BoredPanda.com is a Lithuanian website that publishes articles about “lightweight and inoffensive topics,” including frequent posts about animals. A week ago, the site shared a Facebook post from a British group, “Yorkshire Rose Dog Rescue.” The post included a story supposedly written by an anonymous veterinarian, who claimed he increasingly had been asked to euthanize healthy young dogs that were adopted during the pandemic by people who couldn’t or didn’t train them. The Yorkshire Rose Dog Rescue group concurred, writing in some introductory post that they, too, had been seeing dogs surrendered by overwhelmed owners on a daily basis.

Sigh.

I’m looking for articles or news coverage that might support these allegations – that after a record number of adoptions and fostering in 2020, that people are starting to give up the pets they brought home last year. I didn’t find many.

I found an October 2020 article on the Today Show website that quoted a California rescue group that said they had seen an increased number of dogs who were given up due to pandemic-related financial hardship.

I found a link to a December 2020 Fox News broadcast alleging that shelters in Minnesota were seeing higher numbers of abandoned and surrendered animals, also due to pandemic-related financial hardship.

But I also found articles that alleged that adoptions and fostering are still taking place at a record pace. Sadly, I also saw many articles discussing the fact that puppy mills and backyard breeders have been producing puppies as fast as they can, to meet the pandemic demand.

My own experience, volunteering in a rural Northern California county shelter, is that the intake numbers are down, and “live release rates” (adoptions, fosters, and transfers to other shelters) are up. My local shelter has been increasingly sending animals to shelters in more populated and more affluent areas in the San Francisco Bay area.

Here at WDJ, we’ve tried to meet the needs of new dog owners with an increased number of articles aimed at basic education, especially for puppy training (including here, here, here, here, and here!). I remain hopeful that the increase in adoptions and fostering will contribute to an increase in responsible dog ownership and lower rates of euthanasia.

But I’m curious: What’s your experience? If you work or volunteer in rescue, are you seeing an increase in animal returns or surrenders? Or are dogs still in short supply? If you are trying to adopt, have you found a decrease or an increase in the number of dogs available?

In last week’s post, I shared the information that I was on the hunt for a dog – searching on behalf of a couple I know. Both husband and wife are athletes who run for fitness and would love to have a dog who could accompany them on runs. But they are also both nurses who have long work shifts, so a dog who lives with them will have to be able to endure a certain amount of time alone at home (nursing not being a work-from-home sort of job!).

The couple lives in an urban area, so when they are at work, their dog will spend most of his or her time in their house, though they have a dog-sitter lined up (their neighbor downstairs, who has a dog I found for him!) and a dog-walker. Both the sitter and the walker will be available to take the dog out for midday breaks, but nevertheless, I know that it’s important to find a dog for them who will be content and comfortable spending time home alone. Of course, any dog can experience an onset of isolation distress – or, worse, separation anxiety – upon rehoming. But my goal is to find a dog with a mellow, “happy to accept my fate” bent to his nature.

Then I saw a social media posting for a local dog who needed a new home. He had been surrendered by a family who were having some sort of housing crisis, and had been living on a chain in a fenceless backyard for some months. The family’s neighbor, heartbroken over the dog’s plight, had begged the family to be allowed to find the dog a new home, and they agreed it would make their own lives easier to not have a dog as they try to find their next housing situation.

Well, it was a lovely dog, just three years old – but one of a highly active breed. I sent an inquiry to the woman who had possession of the dog, asking about the dog’s personality, and one thing she said made me more than a little interested: She mentioned that, despite the fact that the dog had very little shelter and was living in mud and filth, was never allowed in the house, and got very little attention from his former owners, he never barked! “Ooh!” I thought. That sounded like a good candidate! We made arrangements to meet a day later so I could meet the dog. I told her I’d be happy to foster him so I could get him neutered, tested for heartworm, and get to know him better. After all that, I would know better if he was in fact a good candidate for the couple I had in mind, or, if not, I would commit to finding a more suitable home for him.

She brought the dog to my home the next day, and I was even more interested. He has a lovely temperament, was very neutral with my dogs – neither excited nor threatened by Woody’s rambunctious play overtures or Otto’s grumpy admonitions to “Hold still while I sniff you!” The dog was quite predatory around my chicken pen, but he took my admonishments to leave them alone in stride. The most concerning behavior I saw was how he ran along every inch of my fenceline, multiple times, looking through and over the fence as he loped along, stopping every once in a while to inspect its height or a low spot underneath it. I wouldn’t expect much different from the sort of hunting breed he is, but mentally, I was already warning his new owners to not let him off-leash for months, until they got to know him very well and had a good recall on a long line.

