Yorkshire Terriers Puppies For Sale — Local services in Houston

PLEASE READ if you are thinking about adopting from here!!! I had an absolutely terrible experience and I will be listing each issue I had and explaining what was wrong. Long story short: you will waste your time and money driving to the shelter to ONLY have a zoom meeting with an animal before adopting it. Want to meet the animal? Pay the adoption fee and sign the contract!

COMMUNICATION: The first and most important issues is the sheer lack of communication of what you are getting yourself into. The website does not provide anywhere near enough information to determine if appointments are needed, how the adoption process works, and even if the facility is open. With this in mind, I called the number listed. Imagine my surprise when it was the Houston 311 information line! I was eventually transferred to a "BARC representative" who failed to introduce herself as an actual representative and not just another 311 line operator. The interaction was rude, but tolerable since I was under the impression I was receiving valid information. I was told to go to the shelter, see the instructions, and have the pet IDs ready for the animals I would like to MEET.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS: To move forward in the process I first had to DRIVE to the shelter, be greeted by a security guard with a sheet of paper (see attached image), then fill out an online survey which asks for the IDs of the animals you would like to HAVE A ZOOM MEETING with. Keep in mind that for some of these animals, you have only ever seen a picture of the TOP of their ears. In almost no pictures posted are you able to see their full body from multiple angles, let alone any pictures that would help determine actual age, health, growth potential, etc. To make assessing the animals even more confusing, the website does not actually list the weight of the animal. As any previous pet-owner would know, weight and age are a very good indicator of health. Instead, they list a "size", which seems to be the result of picking "small", "medium", "large", or "extra large" through a random word generator.

MEETING YOUR ANIMAL: Let me reiterate that you will NOT meet the animal in person before adopting and paying for them. You will be asked to have a "zoom meeting" in your car on your tiny smartphone screen to try and evaluate an animal's entire personality and health. You will not be able to see the animal's living conditions since you cannot go into the shelter, so there is no way to determine if these animals are being taken care of or completely abused before adopting your living, breathing creature. Reminder: When calling for information, I was told that I would meet the animals through curbside adoption. It would have taken one extra second to clarify that it was a ZOOM MEETING.

PRE-ADOPTION HOLDS: The dogs I was looking at were both on "pre-adoption holds" which meant they were strays that might have an owner who can come to the shelter and claim them. HOWEVER, you can adopt and pay for the animal without taking them home and possibly have them be reclaimed by the owner. You will then be given a CREDIT to adopt another animal and NOT a refund.

SAFETY: Finally, as someone who has previously adopted dogs through a shelter, I am very familiar with the shock an animal can experience when being moved into a completely new environment. I have previously raised large dogs, including a rescue who had severe behavioral issues that required careful accommodations and training. How safe could it possibly be to take an animal from unknown conditions in the shelter and immediately stick it in a confined space that happens to be occupied by completely new people and, oh yeah, this confined space is your car that you will soon be driving 60+ mph on the highway. We already have enough car accidents in Houston. Why add a nervous...

The good:

Shelter facilities were clean and upkept

Staff/volunteers were all friendly and seemed to care about the animals

Sick dogs are only $5 to adopt AND come with their medicine, which is a wonderful incentive to get them adopted and cared for personally

Even though they were busy, the shelter vet was able to quickly consult with us

I loved their TNR colony and the kitties wandering about. I do think there probably needs to be more signage explaining the TNR cats though.

The mediocre/bad:

I couldn’t find a good number for the facility, just animal control. I probably could have gotten transferred, but I didn’t feel like dealing with that and would have appreciated a direct contact

I emailed the facility about the dog were were interested in and they took 24 hours to get back to me- definitely not a big deal, but I would have been pretty heartbroken if he’d been euthanized and we were too late.

I don’t know if this is even possible, but we had our 5YO with us, and several of the dogs were obviously child aggressive. If I didn’t know better- and some people might not- something bad could have happened if she’d put her fingers through the kennels or we’d tried to take the dog out. I feel like having a small child should warrant some kind of special supervision or even a special handout for the adults to read over about how to recognize warning signs between dogs and kids.

