ADOPTING

Our catchment area for rehoming is Somerset and the local surrounding areas (such as Bristol, Bath, Weston Super Mare and Wiltshire).

We have a catchment area to ensure that we can carry out all parts of the adoption process which includes providing post-adoption support. We do consider homes outside of our catchment area (e.g., Devon, Dorset etc.) in some circumstances, for example, if it’s a dog who we have struggled to find a home for over a long period, or where the dog has extremely specialist needs.

Please note you will not be able to meet a dog and take them home the same day so you will need to make the trip to their foster placement (or our kennels) at least twice. 

It is important for us to keep up the momentum in the adoption process for several reasons, including the need to move the dogs on before they become too settled, avoiding keeping other applicants waiting for the outcome of their application, and to free up desperately needed fostering and kennel spaces.

Generally speaking, you must be free to come and meet the dog within a few days of applying and be in a position to bring them home within one week* (subject to all vetting and adoption preparation). *For dogs at the kennels this is three days. This may seem fairly quick, which is why we encourage families to get in contact and ask questions during the initial stages of their research, so we can help you prepare.

We are not able to hold dogs due to holidays, illness, etc. and applicants should only apply if they are ready to bring a dog home.

We do appreciate that if you have children, rehoming a rescue dog can be more challenging. As a rescue, we have a duty of care to protect both applicants and our dogs, and therefore are extremely careful about rehoming with children.

We will rehome to families with children (usually with a lower age limit of 4) where safe and appropriate to do so – we will consider the size, breed, personality, and background of the dog and make a sensible and well-considered judgement on the best match for the dog. If you have children younger than the age set in the profile, please do not apply to avoid disappointment.

All children should be able to act calmly and sensibly around dogs, respecting boundaries and listening to parental guidance – this is something that will be assessed at the meet and greet stage.

We unfortunately do not have the ability to cat test, unless the opportunity for dogs to interact with a cat occurs organically – for example, the dog is in an experienced foster home with resident cats.

We will state on a dog’s profile if they can live with cats, but all adopters must acknowledge that careful introductions will be required and that they will not necessarily get on well straight away.

We do rehome to families in flats or those without a garden providing this is suitable to the needs of the dogs. For example, many ex-breeding dogs cannot walk on a lead for quite some time and will need gardens to ensure they can safely spend time outside and go to the toilet etc.

One of our volunteer home checkers will attend your house to see inside and outside the property. They will be looking for a environment that is free of hazards and a garden that is secure and escape-proof.

It may be that we make recommendations for any minor amendments required however, if there is a significant amount of work needed, we may not be able to proceed with your application. You should ensure that your home is in a state of readiness to pass a home check before you apply for a dog to ensure you’re able to proceed.

Examples of things that are hazardous to dogs are excessive clutter, access to human food or potentially dangerous materials (such as medication), uncovered ponds, unsecure garden boundaries.

Where an in-person home check is not possibly, you may be asked to provide a video home check. It is essential that in these instances, a video of the whole home is provided.

We conduct veterinary reference checks to ensure that you can demonstrate an appropriate level of care having been provided to your current and/or previous pet(s).

Any resident dogs/cats should be neutered (unless a vet has advised not to for medical reasons) in line with British Veterinary Association guidance and have up to date with vaccinations (or valid titre testing).

We will also look for any welfare and care issues relating to your current and/or previous dog/cats (such as medical issues not being addressed, the pet being significantly overweight, inability to cover vet costs, and pets going a significant period of time without health checks). We would like to see that your dogs/cats have a history of regular health checks, ideally performed annually.

The vet reference must cover pets’ whole lifetime, so if you have had multiple vet registrations please ensure you provide details of these.

When you apply to adopt, you must give your vet practice permission to share with Dogs Friends.

If you are a first time pet owner and not able to provide veterinary details, please clearly state this in your application form.

Our adoption fee’s are usually between £400-£500 and this goes towards covering costs incurred in rescuing a dog.

Rescues are often criticised for adoption fee’s and so we do like to remind people that the majority of the dogs coming into our care are in a very bad way and often require thousands of pounds worth of vet treatment. There will be some dogs who have an adoption fee of £300 who will have had surgeries costing the charity £5,000+, this money must come from somewhere and so adoption fee’s are just a small part of us desperately trying to recoup costs and keep the rescue going.

The lower age limit to adopt is 18 and there is no upper age limit. We do ask for applicants to be realistic when applying for dogs and consider the age of the dog vs their age before applying.

Many of our dogs come from a commercial breeding background (you may have heard the term ‘puppy farm’ used). These dogs can often be very traumatised or insecure, due to years of neglect and in some cases having had minimal human interaction. For many of these dogs, the only comfort they will have known is the companionship of another dog. They are often reliant on consistent companionship from another dog for comfort and reassurance, and cannot cope as an only dog. It can sometimes seem that they are confident enough alone, but it isn’t until they are removed from the company of other dogs that they begin to shut down.