Half a Decade of Rescue Dogs

Reflecting on 5 years of volunteer work for dog rescues.

When I adopted Mana in 2018 I had no idea I would spend the next 5 years involved with his rescue and others. When I first started looking for a dog, my biggest concern was getting approved when I was living with a cat in a tiny apartment while working full time outside the home, rather than having any strong feelings about working with a rescue or a breeder. And I had no idea that breed labels on rescue dogs were almost always a guess, not the dog’s actual breed makeup. I had looked at Japanese Akita breeders within driving distance, then local Akita rescues, then started broadening my search to anything with even a tiny bit of Akita in it on Petfinder. My main drivers were that I loved the look of Akitas, wanted a dog on the larger side, but preferred to bring home a puppy so I could raise it around my cat.

That’s how I found Mana on Petfinder. He was labeled as a Jindo x Akita mix and was being fostered in a neighboring city. To my naïve eyes him being Akita-colored was proof enough of his background. I scrambled to do research on Jindos, was somehow approved for adoption in my tiny studio, brought him home, and the rest is history.

Once Mana was 6-7 months old I convinced myself that he needed a sibling (even though I was still renting), and started on a mission to find, specifically, a female brindle Jindo or Akita puppy. I almost immediately found a cute female brindle Jindo-mix puppy on Petfinder, and slyly asked the rescue (HARA SF) if they needed a foster specifically for that puppy. They did not. But let me know her littermate, a white female, needed a foster next week.

Unbeknownst to me, this was the start of what seemed like a never ending cycle of me fostering dogs and, ironically enough, never adopting a second dog. 50+ dogs later, Mana is still an only (dog) child and Christian and I have never foster failed.

After that first foster dog, I started volunteering in a greater capacity for HARA SF and also fostered for Mana’s rescue (Love Second Chances), reviewing and interviewing applicants, conducting virtual home checks, giving behavior and training advice (well before I had any training to do so), coordinating intakes from international rescues, and supporting fosters and adopters in any way possible.

Many people get into animal rescue work because they love animals, but no one ever prepares you for how much you need to work with humans when you work in rescues. Having worked in customer-facing jobs for most of my life, talking to people comes naturally to me. But I was not prepared for the compassion fatigue I would feel less than a year into volunteering and fostering. 5 years later, I’ve learned so much about people, dogs, and rescue work as a whole. This is a reflection on the past 5 years as well as current observations (as I now work in a different capacity for the rescues I previously volunteered for).

People Suck

I had to start this out with what every fellow volunteer was probably expecting in this blog. People suck. It’s true! I don’t mean all people all the time, but working in rescue you will realize quickly that people in all aspects of the rescue world do… kinda suck.

First and foremost- you have a large population of people breeding dogs irresponsibly and dumping them in shelters (or just dumping them on the streets, and they end up in shelters and rescues). These people cannot be convinced to spay or neuter their dogs (believe me, we have tried to offer free sterilization and they turn us down) and do not care that their dogs or puppies are in shelters. They give away puppies to family, friends, and strangers to get them off their hands and cannot be bothered to take the dogs back if the owners can’t keep them. They sell or give away intact dogs that go on to have more puppies. I think education and free (or low cost) spay and neuter will fix a lot of problems in the dog community, but some of these people will never be convinced to change their ways or opinions.

Second- sometimes people looking for dogs suck. You can have great intentions wanting to adopt a dog, but that doesn’t mean you get a pass on being an entitled asshole to rescue and shelter volunteers. And I do think this is a major issue in the rescue world. Many, many, humans think that simply having the moral high ground of choosing to adopt a dog gives them some sort of entitlement to any dog they want. So many applicants have sent us nasty emails after being gently denied for adoption of a specific dog, even when we offered an better fit. One applicant even stated there was no way the other applicants could be better than her, and accused me of simply not liking her and my bias influencing the adoption decision (I actually quite liked her as an applicant, but the dog in question simply did better with another family during their meet and greet).

