‘Bad habits’: Dog shelters are overwhelmed by pet surrenders

A surge in pet surrenders is hitting dog shelters as untrained Christmas puppies out of their “adorable stage” are sent back to the kennel to wait to be adopted.

Animals shelters are filling up across the country as more Aussies surrender their now not-so-little Christmas pups.

More than 85 per cent of rescue dogs are surrendered to shelters due to financial difficulties, unsuitable living environments, and lack of training, with a quarter of the alarming statistic just young puppies.

To combat the growing adoption listings, adoption platform Waldo’s Friends had developed a Pet Finder app to help connect hundreds of dogs to new owners before they are euthanised.

Waldo’s Friends chief executive Sasha Gusain said the March surrender surge was commonly because of “pet regret” after owners failed to train their dogs, leading to behavioural issues.

“I’ve noticed that usually around Christmas time, there’s a bit of a spike in terms of buying dogs and what tends to happen is there’s this stage when the puppies are just months old and are in that adorable stage where everybody wants to pick them up and cuddle them and allow them to do all sorts of things that an older dog wouldn’t be able to get away with, creating a lot of bad habits,” she said.

Gerkin, a three-month-old American Staffy-cross ready for adoption at AWLQ Warra Animal Rehoming Centre in Bracken Ridge. Picture: Richard Walker

“Over this month, we start seeing lots of eight to 12-month-old dogs up for adoption and they will usually be in that mid to large breed size because the smaller dogs can get away with some of these behaviours for a few more years to become really persistent, but the bigger dogs can’t.

“That’s generally the reason for the trend of Christmas puppies that enter the rescue shelter.”

During National Pet Adoption Month in March, Ms Gusain is advocating her adoption app, which acts like a social media profile for rescue dogs, to help streamline adoptions at shelters.

“We’re trying to create awareness around the fact that shelters don’t have to spend a whole bunch of time trying to set up their own websites and their own sort of channels to acquire interest,” she said.

Gerkin, the three-month-old American Staffy-cross ready for adoption at AWLQ Warra Animal Rehoming Centre in Bracken Ridge. Picture: Richard Walker

“Volunteers or shelter workers are usually so time-poor are very often running several kennels at once, but I want to show them they don’t have to continue using old technologies that are also costly.

“Everything is mobile-friendly and completely free and helps you in a way that you can manage all your animals in one place.”

To avoid pet-regret and the risk of pet surrender, pet owners were encouraged to research before deciding to adopt.