Definition of a Rescue Dog

After reading this article today about the new first dog, it got me thinking: what is the definition of a rescue dog? I, along with many people, feel that this "rescue" has more shades to it then BYOBW did on Sunday afternoon. But, I have to admit that I never really thought that the Obamas would get a true rescue dog.

For starters, they needed a hypoallergenic dog and they wanted a puppy. This can be slightly difficult to find - especially if you are working on a time-line. If, however, you wanted to actually find a rescue dog, and spent some time looking, you would find poodles and Bichons as young as 3 months old in shelters across the states. Then the Obamas decided that they wanted a larger dog -and there are standard poodles in shelters as young as 1-2 years old. Then they decided that they wanted a Portuguese Water Dog. As soon as they said that, many people knew that the dog was going to have to come from a breeder. You see, the nice thing about PWDs is that they aren't over-bred. . .yet. The breeders are much more cautious of who they sell to and many of their families are "sport dog" families. Many also have spay/neuter contracts and most will take the dog back if he doesn't work out in the home (hence the rescue of "Bo")

All of this made me wonder what makes a dog a "rescue dog"? I have always considered my dogs "rescue dogs" because all of my dogs came from shelters. Mole was surrendered by his first owner because she was getting "too old" to care for him. He spent some time in a crappy cement cage before I took him and brought him into a shelter I used to work at. Pocket was found running down the streets of Livermore. Abby, well, we all know Abby's story.

But, just because my dogs came from "kill" shelters, does that mean that they were knocking on death's door? Not really. Mole's time was up, the shelter was over full, and he was over 5 years old. But was he really scheduled to die? I'll never know. Did pocket ever have one foot over the grave? Hell no! She was a nine month old Chihuahua - and this was before they became accessories! Abby, on the other hand, would have been kept in a cage for probably another year, before she was rendered. And Abby would probably have been put down by someone else had I decided not to keep her - and that might not have been a bad thing.

There are a lot of people who adopt dogs from Rescue Groups now. These dogs in these Groups are not at risk of dying, but they were at one point. If you adopt from these Groups, does that make these dogs rescue dogs? Or maybe not, because they didn't need immediate rescue? What about the people who have re-homed dogs from Craigs List or the paper? Are these dogs rescued? Or maybe they are pre-rescue because had they not been re-homed they would have gone to a "kill shelter."

Many people are using the term Rescue now because it is in fashion. Seriously. I have heard many people say that they rescued their dog when in fact, they purchased the dog from their neighbor's back yard, or from a "nice lady" in Montana. Those people Bought their dog.

So that brings me back to the Obama's dog - was that dog "rescued"? I'm going to defer my judgement until a later date when more information on the breeder comes out. But I have my suspicions. However, I am thankful that they donated money to a few shelters. Even if they can't take a dog from that shelter, the money could still go into saving the life of a dog.