[bagster]

I've never quite got what exactly makes a dog a "rescue" dog. Shipwreck? Burning building? What????

(Serious question)

[lee martell]

I think the premise is that the new owner is ‘rescuing’ the dog from being euthanized. There should be a different term.

I used to think it meant the dog has been trained to rescue or help people in trouble. But that is what “Companion Dogs”
are supposed to be doing.

[Cheesehead in Texas]

I have 2 rescue dogs. The first one was rescued from a “breeder”. I suspect he was bred for dog fighting. He was almost a year old when we got him and almost completely bald from a horrible case of mange. He had been abused badly. Lots of meds and treatment shampoos later, he is a beautiful, shy dog. He has PTSD and it took about 2 years of patience and kindness for him to warm up to everyone in the household. Our other rescue dog was a relinquished chocolate lab who had heart-worm and couldn't relocate to Australia with his original family. He is healthy now and a happy friendly dog who has befriended the other dog. So the rescue dogs are sometimes relinquishments and sometimes true rescues from breeders and hoarders. My experience is that many of the purebred rescue dogs have expensive medical issues like heart-worm which takes thousands of dollars to get rid of.

[a fool in paradise]

>>I’ve never quite got what exactly makes a dog a “rescue” dog

Found by the side of the road or stolen from a home where the do-gooder felt justified by saying that the owner wasn’t a good enough friend of their pet.

Sometimes it can be chains, sometimes it can be leaving the dog outside on a hot day.