Is this a good policy for rescues/shelters?
Why do rescues/no-kill shelters discourage and/or outright ban protection sport training?
I am curious about this. Several rescues/shelters in my area specify that a dog adopted from them cannot be trained in protection sports. I just note that this applies to all breed and breed specific rescues/shelters. Before coming to this forum, I didn’t know anything about these sports and I don’t know anyone who takes part in these sports… So, I really didn’t have an opinion one-way or the other.
If pressed, I would have hypothesized that these policies exist due to one or all of the following:
-Potential for abusive training practices?
-Liability the dog would pose with incomplete/poor training?
-Avoiding adopters who see the dog as a protection tool versus a pet?
Having followed this forum for a while - and learned more about what the training seems to entail – I guess I am now even more curious as to why rescues/shelters have these policies.
It seems that a lot of people on this forum see it as just one of many dog sports you can do to have fun with your dog. And, it sounds like the foundation of these sports is obedience training. In my opinion, these sound like good things.
Of course, there are certainly others who take the whole thing a lot more seriously… but, these people - in their unending quest to acquire the perfect protection sport dog -don’t seem like the types that would be interested in adopting rescue/shelter dogs.
So, what I really want your opinions on is whether you think this is a good policy for rescues/shelters to have? Should those of us who work in rescues/shelters seek to change policies like these or advocate for them?
Should it be conditional? If so, what would you suggest a shelter/rescue look for in a potential adopter to allow for an exception to the policy?
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