# Checklist about helping rescue dogs.



## Strana1 (Feb 9, 2008)

I and new here and apologize if this info is listed or discussed somewhere, I couldn't find it. I am looking for a check list of sorts on things to do to try and help these dogs listed on this website (especially the ones on the urgent list). I mean when a dog gets posted that they are urgent what are things I can do from a 100 or 1000 miles away to get this dog help? I was thinking that trying to contact local rescues to notify them of the dog would help. If I call the shelter what question should I ask to get information that is helpful to this board. If the dog is local what can I dog if I personally cannot foster or adopt the dog? I hate feeling helpless when I open these links and see the sad brown eyes. I am looking for avenues to pursue that can effectively help. Thanks in advance!


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## tibvixie101 (Nov 26, 2007)

i feel the same way you do! I try and look at my local animal welfare websites to see if any GSD;s come through so i can alert a rescue to see if they can be pulled. You can also help by becoming a "buddy" or some rescues call it a "guardian angel" where you can financially help out a certian dog or dogs in need to help pay for vet appts, preventitive meds, blankets, food etc. You can also help by becoming a transporter, to drive dogs who have been rescued near you to their new home/rescue/ or a checkpoint where the dog will be picked up by the next transporter. This can be as little as pulling the dog from a shelter and driving it an hour to the next leg, or more if you choose. 

Some questions to ask if you are calling to inquire about a dog:
-their age
-temperment questions like are they good with other dogs, cats, children etc. 
-health issues they may have
-are they indanger of being put to sleep
-how soon can they be pulled from the shelter
-any other issues or info that may help in finding the dog a home. 

Im no pro, so im sure that others will be able to add to my list!


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## dd (Jun 10, 2003)

There used to be thread here called "100 Things you can do to help rescue". That's probably not what you meant, but it's a good list. In the case of purebred dogs, in the majority of cases local rescues are well aware of the dog, but often they are already very full, sometimes with dogs in kenneling waiting for a foster spot. This has been an unusually bad year.

Sponsorship of a dog can be a huge help.

dd


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## dd (Jun 10, 2003)

