Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home — Attraction in City of Edinburgh

Fed up and disappointed by this shelters willingness to give people an opportunity to adopt which ultimately is forcing people online to buy puppies instead of adopt. 5 and a half years ago I went into edch looking for a companion to give a home to. As a very dedicated person to all animals I told the girl my housing situation, pets etc and she said there was a match. I met a dog and he was young and playful. Absolutely stunning little boy. I was asked if I had any experience and told them I grew up with dogs my whole life. All of a sudden I was no good for their dogs because it "doesn't count." eventually later I managed to rehome a dog over gumtree and despite my problematic "inexperience" managed to tame a dog aggressive shar-pei staffy Cross and became wonderful friends. Fast forward 5 years and my baby boy was diagnosed with Canine lymphoma (cancer) and eventually had to be put to sleep to prevent his prolonged suffering. I was and still am heartbroken. After this I decided to try again. I have a clean and tidy home, good, well paying, job and have a space within my home for a new companion. I looked through the website and stumbled across bear. A husky/lab cross. Apparently good with kids and dogs and young enough to train as nd mould into the perfect loving companion. Now that I have proven "experience" I thought I would try again. Within less than a day I had an email back "not suitable" no explanation and a lovely little paragraph telling me not to contest this because their "decision is final" and now I am just angry. I am angry that twice now I have wanted to give a dog, regardless of issues we can work through, a loving forever home. That twice the staff here have decided without knowing anything about me other than things I physically own and made a judgment. I understand that you want to get the very best homes for your animals but excluding people based on very little information is not how you go about successfully rehoming. There are hundreds of very suitable people that you are shrugging off and unfortunately I, along with many others just don't think that is suitable when your animals are in serious need of normality,...

Myself and my girlfriend rehomed Buddy one week ago and we are very impressed with our new dog (Buddy, Shar Pei) as well as the overall experience.

Shaun was Buddy's assigned walker and his primary carer during his time at the home. As soon as I met him, I could see he was very passionate about rehoming Buddy and despite us already having a breed of dog quite different in size to Buddy, he put in maximum effort to socialise the dogs. Taking Buddy long walks to tire him before meeting our other dog and doing everything possible to help them get along paid off as they took to each other surprisingly well.

Shaun was always cautious and careful about Buddy and took time to ensure we were a good match. Something I'd say to anybody visiting the centre in the hopes of a new dog, please don't assume that if a dog is a little boisterous, mouthy or loud at the home, that they won't calm down. I visited with my friend on one visit who thought Buddy was too much for Maggie (our french bulldog) and I have taken great pleasure in proving to him how calm and respectful Buddy is around the home.

I am absolutely shocked at how quickly Buddy settled and made his home is own. He also showed manners and obeyed commands immediately which is only a testament to the efforts of Shaun and the rest of the kennel team who were fantastic with him. He definitely has an underlying discipline which came into play as soon as he entered our home.

We were also given lots of information from Shaun about where to go next such as training classes, being firm and were also advised to be very careful about Buddy off the lead. With that, we have been training him on his recall and I'm sure Shaun will be pleased that in a safe fielded area we have managed to get Buddy recalling completely within one week.

I hope the team stays the way it is for a long time as I am already telling anyone who is looking for a new dog or cat how awesome the team is.

There is still a lot of time for things to play out, however, the first week has been such a breeze and we're very happy with our new...

Went here today to enquire about one of there dogs. On the phone I was asked some questions “have you had a dog before” “do you have kids” both I answered no to. It was suggested to go in to discuss things and meet the dog. When we arrived I completed a form which also asked if I had ever had a dog before, to which I stated no. We were taken to the dog, but just stood in front of the kennel to then be asked a series of questions, final one was...have you had dogs before....I replied no but my boyfriend has.(Who was also with me at the time). We were then taken outside into another room (still didn’t meet the dog) to be told. “Because you haven’t had a dog before and my boyfriends dog didn’t count as it was a family dog and not fully owned by him, we can’t give you this dog” , firstly this should have been addressed over the phone and also on my form I completed when we arrived which was not even looked at. I was told that the 9 month old dog was to boisterous as it keeps chewing the lead and being a bit hyper and had been returned once alway to the centre. I stated very clearly my plans to understand the dogs needs and I would 100% be committed to this dogs welfare and provide any form of training it required to live a happy life. I also asked what checks they do to ensure they find “experienced dog owners” to which she replied no check, we just know! Eh what? No you don’t. At no point I felt welcome, grateful that we were there trying to help rescue a dog, any sympathy towards the fact this dog was not suitable for us, and set on our way as if we had been a burden. It would have been nice for someone to try understand me and my boyfriend as a person and ask us why we want a dog and get to know us better before judging us for not ever owned a dog. There is no guarantee with anyone...