Not What You Signed Up For: The Rescue Dog Breed Problem

Hello, dog peeps. Jack here. Just a quick one before we get into this episode. You may or may not be aware that when I'm not talking dog stuff with Max, I in fact interview people who are incarcerated in prisons across the United States on a show called One Minute Remaining: Stories from the Inmates. And that show has been nominated for an award in America. And I would love your support if you've got 60 seconds to click the link in the show notes of this episode and just vote for my show. That would be amazing if you could. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and don't forget to verify your email address. Otherwise, the vote does not count. Thank you.

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It's the Dog People Podcast with your host Jack Lawrence. Secretly, I decided to start this podcast for some free dog training advice. You know, Malinois seem to be like the dog at the moment. Like, I think people see them on Instagram doing these incredible things.

Yeah.

Go, oh my God, that's awesome. And then I get one like, oh my God, what the fuck? And Max O'Neill.

You would not believe how many people I meet And I go, what made you want to get, say, an Aussie Shepherd? They go, I don't know. I go, had you met one before? They go, no. If you want to ask me how often I walk my own dog a week, it's only twice a week.

It's the Dog People Podcast, the podcast hopefully giving you a no-nonsense approach to dog training so you never have to shout, it's okay, it's friendly. My name is Jack Lawrence, not a dog trainer, just a dog training enthusiast. But of course, Max O'Neill, Down Under Dog Trainer. Today, Max, We're going to talk about rescues, but more specifically, the breeds that you get from rescues or that you think potentially you're getting from rescues.

Yeah, this one's popped up for me a lot lately, especially in the last year or two. I've noticed a lot more prevalent. And what I'm referring to is rescue dogs actually lying and bullshitting a little bit about what breed you're getting. And it's just becoming more and more common. And it's also becoming a little bit more Outrageous, some of the ones that I've seen. And what I mean is, you know, people will get this dog that— and the rescue might have told them it's a particular breed of dog. Maybe that breed is more popular. Maybe that breed is what the people are looking for. But then the breed they actually get, or when that dog grows and matures, is quite clearly not that breed. Sometimes it's got a, you know, oh yeah, it's part of this, but a very small part. But sometimes I've also— I'm like, there's— There's not an ounce of that breed in this dog you've got. And one of the funniest but also craziest examples was last year, you know, on my way to a client's house, I was checking the notes and go, okay, cool. This is, you know, Henry the French Bulldog or something like that. These are the issues. Went sweet, went over my notes, got to the house, introduced myself, and this giant 45-kilo dog came running up to me and I went, oh, g'day, mate. I was like, don't think I'm here to see you. Where's, uh, Henry the Frenchie? They went, oh, that's him. Oh, that's him. And I was like, he's bigger than my Rottweiler. You said he was a French Bulldog. Yeah, that's what the rescue told us. And I went, but he's not. He was like a boxer mastiff. He was enormous. I don't reckon he had an ounce of French Bulldog in him. But again, they went to the, you know, they might have said, hey, what sort of dog are you looking for? Oh, we'd love a Frenchie. They went, well, this one's kind of got the same flat face and he's pretty tiny right now. Maybe if we tell him he's a Frenchie cross. they'll take him, which they did. But this dog was— they even showed me puppy photos. I went, oh God, that dog is not an ounce of French Bulldog. Like, and it's happening more and more and more. So I thought we'd chat about it.

Yeah. I mean, look, getting, getting— we've spoken about, you know, getting dogs from rescues before and we're big fans of rescues. We're big fans of, you know, choice and what you want to do. I mean, I know a lot of people, it's, again, it's a topic that people are very militant about when it comes to getting dogs and, you know, adopt, don't shop and all that sort of stuff. But we've covered all of that off on that. But one of the things we spoke about in that is, you You never really know what you're getting completely when you get from a rescue. Like, for instance, all my dogs throughout my life have all been rescues, and I have never been 100% sure what I've got. Even obviously down to Kira, same thing where for so long I'm going, you know, she looks like she's got some Kelpie in her, but she, you know, they're saying she's a cattle dog. I had a brother here with us for a little while, and he looked much more like a cattle dog in the head. Now we're thinking more GSP because of the way she loves to hunt and she's got the pointing thing going on.