From the Trinity of Hope website:
102 Ways...
Help Rescue Without Adopting a Dog or Fostering a Dog
Can you... 
Transport a dog? 
Donate a dog bed or towels or other *bedding* type items?** 
Donate MONEY (collect your change for a week or a month and donate that!)? 
Donate a Kong? A nylabone? A hercules? 
Donate a crate? 
Donate an x-pen or baby gates? 
Donate a food dish or a stainless bucket for a crate? 
Donate a leash? 
Donate a collar? 
Donate some treats or a bag of food? 
Donate a halti or promise collar or a gentle leader? 
Walk a dog? 
Groom a dog? 
Donate some grooming supplies (shampoos, combs, brushes, etc.)? 
Go to the local shelter and see if that dog is the breed the shelter says it is or go with rescue to be a second opinion on the dog? 
Make a few phone calls? 
Mail out applications to people who've requested them? 
Provide local vet clinics with contact information for educational materials on responsible pet ownership? 
Drive a dog to and from vet appointments? 
Donate long distance calling cards? 
Donate the use of your scanner or digital camera? 
Donate the use of a photocopier? 
Attend public education days and try to educate people on responsible pet ownership? 
Donate a gift certificate to a pet store? 
Donate a raffle item if your club is holding a fund raiser? 
Donate flea stuff (Advantage, etc.)? 
Donate hw pills? 
Donate a canine first aid kit? 
Provide a shoulder to cry on when the rescue person is overwhelmed? 
Pay the boarding fees to board a dog for a week? Two weeks? 
Be a Santi-paws foster to give the foster a break for a few hours or days? 
Clip coupons for dog food or treats? 
Bake some homemade doggie biscuits? 
Make book purchases through Amazon via a web site that contributes commissions earned to a rescue group? 
Host rescue photos with an information link on your website.? 
Donate time to take good photos of foster dogs for adoption flyers, etc.? 
Conduct a home visit or accompany a rescue person on the home visit? 
Go with rescue person to the vet to help if there is more than one dog? 
Have a yard sale and donate the money to rescue? 
Be volunteer to do rescue in your area? 
Take advantage of a promotion on the web or store offering a free ID tag and instead of getting it for your own dog, have the tag inscribed with your Club's name and phone # to contact? 
Talk to all your friends about adopting and fostering rescue dogs? 
Donate vet services or can you help by donating a spay or neuter each year or some vaccinations? 
Interview vets to encourage them to offer discounts to rescues? 
Write a column for your local newspaper or club newsletter on dogs on dogs currently looking for homes or ways to help rescue? 
Take photos of dogs available for adoption for use by the Club? 
Maintain web sites listing/showing dogs available? 
Help organize and run fundraising events? 
Help maintain the paperwork files associated with each dog or enter the information into a database? 
Tattoo a rescued dog? 
Microchip a rescued dog? 
Loan your carpet steamcleaner to someone who has fostered a dog that was sick or marked in the house? 
Donate a bottle of bleach or other cleaning products? 
Donate or loan a portable dog run to someone who doesn't have a quarantine area for quarantining a dog that has an unknown vaccination history and has been in a shelter? 
Drive the fosters' children to an activity so that the foster can take the dog to obedience class? 
Use your video camera to film a rescue dog in action? 
Pay the cost of taking a dog to obedience class? 
Be the one to take the dog to its obedience class? 
Go to the foster home once a week with your children and dogs to help socialize the dog? 
Help the foster clean up the yard (yes, we also have to scoop what those foster dogs poop) 
Offer to test the foster dog with cats? 
Pay for the dog to be groomed or take the dog to a *Do It Yourself* Grooming Place? 
Bring the foster take out so the foster doesn't have to cook dinner? 
Pay a house-cleaning service to do the spring cleaning for someone who fosters dogs all the time? 
Lend your artistic talents to your club's newsletter, fundraising ideas, t-shirt designs? 
Donate printer paper, envelopes and stamps to your club? 
Go with a rescue person to the vet if a foster dog needs to be euthanized? 
Go to local shelters and meet with shelter staff about how to identify your breed or provide photos and breed information showing the different types of that breed may come in and the different colour combinations? 
Go to local businesses and solicit donations for a club's fundraising event? 
Offer to try and help owners be better pet owners by holding a grooming seminar? 
Help pet owners be better pet owners by being available to answer training questions? 
Loan a crate if a dog needs to travel by air? 
Put together an *Owner's Manual* for those who adopt rescued dogs of your breed? 
Provide post-adoption follow up or support? 
Donate a coupon for a free car wash or gas or inside cleaning of a vehicle? 
Pay for an ad in your local/metropolitan paper to help place rescue dogs? 
Volunteer to screen calls for that ad? 
Get some friends together to build/repair pens for a foster home? 
Microchip your own pups if you are a breeder, and register the chips, so if your dogs ever come into rescue, you can be contacted to take responsibility for your pup? 
Donate a small percentage of the sale of each pup to rescue if you are a breeder? 
Buy two of those really neat dog-items you "have to have" and donate one to Rescue? 
Make financial arrangements in your will to cover the cost of caring for your dogs after you are gone - so Rescue won't have to? 
Make a bequest in your will to your local or national Rescue? 
Donate your professional services as an accountant or lawyer? 
Donate other services if you run your own business? 
Donate the use of a vehicle if you own a car dealership? 
Loan your cell phone (and cover costs for any calls) to s/one driving a rescued dog? 
Donate your *used* dog dryer when you get a new one? 
Let rescue know when you'll be flying and that you'd be willing to be a rescued dog's escort? 
Do something not listed above to help rescue? 
Donate a doggy seatbelt? 
Donate a grid for a van or other vehicle? 
Organize a rescued dog picnic or other event to reunite the rescued dogs that have been placed? 
Donate other types of doggy toys that might be safe for rescued dogs? 
Donate a roll-a-treat or Buster cube? 
Donate clickers or a video on clicker training? 
Donate materials for a quarantine area at a foster's home? 
Donate sheets of linoleum or other flooring materials to put under crates to protect the foster's floor? 
Donate an engraving tool to make ID tags for each of the rescued dogs? 
Donate frequent flyer points so that rescue can fly a dog from another area to safety? 
Offer to be a rescued dog's flight escort, especially if your work requires you to travel frequently or you work in the travel industry? 
Do something not listed above to help rescue? 
**gently-used dog equipment is always welcomed.


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## Strana1 (Feb 9, 2008)

It is a good list on helping the rescues themselves, but I was thinking more on the line that someone sees an urgent dog on dogsindanger.com and posts it here. What are things I can do to help_ that particular dog._ I realize most of the time I am 100's of miles away from a dog listed here, and so I am looking to maybe do the little things that might tip the scales in the dogs favor to save him.


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## Timber1 (May 19, 2007)

Wow,

I started with rescue only a few months ago, but some suggestions.

If you are experienced with dogs, I am sure you can go ahead and adopt a pet directly from the urgent rescue dogs posted. I live in Wisconsin and the first dog I helped was from Michigan and ended up with a Madison, WI. rescue group. 

If you want some help check out the NH rescue groups. Wisconsin has a great rep for transporting dogs from our southern states and saving them. However, I have no idea about NH. My advice, as previoulsy mentioned is check on the rescue groups in your area. 

I can tell you I am now affiliated with a rescue group and there help has been invaluable.


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## pupresq (Dec 2, 2005)

Helping rescues helps rescues help dogs, but I do understand what you mean. It's nice to be able to help specific dogs that speak to your heart.

I think if you want to help facilitate the rescue of a particular dog and you're not close enough to help with transport, most of your helping options are going to be limited to crossposting the dog's information - which, if it's already on here, is not going to be as necessary, and financial support - which is ALWAYS welcome. 

Offering to sponsor the dog - pay the pull fee, or for their vetting, or to board them, can all help enormously. You can also call the shelter and offer to sponsor the dog and they can then list the the animal as "sponsored" on their website. 

