on.' I recognised the code and sure enough he was about three miles away. Although an adult he was still living at home with his mother and brother, who both worked full time but he was currently out of work. They had just lost a Cocker Spaniel and despite always having dogs they had no experience of Staffords.
I went to see him and they had a lovely large dog friendly garden. My concerns in giving them a dog were their lack of experience with Staffords (would they be able to cope with the exuberance, be responsible with other dogs) and the other thing was if circumstances changed. At the moment this young man was at home and could give lots of time to a dog but what would happen if he got a job or moved out?
I thought Boycie would be the one best suited to him. I discussed it with Val and we agreed to give him a chance and maybe let him foster for a while to make sure things were going to work.
We left it that I would take Boycie round the following afternoon, checking he had my number if there was a problem. I showed him the website and also mentioned the transfer fee.
I thought he was cooling off a little towards the end and would not be surprised if he backed out perhaps feeling a Stafford would be too much, in which case I could direct him towards another rescue.
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| The lovely Boycie who has lost out to a puppy yet again.. |
Unbelievable! Yet I don't really know why I was surprised, after all, Stafford puppies are everywhere, given away in Soho Square, ad after ad on Gumtree and other internet sights.Why are they going to pay £150 for an adult dog with issues when they can get a puppy for little more or maybe even less.
So this is what happens. People with no experience take on a cheap easy available pup sometimes it goes wrong quite quickly, after all Stafford pups can be challenging. So when its eight months or so they realise they have a problem and ring the rescue. Or maybe things are not so bad, but then things change, he gets a job, moves out, new relationship. te dog used to having someone there all day is now left. We get a call from Mum,' Its my son's dog, he is no longer here and I am working all the time, its just not fair on the dog.' I hear these words nearly every day. It is a vicious circle and just keeps going round and round.
People say of little Jesse pup, 'O he wont be hard to home.' Certainly nearly everyone who has met him so far has offered to take him off my hands, half of them don't even like dogs let alone Staffordshire Bull Terriers but he needs a home where they have a particular reason for needing a puppy, like Kerry who adopted Rhea for agility, he is certainly not going to someone who is going to hand him back when it gets tricky.
This is the reason we cannot home any dogs, not because people think they are dangerous, that just makes it hard to walk them down the road.
We have to have faith an awful lot of faith!!! All dogs have issues at some stage in their lives, just like humans, we are no different. I dare say that someone at sometime looked at Harold Shipman in his pram when he was a baby and said how cute and lovely he was. Thankfully not everyone grows up to be like him, he would have been PTS had he been a dog!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt takes a special person to see past a dogs issues and willing to work on them, but there are people out there who are and they want a rescue dog not just a puppy, issues, warts and all.