I was in the office working today when I received a call from someone who had a problem with their dog that they had adopted from a local rescue a few months ago.
Whenever I am told that the dog has come from a rescue organisation my first question is always “Have you contacted the rescue to see if they can offer some support from their behaviourist?”.
When I asked this question today, I was told that the rescue was a very ‘ramshackle’ place and it was extremely unlikely they would have a consultant behaviourist.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this and I know it won’t be the last. I find it deeply disturbing that rescues are still not signing up a behaviourist or trainer to assist with post-adoption support and advice, leaving adopters having to find third-party support, sometimes from very dubious people calling themselves behaviourists or trainers but who have actually only watched a couple of TV shows or read a few books, or who are vets with no behavioural qualifications…
I have the very unusual perspective of being the coordinator of a breed rescue as well as having a professional behaviour consultancy which, amongst other activities, assists with the assessment of rescue dogs from other organisations. I just can’t imagine not being able to provide advice to adopters when they run into trouble after the honeymoon period of a couple of weeks. It’s so important for owners to realise that the rescue is there to help them KEEP their dog, not just offer to take it back and rehome it yet again.
Most small rescues will not be able to afford a good in-house behaviourist but surely it is then in a rescue organisation’s best interests to source an external behaviourist to refer their adopters onto if there are problems rather than just leave the owner (and the rescue dog they have placed) in trouble?
There are many, many qualified, experienced behaviourists and trainers out there who would be more than willing to assist rescue organisations by taking on post-adoption referrals.
Take us up on this, rescues!
Go out and look up some behaviourists, get them in for a chat and see how they work, check out their qualifications and experience, look up if they are a member of a professional organisation and if they are used to working with rescue dogs. Ask if they would be willing to offer a reduced rate to the owners to work with your post-adoptive dogs; I do!
Times are changing and it’s no longer acceptable for rescues to simply do the homecheck and release the dog. Aftercare is so, so important and by simply providing a resource where owners can go to if they are having problems might just reduce the ‘bounce’ rate of returned dogs to rescue…