However, a quick word about sponsorships: I know some people may disagree with me, but I am of the opinion that sponsorships should be offered to approved (reputable) rescues ONLY. I do not believe in paying a dog's adoption fee so that it can be adopted locally for free. You are not doing that dog any favors. If someone cannot afford the nominal adoption fees that most southern shelters charge, or is choosing a dog simply because it's free, these are not placements you want to facilitate. 

ETA: Sponsorships are wonderful, but if you go that route, do remember that the limiting factor for most rescue groups is not money, it's foster homes. We all need money, don't get me wrong, but having places to put all the deserving dogs is the harder part of the equation. Even with sponsorships, rescue groups may not be able to take a dog - also a group that will take anything, especially anything sponsored is a red flag that they're turning over dogs for profit and again, not something you want to facilitate. 

What about becoming a foster for GSRNE? And then offering to foster the dogs that appeal to you off the Urgent page?


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Do You Know Where That Dog is Going? thread-this stuff happens and there are also issues with adopting shelter dogs without having met them/without support of a rescue-and that often does not turn out well. So sometimes helping a dog get somewhere that hasn't been vet referenced, neighbor referenced, AC officer checked, and home checked is not helping a dog at all. 
http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=516468&page=2#Post516468

Finding a rescue that is reputable may also not be the easiest thing to do either:
http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=391679&page=1#Post391679
Check into them carefully. 

I agree with pupresq, as almost (?) always! 

When it comes to donating, my money goes to IMOM because I know it will go directly to them, then to the vet office of a specific pet in need-and that all checking has been done by that organization (this is for health issues and not necessarily for rescues-though rescues do get help from them). 

What I do, that probably annoys EVERYONE, is ask if people who come out of the blue, or who are here but never been approved to adopt anywhere other than maybe a shelter and say they want a dog, have been thoroughly checked out. Or rescues that are really not known, don't have readily available information, etc. Other red flag things...I try to mention. It's why I don't post so much on those urgent threads sometimes. 

I do this after having gone on a number of home checks that have had wonderful vet references, good personal references, and that I wouldn't leave a goldfish at. 

I would never help facilitate a dog getting anywhere that wasn't checked out. So if you do home checks in your area for rescues, that may be something that will help dogs in general. 

Being an advocate for safe saving a dog is something I believe in. 

And again, I think pupresq is on target. And thank you for wanting to help.


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## pupresq (Dec 2, 2005)

> Quote:I was thinking that trying to contact local rescues to notify them of the dog would help. If I call the shelter what question should I ask to get information that is helpful to this board. If the dog is local what can I dog if I personally cannot foster or adopt the dog?


Just re-read your post. I'm going to be totally honest here, but I don't mean it to sound all negative - and I think it's wonderful that a. you want to help and b. you're asking how to help first. 









All of the things you mention _can_ help, but be careful with purely fact finding inquiries to shelters. It can become very overwhelming to shelters to be bombarded with requests for information or better pictures from well-meaning people who aren't actually in a position to help the dog and even if you only call once, chances are lots of other people are calling too. 

Shelter staff (and volunteer rescue coordinators) are really time limited and they need to use every second to coordinate rescues where there's an interested taker. 

Similarly local rescue groups - if there's a dog of a certain breed in your area, chances are 50 people have already contacted you about it and it can get frustrating to be pressured to take in yet another dog when you're totally full by someone who isn't fostering themselves.









Many of the dogs on the urgent board are in areas where there's a huge pet overpopulation problem, so chances are the local groups are chronically overwhelmed. 

A way to take your idea and make it more feasible, might be to contact the group or shelter and offer sponsorship, as mentioned above, or to learn to coordinate transports. This is back to not helping individual dogs, but you might decide to focus on a particular region of the country or even a particular shelter and start partnering with them to raise money, get supplies, and help them get their animals to reputable rescues elsewhere. 

The Harlan shelter I work with has a rescue partner like that in MN and she has been an absolute GODSEND for us.


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## pupresq (Dec 2, 2005)

And Jean, as always, I agree completely with you! Indiscriminate rescue coordinating, sponsoring, or transporting, can hurt dogs more than help. 

I would suggest building a relationship with a couple (thoroughly checked out) rescue groups and when you see a dog of particular interest to you, contact them and offer sponsorship for the dog or for it's boarding or transport or whatever. But do keep in mind their foster limitation issue.


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## Strana1 (Feb 9, 2008)

Thank you all for your input. That was the reason for this post, I don't want my good intentions to be detrimental to helping the dog. I have been approved as a transporter for Echo Dogs and I have a volunteer application already into GSRNE I am just waiting for the interview and reference checks. I am very new to this so I was just looking for the most effective ways to help the dogs.


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## pupresq (Dec 2, 2005)

I sincerely want to commend you on your approach! I wish more people approached it the same way. It sounds like you are all about helping the dogs the best way you can - we need more people like you in rescue. Welcome!


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