I'm wondering about adopting a dog from a rescue...

[4kids4me]

Ok, probably the dumbest question and I hope you don't think we should consider getting a dog if I have to ask this...

 

If you adopt a dog from a rescue shelter, do you have to keep the name that the dog has? :D I mean, if it's a baby and they've named it I figure the dog won't know his name yet. Likewise, if they happen to find a dog, don't they just give the dog whatever name they choose? But what if the dog is, say, 15 months old, and has come from a previous home -- then can it be changed?

 

Just wondering. :confused:

[Mejane]

No, dogs are very flexible. It will just need to be retrained to its new name and given time to respond.

[kokotg]

Sure, people change rescue dogs' names all the time. I've heard that some rescue organizations actually recommend changing the dog's name because it helps give him a fresh start.

[hornblower]

Hi, all my animals are rescues & I foster for a rescue.

It's ok to change the dog's name. I did for both of mine. :)

[3littlekeets]

We have always had rescue furbabies and we change their names to fit our family and their personalities :-).

[Cindyg]

And thank you for being willing to give a dog a home. I hope it works out great for everyone.

[4kids4me]

Aw, you guys are so sweet...so glad to know that we can change the dog's name. :) We're still thinking about it. I figure if it takes 9 months to have a baby, I should give it some time to perculate in my mind. I don't want to make a mistake...I've got to be completely ready for it.

[i.love.lucy]

 

This book helped us a lot. We followed it to a *T* and had a great experience and got the worlds best dog out of it.:D

[4kids4me]

This book helped us a lot. We followed it to a *T* and had a great experience and got the worlds best dog out of it.:D

 

Thanks for the recommendation. My library has it in and I'm going there tomorrow! :001_smile:

[Janet in WA]

But what if the dog is, say, 15 months old, and has come from a previous home -- then can it be changed?

Good question, and you've received some good answers. However, just wanted to share a little more with you. We have friends who have (reluctantly) kept the names of the older rescue dogs they've adopted. We also have friends who have changed the names. The dogs really do fine either way. They learn their new names very quickly. We have friends who just adopted an older rescue dog, and her full name to that point was, believe it or not, "Minty Fresh" (the family who gave her up called her, simply, "Minty"). Our friends couldn't bear to use that name, so they changed it to "Mindy". Their new little girl adapted to the name change in no time.

Edited June 17, 2010 by Janet in WA

[MariannNOVA]

It's not a dumb question -- when my dh showed me 'Louie' on the rescue website (11 months ago) the first thing I said was, 'We can change his name, right?' The rescue org that we used would name the dogs alphabetically as they came in to the farm.

 

'Guidry' (named for NY Yankee pitcher Ron Guidry) is a great dog. He knows his name (or we think he knows his name), and if he could talk (you know, like with words) he would tell you that he has been here with us forever.:drool5:

 

We rescued Guidry in July of last year - it gave us good time for everyone to get used to him while we had a relaxed start to our homeschool year.

 

Best wishes! Pls let us know what you decide.

[ZooRho]

I wished we had changed out resuce's name, I still think it makes her cringe 8 years later.

 

But we couldn't deciede on a name

[4kids4me]

Boy, you guys know so much.

 

So here's one more question.

 

I've read on the board to find a "good rescue." If you don't know anyone that's gotten a dog from a rescue before, how do you know if it's reputable? How do I go about finding that out?

[Caitilin]

Yes! We adopted a 4 year old from the humane society this spring and her name was, wait for it.....Charmin'. Yes, like the toilet paper. We changed it to Arwen, and she adapted well, almost immediately, in fact. Happy percolating!

[Paula in PA]

I agree with the others. We changed our new dog's name and she had it down in a week. We've done it with cats we've rescued, too. I think dogs and cats are very flexible about that stuff. It's the food issue they're not so easy going about (woke up with sweet doggie eyes staring at me this morning, waiting for her breakfast).

[OnTheBrink]

We adopted a rescue dog, a Cairn Terrier (think Toto) and they named her Flicka! We changed her name to Lucy and have never looked back. She most definitely knows she's Lucy.

[MariannNOVA]

Boy, you guys know so much.

 

So here's one more question.

 

I've read on the board to find a "good rescue." If you don't know anyone that's gotten a dog from a rescue before, how do you know if it's reputable? How do I go about finding that out?

