This is the first time I have used this site so I hope i am doing this correctly? I have just been reading some threads from the Sheffield Pet Owners - I have a dog that I need to rehome urgently and I am at a complete loss as to how to go about it. I am hoping that someone reading this thread will be able to help me.................
My partner and I adopted Sam from Sheffield RSPCA 20 months ago, he is a Staffy cross and is loving, loyal, housetrained and gorgeous. As with most rescue dogs he has his problems - he doesn't get on with other dogs and will always want to fight but we have coped with that by always having him on a long lead and muzzled whenever we go for walks. He is also very mardy when he is tired but as long as he has his own space he is fine. The key is knowing how to act with him, there have been a couple of incidents in the past where he has snapped or growled at people but the main problem is that we do not know what he is like with children (there have been a couple of incidents in the past but no harm was done) and we now have a 5 week old baby. Even though he has shown no signs of aggression towards the baby I cannot trust him - and this has nothing whatsoever to do with the recent bad press. I have not been able to relax during the last 5 weeks and basically - to cut a long story short - it is not fair on Sam. My partner also has doubts about sam but they are not as strong as mine - after a lot of heartache and arguing we have decided that we need to find Sam a loving home, with no children or other pets (we didn't do this while i was pregnant as we needed to see what he was like and how we would cope when the baby was born). We are not just giving up on him as we have been to several dog trainers who all say that Sam is an intelligent dog who can easily be trained but there is a side to Sam that you just can't trust (where children are concerned) and obviously the saftey of my baby has to come first. I have tried all rescue centres in the area but all are full and putting him down is not an option.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I am at my wits end......

Hi www.dogpages.org.uk are really good, post your request on their (in dogs needing homes-private homings) and rescues/rescuers will try their best to find a suitable owner....

hope this helps....? x

Other than dogpages the only place I can suggest is SBT welfare. I'm not sure if they have a website, will take a look in a mo, but most breed clubs have a welfare section and I'd be very surprised if there wasn't one for SBTs. They would probably help despite him being a cross and the people who get dogs from them are often passionate about staffs, know them and know how to deal with them, the breed welfare groups are top at rehoming because they know exactly what to look for for their breed.

I will keep an ear to the ground to see if I hear of a suitable home, good luck.

Here you go.
SBT rescues http://www.dogpages.org.uk/breeds3.htm

Don't you have to return him to the RSPCA?

Don't know about that Tess,
A friend of mine lived next door to a couple who got a SBT x boxer from the RSPCA -despite being first time dog owners- and after he bit them in play, and they realised they couldn't cope with him, the RSPCA refused to take him back and said he'd be pts if they took him because he'd bitten.

the rspca are pretty useless ... each time ive foned them about a stray they told me they wouldnt come out, and if i pushed it, they would collect the animal and destroy it ... caring eh?

I hope someone on here is able to help you. We have quite a large network of dog-lovers and have been able to help people before.

I'm feel very sorry for you. It must be a terrible decision to have to make. I'm sure you've thought about this long and hard, even before the baby came, and I'm not going to condem you for the conclusion you've come to. You must do what's right for you and your baby, and, of course, Sam. No dog should be in a home where they are not fully loved and part of the family.

However, I would like to say a couple of things.

Firstly, Awareness is Half the Battle! I'm willing to bet that more people are bitten by dogs who are "trusted" family pets, than by ones who aren't. The truth is, NO dog should be left unattended with a baby. Responsible owners who are well aware of their dog's faults are far less likely to have "incidents" than those who have their head in the clouds.

Secondly, a dog that growls and shows his teeth will not necesssarily bite. It's simply warning you in the only way it can, to keep out of its space, or to stop doing what you're doing because you're making it feel uncomfortable.

A dog that has been punished for doing that, will often skip the warning and go straight to the next level. THAT is a dangerous dog. It sounds like Sam tells you quite clearly when he wants to be left alone.

But I fully understand you not wanting a dog that growls and snaps near a child as they are far less able recognise the danger.

My cousins have had dogs that snap, however. Scary at the time, but now that i know what a real dog bite is, I realise that they were only warning snaps. Never broke the skin. Not how you want a dog to behave, but a dog is a dog. They have teeth.

If Sam is showing no hint of aggression towards you when you have the baby in your arms, then personally I wouldn't worry unduly. But obviously, don't leave him with the baby! There's still a strong case for you to rehome him before the baby becomes mobile, but don't panic. You've got a while to find him a good home. Better for you to pass him straight on to the new home than for him to be stuck in kennels, developing even more problems before he goes.

Dogs often don't like children because they dart about, fling their hands towards them, fall on them etc. A child that is brought up with dogs is going to be far more dog-friendly than one that just visits occasionally, or who lives with a really good-natured one that allows children to do anything to them.

With any dog, once a baby starts crawling it is vital that the dog has a "safe place". You spend the first few months keeping the dog from bothering the baby, and the next few years keeping the child from bothering the dog :)

You sound like you really love him, and this must be an awful time for you. I hope that things work out one way or another :(

I don't like the RSPCA and try to advise people to rescue a dog from elsewhere but I can't really blame them for their lack of a no kill policy. They are simply unable to do this being the size they are.

Unfortunately, what do they do, keep on a relatively un-rehomable dog and refuse a place to a dog that would be easily rehomed. Or put the un-rehomable dog to sleep in a humane way and allow a place for the rehomable dog to be seen and adopted? It's the lesser of the two evils really...

Unfortunately, again due to their size, they can't have different rules for different dogs as they don't have time to sort all this out so I don't agree with their rehoming guidelines but I guess they have to be safe rather than sorry.

I'd always advise people to go to a different rescue, for the new owners sake, a dog is a big responsibility and the RSPCA just don't have the capabilities to offer lifetime aftercare to each new owner that takes one of their dogs.

An excellent post Elsa, have to agree with all said.

Thanks Elsa - yes this is an extremley had decision to make - I have spent the last 5 weeks is pieces as i don't want to let Sam go but my instincts tell me I have to. I have contacted the RSPCA and they said that they would put Sam to sleep if we sent him back there. Going into kennels really has to be a last resort as Sam was in the RSPCA for 18 months before we adopted him and had started harming himself and was loosing his hair - i could not put him through that again.
I have just emailed RainRescue to see if they can help.

do check out the SBT rescues too southernlass. It sounds as though he has quite a few staffy characteristics and they will know who is best to home him to.

This one looks particularly good http://www.sbtrescue.org.uk/

Thanks Lotti - have just emailed them x

Good luck xx