Border Collie
Rescue - On Line - Rehoming a Dog
If you have a Border Collie to rehome - please read on
The Coronavirus pandemic has changed some of the ways we work and limited the sort of dogs we are able to take in and re-home. We cannot take in any dogs that display any aggression towards humans or any animals.
We certainly will not be able to accept any dog that has bitten, no matter how it's owner may interpret what a 'bite' is, no matter if there is no skin broken, no bruising or no tear in clothing.
Any form of aggressive contact where a dog uses it's teeth is a bite no matter what the circumstances are.
We are now assessing dogs before we accept them into our care and if they fail the assessment we will not be able to take them. If you are asking us to take in your dog it is important to be honest from the start.
We may say no at that point but if we find out later or during an assessment we will definitely say no.
You may have driven a long way for the assessment but if your dog displays aggression we will not take it.
The reason - People do not come to rescues for aggressive dogs. They do not want a dog which they need to continuously watch and work on to prevent it from biting other animals or people. They do not want to carry the risk of being prosecuted under the Dangerous Dogs Act and they, reasonably, do not want to put their own family at risk.
We can offer advice on how to deal with aggression and help in that way but any dog showing any form of aggression will always be better off in an environment it knows and with people it knows than being put into a new home with strangers.
If you have a dog you have to part with that is not aggressive - read on.
Rehoming through Border Collie Rescue
If you have a Border Collie you wish to re-home we will take
your phone contact details and someone will call you back to discuss
your case. If we believe we have a reasonable chance of finding a
new home for your dog we will send you out an application to put it
on our waiting list.
You will need to send back the form and then phone us a few days later to verify we have received it and to be given a clients reference number. At that point the dog will be placed on our waiting list.
We will take dogs when space becomes available in the order they are placed on the list.
We will phone you to arrange an appointment to bring your dog to us for an assessment.
If you have placed your dog elsewhere prior to that we ask you to let us know so we can take it off the list.
We will give priority to dogs that are genuinely homeless or facing euthanasia.
You will need to send back the form and then phone us a few days later to verify we have received it and to be given a clients reference number. At that point the dog will be placed on our waiting list.
We will take dogs when space becomes available in the order they are placed on the list.
We will phone you to arrange an appointment to bring your dog to us for an assessment.
If you have placed your dog elsewhere prior to that we ask you to let us know so we can take it off the list.
This means, in effect, that priority is given to dogs in stray kennels and pounds via a Local Authority Officer, dogs threatened with a court destruction order via a Court or Police Officer, dogs referred by Veterinary practitioners having been signed over for euthanasia, dogs referred by Social Services or other Authority on behalf of a client or dogs referred by a GP or NHS facility on behalf of a patient.
In these instances we need to be contacted by a Local Authority, Court, Police, Veterinary practice, Social worker or NHS.
We also prioritise unwanted and redundant farm dogs because such dogs are often poorly socialised with little or no experience of the world outside of the farm they were born or have lived on and in need of very careful exposure to the outside world.
If we are unable to assist you by taking your dog we will try and give you telephone numbers of rescue centres near you.
Sometimes people email us asking us for advice on how to re-home their dogs and who to approach to do so.
Most of the time they don't give us any real information about the dog and don't even tell us where they are located.
How can we help if we can't suggest who to approach in their area because they have not told us where the dog lives?
That's why we say we do not enter into email discussions about re-homing, adoption or advice.
These matters are too complicated to go into by email.
Questions need to be asked and answered. The answers may give rise to more questions.
To do this by email would take several messages backwards and forwards which may extend the process over several days. By phone it can be dealt with in a few minutes.
We need to know about the dog, its background and lifestyle, any issues or problems and most of all, where it is before we can suggest who would be best to approach to re-home the dog if we cannot take it in ourselves.
To contact us about re-homing, do not email us - please phone 07707 485813 during office hours - 2 pm to 5 pm Tuesdays to Thursdays.
Unfortunately there is a limit to our resources and consequently a limit as to the numbers of dogs we can take.
We are always asked to take in far more dogs that we can accommodate.
One has to go out before another can take it's place.