 

Take your time and do some research. An associate of DH's volunteered at a Rescue Org that held events at PetSmart on Friday nights. We went to about 6 or 8 Friday and Saturday events and learned alot. The kids learned that I did not want to housetrain a puppy, we knew we wanted a dog that would be able to run with dh and me, we wanted someone who didn't have to be vacuumed every day (low shed factor)......that kind of stuff. Do you have a PetSmart near you? Or a Whole Foods? Or a Wylie Wag Dog Shop? Rescues tend to have events at those types of places.

 

I never in a million years thought of a 'hound' which is what Guidry is (a blue tic hound) but it is the perfect breed for us. We had been looking at Cavalier King Charles Spaniels which are beautiful and they are fabulous pets, but they have a high price tag ($3000) from a breeder and that just didn't make sense - especially when we saw how many dogs were in rescue.

 

Determine if a particular Rescue is legitimate -- dh's associate had been volunteering at Lost Dog Rescue for years so that meant a track record as far as we were concerned. And, check out the local Animal Shelter or Humane Society where you live - here in northern Virginia, the Animal Shelter has events at Whole Foods. I think we didn't use them because we wanted a younger dog and we could only take one dog - otherwise I'd have a house full.

 

HTH:)

[MariannNOVA]

Yes! We adopted a 4 year old from the humane society this spring and her name was, wait for it.....Charmin'. Yes, like the toilet paper. We changed it to Arwen, and she adapted well, almost immediately, in fact. Happy percolating!

 

I love that name! But, my niece's name is Arden -- probably my sister wouldn't appreciate it if we got another dog and named it Arwen?

[Only me]

We just adopted our puppy from a shelter. We found him on petfinder.com. You plug in your zip code and it will give you a list of pets available in your area. We found one that was rescued from the county animal shelter. We have had our puppy for about 2 months now and couldn't be happier.

 

By the way, his name was Earnie at the shelter but we changed his name to Bear and had no problems.

[mysterious_jedi]

If you're getting a dog from the animal shelter or the rescue agency of a breed club, you should be good. It's mainly pet stores and for-profit breeders you have to look out for. You can find more info here:

http://www.solagratiakennels.com/Sola_Gratia_Kennels/Resources.html

[Denisemomof4]

I rarely keep the names of the animals I rescue - and I have so many rescues I can't even count. I only kept one name, and that's the name of one of my potbellies. ALL animals adjust - and quicker than you'd think. One of my potbellies I called SweetPea just because I loved her so much (I also called my two dd's that at various times) and she reacted to it from Day One. I still think of it - amazing. And she deserves the name - she's just the SWEETEST!!!

[MariannNOVA]

I rarely keep the names of the animals I rescue - and I have so many rescues I can't even count. I only kept one name, and that's the name of one of my potbellies. ALL animals adjust - and quicker than you'd think. One of my potbellies I called SweetPea just because I loved her so much (I also called my two dd's that at various times) and she reacted to it from Day One. I still think of it - amazing. And she deserves the name - she's just the SWEETEST!!!

 

:glare:Sometimes I call Guidry dd9.5's name...........:confused: but that's not what you mean, is it?:lol:

[hornblower]

At a bare minimum, a good rescue will spay/neuter (+ de flea, de worm, vet check) ALL animals they adopt out, will have a written contract which specifically indicates that if the adopter is unable to care for the animal, the animal returns to the rescue.

The rescue should have a good network of foster homes. MOST rescues to a home visit where someone comes to check out your home & interview you at home. Most rescues will specifically say that they may turn down applications if they feel you are not a good fit for their animals.

 

Shelters work differently since they have different parameters but that's pretty much how rescues work.

 

Some things to look out for are groups which call themselves rescue but are really brokers. They flip dogs which are discarded by breeders or in classifieds. They may not disclose all medical issues. They may not thoroughly vet. They do not really care who adopts the dog - so long as you pay the fee, you get the animal. They're for profit but they often hide it pretty well. Reputable rescues are non-profit - but there are reputable rescues which don't have the 50? whatever it is in the US status & there are ones which have the status & are still shady; so don't go by just that.

 

If you have a few rescues you're considering (from petfinder.org) then post on your local craigslist in the Pets section for feedback. People will let you know if these are reputable groups or brokers masquerading as rescue. Craigslist anonymizes your email btw so nobody will know who is asking :-)

 

best wishes!

[Tree House Academy]

I have never had a problem changing and animal's name. My cats were adopted from the humane society 11 years ago. They had named my girl "Missy" and we changed it to "sissy." Get this, though, they had named my blue point siamese (a gorgeous cat BTW) "Goober." You bet we changed that one immediately. We have had "Blue" (aka "Boo Kitty") and Sissy for 11 years now. As my girl was recently diagnosed with cancer and our time with her draws to a close, I can't even tell you how much I could never regret getting these babies from the humane society. They have brought me so much joy. I love them like family members. Best of luck finding your new family member.

