How a Top Training Facility Turns Rescued Dogs into Rescue Dogs

I donate my time for rescue dogs. One of the biggest issues is the debate between telling people to adopt vs buying a dog. This is especially an issue when it comes to people who want to use a dog for professional purposes. The dog you adopt has to be carefully screened. The purebred was (hopefully) chosen to be bred, which is demonstrated by many generations of healthy working dogs.

Many dogs that could do work are put to death at shelters because of their extreme abilities. For example, dogs that show normal aggression that would be appropriate to be a police dog would be killed. High drive, high energy dogs are overlooked or rejected by people who just want a couch potato dog. The shelter system, nationwide, needs to be revamped, so that more rescued dogs can be adopted by professionals. But, for now, they are mostly concentration camps, where half of the dogs are killed every week.

Many purebred dogs aren't suitable for work any more, however. Genetic faults have been created, both health and temperament, which now exclude them from doing professional work. The German Shepherd Dog has mostly been wrecked as a breed, and it is going to take a couple of decades for the breed to recover, if it ever does.

This article shows that rescued dogs can be used for service work, and that's a good thing. For now, this group had to screen thousands of dogs to find 40 dogs to put into service. The shelter / rescue temperament evaluation and adoption process isn't helping professionals do this kind of research. For now, it is still much easier to get a purebred dog for the work. Can rescue dogs do professional work? Yes? In this case, these dogs have been turned into search and rescue dogs. Can purebreds do the work? Obviously, yes.