Alas: Neither I nor the couple I was hoping to place him with made the cut. The woman who was rehoming him made the decision to place him with another family she knew, because – and here is the kicker – their home is on five acres of land. She loved seeing him run, and imagined that with five acres, he’d live out his life running around that acreage in perfect happiness.

Factors that go into dog placement decisions

My take on that decision? I was bummed, both for the couple I had in mind and for the dog. I have no way of knowing this, and I’m not going to follow up just to see if I’m right, but I’d bet $100 right now that if the dog did, in fact, go to the five-acre family, within a week’s time he’s either going to be in the wind (lost, ran away) or in a small fenced and covered pen. Not many people I know have five securely fenced acres, and without such a fence, that dog is going to be going, going, gone!

This particular placement decision was up to an individual’s discretion, so it’s not a great example. But this seemed like a good opportunity to talk about placement criteria, which, in every case, seems like it should come down to more than just one factor.

Shelters and rescues sometimes have a formal list of rigid placement rules that they follow when considering prospective adopters; in other cases, shelters or rescues may have internal guidelines as to what constitutes a “qualified home,” but they will make exceptions for the right family/dog combination.

My local shelter gives prospective adopters a questionnaire that is intended to spark a conversation with the adoption counselor and the prospective adopter. There are no hard-and-fast “wrong answers” that people can give in response to these questions that will eliminate their chance of adopting any dog – but some of their answers may call for a discussion about whether it’s appropriate for them to adopt a specific dog.

For example, while I’m aware that some shelters require adopters to have a fenced yard – which eliminates many great prospective placements! – my local shelter will weigh their preference for adopters to have a fenced yard against the size, age, breed type, and personality of the dog. If the prospect is a little senior couch potato, for example, a litterbox and/or leashed walks will be just fine!

My local shelter is perhaps most concerned about making appropriate placements to families with babies or toddlers. They worry about tiny dogs in families with toddlers – but will make an exception if they meet the child or children in a “get acquainted” room with the prospective dog, and see that the kids are very gentle, have self-control skills, that the parents are paying close attention and giving alert guidance to the kids, and so on. They won’t place anxious dogs or excitable dogs who have little self-control with a family with small kids – and will decline to adopt any dog to a family whose child seems bent on hurting a dog, or engaging in activities that are sure to make a dog defensive. That said, you won’t find these policies written down anywhere; they just try to have a conversation with parents about what they are observing and try to make it clear that it’s their job to make safe placements for the sake of all parties concerned.

My two cents: Hard-and-fast rules don’t allow for appropriate individualized placements.

In a placement competition, who should get the dog?

Then there are the cases where a shelter or rescue has to decide, to the best of their ability, which of several prospective adopters should get the dog.

Some groups have a first-come, first-served approach, where the first qualified adopter would get the dog. Others may send someone to conduct home inspections, and make their placement decision based on whose home and family really seem to suit the dog best. That’s amazing, but not possible for many rescues.

I have known people who have become frustrated about “losing” in what seemed to be an adoption competition – some, more than once! – and who relieved their frustration by just buying a puppy, either from some Craigslist/backyard breeder or a pet store that’s stocked weekly with new “inventory” from puppy mills. Yuck!

In some cases, the rationale for their rejection was ridiculous. I know someone who was turned down by a shelter to adopt a cat, because they own an intact female dog! This person is a long-time steward of an uncommon breed of dogs, and has been breeding these dogs in an incredibly careful, responsible, and limited manner for over 20 years, but Nope! No cat for you! That’s nuts.

I don’t want to cast aspersions on anyone who is involved in having to make adoption or placement decisions; I assume that anyone involved with rescue has a vested interest in making safe and appropriate placements for the “recycled” dogs in their care. And I don’t want to encourage people to express the incredibly insensitive statement that some shelter is making it harder to adopt a dog than a baby. It shouldn’t be too easy to adopt, and families should have to meet some sort of minimum standards for the dog’s health and happiness. But sometimes, these criteria are too rigid. Where is the middle ground that results in the best placements?

