After You Are Gone - Page 1

In the event that you should unexpectedly pass away; what protective measure have you done to assure that your dogs will be well cared for. 

In my situation, I do not have family or friends that could adopt my male GSD. I know it is unlikely that me and my husband would both pass away together, but one never knows. ..

Just thought I would ask..

In the event that my husband is unable to care for all of mine, or should we both pass same time and my older son could not take the burden of a younger brother and my dogs I have entrusted someone, a dog friend that I am positive would do the best thing for my dogs. I have two seniors and one young. The one older male would remain with my son, he loves him, easy dog and it would be torture for him to go away from those he loves at his age. My female, if could not be placed in a home that could deal with her medical and temperment issues would be euthed. Her medical care is expensive as well as the upkeep on her has never been easy. My young male would go to this friend who I have prearranged and trust beyond words to be sure he is cared for the rest of his life either by her or a home she selects, should my family wish it. 

We have a living will  and a sizeable portion of our estate will go to a friend that has agreed to take our dogs in the event something happens to us.  It is more than enough to care of the dog(s) for a very long time.   I am quite sure my buddy would be shocked to actually know what is set aside for care of the dogs and to compensate him.  It's not like I can take it with me and Boomer won't be the easiest dog to deal with.  

GSDNewbie,,Sounds like you have given this some thought,,thanks for posting..

Jim,, Good plan Jim..but Boomer can always come here with me,,He would be sleeping in my bed and misbehaving before ya know it..lol..

Finding a dog person that you trust and setting aside a sum of your estate to care for the dogs needs and compensate the person..Sounds easy enough,,NOT!...The finding someone you can trust isn't so easy..People are stupid..

I guess me and my husband will be traveling separately until I get this figured out,,,lol,,,

I have several people that I can trust that can handle and care for my GSD's.  Picking one was the hard part without insulting the others.  I would also take their dogs in a heartbeat for nothing to help them and I am very afraid (with good reason) of one of the dogs, but I'd still do it.

Good post Ruger1.

Martin and I had a serious conversation about this topic a few months ago. If both of us get killed by death rays from Mars then:

Bosco's breeder has agreed to take him since no one in our families would be able to handle him.
Senta is very social and is excellent with children. My mother would gladly take her (our first choice) but if my mother wasn't able to take her (say if she passed before us) then one of my friends has agreed to care for Senta.

Thanks for bringing up this important topic. If my husband and I go together we have close friends who will care for our dogs for the rest of their lives. A portion of our estate will go to care for them. This is indicated in our wills. 

If I pass away, my husband will keep both dogs (right now we have a GSD and a family pet type mutt).  At first he was reluctant to keep my GSD, since he himself is not really into all the training and competing that I do, but now he has a closer bond with the dog and believes he could care for him.  If we both passed away, two of my good friends (who are K9 trainers/handlers and train and compete their own dogs in the same sports as me) would take my GSD and would either keep him or re-home him but I trust their judgement as far as re-homing.  I would also trust them to re-home our pet dog.  He's an easy keeper and doesn't need any special considerations so he would be easy to re-home in about 10 minutes and already has a fan following among my friends (he's super lazy, laid back, loves people, no fear or aggression, very low energy, no drive, no separation anxiety, good house pet).  My family other than my husband has no interest in my dogs so I have never relied on them or assumed they would want to help.

My dog would stay with my husband or go back to her breeder. Won't most breeders take back a dog/s if the buyer can no longer keep it for whatever reason? When I got my last GSD, the understanding was the breeder got her back if we couldn't keep her.

Good subject , My wife has asked me many times about this and it is certainly a major concern for her. I wish I could say I have it all figuered out, but I don't. The things I always strived for in dogs, limit where you place them as adults
Hank