We take some dogs that other rescues refuse due to their issues. These are slower to rehabilitate and re-home.
With more funds and trained foster homes we will take in more dogs but currently we have to say no too often.
We are always asked to take in far more dogs that we can accommodate.
One has to go out before another can take it's place.
We take some dogs that other rescues refuse due to their issues. These are slower to rehabilitate and re-home.
With more funds and trained foster homes we will take in more dogs but currently we have to say no too often.
If you have a Border Collie you are keeping as a pet and you are experiencing problems, you are not alone.
You may not wish to part with your dog. It may have training or behavioural issues you wish to overcome but need help.
If so, we run a free telephone advice line and can arrange one to one assessments for training and behavioural advice.
For details of how to use these services click the link below.
Border Collie Rescue - Advice Line
You may not wish to part with your dog. It may have training or behavioural issues you wish to overcome but need help.
If so, we run a free telephone advice line and can arrange one to one assessments for training and behavioural advice.
For details of how to use these services click the link below.
Border Collie Rescue - Advice Line
Rehoming through another dog rescue charity
We are not the only organisation working at capacity all the time.
Most genuine dog rescue charities are in the same situation.
This may not be easy as demands on UK dog rescue organisations are overwhelming and any reputable rescue is likely to have a waiting list.
You will need to plan in advance if you know that at some point in the future your dog will need to be re-homed because of a change in your circumstances.
In a situation of a sudden change or need to re-home a dog you may have to take steps to accommodate the dog in some other way while you wait for space at a rescue to become available.
There are reasons why a Border Collie may be turned down by a genuine rescue charity.
Some dog rescues will not take a Border Collies because they get very wound up in a kennel environment.
The risk is that Border Collies can quickly develop problems that will make it more difficult for them to be adopted and quite a few rescues will not be willing to take on any dog with behavioural problems because they do not have the time or facilities to provide rehabilitation.
They can re-home more dogs if they don't fill kennels with Border Collies so they cherry pick dogs to take in.
Most rescue groups are only set up to re-home dogs as pets.
They know that a high proportion of BC's they take in need more from life than a family home can offer, which is why most pet BC's are put up for re-homing. If a rescue is unable to assess a dog for its herding capabilities or re-home a dog into a working home they know that any re-homing is likely to undo work they have done rehabilitating the dog and result in more problems with the dog coming back to them again, and again.
The risk is that Border Collies can quickly develop problems that will make it more difficult for them to be adopted and quite a few rescues will not be willing to take on any dog with behavioural problems because they do not have the time or facilities to provide rehabilitation.
They can re-home more dogs if they don't fill kennels with Border Collies so they cherry pick dogs to take in.
Most rescue groups are only set up to re-home dogs as pets.
They know that a high proportion of BC's they take in need more from life than a family home can offer, which is why most pet BC's are put up for re-homing. If a rescue is unable to assess a dog for its herding capabilities or re-home a dog into a working home they know that any re-homing is likely to undo work they have done rehabilitating the dog and result in more problems with the dog coming back to them again, and again.
What happens if a dog is showing aggressive tendencies?
If you have a dog that has problems with aggression towards other dogs, many rescues will be unable to take it because they need to have shared kennels with two or three dogs to each unit so can only take in dogs that get on with other dogs.If your dog shows aggression towards people doors will close because rehabilitating dogs with such problems takes time and carries risks for staff and the public.
If your dog has attacked, bitten or nipped a human, particularly a child, recent changes in the law now class it as a 'dangerous dog' making it almost impossible for any rescue to re-home it, even if they agree to take it in.
The problem of rehoming lies in the obligation a rescue has to be honest in disclosing any issues the dog had when it came into their care. Even after rehabilitation a rescue could not guarantee that any dog would not regress if incorrectly handled.
When a potential adopter is advised a dog has had an aggressive past they usually refuse to take it because they do not want to risk being liable for any incident that may cause injury to themselves, their family or the public.
People don't generally come to a rescue centre looking for an aggressive dog.
There are so many friendly dogs to choose from.
Some dodgy 'rescues' will be economic with the truth in order to get the dog out and a donation in but this raises a number of moral, ethical and legal issues.
