Finding a new, well-matched home for your dog can take a few months or longer, so it’s very important to start early. We will help you by posting your dog to our CDR website, our Petfinder page, and our Facebook page. If you like, we will provide guidance to you about how best to screen and evaluate applicants; we do this day in and day out and are happy to share the knowledge gained from our 10 years of experience. We provide this service to you for free, but are always grateful for donations. Since we are a 100% volunteer organization, all donations are used to pay for the care of our rescue dogs.
We have outlined all steps in the process below. This page inlcudes: 1) What We Need 2) How Rehoming Works 3) What You Do Once You Find Your Dog’s New Home
It is very important to read everything on this page and submit a completed application.
- A completed rehoming application, below.
- A thorough bio of your dog using the same format that we use for our dogs.
Please read: Accepted format for a dog biography. - 4-6 good digital photos of your dog, sent to us as email attachments. The cuter the better. Make sure to have good light, and don’t photograph your dog on the same color background (i.e., a tan dog on a tan couch, or a black dog on a black dog bed).
- One or more short videos of your dog that you have uploaded to YouTube. Send us the YouTube links–this is the format with which we can work. Videos showing your dog interacting with a human is the best kind of video to send. Playing with other dogs, playing with toys, and doing tricks and commands are fine, but people want most to see how your dog interacts with people. Videos will be posted publicly, do not send links to videos that you do not want shared with the world.
How Rehoming Works
- While we help you search for a new home for your dog, your dog stays in your home.
- You choose your dog’s new adoptive home.
- We encourage you to follow the same process that we use in our search for forever homes for our rescue dogs. That process is:
- Carefully read through their online application, which we will forward to you. If they seem a possible fit based on their application, go to step 2. If they do not seem like a good fit based on their application, send them an email politely declining and explaining why. We ask that you make contact with all applicants within 48 hours of receiving their application, either to decline, or to talk further. If you don’t do this, applicants will email us to find out what is up, and we don’t have the time to field those extra emails. Please respect our time by taking care of all application inquiries in a timely manner.
- If they seem like a potentially good fit for your dog based on the application, then have an extensive phone conversation with them where you tell them all about your dog, find out all about them and their current or past dogs (what they enjoyed most about their dog, what was most challenging and how they handled those challenges), and see if you both feel like your dog could possibly be a fit for them.
- If the phone chat went well, do a vet reference check to make sure they have provided good vet care for current or past pets. They probably have to give their vet their consent to speak to you, due to federal health care privacy requirements.
- If the vet check worked out, conduct a home visit with the applicants without your dog. See their house, make sure it is a safe place for your dog, and spend more time getting to know them. If they have a fenced yard, walk the entire fence line and look for any weak spots that would need repair before you dog moved there.
- If the home visit went well, invite the applicants to meet your dog in your home. This is where your dog is most comfortable, and thus the applicants will get the most accurate picture of what your dog is like.
- If that went well, have pet-pet meetings with any current pets of the applicants.
Once you find your dog’s new home:
Once you have chosen an adoptive family for your dog, we suggest that you:
- Provide them with an adoption contract, showing transfer of ownership from you to them.
- Give them all of your dog’s medical and licensing records.
- Provide them with a written list of your dog’s history, personality, likes and dislikes, the type of food and amount they have been eating, and any medications that he takes including when he last had heartworm meds and flea/tick meds.
- Decide on a date for your dog’s new people to come and get her. Please don’t deliver your dog to their home and then leave; dogs find this traumatic and often feel abandoned and confused. This turns their new home into the site of a traumatic loss (you!), which is an incredibly unfortunate first association to their new home! Instead, have your dog’s new family come and collect her from your house and be as cheerful and laid back about this as you possibly can be until she’s gone. If your dog senses that you are upset or sad, she will think that something is terribly wrong and will have a much harder time going with her new people and making the adjustment once in their home. So be happy-happy and totally confident about them taking her, and your dog will think a terrific thing is happening.
- It’s nice to send along with your dog all of her favorite toys, treats, food, bedding, etc., as well as something that smells like you (a t-shirt that you’ve slept in?).
- Ask the new owners to send you regular photos and updates so you know that all is well, invite them to call you with questions about your dog as they try to help her adjust to her new people and home, and make sure they know that if anything doesn’t work out, they should never surrender your dog to a shelter, they should always call you and return your dog back to you.