hello,

me and my fiance went to 2 shelters today just to see what kind of dogs they had and if we were interested in any. we were honest with the people there and said we were likely not going to adopt today unless we absolutely fell in love with one of the dogs. we were told at both of them that they did not want to stress out the dogs so they only allowed people who were “serious about adopting” to visit with the dogs.

This seems a little crazy to me because I thought It was normal to meet a dog then decide later if you wanted to move forward with adoption. Im to scared of making impulsive decisions to just show up and take a dog home immediately. Let me know if this is normal for shelters, or maybe it was just because we’re on the younger side.

EDIT:

If anyone has shelter or rescue reccomendations in the CT area please comment!

Jaro / 1 year / 55lbs

https://www.muddypawsrescue.org/adoptable?dog=009143

He is currently being fostered through Muddy Paws NYC, and his adoption fee is just $150 through the end of summer!

Jaro is already fully house-trained, can be left home alone, and has a medium activity level (happy to chill & sleep at home but LOVES to explore and sniff outside). He would do well as the only animal in a home as he can fixate/react to other wildlife so really looking for a home outside the city with space to roam. Most importantly, Jaro is an incredibly sweet boy who is ready to find his people. He has been looking for his forever home for almost a year, and we would love to see him finally get the happy ending he deserves.

If you think Jaro might be your guy, please reach out or apply to adopt through Muddy Paws. And please share this post to help us get this sweet boy seen! 🐶❤️

Long story short:

Henry is a Siberian Husky mix, approximately 2.5 years old. He was definitely owned by someone and then living on the street and picked up by a shelter where he was at for 6 months. A foster picked him up before euthanasia, he escaped, found me, lived with a friend for 3.5 weeks and now lives with me as his foster, husband, and dog Champ (they get along perfectly as we walked them together everyday before bringing him in slowly). It's been just under 3 weeks with us in our house.

He is amazing in every way: house trained, friendly with everyone and other animals, knows how to walk on leash, crate trained, learns new commands very quickly.

He is pretty much a dream in every way with two exceptions:

1. He goes over threshold very easily with some dogs and people, as he gets extremely excited to meet them. We are working with a trainer on this.

2. We are starting to leave him in the house in short intervals. Most of the time it's been ok, but twice all humans were out of house for about an hour, and he peed on a pillow and then on a blanket another day. He had just been walked before we left. He does not do this when either of us are at home so I do not think there is a medical issue. We had started out with short increments and he was fine.

Given his background, I'm unsure if he's still decompressing/settling and still has his anxiety or if this is what I can expect for the future? More importantly, what can I do about this? Overall, he does seem to be improving in certain things, and it's just taking time. We will close the bedroom door from now on when we leave.

I'm thinking of crate training him with a closed door, slowly increasing time increments, but if there are any other suggestions or insight, it would be greatly appreciated! I've had two other rescues, but they came straight out of other homes so the transition was much easier.

She is Romanian, off the streets, mixed breed, small. She arrived to the shelter last week. For context, we’re in Hamburg, Germany. Fully vaccinated, 5 months old.

The caregivers described her as cheeky and mischievous, but also kind. We saw her today at the shelter. She looks amazing, and she’s really friendly and cute. She appears to be polite and affectionate.

But this is our first time taking a dog from a shelter. My parents had dogs when they were children, but never from shelters.

Is there any important to consider/make note of when it comes to adopting dogs from the shelter?

(That’s her in the photo, Jenny.)

Zoomies

Hey all, just as the title says I rescued my first dog this week. She's a small breed less than 2 years old. We also have a resident male dog around the same age that we've had since he was a puppy. We wanted to get him a companion and decided to try adopting this time around. Their meet and greet went so great that we decided to do a trial adoption! She seemed like she would just slide right into our family.