If the dog attacks its new owner or anyone else it comes into contact with the rescue would be liable as it withheld critical information, deceived the new home and left the new owners unable to be prepared for such an incident.
If the dog has been re-homed as suitable to be a pet it is another form of deception and also an offence under consumer law.
A dog is property and when sold or re-homed it must be 'as described' and 'fit for purpose'.
There is one other factor that may influence a rescue when asked to take on an aggressive dog.
The risk to their staff when handling it.
In a kennel situation the risk is controllable but in a fostering situation the risk to the foster carers, their families, friends, visitors and the public is always there so with many rescue that use a fostering system it is more difficult to accommodate such dogs.
As they have a low chance of being re-homed, dogs with aggression are likely to end up in kennels for the rest of their lives.
The best chance of a future an aggressive dog is to stay in the home it is used to rather than being moved elsewhere.
Moving the dog to a rescue centre will stress it, adding to it's insecurity with the potential to make its issues worse.
We are always happy to advise people on how to safely house and rehabilitate an aggressive dog rather than have it euthanised.
The world of dog rescue is a minefield. Here's a word of warning.
We only suggest you approach a genuine rescue, either a registered non-profit or a registered charity.
These can be identified by either a non-profit company number or registered charity number.
The difference between a trading company and a non profit company lies in its memorandum, the part of its documentation that deals with who owns it and who gets dividends and shares profits.
In a nonprofit the company owns it's assets, dividends cannot be paid out and profits must be re-invested not shared out.
Commercial companies must use the suffix Ltd after their registered name. Non-profits do not have to.
By law, registered companies and registered charities are required to display their registration numbers and other information like a registered office address for postal contact on all publications, including a website.
Status can be verified, the former with Companies House, the latter with the Charities Commission (or OSCR in Scotland)
Some organisations, like us, are both. An incorporated non-profit registered charity.
Incorporated Non Profit Companies and Registered Charities are entities in their own right under law.
The people who run them act as their agents and do not actually own any of their assets or take any profits.
In the case of a Charity any income, given or raised can only be spent on its objects and its beneficiaries.
These sort of organisations are regulated, financially controlled and are responsible to the public for what they do and how they do it. It is called accountability.
There are a lot of commercial rescue's around.
Unless they are registered as a company they are not accountable to anyone other than HMRC for tax purposes.
Be very wary if using the internet as some of them try to hide this and imply they are charitable with plausible websites!
Be wary of 'testimonials'. These are easily faked.
Commercial rescues get friends to pose as clients and give them good reviews.
Although most review sites say that postings are verified it is easy enough to set up email addresses on services like Hotmail and others so a commercial rescues can put up their own reviews. Always good, of course!
Here's a good example of how its done - on national TV news in December 2017
A man set up a false restaurant in London and called it 'The Shed'.
It was, in fact, a large garden shed and as a restaurant it did not exist but he fooled Trip Adviser by getting friends and family to post so many good reviews that Trip Advisor ended up listing it as the most popular restaurant in London.
People were trying to book tables from all over the world based on these reviews.
Don't be fooled by what people seem to be saying about any goods or services online. It is too easy to fake it!
The truth of the matter is that commercial rescues are run by people who have seen an opportunity to exploit the problem of unwanted animals in order to make money for themselves claiming they are not doing it for profit.
By posing as a 'good cause' they fall below the radar of licensing requirements and inspections that would normally be required by businesses selling animals or accommodating them commercially.
Some also seek to avoid paying income tax they would be liable for as a business by keeping below the horizon of HMRC.
They get all their 'stock' free and often import from foreign rescues. In some cases they will trawl free ad websites looking for adverts 'Free to good home' and even contact farms offering to purchase whole litters of puppies as a 'job lot' so they can sell them on for a 'fixed donation'.
In Fareham the council have recently closed down such an operation trading from a council owned house.
If they are not registered as a non-profit or charity they are an unregulated business taking advantage of the situation for profit and personal gain.
These can be identified by either a non-profit company number or registered charity number.
The difference between a trading company and a non profit company lies in its memorandum, the part of its documentation that deals with who owns it and who gets dividends and shares profits.
