About Welfare

The Origin of SHWA(UK)

The Welfare situation in UK Siberian Huskies was fairly stable through the 1990's. The creation of a new online market via the internet accompanied by a massive increase in the indiscriminate commercial breeding of Siberians by puppy farmers/backyard breeders with the resulting sale of dogs to naive and ill-prepared new owners with little or no support, meant that the welfare situation at the beginning of the 21st Century began to spiral out of control.

By the middle of 2006, a group of individuals based around the Dreamcatcher Online Forum who had been working independently to rescue and rehome unwanted Siberians found that their commitment to welfare had increased to the extent that it was barely manageable as they were being overwhelmed by the demand!

At the same time, the SHCGB Welfare Scheme was going through a crisis of its own and shortly afterwards, the club decided that its Welfare Section could only deal with KC registered dogs bred by or owned by club members. This meant that there was no breed specific safety net out there for the vast majority of unwanted Siberians. In response to this, a group of like-minded individuals organised the founding meeting of SHWA(UK) in February 2007.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our volunteers, almost two years on and 300+ rehomed Siberian Huskies later, we are still going strong, growing each day and have established ourselves as the biggest and most successful Siberian Husky Rescue/Welfare organisation in the UK.

So What is SHWA(UK)? How Does it Work?

You may have encountered welfares/rescues who didn’t ever reply to your e-mail, never returned your call, never contacted you about your application, wouldn’t let you adopt a dog, wouldn’t let you foster a dog, or a welfare person who was impolite to the point of being rude. As you read the following pages you will be given an insight to a welfare volunteer’s day/week/month.

When you have finished reading this, hopefully you may understand a little more welfare/rescue, the people who work in it and…....what it is and what it isn’t.

If you plan on adopting a dog from a welfare/rescue organisation like SHWA(UK) please continue to read no matter how annoyed you might get at our “unreasonable” attitude. We would like you to be aware of the welfare volunteer’s side of rescue (and we are all volunteers!).

We’ll start with the most important issues for you to understand:

SHWA(UK) IS A SERVICE FOR THE DOGS, NOT PEOPLE

SHWA(UK) is a service for the dogs. Helping you find the dog of your dreams is a happy result of that, but our main concern here is the dog and what is best for each individual dog.

We endeavour to ensure each dog goes to the right home depending on the individual dogs needs. This may mean that people looking to adopt a dog may not necessarily get the dog they enquire about and may have to wait till a suitable dog becomes available.

It may be frustrating for a person wanting to adopt a dog but please remember this rule if for the good of the dogs and by consequence is for the benefit of the new owner. The last thing we at SHWA(UK) want is to have to take back a dog because it wasn’t matched to the right family.

SHWA(UK) IS NOT A KENNEL

SHWA(UK) don’t have a centre that you can visit, pick out a dog, and take it home with you there is no place to drop by and window shop, no business hours, and no specific times we are open.

SHWA(UK) is a group of people that love their breed. They are volunteers who foster the dogs and take them into their own homes as a part of their family until their new forever home is ready for them.

We will take your applications, screen them, and then have people come and visit you with the dogs or have you visit the dogs in our homes. See… no kennel involved!

SHWA(UK) IS NOT A PHONE SERVICE

On the end of any phone number you are given there is a volunteers’ home. Please respect that.

If you are phoning to give up your dog please remember volunteers have very little time to deal with the emotional side of giving up your dog and have even less time to deal with your indecision about keeping the dog or giving it up. Please do not think us cold or callous, but we really don’t have the time to offer ongoing emotional support to every person giving up a dog.

If you’ve taken the trouble to find a rescue and call or email, then 99% of people have their minds set on getting rid of the dog. Don’t lie to us or to yourself. Simply tell us the reason you are giving the dog up and answer the questions we ask frankly and honestly. Remember the information you give us will be used to help select the right new home for the dog so we need honest answers.

We will not judge you for giving up your dog. If you have done everything you could do before coming to rescue, you should not feel guilty. We understand things happen in people’s lives that make hard choices a necessity.