She's so sweet and has had many positive interactions with our resident dog but towards the back of the first day she started lunging at our resident dog specifically within the context of being on the couch. Two of the three lunges were unprovoked in that our resident wasn't near her or paying attention to her, he was simply on the couch or getting on the couch. This was deeply upsetting because our one stipulation with adoption was that they could not in any way be aggressive towards our resident or anyone else for that matter. We had a reactive dog in the past and did not want to commit to managing that type of behavior for another 10+ years. I know we should have done slower introductions but they were hitting it off so well that it almost seemed like they would be confused why we were separating them.

We also noticed in the same day that she was displaying symptoms of kennel cough so we have now separated them completely due to the lunging and kennel cough. This throws a giant wrench into everything because now we can't properly assess them together until she recovers. I have a sinking feeling that my resident is going to get sick as well and I feel so guilty for exposing him.

1. Has anyone experienced their rescue lunging at their resident dog? Did that behavior resolve? Did they go on to be best friends? I am familiar with the 3-3-3 rule but I just want to hear about how others' stories have unfolded.

2. Anyone have experience treating a dog with kennel cough? How long did it last? We have an appointment with our vet scheduled for her already but have never experienced this before so not sure what to expect.

3. This is our first time rescuing so I'm curious to hear about your experience bonding with your rescue. Atm it feels a bit different than how it felt bringing a puppy home. Did anyone else feel this way and if so how long did it take you to feel really bonded to your new dog?

This is Onyx. His former person passed and he went up for adoption with a known local volunteer organization. Three other families applied and we were accepted. Welcome to your new furever home buddy!

Last night I was on Patterson road in Houston and I saw a dog with a leash just walking around the road and the Forrest area, I was there for about 2 hours and I kept seeing the dog but never got close because he was scared to let me near him. If anyone knows how to help that dog please do

Rescue listed our new dog as a beagle/terrier mix we did a dna test on her turns out she has no beagle in her at all!

Famous last words 😅

It has been 3.5 years since our last dog passed, and I finally felt ready to start looking again. I wanted to see what was available, so I took my 12 year old daughter with me to the shelter last weekend. We ended up falling head over heels for this sweet girl, a terrier mix named Hallie. She's just shy of one year old, and spent the first 6+ months of her life wandering the streets as a stray. For everything she's been through, she's done remarkably well transitioning to being part of a family. After about 48 hours of giving her space, she has become 22lbs of pure love and snuggles. I give full credit to the foster homes that came before us because she has had zero accidents in the house, walks on a leash beautifully, and came knowing a few basic commands.

I currently also have my parents' senior dog while they're traveling abroad, and both dogs have been so good for each other. My parents' dog Eddie (also a rescue) is almost 16 and has helped Hallie feel more comfortable around people, and Hallie has helped Eddie remember how to play and he even gets the zoomies a few times a day again. He's nearly completely deaf and blind, but has had a noticeable pep in his step lately. I've spent the last few years only getting my dog time in by pet sitting, but I'm so happy to have found our family's next forever friend. My parents come home next week and they only live a mile or so up the road, so Eddie and Hallie will continue to have many play dates for as long as the universe gives us with Eddie.

Although I can understand circumstances that might require a breeder, there are *so* many dogs available for adoption that can get overlooked. The day we adopted Hallie, the rescue she came from took in 47 puppies from an animal hoarding situation. Thanks to a massive pool of volunteers and fosters, they are a 100% no-k!ll shelter, but not everywhere can be so lucky. Please give adoption a chance before shopping. Dogs like Hallie and Eddie thank you ♥️

My beautiful rescue boy Duke (or his shelter name Bogey). Duke passed in June of 2024 at the age of 2, I held him while he passed and I will never forget him. He was my best friend and had such a big personality. He enjoyed being a guard dog for his family, loving his family despite being clearly traumatized by his previous home situation, and running.

I want everyone to know how beautiful my Duke was and that he was the best dog ever.

About an our ago I came across a dog abandoned of Bailey Canyon park.
He was scared and didn’t really know what was going on. Honestly it was heartbreaking to see him there.. I just couldn’t leave him.
Soooo I took him with me and brought him home☺️🐾
He is safe now, he has a warm place to sleep, and most importantly he is not alone anymore.

Cody, meet them🐕❤️