What are some of the rules or standards that shelters or rescues have for prospective adopters that you consider very sound or ridiculous?

For the past few years, my son’s former sports teammates and co-workers have been a great source of adoptive homes for dogs in my local shelter – or, I should say, my local shelter and I have been a great source for them! My son is 28 and most of his friends are in the same age range. They almost all live in the east San Francisco Bay Area. One by one, they have been getting married, buying homes, and/or starting families. And many of them start their families with a dog! These are educated urban professionals with good incomes – and most of them are athletes who love having dogs to run with them, so they are looking for athletic dogs.

I live about 150 miles north of San Francisco. In this rural area, we tend to get a wide variety of dogs in the shelter. Like every shelter, we get a lot of “bully breed” mixes (which may be any thing with any amount of American Pit Bull Terrier or American Staffordshire Terrier in its pedigree) and Chihuahua-mixes. These are the types that are most frequently produced for sale by backyard breeders or accidentally bred by irresponsible owners – and the ones that are wildly over-represented in shelter populations across the nation.  But in this area, Labradors are also very common, as are Australian Cattle Dogs, German Shepherds, all types of hounds, and mixes between all of those. (In fact, DNA tests say that my 13-year-old dog Otto, adopted as a 6- to 7-month-old pup from my local shelter in 2008, contains all of those breeds except hound and Chihuahua! Ha!)

This north-state/Bay area dog connection started with the puppy who became my son’s dog, Cole, in late 2013. At the time, my son was in college and attending a semester abroad in Spain. But he had already signed a lease for a room in what would be his first dog-friendly rental house in Davis, California, where he would be returning to college in February – and, while in Spain, he frequently spent time looking at the pictures of adoptable dogs in my local shelter; he couldn’t wait to get home and adopt his first “own” dog. I kept getting emails: “Mom, could you go to the shelter and look at A546792? He looks nice!” and “Mom, what do you think about #A546804? How old is she? What breed do you think she is?” In this way, he spotted Cole before I did, from thousands of miles and an ocean away!

I went to the shelter on my son’s behalf to meet two pups he had spotted: a black Lab-mix and Cole, a mostly black pup who had come into the shelter with an American Black & Tan Coonhound mom and an all-brown sibling. I immediately knew that the hound pup was “the one.” I snatched him up and fostered him for the six weeks or so it took my son to get home from Spain and learn for himself that Cole was “the one.” Cole is smart and sensitive, goofy and affectionate, playful and (mostly) very obedient. My son’s done a great job of training and managing him, too – such a great job, that the silky black dog with the long ears has been a terrific ambassador for my local shelter. Everywhere my son takes him, people say, “Hey, where did you get your dog? What breed is he? He’s such a good boy! And so handsome!”

Strangers and random passersby are on their own, but my son lets his friends and coworkers know that if they are looking for a dog, know what they want in a dog, and are willing to be patient, his mom will help them find one.

Over the past few years, since he graduated and joined the workforce, I’ve found dogs for several of my son’s co-workers. At one point, he worked in a dog-friendly office and, after asking about Cole’s origins, two of his co-workers asked me to help them find a dog. For a while in 2015/2016, there were three canine alumni of the Northwest SPCA coming to work every day in an office tower in Berkeley, California.

The first of my son’s co-workers to ask for dog-finding help was Mapolo, who was looking for an “easy first dog,” as he had never owned a dog before! I found a mellow and affectionate 4-year-old Greyhound-mix whom I thought would be perfect. Mapolo adopted her on February 14 and named her Valentine – awwww! She was a big hit in the office, as she is a total love sponge, but she had one funny quirk: She would not enter the elevator on her own power. Just flat out would not do it. Mapolo got a certain amount of grief as he had to lift the big dog into the elevator several times a day until she got over her apprehension.

That was nearly six years ago. Early last year, in a new job, a new home, and along with his fiancé, Erin, Mapolo asked me if I could help him find a younger, more athletic dog to join the family and relieve Val from jogging duty. I found them a hilarious and mischievous young Shepherd-mix named Stella, who fit right into the family, worming her silly way into even Valentine’s heart. Repeat customers!