At the start of volunteering I thought applicants had way too many requirements of rescue dogs. Now I think I’ve softened on that regard (I think it is absolutely appropriate to have clear requirements for a dog entering your home), but I do think that many adopters bite off more than they can chew and it ends up being to the detriment of both them and the dog. My highest hope is that all applicants have appropriate expectations for the dog their choose to bring into their home, because often times that is not the case (regardless of how much experience the adopter may have with dogs).

Third- other rescue people suck. Any dog community has drama, and the rescue world is no exception. I’ve seen everything from rescues breeding dogs so they have a ready supply of puppies to adopt out and profit from to simply volunteers lacking transparency about their work and dogs. I do think many issues with rescue volunteers can be resolved with better education about dogs in general (training, behavior, genetics, etc), but as with any community there will always be people who are stuck in their ways and not willing to learn new things or be open minded. Adopters and volunteers should do their research and support rescues and shelters that are transparent and can support their community, but it can be harder than you think to weed out the bad actors when everyone is operating from a “moral high ground” and generally play on emotions.

Sometimes Dogs Also Suck

And unfortunately they don’t mean to! What a click-bait title. Dog’s do not have a moral compass, and every dog is the product of both it’s genetics and environment. From a ethological standpoint every behavior any dog has ever behaved has had some biological function. Can we really fault dogs for being live animals?

What I mean to say is that all dogs struggle in different ways when you work in rescue. No dog is perfect (no matter what a rescue volunteer may tell you), but that’s true of dogs coming from rescues, shelters, and breeders. We have had many dogs that simply needed basic obedience training or housebreaking, but we have also had dogs that would dispatch a human child or any animal given the chance. Some dogs have neurological issues, health problems, and genetic predispositions that make them a risk to their community and cannot be “fixed” via training or medication. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not met a truly dangerous dog or been in the seat of a volunteer that needs to allocate immense resources to house and care for marginal dogs.

The biggest struggle with dogs with behavioral challenges big and small was accurately conveying their needs to applicants, or simply finding applicants to begin with. It should not be shocking to learn that most applicants want a dog that has minimal training and management needs.

Unfortunately you can give every dog a fair chance at rehabilitation and adoption, as long as you have the resources to safely and responsibly do so, but you cannot (and sometimes should not) save every dog. Not just rescues and shelters but people in general need to understand that the best choice for some dogs is to let them go.

What I think would make dogs suck less in general (and I say that with love) is ensuring fosters and adopters have correct information and appropriate expectations for the dog they’re bringing into their home. That way, at least, they’re as prepared as possible for life with this dog.

Education Matters

Education is something needed for not just dog owners, but everyone in the rescue world. I believe strongly that anyone handling dogs should have to take at least some basic classes on dog behavior and handling, but it’s alarming that people doing intake assessments and writing the descriptions for adoptable dogs rarely have any sort of education on dog behavior. And decades of dog ownership do not suffice for training by professionals in the dog industry. According to one survey (not exclusive to shelter volunteers); “Despite respondents' experience with dogs, interpretations of canine body language varied, other than obvious behaviors like bared teeth. Compounding the issue, participants were broadly confident in their ability to interpret canine communication.”

I cannot count how many times I have been shown a video of a dog that is “good with kids” showing clear fearful or shut down behaviors around children. Dogs with reactivity being described as being so dog friendly they can’t control themselves around other dogs. Dogs that have tense body language or a even predatory fixation on cats being described as cat friendly. So many ways that well meaning volunteers and workers misunderstand dogs simply because they have never been given the resources to learn otherwise.

Unfortunately not every rescue or shelter can afford adding a behaviorist to their staff. But at the very least there are resources that are reasonably priced (even free!) for people to learn about dog behavior. Trish McMilan’s courses are affordable and can be done virtually.

I do think adopters who are not able to meet dogs ahead of adopting (which is the case for many international adoptions) should ask for videos of the dog so they can see for themselves what kinds of behaviors the dog is displaying in their current situation. As many videos as possible before the rescue gets annoyed (they really shouldn’t get annoyed that applicants want to know as much as possible about a dog they’re bringing home). Sometimes this will not reflect how a dog will react to or behave in a new or different environment, but it’s useful in spotting yellow and red flags in behavior that could be missed by rescue staff. And if they are unsure about assessing, they can have a trainer or behaviorist review the videos prior to agreeing to adopt the dog.

