Reply #57: "the dog was, as far as we know, placed in a good home"

[onenote]

MF, you and I are usually on the same page, but on this one I have to disagree. The problem is that we don't know if its a good fit for the dog. And neither did the rescue agency. Could the situation have been handled better--of course. WHen Ellen decided (pretty quickly apparently) that she couldn't handle the dog (or rather that her cats couldn't), she should've contacted the rescue group and told them and she could've tried to work with them to see if the dog could be placed with her hairdresser's family. In my experience, rescue agencies typically have age limits, but can be flexible if they are comfortable that the kids are mature enough to act properly around a small dog. But once Ellen decided to act unilaterally, she made it very difficult. The rescue agency couldn't just leave the dog with a family that they had not evaluated on the basis of Ellen's (a person who couldn't handle the dog herself) judgment. Taking the dog away wouldn't have precluded returning it to the family after a proper evaluation. But by taking the story to her program the way she did, Ellen made the situation more difficult. I'd still like to see it worked out, but as far as I'm concerned, the lion's share of the blame falls on Ellen for ignoring her responsibilities and then going public.

As for the age limit, 14 seems high to me too, but not by much. We have two small dogs -- one 6 pounds one 12 pounds. They are very sweet and do great around kids. But I've seen time and again where our friends bring their kids over -- kids as old as 11 or 12 -- and they get all "oooh soo cute" and try to pick up the dog in a way that is uncomfortable for the dog and when the dog squirms or squeals, then the kid freaks and starts to drop the dog. Kids need to be trained how do deal with a small dog just as they need to be trained how to hold a baby. Kids over the age of 10 certainly can learn how to behave, but its not completely wrongheaded for a rescue agency not to assume that kids of that age know how to act.