Yeah, everything about her.

At the end of the day, I don't care because I wasn't looking for a dog. She came to the house and she stayed. You know, but it becomes— I think where it becomes an issue is, number one, if you want a small dog and you end up with a massive 40-kilo dog, that's an issue because you're like, well, that's not what we wanted in our family. But also temperament-wise and what you can potentially handle. So, you know, if you're looking for a Labrador and someone gives you a dog and says, that's a Labrador, when really there's more German Shepherd in it. Yeah.

Yeah.

Then you're copping a dog that you were not prepared for.

That's it. And I think like, it's, it's a tough one, right? We've got to understand, you know, and again, we're not bashing rescues, but rescue dogs have got a motive to get dogs out of their shelters because they don't want to have to keep these dogs in forever because it's shit. And if they keep dogs long enough, sometimes they do get euthanized. There are such things as kill shelters, unfortunately. So I get the initiative to want to move dogs on as fast as possible. The thing is, is like when you just lie about the breed, you're more likely to get dogs out, but you're just going to create boomerang dogs who come right back. When people go in a year's time, go, hey, this dog's like 30 kilos heavier than we thought. I can't fit. You know, maybe I'm elderly, maybe I can't handle the dog. Or like Jack said, thought I was getting a low drive lab. I ended up getting this, you know, more close to a German Shepherd and it's a lot more drivey. I can't handle it. Those dogs are just going to come back and then they're coming back at a less desirable age. They've got some history of, oh, this dog has been rehomed.

And worse, probably worse behavioural issues as well than they had when they first left.

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And look, we want to point out that there are plenty of very good organizations and very good rescues and all that sort of stuff who do their checks and balances and do all the right things. So it's not everyone, not tarnishing everyone with the same brush, but there are those places that, again, there's one near us we spoke about off air that, you know, I very much disagree with a lot of what they do. There's a lot of fire sale situations going on.

Yeah.

Which I think is just insane because all you're doing is creating, as we said, that revolving door. And I've seen on their website before promotions of certain breeds. And I'm looking at, I'm no expert when it comes to dogs whatsoever. I don't have your knowledge, but I can look at that and go, That is just not what you're saying that is. And I sit there thinking, you literally are just creating a revolving door. Like, these dogs will either just come— I mean, worst case scenario, the people just either they dump them or, you know, give them away on the side of the street sort of thing. You know, best case scenario, they just come back to you again. Yeah.

And then they're stuck there. So they get something terribly wrong and get put down. Yeah. And look, and again, the reason we're talking about it is because I've noticed it and I'm not alone. I've chatted to other trainers and be like, have you noticed this lately? And A lot of people are, so it's worth mentioning. But it started off a bit more innocuous. I'll give you an example, right? Like a few years ago, you know, I met a lab Kelpie, um, Kelpie lab, whatever you want to call it, Lelpie or cab. And, um, they're pretty common, like to enough where you can spot a lab Kelpie now. They've got a pretty distinctive look. And I got to this person's place, so this is a lab cross, we don't know with what. I'm like, it's definitely a Kelpie lab. The guy didn't say that. I'm like, yeah, they kind of left Kelpie off the thing because then you would have said, oh, it's too high energy and we can't handle it, right? So rather than calling it a Kelpie cross, they call it a lab cross. even though they definitely know what the 2 breeds are, they left one off. You used to see that all the time and go, whatever. Yep, fair play. But yeah, it's just gotten slowly more outrageous where they'll kind of not really know what a dog is and kind of just go, oh, you know, back in the day they used to call everything Staffy cross. That was the thing. Oh, it's a Chihuahua cross, Staffy cross. But they realised that a lot of people, rightly or wrongly, went, ugh, not for us.

Yeah.

