Weds 15th March: Not every home is suitable

Elsie and Elvin at Tai Po once had a home

 You might wonder why, when we have so many dogs and puppies waiting for homes, that we reject any offers of a home.  The reason is quite simple, that after twenty years of  HKDR being in operation, and much longer in my own personal experience of rescuing and re-homing dogs, we know that while dogs have adapted well to living with humans and sharing their way of life, they are still animals that have certain inborn needs. 

Our priority is not just to satisfy the humans, but to try our best to make sure that the homes that dogs and puppies go to are suitable, and that we're as sure as we can be that the dog will stay for the rest of its life.  Even so,  we get dogs returned by adopters, or find out through the dog rescue network (yes, we do communicate with each other) when ex-HKDR dogs are being abandoned.   Every time this occurs it makes us try even harder to avoid that happening again, although we will never realistically achieve 100% success rate.   

There are different reasons for us turning down applications to adopt, and I'm not going to go into detail about what they.  It's been said by some we only home to rich people, or Westerners, or this and that, but none of those statements are true as can be seen by the adoption photos and stories that we share.   Our decisions have nothing to do with race, ethnicity, gender or income, they're based solely on what's best for the dogs. If we feel that the dog or puppy actually leads a happier life at the Homing Centre than it would in any potential home, then we will wait until a better situation is offered.

It's unfortunate that currently the rules and regulations for importing dogs to some countries make it impossible in many cases, so that's another reason why we ask that potential adopters think very carefully about the long-term commitment of bringing a dog into the home, and what that means in financial terms as well as anything else if there's a chance of leaving Hong Kong. 

On a happier note, of course many adoptions still take place every month, and we're obviously very happy about every one of those.  Having our very experienced trainer, Cactus Mok, available to offer advice to all HKDR adopters means that we are sure that we're doing our best to support everyone through what can be the difficult first days or weeks, and I know that this has made a huge difference to many grateful adopters.   Cactus not only has the highest basic trainer qualifications, but her interest in continuing her studies means that she keeps up with all of the most up-to-date scientific developments in dog behaviour, many of which expose the myths that old-fashioned trainers still use.