I love to rescue dogs, but I too have incountered problems. I tried to rescue a Dane and they told me no: "I didn't have a fenced yard with padlocked gates!" and so therefor I couldn't get one. Ok, if someone wants to steal your dog, do you think a padlock is going to keep them out! Come on... Nevermind the fact that I am a stay at home Mom and homeschool my kids, so I home most of the day. When I leave, my dogs come in. I have an underground fence containment system, but I realize it doesn't work on every dog, but why can't I give it a chance anyways. Otherwise I leash walk them which I have been doing with Perdi until her fence collar arrives. My dogs come and go at will in my home. I will hook up with a trainer if need be (which I have for my dane) and also train at home. I want a dog to work with and blend into our family. I also have children that are young, 8 and 6. They have been around large dogs since they were born. They know to stay out of their way. Our dogs are also taught to be calm in the house and to watch out for the humans....gran ted my kids have been whacked by a few tails and knocked down (mainly by my spastic lab mix not paying attention to his insane self), but they get up and keep going. Instead of a rescue taking the time to come to our home and see how our life is, they just say, nope....oh, well. I have been lucky though and I waited long enough and Perdi just fell into our laps. Her old owner called a couple of weeks ago to see how things were going and I thought that was really nice of her and showed that she cared about her pet-even though I feel she didn't do things for Perdi that she should have, but that's neither here nor there. I know that she loved her...anyways. ...Rescues seem to go a bit overboard and seem to lose sight of what's important: finding good homes and setting up resources for training and help to the potential adopters and current adopters. It makes all the difference in the world really. When that is set up there will be less returns and more people will be able to adopt. Not everyone gives a pet the kind of home that many of us here do with them being really spoiled and pampered, but that doesn't mean that they can't give a good home to a pet.