In a nonprofit the company owns it's assets, dividends cannot be paid out and profits must be re-invested not shared out.
Commercial companies must use the suffix Ltd after their registered name. Non-profits do not have to.
By law, registered companies and registered charities are required to display their registration numbers and other information like a registered office address for postal contact on all publications, including a website.
Status can be verified, the former with Companies House, the latter with the Charities Commission (or OSCR in Scotland)
Some organisations, like us, are both. An incorporated non-profit registered charity.
Incorporated Non Profit Companies and Registered Charities are entities in their own right under law.
The people who run them act as their agents and do not actually own any of their assets or take any profits.
In the case of a Charity any income, given or raised can only be spent on its objects and its beneficiaries.
These sort of organisations are regulated, financially controlled and are responsible to the public for what they do and how they do it. It is called accountability.
There are a lot of commercial rescue's around.
Unless they are registered as a company they are not accountable to anyone other than HMRC for tax purposes.
Be very wary if using the internet as some of them try to hide this and imply they are charitable with plausible websites!
Be wary of 'testimonials'. These are easily faked.
Commercial rescues get friends to pose as clients and give them good reviews.
Although most review sites say that postings are verified it is easy enough to set up email addresses on services like Hotmail and others so a commercial rescues can put up their own reviews. Always good, of course!
Here's a good example of how its done - on national TV news in December 2017
A man set up a false restaurant in London and called it 'The Shed'.
It was, in fact, a large garden shed and as a restaurant it did not exist but he fooled Trip Adviser by getting friends and family to post so many good reviews that Trip Advisor ended up listing it as the most popular restaurant in London.
People were trying to book tables from all over the world based on these reviews.
Don't be fooled by what people seem to be saying about any goods or services online. It is too easy to fake it!
The truth of the matter is that commercial rescues are run by people who have seen an opportunity to exploit the problem of unwanted animals in order to make money for themselves claiming they are not doing it for profit.
By posing as a 'good cause' they fall below the radar of licensing requirements and inspections that would normally be required by businesses selling animals or accommodating them commercially.
Some also seek to avoid paying income tax they would be liable for as a business by keeping below the horizon of HMRC.
They get all their 'stock' free and often import from foreign rescues. In some cases they will trawl free ad websites looking for adverts 'Free to good home' and even contact farms offering to purchase whole litters of puppies as a 'job lot' so they can sell them on for a 'fixed donation'.
In Fareham the council have recently closed down such an operation trading from a council owned house.
If they are not registered as a non-profit or charity they are an unregulated business taking advantage of the situation for profit and personal gain.
Here are some things to look out for
Such scams usually describe themselves as "not for profit" and may not provide a contact address on their website, hiding behind a mobile phone number so they are more difficult to trace and hold accountable.Their websites are designed to look or 'feel' similar to the websites of genuine charities and they will use similar domain names to get in the search engine lists alongside the charities they emulate.
They will have a host of good reviews and will be active on forums, having people post good things about their work.
They will seem to get a higher than average proportion of puppies. Some of these will be sourced commercially (puppy farms) usually from Wales or Ireland. Puppies are easy and quick to re-home!
They also get a high proportion of their dogs from overseas.
Getting a dog from them is fairly easy. They may do home visits because they will have fooled a lot of gullible people into supporting them by volunteering to do them. Everyone will pass a home check.
If you give them money you are giving it to a private individual or partnership and it belongs to them personally and may be subject to tax if they declare it but theirs to spend on themselves in any way they want.
If you sign your dog over to them you are giving it away to a private individual or partnership and it belongs to them to do with as they please. Sometimes you may be asked to make a "donation" or pay a fee when handing over your dog.
No genuine rescue or charity would make this a condition - either by demand or emotional blackmail.
The worst sort of scams will demand payment for taking a dog in then dump the dog on the streets or have it destroyed using some of the money you paid them and keeping the rest as profit.
Until Rescue is properly regulated in the UK such people will be able to take advantage - don't get caught and don't let your dog get caught either.
Some additional information that may aid understanding
There are countries who's animal welfare laws are not as strong as ours and where politicians have little incentive to make changes.
