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| - I had heard so many wonderful reviews about Saving Paws that when we decided to adopt a second GSD, they were my first go to. We had a meet and greet on a Friday. They told me that the dog had been returned by someone else because their kiddo was allergic to the dog, but prior to returning the dog to the rescue, he had been enrolled in service dog school and had been doing well. So, that sounded great! Also lived with 7 other dogs in foster so seemed to get along with dogs. We decided on 8:30 am for the volunteer to come here and I said it was fine as long as my husband didn't need to be awake as he was working a 20 hour day on Thursday and wouldn't be going to bed until 2:00-4:00 am Friday and there was no way he'd be able to get up at 8:30 after being awake for over 24 hours. Joanne said he didn't need to be awake that was totally fine. So, they brought him out, first off, this dog was pulling me down the street like I was a feather weight (for the record I'm 135 pounds LoL) and would not listen to "heel", "stop", or even me just tugging on the leash. They had no training device on him just a regular collar and a leash. I literally could not control him. Wouldn't heel, wouldn't stop, wouldn't sit, NOTHING (uh, what happened to service dog training??). I finally got him to stop, I came back and we decided to have me bring my dog out, so I go in my house to get my dog (also a GSD). I come out and am standing with my dog and the volunteer has the other one, we're 15-20 feet from each other and the other dog is going BAT SHIT CRAZY, lunging on the leash, barking his head off and won't stop. My dog was whining a little bit but stopped when I corrected him and so he just sat there with this other dog barking at him. Volunteer makes some phone calls, they can't figure it out because the rescue dog lives with 7 dogs and is fine. So, 3 houses down a person is going into the house and the dog then starts barking at the person too. Volunteer says lets walk them and see how they do. So, I muzzled my dog at the request of the volunteer (as my dog is selective on people) and walked him. Still no barking, just some whining here and there but that was it. I walk him and we're trying to walk but other dog is still going absolutely crazy barking (really I thought someone was going to call the police due to noise it was that bad). After walking for a few minutes he finally did stop and we came back to the driveway and so the volunteer allows the rescue dog sniff my dog. Now the rescue was ALL over my dog's head and face sniffing and licking him (my dog is still leashed and muzzled), my dog growled and the dog kept licking and was all over his face and head so my dog snapped. I corrected him and he stopped that was it. Volunteer was like, yeah this isn't going to work so I should probably take him back, which I completely agreed it was not a "love connection". He recommended we go to the facility and walk our dog with like 3-4 other dogs and see which one he "clicked" with, said that's what he did when he brought his dogs together and it worked well. I said okay, that I would contact Joanne to figure out a date/time and we went out our merry way.
So, I text the rescue about a week later as I hadn't heard anything to see if we can find a date/time to go out there and see if another dog would be a better fit. Joanne emails me and says she had talked with the rescue owner, Trish, and she didn't feel it would be safe to adopt a dog to us due to my dog's behavior. And that they were not very happy that none of my family was there to greet the rescue. What? I had verified my husband not being awake was okay and even explained why and my 15 year old was here! He stayed in the house for the most part because he was eating breakfast and I told him not to worry we'd have him come out if the dogs were okay with each other, never got to that point so I let him sit and eat and do his morning chores. I asked what in the world MY dog did wrong, because it was the rescue who was going crazy. Yes, my dog snapped, but he didn't try to maul him and it's not like it was unprovoked and he stopped when I shut it down. All Joanne could say was it wasn't her decision and she was sorry. I'm just so disappointed.
So, now I should add, that after all of this, I contacted a different rescue who found us a fabulous GSD, we met her, they spent an hour and a half with us the first time for them to sniff each other, play together, walk together, etc. We waited about a week and then they came to do a home visit, brought our new dog to us, and again stayed about an hour and a half, dogs were doing great with each other and we have now had our newest addition for 2 days and they're doing fantastic! Laying together, playing in the yard and romping together. Absolutely no growling, snapping, barking, NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER.
Unfortunately our experience with Saving Paws, in the end, was terrible. I will say, however, that Joanne was very kind and nice
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