Actually, a dog that didn't work out with a previous family is pretty much what a rescue dog is.

the kennedys had trainers work with the dog since the kennedy's are too stupid and lazy to train a dog. the dog was fine. although he was castrated like most males around that clique.

it was kennedy telling the hired help what dog to have as a reminder who really owns the plantation.

Mmmmm is pretty much right; XXX Factor is wrong. Dogs that are considered "rescue" dogs usually are placed through a breed rescue. Dogs that are taken back by their breeders and placed in another home are generally considered to be "rehomes", and this is an important distinction BECAUSE official breed rescues are not allowed to pass on the dog's registration papers as a general rule, whereas if the breeder takes a dog back, s/he can pass on the registration papers as well. Breed rescues also usually spay/neuter if the dog isn't already.

Shelters are usually glad to work with breed rescues because if they can pass on a known purebred to a rescue group, that dog can be assessed and placed by people who KNOW the breed, and the shelter has a free spot for another deserving dog.

Add to that the plain fact that Portuguese Water Dogs just aren't that popular (unfortunately that will probably now change) and have a VERY active rescue organization, making them unlikely to end up in shelters. In my years of volunteering at shelters, *I've* never seen one show up. The no-kill shelter I worked with used to take as many dogs as possible from the KILL shelters (we worked with the holding facilities), and would take owner give-ups sometimes, but we always tried to get any purebreds we ended up with into a breed rescue. Sometimes the rescues were full, but would send someone out to help evaluate the dog and find a home for it.

*Actually*, "mmmmm", your apology for the Obamas is as brain-dead as you are. A 'rescue' dog is a dog that is in a shelter and would eventually be put down unless adopted. There's no hint that someone in the Kennedys' circle was going to execute that dog.

Admittedly, it's certainly a "rescue" to remove someone from a Kennedy household, or anything remotely connected to a Kennedy household; but this is certainly not what people generally think about when they think "rescue" dog. It's as if, when one of the skanks on The Hills moves out, we called her "homeless."

Hyperionred, you're wrong. If you work with rescue or shelters at ALL, there are well-defined categories, which I listed above. I'll just reiterate one thing, in hopefully simple words...

It is unusual for a Portuguese Water Dog to end up in a shelter in the first place. They are NOT very common, and their breed rescue is VERY active. Most PWDs in need of rescue will end up with a breed rescue group, NOT in a shelter.

A purebred dog obtained from a breed rescue *IS* A RESCUE DOG. If the Kennedys work with PWD rescue, that is a GOOD THING ON THEIR PART.

Absolutely - we "rescued" a lab mix who was boarding with a foster family. He was never in a shelter, but might have ended up there if they couldn't find a family to take him.

And no, I don't really care where the Obama's got their dog, but also don't care to see people like Hyperionred spreading false information just to make what they perceive as a political point.

I agree with Lizzie and Baci. "Rescue" is not limited to "obtained directly from a shelter". I have worked with breed rescues for over 20 years--purebred animals of any kind are in much higher demand than a mixed breed animal, and most breeds have active rescues that take animals both from shelters and directly from owners that can no longer keep them. As far as I am concerned, any dog not directly obtained from the breeder as a puppy is capable of being termed a "rescue".

PeTA needs to back off and crawl back under the rock they emerged from, and I hope the President has the cojones to tell them that.

OK. Maybe you're right. Maybe when Obama said he would rescue a dog, he didn't mean he'd rescue a dog. That's about how the campaign went.