Often there is also a poor social attitude to animals and
exploitation is common and generally accepted without question and
one consequence is a lot of accidental and deliberate breeding and
there are many homeless dogs on the streets.
Rescue organisation in some of these countries will offer dogs to UK rescue groups and will cover costs of vaccinations,
vet treatment and travel in order to
export their dogs to a country where they have a better chance of finding a home.
Some bigger rescue charities do this through their own overseas
branches and with their own resources but most of this import trade
goes through the commercial rescue operations who see an opportunity
to acquire dogs, free of charge, delivered to the door with all
the expensive veterinary work done and paid for and the dog fully
recovered from any treatments like neutering and spaying, ready to re-home.
All they need to do is to accommodate and feed the dog until someone
takes it and pays a donation so most of the donation is profit.
We will only take in and re-home dogs within the UK. We do not
import dogs from Ireland or elsewhere, but some rescue organisations
are so busy importing dogs from Ireland or further abroad they do
not have the space to take dogs from members of public in the
UK.
This has always been a serious dilemma.
As long as dogs are taken out of countries with poor welfare laws there will appear to be no problem or need to improve the situation to legislators in those countries and it will take campaigners a huge amount of work to get any changes to the law.
The dilemma lies between saving dogs in the current situation or refusing to take them so the country of origin is forced to confront the problem and pass laws to bring in better standards of welfare.
Do we save dogs now or save future generations at the risk of those currently needing help?
In the Republic of Ireland there was a terrible problem of unregulated rescue and puppy farming with poor animal welfare laws. The authorities only took action to make changes when they found their rescue centres overrun by unwanted dogs and the stray dog and euthanasia numbers became so bad that the public started to protest and demand change.
Armed with public support, politicians and campaigners who had been working for years without much in the way of support were able to get the attention of lawmakers and promote change.
Outcome - laws regulating breeding and puppy farming and a new updated animal welfare act.
Recently they have banned the use of wild animals in circuses.
None of this would have been imaginable a few years ago. They do still have problems enforcing these laws and catching transgressors but things are improving rapidly.
As long as dogs are taken out of countries with poor welfare laws there will appear to be no problem or need to improve the situation to legislators in those countries and it will take campaigners a huge amount of work to get any changes to the law.
The dilemma lies between saving dogs in the current situation or refusing to take them so the country of origin is forced to confront the problem and pass laws to bring in better standards of welfare.
Do we save dogs now or save future generations at the risk of those currently needing help?
In the Republic of Ireland there was a terrible problem of unregulated rescue and puppy farming with poor animal welfare laws. The authorities only took action to make changes when they found their rescue centres overrun by unwanted dogs and the stray dog and euthanasia numbers became so bad that the public started to protest and demand change.
Armed with public support, politicians and campaigners who had been working for years without much in the way of support were able to get the attention of lawmakers and promote change.
Outcome - laws regulating breeding and puppy farming and a new updated animal welfare act.
Recently they have banned the use of wild animals in circuses.
None of this would have been imaginable a few years ago. They do still have problems enforcing these laws and catching transgressors but things are improving rapidly.
Because we care about the Border Collies entrusted to us and we care about the ethics and moral responsibilities of rescue, we only want our dogs to be re-homed once, so we consider it important for both the dog and the new home to get it right first time.
By taking the time and trouble to properly assess each individual Border Collie we are able to pass on accurate and honest information about the dog to applicants.
By taking the time and trouble to gather information on the homes being offered we are able to offer suitable matches to applicants, taking the 'pot luck' out of re-homing and providing a responsible service to both the dogs and the people who apply to adopt one.
By taking the time and trouble to properly assess each individual Border Collie we are able to pass on accurate and honest information about the dog to applicants.
By taking the time and trouble to gather information on the homes being offered we are able to offer suitable matches to applicants, taking the 'pot luck' out of re-homing and providing a responsible service to both the dogs and the people who apply to adopt one.
If you are interested in adopting a Border Collie from us,
please do not write to us or email us - we want to speak to you before we start the process.
Please phone us during office hours. Details here.
Calls to our office and mobile will only be answered during our office hours