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Showing posts in dogs

Colony & TNR

Rehoming a Rescue Dog to Another EU Country Is Not a Pet Passport Move

An adoption transfers ownership, which puts a cross-border rescue transport outside the pet passport regulation entirely. The sending establishment must be approved by its competent authority, and every animal needs an official health certificate issued within 48 hours of departure.

Sep 15, 2026 8 min read
Dogs · Best Practices

Adoption Return Rates: What They Mean and What Reduces Them

Published return rates for adopted dogs and cats run from 7% to 20%, but the figure your organization reports depends mostly on where you draw the cut-off. The published studies disagree about when returns happen, and that disagreement is the useful part.

Aug 22, 2026 8 min read
Dogs

The Cheapest Way to Get a Long-Stay Dog Adopted Is a Day Out of the Building

A dog that's been passed over for months doesn't need a new kennel — it needs a day at the lake and a photo of itself asleep on someone's couch. Here's how to stand up a field trip and sleepover program that actually moves dogs out the door.

Aug 7, 2026 8 min read
Dogs

How to Run a 10-Day Bite Quarantine Without Losing the Dog or the Adopter

A dog in your care bit someone and now there's a 10-day hold. Handled well, it's ten boring days and a clean release. Handled badly, it's a panicked adopter, a euthanasia order, or a rabies scare that didn't need to happen. Here's how to run it right.

Aug 6, 2026 10 min read
Dogs

The Dog Is Falling Apart in the Kennel, Not in Real Life

A dog that paces, spins, and lunges at the kennel front is often a normal dog breaking down in a bad environment — not a dangerous one. Here's how to spot kennel stress early, tell it apart from a real behavior problem, and pull a dog back from the edge.

Aug 4, 2026 8 min read
Medical

How to Keep a Foster Litter's Shots and Deworming on Schedule

Six squirming, near-identical puppies, each on their own two-week clock for shots and dewormer — miss a dose and you can leave a whole litter open to parvo. Here's the schedule that actually protects them, and the system that keeps you from losing track.

Aug 1, 2026 10 min read
Dogs

Separation Anxiety in Foster Dogs Is Not the Same as Settling In

A foster dog that panics when left alone can look identical to a dog that's just adjusting — and getting the two mixed up is how good dogs get mislabeled, mistreated, or returned. Here's how to tell them apart and run a protocol that actually helps.

Jul 31, 2026 10 min read
Medical

The Starved Dog Just Arrived — Don't Give It a Full Bowl

A skeletal dog lands on your intake table and every instinct says feed it, now, as much as it wants. That instinct can kill it. Here's how to bring a starved dog back without triggering refeeding syndrome.

Jul 30, 2026 9 min read
Medical

How to Foster a Pregnant Dog Through Whelping

The rescue calls and asks if you can take a pregnant dog "any day now." Saying yes means you're about to run a delivery room. Here's how to prepare, what a normal whelping looks like, and the red lines that mean you stop watching and call the vet.

Jul 24, 2026 11 min read
Dogs

How to Run a Dog Adoption Event That Actually Adopts Dogs

You can run an adoption event where twelve dogs sit on the pavement all afternoon, or one where four go home and the rest come back calmer than they left. The difference is almost never the dogs. It's the planning.

Jul 22, 2026 11 min read
Medical

The Bald, Crusty, "Unadoptable" Dog Is Usually a Cheap, Fast Fix — How to Treat Sarcoptic Mange

A dog comes in half-bald, scabbed, and scratching itself raw, and everyone assumes the worst. If it's sarcoptic mange, it's one of the most satisfying fixes in rescue — contagious, treatable, and dramatic. Here's how to tell, treat it, and keep it from running through your other dogs.

Jul 16, 2026 8 min read
Medical

The Cough Going Around Your Kennel Is Already an Outbreak — How to Contain It

By the time you hear the first dog coughing, the ones it infected three days ago are already shedding without a symptom. Here's how to get ahead of kennel cough instead of chasing it kennel to kennel.

Jul 9, 2026 8 min read
Dogs

How to Introduce a Foster Dog to Your Resident Dogs

Most foster-dog fights don't happen because the dogs hate each other. They happen because someone rushed the first meeting in the living room. Here's the slow, boring, fight-free way to put two dogs together.

Jul 6, 2026 8 min read
Dogs

You Found a Stray Dog — Do the Owner Search Before You Make It a Rescue Case

Every found dog you take in as a rescue case might be somebody's lost dog that's been missing for six hours. Before it becomes an intake number, run the owner search — it's faster, cheaper, and the right outcome for the dog.

Jul 3, 2026 10 min read
Medical

A Foster Puppy Just Tested Positive for Parvo. Here's How to Contain It.

Parvo in a foster-based rescue isn't one sick puppy, it's a network of homes, cars, and volunteers that all just got connected to a virus that lives for months. The first 48 hours decide whether you lose one dog or ten.

Jun 23, 2026 14 min read
Colony & TNR

How to Run a Rescue Dog Transport Run Without a Single Loose Dog

A transport run is the most dangerous hour your dogs will have all month — a parking lot full of strangers, open crate doors, and slip leads. Most things that go wrong are paperwork or process, not bad luck. Here's how to run one that ends with every dog where it's supposed to be.

Jun 15, 2026 8 min read
Dogs

The Dog That Falls Apart in the Kennel — How to Stop Long-Stay Deterioration

A friendly dog comes in, and six weeks later it's spinning in its run and lunging at the gate. That's not the dog's temperament — it's the kennel. Here's a practical enrichment system that keeps long-stay dogs stable and adoptable.

Jun 14, 2026 9 min read
Medical

A Heartworm-Positive Dog Is Not a Lost Cause — How to Get One Through Treatment

A positive heartworm test scares a lot of rescues into passing on a perfectly adoptable dog. The treatment is long and the rules are strict, but it's routine. Here's how to move a dog from diagnosis to adoption without losing your nerve.

Jun 10, 2026 9 min read
Dogs

The First Two Weeks With a Rescue Dog Are Not the Real Dog

The dog your foster meets on day one is a dog in survival mode, not the dog they'll adopt out. Most failed placements come from judging a dog too early. Here's the decompression plan to give every dog before you decide who they are.

Jun 6, 2026 7 min read

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