Doggy Adoption Centres – An Ugly Truth…

Okay, so in my last post, I spoke about identifying your non-negotiables. This means deciding on what traits you can and cannot live with when it comes to your new pet. I also spoke about choosing a centre.

Before we go on, I want to add a quick work on adoption centres. Unfortunately, not all my experiences were rosy.

NOTE: The following does not apply to any one centre and I did visit ALOT in the initial weeks of searching. It also applies to a select few staff but was present across the board.

What was so surprising….

Well, for one, a lot of the centre staff were extremely rude. I’m not sure if this was simply due to the high demand placed on the centres or the fact that most of them are understaffed and/or run primarily by volunteers.

The overwhelming feeling I was given by most of the centres’ staff was that I was an inconvenience, that they were not interested in me and that they did not deem me worthy of any of their impounded canines.

I’ll admit this made the process a little frustrating all round. But the reason I am including this is to forewarn future potential adopters in the hopes that they will not be put off by the attitudes of adoption centres! I felt like they were genuinely trying to put me off. I felt more like a nuisance than a potential help.

This is DESPITE living in a remote cottage with a secure garden and miles of walking paths on the doorstep, and an outdoor lifestyle. Pretty ideal for a dog, you’d think they would have snapped my hand off.

I have a few possible theories on this:

• Staff are rude to weed out everyone but the most genuine homes
• Centres are understaffed so teams are unappreciated and overworked
• Volunteers are not treated with the same respect of staff members
• People are on a power trip
• They get SO many idiots, it’s guilty until proven innocent

Anyway, whatever the case – if you are adopting the dog please do not be put off if you encounter this at your local centre.

Now, for the good bit…

Most of the staff I met were LOVELY.

In particular, I noticed that in larger centres with separate reception staff, handlers and call centre teams, the ‘grumpies’ were mainly scattered within the admin folks. The dog handlers, in particular, COULD NOT HAVE BEEN NICER. The volunteer dog walkers are my local centre were incredibly kind people, actually with serious jobs who had genuinely given up their valuable time to help. I have nothing but respect for those folks. National call centre staff within the bigger organisation were sweet as pie too, contrary to the reputation of their field.

So there you have it. If you’re thinking of adopting a rescue dog, don’t be put off by people on a power trip. They are the minority and I don’t know why they are there, but they are.

Check out my next post, all about The Dog’s Trust – and all about the hoops you’ll be jumping through for your pooch!

Have you had a bad experience with adopting a pet? Or a good one? I’d love to hear what you think about this, leave your 2 pence in the comments below.