[MariannNOVA]

I have never had a problem changing and animal's name. My cats were adopted from the humane society 11 years ago. They had named my girl "Missy" and we changed it to "sissy." Get this, though, they had named my blue point siamese (a gorgeous cat BTW) "Goober." You bet we changed that one immediately. We have had "Blue" (aka "Boo Kitty") and Sissy for 11 years now. As my girl was recently diagnosed with cancer and our time with her draws to a close, I can't even tell you how much I could never regret getting these babies from the humane society. They have brought me so much joy. I love them like family members. Best of luck finding your new family member.

 

:crying:I'm so sorry - what you wrote is so sweet and so sad. There are no words. I've been there.:grouphug:

[Jann in TX]

They called her 'Faith'... we call her Tasha... Faith was NOT a Star Trek name... and since we had a Data we needed a Star Trek girls name... and Tasha was on season 1 of TNG (didn't she have a fling with Data in one episode...)

 

Our cat--Mr Neelix--was 'Fred' at the shelter...

 

Our first dog was 'Farah' at the local Humane Society... she became our Kira to go with our Sisko... gosh they were such good dogs...

 

--

Tasha came from a local rescue group that deals with dogs other shelters will not take. Tasha came to them on 'her last day standing' (according to vet) due to severe starvation and recent fight wounds (and signs of a recent litter of pups)... she had lost half of her adult body weight... This rescue group also has a professional dog trainer work with each dog... Tasha was in rehab for several months--she is almost ready for her Canine Good Citizen test!!!

 

I found out about Tasha as I was leaving the vet after putting down Jordi--(I know we spelled it wrong) he was only 3... and the vet (a friend) came up to me and said--"I know this is poor timing but..." and Tasha was a member of our family 10 days later.

 

It took Tasha about 2 weeks to learn her name... she is such a happy little thing at almost 70 pounds (she was 45 when the rescue got her)... she wormed her way directly into our hearts and family... no one would know we've only had her a few weeks!

[4kids4me]

I have never had a problem changing and animal's name. My cats were adopted from the humane society 11 years ago. They had named my girl "Missy" and we changed it to "sissy." Get this, though, they had named my blue point siamese (a gorgeous cat BTW) "Goober." You bet we changed that one immediately. We have had "Blue" (aka "Boo Kitty") and Sissy for 11 years now. As my girl was recently diagnosed with cancer and our time with her draws to a close, I can't even tell you how much I could never regret getting these babies from the humane society. They have brought me so much joy. I love them like family members. Best of luck finding your new family member.

 

Rebecca, do you mean your cat was diagnosed with cancer, or your daughter?

[4kids4me]

I really appreciate the stories and advice.

 

I've been looking at "rescues" for a while and think I found a good one that's about 1/2 hour away. Then based on the advice that I received here, it confirms that I'm on the right track. They won't take "just anyone" and really screen their applicants. She's also got a great website explaining a ton of different things. I like the way her property is set up. It's important to me that we don't feel "rushed" into a decision and I really would like to rely on someone to help us figure out what the best match is -- I believe this organization will help, as well as help educate as to the best foods, training, etc. :001_smile:

[Jeannie in NJ]

5 of our cats came from rescues, 4 of them already had names

 

original changed to

 

Tut Indiana Jones

Tigger Quiksiler

Lily Hannah

Crystal Angel

 

 

They def. know their new names

[RegularMom]

We adopted two rescue dogs this year. They're both puppies, which made changing their names pretty easy, but no matter what you call them, dogs always seem to know you're talking to them.

 

Our dogs have names, but also many varied nicknames. And they always seem to know we're talking to them no matter what nickname we say.

 

Our dog Jack, for example, was named Jeff by the rescue. We changed his name to Jack. But he answers to any of the following, really: Jack, Jackson, Little Dude, Scrumple-Butt, Viper-7, "Rawhide!"* and "Not-Cooper"**.

 

Dogs are just so wonderful and versatile. :)

 

*He got this nickname the day he swallowed a giant rawhide chew toy whole, and ended up on a special diet for two weeks while we waited anxiously for him to either digest it or need surgery.

 

**He got this nickname because RegularDad kept saying "he looks like a Cooper to me" and then the rest of us would immediately say: "He's not Cooper!"

Edited June 17, 2010 by RegularMom

[hazilsara]

I'm sure the dog will appreciate having a new home--he'll probably be willing to forgive you for changing his name, no matter how old he is!!! :D You're making a good choice!!!