Let me say as a preface that I fully support people who have to rehome a dog due to extreme circumstances: the loss of income that makes it impossible to care for the dog, loss of a home, etc. I would never judge someone in those circumstances!
But what about rehoming one of your dogs if they are not getting along? Well, yes, sometimes it’s far kinder to find a dog a new home than to make them live with another dog they despise—or who despises them. It’s dangerous and stressful to live with dogs who want to kill each other, and even if you manage to keep them separated from each other at all times, the fear of accidental interactions wears on everyone in the household.
The trick, though, is finding a new home for one of your dogs. Few people want to take on the burden of owning a dog-aggressive dog—but perhaps your dogs are only aggressive to each other, and never to any other dogs? It seems unlikely, but if this is the case, and you can find a home for either of your combatants, it seems like the right thing to do for all concerned.
However, the situation that is simply unthinkable to me is when someone simply surrenders one of their dogs to a shelter—particularly if they chose to relinquish the dog they’ve owned for a longer period of time.
I was at my local shelter recently and was taken by a large, grey-faced, shaggy older female dog. She sat, stoic, in front of her kennel door, only giving a slight wag of the tail in acknowledgement as I stopped to read her cage card. What was she doing at the shelter? “Fights with younger dog in home,” read the surrender notes. Did the owners understand that she was likely going to be euthanized at the shelter, because there are just not enough people who will choose to bring home a dog-aggressive older dog? According to the shelter’s front counter staff, yes, the owners understood. But they wanted to give her a “chance” of getting adopted instead of having her euthanized by their veterinarian.
All of this just makes me see red.
I just recently had to rehome one of my dogs for this exact reason. We tried to find somewhere on our own, to no avail. We then started checking rescues, no luck, everywhere was full. We finally decided it was a quality of life issue with him, he was spending most of the day in the kennel because the others had decided over the span of a year, that he wasn’t welcome in the pack. Even though they had all lived together for the past 4 years.
We made an appt to have him euthanized. I tearfully attended works morning meeting and mentioned that I wouldn’t be too productive that day and of course they asked what was going on and I cried and told them.
I work fully remote, and my co-workers are in AZ. One of them reached out after the meeting and said she was contacting a friend she has up here in WA. (where I am).
Lo and behold! Her friend was willing to foster him till a furever home was found.
This was just a week and a half ago.
I received message from this wonderful lady a couple days ago that they moved to a larger place so he would have more room. They are a happy foster fail family now. She has sent pictures, and though they broke my heart, I can see he is happy and living a much fuller life now!
some times rehoming is the best option.
I love foster fails. Your little man was not the aggressor and this wasn’t his fault. I am so happy he found a loving home.
This makes my blood boil. Dogs are not commodities. They are sentient beings who feel pain, sadness, and feelings of abandonment. They are family. Advanced age is not a reason to rehome. Can you imagine having been given away to another household because you didn’t get along with your younger siblings? How do you think it feels for a dog to have a stable family with members he/she loves and then suddenly his/her whole world is gone and he/she now is in a strange place with strangers, or worse(scheduled to die)? It breaks my heart.,
Ditto everything Ana said. You made a commitment to that animal through all its life changes, not just for when it’s a cute puppy. When you are elderly old and don’t get along with people anymore (and that definitely happens) do you want your kids sticking you in a nursing home so you can become someone else’s problem ? Doubtful. My husband and I have had many dogs and we have made it thru all their life stages, sometimes it was really difficult but that is what we signed up for, and we adopted more dogs knowing what may happen again. This is what they deserve after giving us their unconditional love for so many years.
My idol has s Steve Greig who adopts only Senior dogs. Check him out: Wolgang2242 on social media. He is amazing.
Another pathetic example of humankind, most likely not canine…
Bless the shelter workers and foster families!
I plan to do my part again when my children are a little bit older
People can be cruel and shallow when it comes to pet ownership. One of the worst occasions I recall from my days of involvement both as a board member and volunteer at a local shelter, was when a couple came in with an eight year old pedigree cat. They had purchased this cat as a kitten but they now had a baby. There had been no issues between the cat and the baby but they worried there could be so wanted to surrender the cat. It wasn’t one of my best days but I had a hard time not asking the couple if they had considered surrendering the baby instead!