My son has been asking for a dog for many years. We have always put him off as we didn’t think he was responsible enough or wouldn’t treat the dog with care and respect. With his 10th Birthday around the corner we started thinking that it was time.
Just as this thought process was germinating there was a TV special on the Channel 10 Living Room TV Show about Finding Your Pawfect Pooch. The show had a few questions to ask yourself when thinking about getting a dog. We paused the show and wrote down our answers.
To add to this we borrowed a few library books on dog breeds and dog ownership that made us think even more. Whenever we visited someone who owned dogs, we would ask questions to learn even more.
Dog Criteria
So with our research and a discussion as a family we knew we wanted a dog that was:
- Medium size
- Requires around 30 minutes of exercise a day
- Doesn’t bark much
- Friendly and sociable with children, adults and other dogs
- Five years old or less
- Toilet trained (if possible)
- Good health
- Through Adoption
My initial thoughts was that I’d go to the RSPCA of South Australia or the Animal Welfare League (AWL), and pick up the perfect dog for us. Easy. That is what my aunt had done when I was young. But it has changed a lot since then.
The RSPCA and AWL have all of the dogs available on their website so you know what’s available. A google search for dog adoption found many more websites in South Australia whereby not-for-profit animal rescue organisations put dogs into Foster homes, instead of stressful shelters, until they find their “fur-ever” home. Then there are owners who are selling their dogs on Gumtree and the Trading Post due to one reason or another.
This led to regular checks on these websites for suitable dogs:
- Dogs on RSPCA of South Australia
- Dogs on Animal Welfare League
- Dogs in Adelaide on Gumtree
- Dogs in Adelaide on Trading Post
- Dogs located in SA on Pet Rescue
- Dogs on Adopt a Dog (need to enter Postcode)
- Dogs on SAHARA
Dog #1
Our first potential dog that suited our family was on the PetRescue website by a not-for-profit animal rescue organisation. The PetRescue page explained the adoption process for that particular organisation including an application form, yard check, and 2 week trial period. We filled out the application and sent it back and waited. After a few days I sent a follow up email to see how our application was going, to be told that the dog was currently on trial with a family. If that didn’t work out there were a few other families in front of us they were considering. So we ruled that one out, even though my son just wanted to keep waiting.
Dog #2
The second dog was also on PetRescue by another organisation which requested showing interest via email. They sent a response the following day to inform me there were a few people in front of us, and they would be in touch if those fell through. Another one to rule out.
Dog #3
The third dog was one that I saw on the Animal Welfare League (AWL) website. With the AWL the website explained holds couldn’t be made over the phone you had to come and meet the dog first to see if you are a match. While we drove the 20 minutes to the AWL my son checked the website again only to find the dog we were interested marked as “On Trial”. As we were only a few minutes away we decided to see the place so that we were familiar with the setting and ask a few general questions. The staff were very friendly and looked up other potential dogs for us, but there weren’t any suitable for 10 year old kids.
Dog #4
The fourth dog was one at the RSPCA South Australia. An appointment had to be booked due to COVID restrictions. I was able to book the third appointment for the day and thought we’d have no problems getting the dog we wanted as there was quite a few to choose from. We drove an hour to get there only to discover on arrival that the previous appointment had chosen the dog we were interested in. When we asked if there were any other dogs we were told to look at the pinboard of available dogs. Not the best customer service, when compared to the friendly Animal Welfare League. It put us off travelling all that way again.
Dog #5
The fifth dog was another on the PetRescue website by another non-profit rescue organisation. This time it was a greyhound, something that I’d never considered. I did a bit of research and found that they would suit most of our criteria (except for the size factor). This required an application with lots of details about our family, lifestyle, pet history and even photos of our backyard. A summary of my application was emailed back and it did make it clear that they only contact suitable applications. I never heard back from them. Only by looking at the page for the dog did I find out it had been adopted.
Re-assess our Options
Considering a greyhound was then an option. The majority of the dogs I’d seen were Staffordshire terriers that always frighten me a bit, Kelpies, elderly small dogs and large aggressive looking dogs. So after some searching I found Greyhounds As Pets SA (GAPSA) offer a lot of greyhounds for foster-to-adopt or adoption. Providing a lot of support along the way.
We signed up to an upcoming GAPSA Adoption Day to meet some dogs and learn more about them. Unfortunately this was cancelled when South Australia went into a one week COVID lockdown. To their credit they quickly changed this to be a Zoom session. So I hooked up the laptop to our TV and the whole family watched the Information session and came away with a lot of knowledge about adopting a greyhound.
There were a few red flags – greyhounds have to be on a lead outside of their home, even in dog parks and the beach. Greyhounds could only be walked on a lead by someone over 12 years of age, ruling out our son. Even still we thought we’d see if we could find one that suited our family.
Dogs #6 – 11
The GAPSA website enables you to apply for 1 greyhound a day, so over the course of a few days I put in applications. I received a few emails to say we were unsuccessful.
Dog #12 – Finally, the One
While we were considering a greyhound, I was still looking on all the other websites. Then one day I saw a Beagle X called Spot on the PetRescue website. He was being adopted by a vet so his health had been checked and gave me confidence. Reading the details about Spot it sounded like the perfect dog so I put in an application. I didn’t tell my husband and son about Spot as I’d filled out so many applications I didn’t want to get their hopes up.
To my surprise a few hours later I got a response asking if I wanted to meet the dog the following day. It was my son’s 10th Birthday and when he read the description his first response was “This is the one!”.
Unfortunately for my son he had woken up that morning with a runny nose so he and I had a COVID test, meaning we couldn’t leave the house until our results came back. Fortunately my husband had no symptoms so if need be he could go and meet the dog the following day. But to the credit of SA Health we got our negative results at 8pm, just 10 hours after the test. Giving us the green light to meet the dog.
We meet Spot and bring him home!
The following day we went to meet Spot. The lady organising his re-homing gave us a bit more information about Spot, but not a great deal. We took him for a walk to the nearest dog park to see how he reacted to other dogs, and they were basically ignored. Then we considered our criteria
Medium size (20kg to knee level) – check
30 minutes daily exercise – check
No barking – check
Sociable – check
3 year old – check
Toilet trained – check
Good health – check
Spot was perfect for us!
Upon returning to the ladies house we asked about the next step for adoption and he could be taken home straight away. So with cash handed over we put the dog and supplies that he came with into the car for the drive home.
This all happened quite quickly but we were so happy that the first dog we met was perfect for our family.
What I learnt from Adopting a Dog
- It takes time, be patient. Dogs are very popular at the moment (COVID maybe?), especially small to medium size with few health and behaviour issues.
- Know what you want in a dog – exercise needs, age, temperament, training, etc.
- Meet a few dogs of friends and family and ask questions. With my son I wanted to see how he reacted to dogs and he quickly found he didn’t want a dog that barked a lot.
- Read the adoption process so you know what to expect.
- Don’t be afraid to follow up after an application.
- Again, be patient. As my son’s friend told my son after he got upset with all the looking – “You will know when you have found the right dog.” And he was right we just knew!
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