Rescue should be one of your last resorts. Try obedience training, try crate training, try asking advice from experienced Husky owners, try everything you can before you make the decision to give up your dog. When you’ve done all that you can, then call us and let us know why you’re giving up the dog in the least amount of words you can. We’ll ask questions, you answer them. Quick, Simple, and Honest.

SHWA(UK) IS NOT A 24/7 SERVICE.

SHWA(UK) is a group of people who already have a life, a family, a full-time job, their own dogs, foster dogs, 50 e-mails a day looking to adopt or give up a dog, 20 phone messages a day looking to adopt or give up a dog, calls from shelters needing a rescue to take a dog who is about to be put down, not to mention applications to process, vet appointments for foster dogs.....and countless other things that rescue involves.

Of course, this does not include the volunteer eating, sleeping, and having a (relatively) normal life with their own dogs......

SHWA(UK) IS NOT A WAY FOR YOU TO FIND A PUREBRED SIBERIAN HUSKY FOR LITTLE OR NO MONEY

SHWA(UK) is a safe haven for unwanted Siberian Huskies, with people that know and understand the quirks and personality of that breed, and have the knowledge needed to handle that breed, it’s medical requirements, and who can access an application to be sure it would be an appropriate home for that breed.

SHWA(UK) IS NOT A BABY-SITTING SERVICE FOR YOUR DOG, A KENNEL, OR A PLACE THAT WILL TRAIN YOUR DOG

SHWA(UK) is an organisation that dogs who are homeless, about to be homeless, or in a shelter, come into where they will receive the medical attention, physical attention, and behavioural attention they need. SHWA(UK) is often the only thing standing between a dog and a lethal injection.

Please understand that when you give up your dog, you sign away all rights of ownership to it. You cannot come back to us in six months time saying you’ve sorted your life out, or you have split up with the boy/girlfriend who hated dogs and you can have the dog back now! It doesn’t work like that!

CAN I GET A DOG FROM SHWA(UK) THAT IS NOT SPAYED OR NEUTERED?

SHWA(UK) is responsible about the reproduction of their breed. In fact, rescues believe that the only breeding that should be done is by the FEW responsible breeders out there, and only to improve the breed.

Responsible breeders are folks that care about their puppies and take pride in placing them in loving homes where they will be cared for. Responsible breeders have quality pups that are lovingly raised, given proper care, and sold only to homes that are appropriate for the breed. In addition they will usually have a puppy contract which states that for any reason you can no longer look after the puppy you will give the dog back to the breeder.

If every breeder did this we would have no need for welfare associations at all.

For this reason all SHWA(UK) dogs are spayed or neutered before adoption so that no "accidents" happen.

SHWA(UK) CANNOT TAKE UNSAFE DOGS.

Because all our dogs are fostered in our volunteer’s homes, SHWA(UK) is unable to accept dogs that are not safe for anyone to own. If, due to someone not telling the truth about their dog’s temperament we inadvertently take in a human-aggressive dog, it will be humanely put to sleep. Please bear this in mind when giving up your dog.

We do work with every dog to see if they are just frightened, or have an issue that is solvable. Those who are scared or have an issue that is solvable, we work with and allow them time to adjust and overcome their fear. Those who we cannot work with are put to sleep.

Some people think a welfare/rescue that euthanizes aggressive dogs is horrible, but the reality is, without a dedicated secure kennel and a dedicated staff of behaviourists (all of which are well beyond our meagre resources) we simply have no choice!

SHWA(UK) IS NOT SERVICE TO FIND YOU THE DOG OF YOUR DREAMS

……. the dog that loves kids, cats, everyone, doesn’t bark or howl, is perfectly housebroken, is free, does tricks on command, and knows how to act in every situation.

SHWA(UK) is the place that gets calls from shelters and owners who have a dog in need. Sure, we may come across a dog like the one described above, but chances are it will be adopted quickly and it will be a long time before we see another one like it.

We work with each dog to make them better pets than they were when they entered rescue, but we aren’t miracle workers. Every dog has his own personality, and that is what matters.

Be realistic about what you want/need out of a dog. If you need a dog that ticks all the boxes you may have to consider that this breed is just not suitable for you.

SHWA(UK) 2008