Tip:

If you’re visiting the facility and approaching it from the south side, do not go over the bridge. No matter what Google tells you, there is not a way to go under the bridge from the north side. Take the side/access road, UNDER the bridge.

The Description:

We went to BARC last weekend, after seeing a picture of a 6mo old dog on Pet Harbor. It’s a nice, well maintained facility- very large. The dogs at the front, in the newer section, seem to be the ones most likely to be adopted. After asking a volunteer, we found out the pup we were interested in had an upper respiratory infection and was in the back kennels (sick area). We walked through a couple more rooms of pups and then went to meet the canine we were there for.

The staff/volunteers were very helpful and walked us all to an isolated area outside to play and meet each other. We were given plenty of time, and when I expressed concerns about any issues with cat aggression (the only reason we’d return the dog would be for child or cat aggression), we were told about fostering with the intent to adopt (which we ultimately decided against).

The adoption was a bit complicated but was handled pretty well. As he was sick and we hadn’t spoken to our vet yet, we had to see the shelter’s vet. The clinic was open and so the waiting area was very crowded, but they squeezed us in within 10 minutes. After speaking to the vet, we went back to the front building and paid the fee, then had to drive to the other side of the facility to pick the dog up. Once there, the staff/volunteers hadn’t received word yet that we were coming to get him, but once we explained everything, got his medicine and him, and brought him out to us. The entire process was probably some 30-45 minutes long.

We’re coming up on week 3 of having our Jellybean now and his doggy cold has cleared up and he’s a very good boy. He came to us fully vetted, neutered, and with medicine to treat his cold- we just need to take him to our vet for heartworm prevention now. I did have to deworm him (tapeworms) but that's...

Nothing that I say here will be a revelation, just my thoughts over the last few weeks. I have been thinking of getting another dog and started monitoring the websites for Barc and Harris county pets looking at dogs deciding where I wanted to go. I had not ever been to either shelter. I was finally ready this past Sat. Barc was going to be my priority because they do not retain their animals there as long and there was a cool looking husky mix I wanted to meet. I knew his time might be limited from observing their website, but I work full time. He went on the extended stay list around last wed. around day 14 of his stay and disappeared from the list the next day. Saturday would have been day 17 or 18 of his stay. Maybe he was adopted. I hope so. Most likely he was euthanized. It looks simply like a capacity issue. From the number of dogs listed on their websites it appears Harris county pets has more than double the capacity of Barc, but they both have a similar number of intakes. I like to think about things for a minute and Harris county is able to retain a greater portion of their dogs longer so for this reason I chose Harris county. With Barc you have about half a second to think about it and get down there before the dog is gone. The facility needs to be expanded. This would bring them more in line with what Harris county pets and Montgomery county animal shelter are trying to do ( save and rehome pets) and what I am sure they would like to do. The city planners did not plan on the general public being this irresponsible. City officals would need to allocate the funds for the expansion. For this to happen it would probably require a shift in the range of views the public has towards animal welfare and would need the assistance of the media to make this a talking point, especially during elections. If Barc overcrowds their shelter they will be guaranteed a distemper problem. It looks like parvo can be a problem at any shelter even if not overcrowded. No one wants to see an adopter experience the pain and expense from watching their new puppy get sick and die. Twenty five years ago when I moved into my house there were two puppies roaming the neighborhood. As soon as I put them in my backyard they would dig under the fence. I took them to Cap where I was told by a new volunteer that I could not be a foster for them because I was not already in the program. I did not question it too much because in the back of my mind I knew it wouldn't work because I did not have grass in my backyard yet and they would have kept digging out. I was told they would be held for at least 3 days and given a number I could call to see if they were still there. I called on day 2 and was told they were killed the same day I left them because one of them had ringworm. I was upset and felt misinformed and shortly after went down there to find out what happened. I met with a lady who worked there ( not a volunteer) that said the same thing happened to her. She had brought a black kitten there and it had been killed. She said it inspired her to want to help. What a special lady she was to be inspired to help the animals in the very system that broke her heart knowing her heart would be broken over and over again because she could not save them all. Just from looking at the website it looks like Barc has some people like her. i.e. the cute photos of the dogs in scarves and hats, and on the long stay list notations of pets being transferred out. Some good people trying to help with a...