Breed Labels and How Much Genetics Matter

Breed labels have been a hot topic in the rescue world for a long time. Especially when it comes to how breed labels effect a dog’s chance of being adopted. It’s a complicated subject because, on one hand, dog’s are a product of their genetics and environment so breed does matter. On the other hand, humans are terrible at guessing the breed makeup of a dog based on how it looks. So how much weight should you put in a breed label?

In the absence of a reputable dog DNA test (Embark DNA being the most accurate DTC dog DNA test on the market), and assuming the dog coming into the rescue doesn’t come directly from a breeder or with a pedigree, it’s almost impossible to guess a breed mix based on phenotype with 100% accuracy.

I think there should be a middle ground when it comes to using breed labels. They are useful in a modern world where people search for dogs online using key words (breeds) to narrow down their search. But rescues should be as transparent as possible that any label is a guess, and adopters should choose a dog that meet’s their needs in terms of temperament, training, and physical traits, rather than placing more (or all) the weight of their decision on the dog’s breed.

Many rescues and shelters also have a problematic idea that dogs are more influenced by nurture (environment, history) than by nature (genetics). Both are important, and it’s dangerous to think that you can override genetics with love and TLC or training. Think about the most obvious genetically driven behaviors- Border Collies herding anything they can, a German Shorthair Pointer pointing at a pigeon on the sidewalk, an Anatolian Shepherd patrolling their territory and barking at anyone (or anything) than comes near the fence… Many people cite this study when claiming breed has little to no effect on behavior, but it’s worth reading it in it’s entirety then listening to one of the scientists explain the paper and how you should interpret the results.

Aside from just thinking about breed, something no one really talks about in the rescue world is how genetics effects things like fear, resiliency, sensitivity, resource guarding, separation anxiety, etc. In many cases you can bring home a dog that is environmentally sensitive and spend years working on confidence building, only for your dog to have more trust in you as a handler, but still be fairly sensitive to changes in their environment. Many professionals in the rescue and training world believe things like resource guarding and separation anxiety are behavioral problems that can be fixed with training, when really science now tells us that there is a considerable genetic component to these tendencies.

Now think about all of the Taiwanese and South Korean rescues we see being brought to America that are… fearful, to put it simply. Some were strays or truly feral dogs that were caught and ended up in a rescue. Some were from meat farms or puppy mills, where they and their parents (and maybe even their grandparents) spent most of their lives in a kennel or cage with barely any interactions with humans or exposure to new things. From a behavioral standpoint, it’s unsurprising that these dogs would struggle when plopped into a home in an urban or suburban area. But beyond that, these dogs may be genetically predisposed to be extremely environmentally sensitive, and to have very little need or want to connect with humans.

If the puppy you brought home was birthed by a fearful, sensitive, dam and sire, they’re more likely to also be fearful. A study published in 2012 proved that nervous dogs produced nervous puppies, and the puppies remained nervous no matter how you tried to change the way their were raised. And among responsible breeders, it’s widely accepted that a dam with a less than ideal temperament should be avoided, because her temperament problems will present in some (if not all) of the puppies she produces.

Obviously among the Taiwanese and South Korean rescues I have seen adopted out there have been great, stable, dogs that were a breeze for their adopters to live with. But I would argue that they are not the norm.

On top of this, many of these dogs have primitive temperaments and are more likely to be environmentally sensitive, have a long memory for negative experiences, be aloof (maybe even fearful) toward new people, have very little drive to connect with and work with humans… and so many more hallmarks of a primitive Asian breed temperament. While nothing about this temperament is inherently wrong or bad, it differs greatly from the Western paradigm of what a “good dog” should be or how they should behave.

Couch Wolves has an interesting article on how many of these primitive-type dogs are considered “marginal” and don’t fit into society’s image of a “good dog”.

Edit as of 7/2 - I will probably continue to add to this blog post slowly, but don’t anticipate it will ever have any sort of conclusion. Rescue work is hard and I am continuously processing my emotions and thoughts as I continue to have contact with rescues as a trainer and mediator.