labrescuelrcp

Welcome to lab parenthood!

For labs, they never eat enough. It's just a trait of the breed, they are bred that way.

As for curbing the behavior, it's going to be a human training thing, not a lab thing, sorry. Several of us sitting here have just learned to put everything away as the food-motivation is often too strong for them.

Enjoy your yard full of wildflowers this summer!

• Money: every dog we adopt out, we take a loss. It costs us about $700 a dog on average to care for them and our adoption fee is $300, so we rely on fundraising and donations, especially when we take in a dog with heartworms, broken leg, or other medical issues.

• Adopt seniors: Everybody wants to save seniors, but no one wants to adopt them. It's about quality not quantity when it comes to time. Senior dogs take less training and time and it's so rewarding. They tend to be lower energy levels (not always!) and they are often set in their ways and can easily move into your lifestyle.

• VOLUNTEER! We have adoption coordinators, fosters, transporters, housecheck, webmasters, social media, and so much more that make this rescue work happen. We always need help at fundraising events, adoption events, even putting stamps on fundraising letters!

• Spay/Neuter Your Dog: Yes, labs are a great breed and yet, there are still too many of them. Your dog may be great but we adopt out 1000 labs a year already and don't need more :)

• Spread the word: Share adoptable dogs on social media (it takes hundreds of shares to get an adoption), support them in their fundraisers, tell people thinking about getting a dog about rescues.

You're welcome to check out our 990, we are a registered non-profit and our information is available for view to anyone.

You're right, we do get other income, mainly through donations which cover our loss for each adoption. We aren't a money-making organization, the group answering these questions are all volunteers and sitting here at lunch that we pay for ourselves after spending 4 hours at an adoption event driving more than an hour to get here. It's a labor of love.

1) Our labs come to us one of two ways: from local shelters and from owner give ups. If a shelter has the resources and space, often they don't reach out to us. But many of the shelters we work with are full, don't have the funding, or are rural and don't have adopters. If that's the case, the shelter reaches out to us and we take the dog into the rescue to free up space for other dogs in full shelters.

Once a dog is in the rescue, we have the time to find the family. We also have more resources to vet dogs that have complicated medical issues. And we actually lose money on every adoption. Our average cost is $700 and our adoption fee is $300, this isn't a money-making operation. But we do send dogs home that are fully vetted, fixed, and have a clean bill of health (or the health problems are known to the adopters).

2) There are rescues that cater to pitbull and chihuahua lovers, we happen to be a lab rescue. And though labs are in high demand, we still rescue and adopt more than 1000 of them a year so there is a need. We also rescue mixed breeds, pregnant moms where we don't know who the dad is (let's just say our Dane/lab pups were adorable!) and we've even taken in a bonded lab/cat pair!

1. We recently returned a dog who was given up by an elderly couple and their granddaughter recently adopted the dog. We do adopt back if their situation changes and the dog is still available. However, often times, hardships can mask other issues happening and families just need to focus on other things than caring for a dog.

2. Each shelter is different. Some move the dogs quickly to rescue because they are high volume. Others only reach out if the dog has special needs. We evaluate the dog for temperament and if the dog looks 'lab-ish.' If the dog passes evaluation, we work to vet the dog and find a foster until adoption.