getting very frustrated looking for a dog to adopt

[xpc]

These guys are about 2-1/2 years apart, Diesel Dog takes care of Hazel Nut like a little brother.

 

[Farmfresh]

What snuggle bunnies . .. and I ain't talkin about the Beaver either!

 

[lorihadams]

We have labs.....fun stuff, never a dull moment.

Tonka, our black english lab, comes from champion show lines. He has a very blocky head and has produced some really good looking pups. Loves to swim, great warning dog, still have to reinforce training with hand signals but loves to bird hunt. He is currently almost nine. Has a chronic yeast infection in his ear

Maggie, our chocolate American lab, comes from champion hunting stock but will howl her everloving head off at the mere mention of a duck or goose call, child's recorder, harmonica, etc. Can't stand it, so she is our couch potato, even though we got her as a hunting dog for my hubby. I have seen her point though. She did a dead on point at a cedar tree and out jumped a rabbit. Didn't teach her that, she just did it one day. Amazing with our kids.....my DD lays on her and "loves" her until she just looks up at me with those brown eyes and says....."please help me".

We just rehomed our yellow lab/golden mix, Charlie to our neighbor that has one of maggie and tonka's puppies Harley. Harley needed an older buddy to calm him down and keep him from getting bored during the day. It has been a wonderful situation and we both couldn't be happier. He loves to jump on the trampoline.....no joking, he gets up there himself.

We also rescued and rehomed a yellow lab, Dixie, years ago before we had children. She was severely malnurished and suffering from burns on her feet, chin, and belly from laying in her own waste. She had been abused/beaten by a man and was very skiddish of my husband. We worked with her for 2 years before we felt she was ready to go to a new home. She currently lives a very happy life with my cousin swimming in a lake and chasing his ATV.

here's a pic of Charlie, Maggie (in the back) and Tonka

edited to add this one of maggie and DD asleep UNDER the coffee table

 

[mekasmom]

I am getting really really really really frustrated.

DH has always lived with dogs, and I would like one too, but he is sort of a procrastinative blob and I wasn't going to push it while the kids were small since *I* will be the one doing virtually all the dog maintenance/cleanup/training. But now I think we are ready to gracefully add a dog to the household.

So I've been scouring Petfinder and local ads for the past, I dunno, 3 weeks or so. We need something medium-sized, preferably lab-mix-lookin', and it HAS to be really nonaggressive and good with kids and cats... which of course is a pretty adoptable type dog so there are not so many out there. Then any candidate I find has to be wrangled about with DH for hours and hours (he likes to take ten minutes or so to respond to a question in a conversation, and doesn't volunteer info or opinions...), and then gets vetoed for reasons like "I would prefer not to get a poodley looking dog".

We HAVE found a couple of real possibilities. Several were already adopted or adoption-pending. Another dog I submitted an application for, got a 'receipt of application' email from, and it has been silence now for a week. And we went to see several others, all at one larger rescue in the area, but the woman running it is a TOTAL RAVING LUNATIC and I just cannot believe anything she says and it is impossible to deal with her. REally really, she is quite the piece of work.

I suppose I should have started this a month or so sooner, and/or be more patient. I *am* ok in principle with DH wanting a medium-large lab-type dog (specifically), since most of the other animals here are by MY choice not his so I guess it is only fair that a dog, which he especially cares about, be squarely to HIS tastes. It's just that he is being so PICKY about it. You can't tell me he wouldn't love a heinz-57 mutt just as much as anything else, after the first few weeks. But no, everything has to match his prejudices about looks and not-a-junky-hillbilly-lookin-dog and all that.

(example: regarding a dog we were seriously considering [but was probably too high energy and untested with cats, and then that woman went totally off the rails and we gave up], a small yellow-lab mix, he was concerned that the dog was paler in color than one would ideally want for a 'proper' yellow lab. nevermind that it WASN'T a show lab, it is just a very lab-type *mix*. We are not pursuing getting a purebred lab, which he seems totally ok with, for a whole suite of practical reasons btw, including money and a smallish house and concern about food and vet bills for that size/type dog. So if we are getting a mixed-breed, who CARES exactly what shade its paint job is. Argh.)

