In the best of all possible worlds, all dogs would be well-bred, well-loved, and well-adjusted.
Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world. The dogs who reach us have been travelling a very rocky road. So they generally need more than just a babysitter until they are adopted. They need training, sometimes intensive training, to deal with behaviours like:
- Anxiety or fearfulness
- Excessive barking or howling
- Poor leash behaviour
- House training
- Crate training
- Adjustment to human contact
- Resource-guarding/aggression
- Destructiveness
Some of our dogs are more resilient or adaptable than others and adjust to loving, structured homes quickly but others have either never learned appropriate pet behaviour or have developed bad habits that get them the attention or resources they want. These dogs will be on their journey for a few months of work before they will even be ready to meet potential families. We accept that because we really want their next home to be their forever home.
We sometimes refer to these dogs as Travelling the Rocky Road.
How We Do It
First, our core leadership team has extensive experience with troublesome dogs (and regular dogs, of course). They especially love larger dogs who are often more difficult to rehome.
Second, we have a number of very experienced fosters who know how to handle these behaviours.
Third, between our core team and our experienced fosters, we support our foster homes all the way.
Fourth, we take great care in finding the right forever home for our dogs. Generally, the more difficult it has been to rehabilitate a dog, the more likely it is to need a very structured home environment and a really strong leader. If they are given too much freedom, they will become anxious and disruptive, so we place them appropriately.
Please Be Patient
The dogs that need more rehabilitation are worth the wait and worth the investment of time, structure, and money. Their bio or application may not appear straight away whilst we get to know and work with these dogs to help them become the best possible dog that they can be.
Please follow along as they make progress toward their happy tails and happy tales!