After Val joined the pack in the Berkeley office tower, I heard from another co-worker, Russell (who was also one of my son’s sport teammates). He and his then-girlfriend (now wife) were looking for an active dog who wouldn’t hurt or intimidate Jin’s older, small dog. I found them two candidates – an adorable but slightly over-the-top mini-Aussie and a calmer but larger Lab-mix. They drove up to meet both dogs but couldn’t decide, even after spending all day Saturday in the “get acquainted” area at the shelter with one dog, and then the other. They went home to think it over, and then called me with their choice: the Aussie. I pulled her from the shelter, and spent the rest of the week getting to know her and starting some basic training. They adopted her the following weekend and can’t imagine life without her now. She even has her own Instagram account: “Ava the Dog” @avaforcitycouncil.

Here is a crazy story: My son has changed jobs, but in January 2020, I received an email from another guy he worked with at his old job in Berkeley. Alexander was looking for a fun, active dog, not too big and not too small. I knew just the one! Just days before, I was at the shelter, taking photos of adoptable dogs for the shelter website, and I saw this absolutely gorgeous terrier who had come in as a stray weeks before. I thought he was just stunning, and looked a lot like a purebred Jagdterrier. I sent his pictures to Alexander, who was definitely interested. Since I was going to the Bay Area to visit my son and pick up a relative from the airport there in a few days, I offered to pull the dog and bring him down with me. Alexander met the dog and that was that. Yay! Another adoption. Alexander named the dog Wayne.

Just six months later, I got another “Can you help me find a dog?” email. Like Russell, Sam is one of my son’s former teammates – and was hoping I could help him find a dog as nice as Cole and Ava, whom he had met many times after sports practices. In the midst of the pandemic, I hadn’t been to the shelter for months, but I looked over the prospects and saw… another Jagdterrier? What?! I made an appointment to go meet the dog (pandemic-era new rule) and fell in love with her. She looked nearly identical to the terrier I found for Alexander but seemed a little sweeter, less macho. I sent her pictures and a report to Sam, and BAM – he made an appointment to meet her, made the drive up, and made the adoption. He calls her Ladybird.

I’m trying to get Sam to meet up with Alexander so Wayne and Ladybird can meet; I want a picture of them together! Where did these TWO uncommon breeds come from, and how did they both end up as unclaimed strays in the middle of nowhere (as I affectionately call the place I live)?

Mapolo has since changed jobs, but now he, too, is promoting my dog-matching skills to co-workers. In October, I received an email from one of his new co-workers, requesting help with finding a nice family dog. Like every other family in the pandemic, stuck at home with no school to attend, his three kids were desperate for a dog to play with. Given that they’d be home for untold months, the time seemed right. I spotted a darling little hound-type who seemed to fit the bill, and BOOM- another adoption. They call him Arlo.

At the moment, I have a request for an athletic dog for a couple of my son’s former teammates – an actual couple, husband and wife. Like my son, both Adam and Claire have represented the U.S. (and won gold medals) in international competition, and they are looking for a dog who can accompany them on runs. But both Adam and Claire are also nurses and they work long hours, so the candidate dog also needs to be able to chill at home without tearing the house down. Making that task a bit easier: Sam and Ladybird live in the flat downstairs and will be their backup dog walkers. I have every confidence I will find the perfect dog for them.

Say, I should start charging for this service, shouldn’t I?

My very favorite part of social media is seeing photos and videos of dogs having a good time outdoors. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of snow dogs: playing in it, hiking through it, skijoring over it! It looks great! But I’m glad I don’t live in a snowy area. The winter in my part of California gets cold, but not so cold that you need special clothes to enjoy a walk outside; a regular hoody and perhaps a down vest will do!

Walking in winter – my local version of winter, anyway – is absolutely my favorite. It’s not yet hot, the rattlesnakes are dormant, and the leash restrictions for the bird nesting season haven’t yet gone on. I live at the north end of the Sacramento Valley, in the middle of the great Pacific Flyway, a major north/south route for migratory birds, from Alaska to Patagonia. At this time of year, the skies and fields are full of migratory waterfowl, including millions of snow geese and small numbers of spectacular sandhill cranes – always exciting to spot.  And we nearly always see year-round residents like the great blue heron, osprey, and several species of owls and hawks.