I know, a dog that suits our kid-and-cat-etc needs AND matches his preconceptions will show up EVENTUALLY. Possibly by way of DH eventually realizing that you can't look for imaginary dogs but have to select from what is actually out there (I am totally sure he DOES want a dog, mind you.) It's just that this is sucking back an awful lot of my time and energy and it is just AAAAGRAVATING!!!


Pat

Don't you have all those "free to good home" type ads in your newspaper? Or even craigslist? They are rampant here, and you could find a dog within a day if you weren't specifically wanting a purebred puppy or something like that.

 

[patandchickens]

Don't you have all those "free to good home" type ads in your newspaper? Or even craigslist? They are rampant here, and you could find a dog within a day if you weren't specifically wanting a purebred puppy or something like that.

Hardly any around here. Most of what there are, are pitbulls (there are legal and homeowners-insurance issues involved here in Ontario, unfortunately) or basically-aggressive dogs or little foofy lapdogs (which DH won't allow).

Also, because kid-and-cat-safe is VERY important to us, I'm also kinda leery of going by what someone says when they are desperately trying to unload their dog

I *have* told everyone I meet/know that we are looking for a dog, though -- it sure would be nice if someone we knew were moving to Vancouver and couldn't take their dog with them, or something like that...

On the bright side, DH is being a *little* more a) proactive/responsive and b) mildly flexible. So far all the dogs I have phoned about have already been adopted, sigh, but we have an application in on another one who might possibly be right (if they think *we* are right for him, too )

Thanks for all the support and conversation, y'all (even if I have not been replying much, I do really enjoy seeing and hearing about everyone's dogs ). A particular shout out to savingdogs, thanks for the excellent post and I 100% agree with all of it, fat lot of good it does me at the moment <g>

Repeating to self over and over, eventually we will find a dog, eventually we will find a dog,

Pat

 

[MorelCabin]

Here are a few within a couple hours or so of you I think...keep checking Kijiji, they come up often! Especially right now...i think alot of people want to go on vacation...


http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-...ING-FAMILY-GREAT-COMPANION-W0QQAdIdZ217460907

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-...pug-boxer-mix-cutest-thing-W0QQAdIdZ217441494

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-give-or-donate-5-Year-Old-Shih-Poo-W0QQAdIdZ217413963

http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-give-or-donate-FREE-TO-GOOD-HOME-FARM-W0QQAdIdZ217397130

http://northbay.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-give-or-donate-Beagle-To-Good-Home-W0QQAdIdZ217235293

http://northbay.kijiji.ca/c-pets-to-give-or-donate-Jack-Russell-To-Good-Home-W0QQAdIdZ217236131

 

[patandchickens]

Thanks Morel! But those are all either bitey, or small, or beagles (my experience with beagles is that they are fun and safe but do not reliably stay home, and I cannot deal with having a dog roaming all over all the adjacent concessions, plus which to my husband beagles are also too small)

I do keep looking, I just think that fewer people dispose of dogs thru the classifieds up here than in some parts of the States.


Pat

 

[lorihadams]

here's something that was posted in our local homeschooling newsletter that I thought you would get a kick out of, Pat!

Collapso: Part collie and part Lhasa apso - a dog that folds up for easy transporting

Peekasso: Part Pekingese and part Lhasa apso - an abstract dog

Terribull: Part terrier and part bulldog - a dog that makes awful mistakes

Blabrador: Part bloodhound and part Labrador - a dog that barks incessantly

Moot point: Part malamute and part pointer - owned by...oh, well, it doesn't matter anyway

Commute: Part collie and part malamute - a dog that travels to work with you

Pointsetter: Part pointer and part setter - a traditional Christmas pet


Have you tried the local pet stores like Petsmart and Petco? They usually have someone in there that handles adoptions periodically. Good luck honey!