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Rehoming Your Pit Bull

Know Your Options

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If you are considering rehoming your dog, understand finding a good home could take months or even over a year, and can be a particularly traumatic experience for your dog. The family bond of a pit bull is strong and your dog most likely considers you a member of its ‘pack.’ Please take this into consideration prior to rehoming your dog.

If you originally adopted your dog from a rescue group, review your adoption contract. Many organizations require adopters to contact them if the adopter can no longer keep the dog they adopted and any respectable rescue group will take their dog back. Nashville PITTIE includes this in our adoption contracts and will always take back a Nashville PITTIE dog.

 

Often times, there are other options for many of the common reasons why owners want to find a new home for their dog.

If any of the situations below apply to you, there may be a alternative solution for you that allows you to keep your dog.

I AM MOVING

Pit bull-friendly rental housing can be difficult to find. Don’t give up! Click here for an interactive Pit Bull Friendly Housing Map!

Expand your search to surrounding areas. Consider looking through real estate agents that handle rental listings as well as classified ads. There are service agencies that help match tenants with rental housing. Spread the word, ask around, and share on social media. It can’t hurt to speak to the landlord and ask if ‘no pets’ really means no pets or if there are exceptions for well-mannered, well-groomed, well-cared-for pets. Offer to provide medical records to show your pet is spayed/neutered and current on vaccines. If you crate your dog when not home, tell them as this could provide an extra bit of assurance. Offer to let them meet the dog before deciding. 

I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR MY DOG 

Owning a pet is a 10+ year commitment. Most people, including our foster-families, have full-time jobs, kids, friends, and other responsibilities in their lives…but they make it work. Yes, dogs would love to spend every minute with their owners, but this is the reality. Your dog will be okay while you are at work or class for most of the day. It will make the time you get to spend with your dog that much more valuable. 

I'M HAVING A NEW BABY

A new baby can be stressful and time-consuming. We get it. But, it is very possible to have a new baby and keep your dog – families do it all the time, including many of our fosters, adopters, and volunteers. Unless you have serious concerns about your baby’s safety, you owe it to your dog to do whatever you can to make it work. You made a commitment to your dog, very much like you have or will with your new baby. Consider asking a friend or dog-walker to help give your dog exercise through the tough newborn months, or look into doggy daycare if your dog likes being social and active. Remember, the sleepless nights won’t last forever and it will get easier – your dog wants to be part of your family, baby included.

MY DOG IS BECOMING ANIMAL AGGRESSIVE

It happens. A dog’s behavior, personality, temperament, and tolerance level can change over time. It can be a stressful situation. Dog aggression is a more common than you think among all breeds. It can also be selective. Your dog will not like every other dog it meets just like you and I will not necessarily like every person we meet. You should never leaving your dog alone, unsupervised with any other pets. In reality, the odds of finding a single-pet household for your animal-aggressive dog is slim. Please consider a crate-and-rotate routine. Come up with a system that works for your household. While one pet is out of the crate, enjoying family time, the other pet is confined to the crate. Rotate them around so each pet gets equal time. You can find useful information on crate and rotate through Pit Bull Rescue Central.

MY DOG IS HAVING BEHAVIORAL ISSUES

First, consider seeking the help of a professional – medical and behavioral. Sometimes there is an underlying medical cause for behavior problems, causing the dog to become easily irritable or intolerant. If a medical cause isn’t present, there are many trainers and behaviorists that can offer advice and assistance. Feel free to reach out us for advice and references. Let’s be honest – if you don’t want to deal with your dog’s behavioral issues, what makes you think that someone else wants to? Consider ways of helping your dog cope with his or her issues so you can both be happier.

MY HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER MY PIT BULL

Unfortunately, not all insurance companies will cover pit bulls or other dogs they consider to be “aggressive breeds”. Luckily, there are many companies who do cover pit bulls as they would any other type of dog. Pit Bull Rescue Central offers information on pit bull-friendly insurance carriers to check out in your area.

MY DOG BIT SOMEONE

If your dog bit someone, you cannot, in good conscience, just give it to someone else. This is especially true if you hid the bite history from a potential new home or rescue. Would you be able to live with yourself if your dog hurt another person? A child? Any respectable rescue group will not adopt out a dog with a bite history, and neither should you. If a rescue group agrees to take your dog, they would be caring for your dog for life, taking a spot in that rescue for many dogs during that time to be saved. You can pay a behaviorist or trainer to work with your dog, but this can be very costly and is not guaranteed to improve the behavior. Dumping a dog with known human aggression at animal control, especially a pit bull, is a guaranteed death sentence. As difficult as it is, sometimes the best thing you can do – after exhausting all other options from a trainer or behavior specialist – is to humanely euthanize a truly human-aggressive dog at your vet’s office, with you, instead of dying alone and scared at animal control. 

COURTESY POSTS ON ADOPTAPET.COM

So, you have explored all of the options and still want to rehome your dog? Finding a new home for your dog will take time, patience and commitment on your part. If you are looking for an immediate solution for your dog there are very few options. Due to an ongoing waiting list and overwhelming number of urgent dogs needing immediate rescue to survive, we are unable to take your dog into our program. However, through our partnership with Adopt-a-Pet, YOU can list your dog for adoption on a national adoption site.  Click the Find Your Pet A New Home button below for detail.

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