So they started calling them different things. And now again, I'm getting people who are telling me their dog is one thing, And then when I'm going, nah, I can tell you, like, I know my breeds and that ain't that. Or they'll get a DNA test and go, this is, this is not got an ounce of what they told us. And it's, it's a bit disappointing for the owners. And like I said, it sets up some dodgy situations. So we wanted to raise it. And what you can do is if you are looking at rescuing at the moment and they've told you it's this or that, you know, you can go to someone who does know breeds really well. Generally, your local trainer will be pretty good and maybe just go, hey, look, We're rescuing this dog. We're probably going to use you anyway, but can I just send you a few pics and you can tell me what breed this is? And because we all see hundreds or thousands of dogs a year, like, we get pretty good at seeing what's what. It's a weird skill that we kind of pride ourselves on. So, yeah, do that. And you might find that they, hey, it's probably this, this, and this, and that might affect your decision-making. And it's probably worth knowing.

Also, I would suggest if you're going to these places and you've got a specific dog in mind, you see this dog, I know it's very hard. Like we always say, we're only going to look, you know, it's the biggest thing. Oh, we're just going to go and have a look. And everyone knows, yeah, you're not going to, you're not leaving without a dog. But if you look at a dog and you're being told it's something, try and spend some— most of these places will allow you to spend time with the dog, you know, in some respect. You know, I know there's a couple of places near us where they've got sort of fields and some space where you can go out and, you know, socialise the dog, spend time with the dog. And you can generally get an idea pretty quickly if you've got, if a dog is not quite what it's being sold as in respects to its drive and, you know, if it's super energetic or it's sort of going nuts, then maybe it's not potentially the sort of, you know, chilled breed that you were looking for. But as Max says, and this comes down to, again, take your time. Don't rush into these things because it is a massive commitment. We always say that all the time. And everyone who's got a dog listening to this knows. Yeah. that having a dog is a massive commitment. I think there's always been this thing, you know, this age-old thing of like, oh, dogs are a big commitment. But, you know, and it's sort of become a throwaway line, just like, oh, well, yeah, we know that, you know, you've got to feed it, you've got to walk it. But it genuinely is much more than that.

They're the most high-maintenance pet you can own. Yeah, it's so much more work than a cat or a fish or a turtle. Like, it's crazy. It really is such an insane commitment. And yeah, the reason we bang on about all this breed stuff is because To be brutally honest, if most, if people just got the right breed that suited

them,

most of them would be out of a job because everything would just be a bit easier. So, that's why it's worth harping on about. And look, with that being said, there's also some great stuff that rescues are doing that I think is really clever. I'll give you an example. They've kind of cottoned on that if they give dogs quirky names, they're a bit more likely to get adopted. And again, does that mean the right homes are getting them? Who knows? We won't go that far down it, but like. They'll do like a litter of dogs and they'll get— they'll give them a theme like, this is our potato-themed litter. And they'll go, hey, these are our puppies. Mashed potato, French fry, crisps, potato salad.

Kira came from the French litter. So they were all French names.

What was she?

Fleur.

Fleur.

I know. Yeah, Fleur. She's not— I mean, Fleur's not getting adopted and she didn't. Fleur stayed with us. So, yeah. So try not to be fooled for the cute names and the, you know, the potential wrong breeds that you're being thrown. Take your time. Deep breath. Take— yeah, get your second opinion. Reach out to a trainer. I think most trainers, if not all trainers, will be very willing to, you know, briefly have a look at a couple of photos and give you an honest opinion. Because at the end of the day, you'll probably end up using them for work anyway. So, and also use our Facebook group. Drop the photos in the Facebook. If you're looking at a dog and you're not sure, throw it in our Facebook group and we'll have a look. I won't. Max will have a look.

We'll run an eye over it. And I guess so will all the comments as well. All the other dog people in the group.

Everyone loves to get involved, so get involved right now. Search the Dog People Podcast on Facebook and we'll see you next time.

And if you, if you are listening and you got it, you know, you or a friend are thinking of rescuing, or if you've got a friend who you know is actively looking to rescue, flick this episode to them just so they're aware of it before, before they pull the trigger on something that might not be what is being sold.

We probably don't say that enough, do we? Share far and wide. Yeah, we're doing no self-promotion whatsoever. All right, get involved. We'll talk to you See you soon. The Dog People Podcast is a Mashed Pumpkin production hosted by Jack Lawrence and Max O'Neill. Edited, produced, and audio production by Jack Lawrence.

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