Finding A New Home for Your Dog

Finding a new home for your dog can take a little bit of time (a few weeks to several months), so it is important to start early. Cayuga Dog Rescue has two ways of helping you find a new home for your dog. Please read our two programs below, and feel free to email us with your questions. Click the Rehoming Application at the bottom of the page to send us information about your dog so we can determine if and how we can help you get started.

Rehoming Programs

Simple Rehoming

In a simple rehoming, your dog stays in your home, you make all choices about his/her new adoptive home, and we help by publicizing your dog and his/her situation (via websites and flyers around town). We are able to do this for you for free (though donations are of course always welcome).

To do a simple rehoming, you need to:

            1) Contact us and tell us all about your dog and your dog’s situation.

            2) Send us digital pictures and a comprehensive description of your dog including: age,
      breed, gender, weight, likes, dislikes, personality, temperament, if there is any history of
      aggression or destructiveness, how your dog is with kids, cats, other dogs, what kind of
      home situation your dog is used to, and the kind of home in which you think your dog would
      fit and be happy.

            3) Give us your contact information (name, address, all phone numbers).

Once we have all of this information, we will put your dog’s picture and description up on the Cayuga Dog Rescue website, on our PetFinder website pages, and we will make flyers of your dog and post them around Ithaca. When people fill out adoption applications for your dog, we will forward all applications directly to you. You take it from there.

We encourage you to talk with potential adopters at length to get a sense of them and their home situation, as well as do a home visit so you can see their home and meet everyone in the family. Often times, people seem one way on paper and on the phone, and a very different way in person; home visits are essential in finding the right home for your dog.

Once you have chosen an adoptive family for your dog, we suggest that you provide them with a Surrender Form, showing transfer of ownership from you to them (we can give you a basic form to use if you like), along with all of your dog’s medical and licensing records.

We also suggest that you provide them with a written list of your dog’s history, personality, likes and dislikes, the food he/she has been eating, as well as sending along with your dog his/her favorite toys, treats, bedding, etc.

You also might require the adoptive family to call you in the event that they decide that they cannot keep your dog. Without such a requirement, your dog could end up in a shelter if there is an insurmountable problem in the new home.

Rehoming Plus

Sometimes your situation is such that you do not have the time and/or ability to screen potential adopters and conduct home visits. In these situations, you can ask us to do this for you. Since this requires considerable time, travel, and expense, we cannot provide this service free of charge.

We ask for a $100 donation to Cayuga Dog Rescue for this service; this donation will cover expenses related to advertising and conducting home visits for your dog, and will also contribute toward the care of dogs currently in our foster care system. If this fee is beyond your current means, please let us know. We can provide this service at a reduced fee in special circumstances.

Once you send us all of the information described above in the Simple Rehoming (pictures, descriptions, contact info., etc), we will then
           a) post your dog to the Cayuga Dog Rescue website,
            b) post your dog to the national PetFinder website,
           c) make flyers of your dog and post them around town,
            d) screen all adoption applications, and
            e) conduct home visits on any applicants that seem like a good match for your dog.

If and when we find an applicant that (based on their application and home visit), seems a good match for your dog, we will call you and tell you about them. If you want, we will forward their application to you, and describe everything that we learned at the home visit. If you agree that they seem a good fit, you would then call them and arrange for the adoption.

We suggest that you provide them with a Surrender Form, showing transfer of ownership from you to them (we can give you a basic form to use if you like), along with all of your dog’s medical and licensing records.

We also suggest that you provide them with a written list of your dog’s history, personality, likes and dislikes, the food he/she has been eating, as well as sending along his/her favorite toys, treats, bedding, etc.

You also might require the adoptive family to call you in the event that they decide that they cannot keep your dog. Without such a requirement, your dog could end up in a shelter if there is an insurmountable problem in the new home.