Dog section - if you got your dog(s) from the shelter, can you answer this?

'Nude Dogs' (New Dog) previous owner was elderly and died, no one in the family could offer him a home. If they'd been in a nursing home or hospice I would have been happy to take him for visits.

In the past, a Collie was unwanted when his owners divorced. Best ratter I ever met.

I've taken 3 other dogs permanently, all were in rescue for 'genuine' reasons - that is, their owners could no longer look after them because of death or illness.

I've also worked in rescue and fostered, and heard every reason and excuse you can think of.

My dog was just another dog in the shelter. A pup among a bunch of other mongrel pups with their Dam awaiting homes.

Since the dogs were placed in shelter kennel with nothing more then a tag stating the pups sex and possible breed mix, there's no way for me or anyone else to accurately tell where the dogs came from or what lead to them being brought to the shelter. The shelter staff were non-caring and unconcerned, this was a kill shelter and the dogs were nothing more then product waiting to be wasted if not adopted or fostered.

To me, the case is the same with my little Chihuahua mixed and it's litter and dam. Someone irresponsibly allowed their b*tch to get pregnant, didn't want the responsibility of caring for a whelping Dam and pups and dumped the dog in the shelter as a easy way out.

My dog now was bought as a puppy, but my dog before that was from a shelter. We didn't really want to think about what happened to her, I think she was just bought as a puppy and then got bigger and needed training and the owners couldn't be bothered - because she was only a year old when we adopted her. But she'd cower sometimes, and she'd go crazy barking at some people, and she didn't like children - I reckon she was in an impatient family where the kids wouldn't leave her alone and the adults would hit her when she was naughty.

Mine was discovered as a stray in Toronto.

They chased her down for around 3 or 4 months trying to catch her.

Finally caught her and she spent another month or so in the shelter being adopted out at least 3 times prior to my finding her due to her skittish nature, submissive urination, allergies (human), and food aggression.

All of the applicable have improved greatly, and are nearly non-existent since her living with me.

I'd like to add on to what Marianne has mentioned about trust.

People will often tell me that my shelter dog "must have been abused" due to her skittish nature. And that's a common assumption with dogs of unknown background. Automatically, a skittish dog was always "abused."

I don't say that with mine. There is absolutely no solid proof of it. Sure she's scared of people and has some odd reactions to certain events. That doesn't mean anything, she could have had those reactions ingrained since conception. Some of these traits are genetic.

People seem way too quick to draw the abuse card.

Mine was abandoned at 6 weeks old. Had a great foster mom for a few weeks before coming to our little local shelter. She was in the shelter 4 days when we got her.

We saw her Sunday, I had to talk my husband into getting another dog, then had to wait until the shelter opened again on Wednesday before I could go fill out the 3 page adoption form and bring her home.

My Barry (A Pomeranian) was in the SPCA because he was taken away from his first ``owner`` who was a Dog hoarder and had 60 Dogs, the SPCA seized Dogs from the home and we adopted him just a few days after he was rescued. He was 4 months old when we got him, he`ll be 2 years old in February.

My oldest Dog (A 13 year old Coonhound) we adopted from the SPCA when he was 6 months old. I do not know exactly why he ended up there, but I think his owners must`ve dropped him off there for whatever reason.

This is Barry:

Never got a dog from the shelter, but I did get a cat once. She was born near a store. The workers at the store called the shelter and she and her mother and siblings were taken to the shelter. Shelter workers usually know all about the animals in their care.

I am with a rescue and we used to keep the long long list of reasons why we'd been asked to take the dogs in.

The reason for a lot are marriage break ups. Wife left with three or four kids and cannot cope with the dog as well. These are often good dogs as they've lived with children and obviously used to them.

Another reason is rented property. Can't find a place that will take dogs.

Most of the time the reasons for dogs being in a shelter can't be trusted. All the shelter knows is what was told to them, and I can't imagine any dog owner admiting they turned in a dog because they simply didn't like it or couldn't train it.

Never trust what you are told.

My dog was a stray, I don't know her history at all. Someone found her wandering near a highway and took her to the shelter. I do know before I adopted her she had been adopted out twice but returned because she was a poor match in those homes. I'm happy daily that I adopted her.