I’m extremely lucky: I live close to the Oroville Wildlife Area, about 11,000 acres of land alongside the Feather River and surrounding man-made bodies of water fed by the river: Lake Oroville and its “afterbay,” a shallow lake where freezing cold water from the bottom of Lake Oroville is warmed slightly before being released into nearby rice fields and fruit and nut orchards. Much of this land was mined for gold in the previous century using floating dredges as long as a city block. The tailings were mined again in the late 1950s and early ’60’s for the giant earth-filled Oroville Dam. What’s left of that land, much disturbed and still distinguished by piles of rock tailings and pockmarked with ponds that have filled in the holes left by the dredges, was finally protected for wildlife and recreation. There are two types of habitat in this area: some lowland savannah along the river, dotted with ancient oaks and filled with deer; and, farther from the river, open, grassy or marshy plains (depending on how close to the afterbay you are).

Dogs are allowed to walk off-leash in this area, except for during the nesting season, March 16 through the end of June. Actually, I start leashing up, or at least asking the dogs to stay on the trail, at the end of February, as some birds are already looking for nesting sites in the tall grass. When the leash restrictions go on, I generally start taking my dogs elsewhere to walk, usually on the dirt roads alongside the river in the more forested land, where nesting species are in trees, not on the ground. But, for as long as we can, I most enjoy these big-sky, open, grassy areas, and the dogs do, too.

Off-leash skills and good manners are requisite

Wherever we walk, we always practice a couple of skills that I feel are essential for any dog walked off-leash. If a dog hasn’t yet learned these skills to a pretty high degree of reliability, they don’t get to be off-leash. The two most important ones are a rock-solid recall (immediate and enthusiastic), and a good understanding of “off” or “leave it” (to forestall any interest in pursuing cattle on the other side of the wildlife area fence, or investigating that rattling noise coming from the grassy margin of the trail). We also practice a “distance sit” – parking their butts in place, either to allow someone to pass us on the trail (which happens incredibly rarely – again, I said I’m lucky to live here!) or to keep them still while I assess a possible threat (like a rattlesnake on the trail) or temptation (such as a deer crashing through the underbrush nearby). I ask them to practice each of these skills at least once per walk, and ALWAYS have high-value treats with me to generously reinforce these behaviors.

My usual walking partners include Nova, a former foster pup who was adopted by a young woman who is now a good friend; tiny Samson and his owner Leonora, who was fostering Samson’s litter for our local shelter while I was fostering Woody’s litter (and we both kept our favorite from the litter); and sometimes my friend Loran, who adopted a middle-aged hippo-style bully-breed mix, also adopted from my local shelter. (Another friend who owns one of my long-ago former foster dogs and two other dogs recently moved out of state.)

Of course, we were recently also accompanied by my foster dog Coco, who found a lovely home in Idaho and is doing very well there.

All of these dogs, of various ages and sexes and breeds, get along splendidly with my dogs, though there are behavioral differences between them. Otto doesn’t really socialize with the others on walks. He isn’t unfriendly, just splendidly indifferent to what the other dogs are doing. The behavior is very much mirrored by the older dogs: Chaco the Kelpie-mix former foster who moved away, and Betty the hippo/bully-breed mix. These three have always kept their own counsel. If they are approached at a high rate of speed by a younger dog, they tend to step out of the way and look the other way. (Although, in his increasingly arthritic old age, Otto will roar if someone bashes into him.)

Woody, who is now five years old, has long been the ringleader of the playful puppy set. He’s always down for running and romping and leaping and chasing and wrestling with anyone else who wants to do all that stuff. He’s been the “fun uncle” for countless foster pups who came and went, as well as the trail guide for our longer-term foster pups (including Odin, the former mangey pup who had to have an eye removed, and of course hoppy, happy little Coco). He and Nova, who is now two years old, still race and wrestle with wild abandon as we walk.

At not-quite five pounds, twiggy, long-legged Samson’s goal on these walks is mostly to not get run over. He’s figured out that the best way to do that is to either stay at our heels, or follow Otto very closely; those are safe spots. Samson shines at the sit-stay; we can leave him behind, sitting, until he’s practically a speck in the road (well, he’s very small). When called, he comes as fast as his twiggy legs will go; it’s fun to watch.

The distance-sit and stay is Kryptonite for Nova. At just over two years old, she’s still developing control over her impulses, and she gets squirmy and anxious if left behind, even if it’s just 20 feet or so from us. Her recall is super sharp, however. If it involves running, she’s excellent at it! Maybe these skills are age-related. Coco also never quite got the hang of either sitting or staying away from us. If she heard any cue that had once offered an opportunity to earn a treat, she’d come running and sit in front of us. Well, there are worse things!

Happy winter walks to you, too!