She's nobody's bitch

Belle is my 9-10 month old Shar-pei puppy. She's an interesting character, very full of herself, very forward, somewhat aggressive even with other dogs. She would kick butt in a room full of other puppies her age and she even takes on my big fosters, although really she's just playing. She's small, so she has to climb up on their backs to get to where she can do the head on the back of the neck dominance move. They know she's a puppy so they cut her a lot of slack.

Because of her attitude, I really want her to go to an adopter who is familiar with the breed, knows what to expect, and how to handle them. One of my first email inquiries about Belle was from someone who had a male pei pup about her age and thought they would be great together. The person submitted our online application form, and disclosed that their male is unneutered. The form also asks if they would prefer the dog they adopt to be spayed/neutered prior to adoption or after adoption. That's sort of a trick question and this applicant fell for it, specifying that they would prefer that Belle not be spayed at all. Wrong answer.

I wrote back and said that wasn't going to happen, no way, no how. In fact, Belle was at the vet being spayed at that time. I asked if they were still interested in her as a spayed female and was told: "We weren't looking to breed, but wanted the option in the future if we decided we wanted to." Some people think of rescue as a sort of second-hand shop, where it's possible to pick up a dog for a fraction of the retail cost. Needless to say, that's not the attitude of those of us who do it. Besides, when you have an unaltered pair of dogs they will breed, whether or not it is something they were "looking" to do.

Still, I was left in a quandry because they were still interested in her. At this point breeding was not an option because Belle had been spayed, and they were an experienced home with another pei about her age. I have argued with the shepherd group that they should not immediately deny applicants under those circumstances, particularly if they are interested in a tough to adopt dog, since any dog that leaves our group will itself be spayed or neutered.

In the end I turned down the application. They took it well, they were pleasant, nice about it, and I assume that they would have been a good and caring home. They were out of state, so a pre-adoption face-to-face meeting and home visit would have been difficult, but mostly I turned them down because I was pissed. I was pissed at the attitude and just plain ignorance.

I've been doing this too long and seen too many good dogs be needlessly euthanized to be very tolerant of people who produce litters of puppies, whether it's on purpose or by accident, just because they didn't want to spay or neuter their animals. Thousand of dogs die everyday because people wanted to "keep the option open," or because they "couldn't stand to do that to their dog," or for myriad other stupid reasons.

My rule on this issue isn't quite carved in stone, but it is written with a permanent marker, and I'm keeping the carving tools handy.