Blank slate or good history on a rescue

[Midnight12]

I have a female gsd, that has been with me a little over a year now. What they told me when I got her is she would be better in a home with no little dogs or as a only dog, which is fine because, I only want one. They said she had some trouble getting along with a small female in her last home.

[Midnight12]

This post went up be fore I was done. I got a chance to get some history on her from the lady that had her before me and found out that she had three homes before me and the last owner had her for six months. Rosie got in to it with her small female and her little dog ended up losing an eye she tried to crate and rotate but it was too hard. She said it was her fault because she had seen the warning signs. Rosie got along with the two bigger males, and her son. The people before her said they got rid of her because she killed all the chickens and played too rough with the grandkids. I don't know anything about the first home. So she was in six places, counting rescues before I got her. We have done alot of training. She gets along great with people and my grandkids. I wonder if I knew all this would I have been afraid to get her? Glad for insight now but better I judged her without knowing all that. She was really tossed around and let done by people. I do understand the last owner, maybe female female thing. would a history like that cause you guys not to adopt?

[AkariKuragi]

Honestly I think rescues should provide potential adopters with as much information as possible so that they can make 100% certain that the home they place the dog in will be the dog's forever home. It scares me to think that rescues might withhold information that makes a dog potentially undesirable in hopes that they'd get adopted... The intentions might be good but what if you weren't ready for the potential behavioral issues that a dog can have after it's tossed around? What if you'd become her seventh home and had to return her to the rescue, just doing more damage to the poor girl? Of course that's not the case and they're lucky because of that, but some other people might not have felt the same.

Honestly I wouldn't have adopted a dog that has been moved from one home to another simply because I do not have enough experience at the moment to deal with those issues. Would I consider it in the future? Depends on the dog and my situation at the time. I don't think it's a auto-no if the dog's been in multiple homes, I think it's just that dogs like that need to be placed into serious, experienced homes that can commit to working on all of the dog's potential problems.

Of course I would expect the rescue to have the dog's best interest in mind and to only place such a dog in a home that they were satisfied could provide such things instead of tossing her to the first adopter that came along. :/ Not saying that's what happened here, but just in general. Glad she found you though! Poor baby. : (

[wildwolf60]

I prefer to get as much info as possible, but have had 2 rescues with almost no information, and we managed to piece possible scenarios from their actions on their past lives. Our current rescue, we did know more about his situation, and it did help us work out how to analyze him a bit faster. In the end, you just need to watch the dog and their reactions to figure out the best way of handling them.
They all turned out to be fantastic dogs, and we're happy we took the opportunity with each one. But I still would prefer knowing as much as possible, even if its just to prepare mentally.

[Midnight12]

I don't think the rescue I got her from even knew all her history. I will ask them, when I see them for class. I think last owner wanted them to take her so left out alot. They did know I had gsd before and they give you free classes with your dog so they don't just say heres your dog good luck. Thats why I think they would of told me what they knew.

[Lin]

I agree that rescues should provide as much information as possible. That said, what previous owners say can very often be incorrect.

I've had a lot of fosters come to me where what the previous owners claimed was completely untrue, an exaggeration, or behavior caused by their own mistreatment of the dog. So I take everything I hear with a grain of salt, evaluate the dog myself, and tell the prospective adopters what MY opinion of the dog is. In the cases of exaggerated or bad behavior caused by the previous owners, I will disclose the claimed behavior and then explain what I believe caused it and how to avoid it happening again along with how the dog has been behaving under my care.

In looking for dogs to adopt myself, I also take what I'm told by the rescue with a grain of salt. They've only had the dog x months, I'm planning on having the dog for x years, so if I want the dog no issues that can be resolved with training put me off. Temperament however is important to evaluate before adopting. All of my dogs I adopted had training issues, Tessa was adopted and returned twice before I adopted her. Emma had a prospective adopter drive from a few states away to change their mind when they witnessed her issues with wearing a collar and leash. None of those were issues that lasted very long once adopted.