Adoption Process

Steps to Adoption

If you are interested in adopting one of our dogs, please complete the Adoption Application on our website. Our director will review your application and share it with the foster "parent" of the dog you're interested in.  If we think you're a good match for the dog, we will contact your vet for a reference and call you to verify your information. We will also schedule a home check prior to adoption.

The next step will be to meet the dog you're interested in. This meeting must include the entire family who will be sharing the home with the new dog, and, if possible, their current pets. If everything looks positive, the adopter will complete and sign our adoption contract. This contract states that the adopting family agrees to provide a safe, loving and healthy environment for their new dog. We require that our adoption fee be paid when you take the dog from his foster home.

We will then update our website to show that the dog has an “Adoption Pending.” We allow you 10 days to determine if the dog is a good match for you. If you still do not know whether this dog will work for you after 10 days, let us know what concerns you have. We may give you more time or we may decide to return the dog to his foster home. Remember, our first priority is the dog and we must do what is best for him. Once we know the adoption is forever, we will update the dog's status to “Adopted” on the website. If ,after that time the dog must be returned to us, we will reimburse the adoption fee for up to 30 days after the adoption date. Please understand that we do not place dogs in homes that we believe will not work out.

Adoption Fee

Our adoption fee is currently $450, and we welcome any additional amount an adopter is generous enough to give to help other dogs in our program or to help cover extra vet expenses of their dog. These expenses can run into many thousands of dollars, and include heartworm treatment and recovery, non-routine dentistry, treatment of eye diseases, surgeries, ultrasounds and other diagnostic procedures, and medications. As Hope, our Executive Director, says, "Our adoption donation is a minimum of $450 and a maximum of $1 million!" We require that you pay the adoption fee in full (as well as sign the adoption contract) before you take the dog home with you. Please note that we have made the painstaking decision to raise our adoption fee to $450 effective July 1, 2022. (We haven't raised our fee for over five years, but veterinarian care has become exorbitantly expensive, the cost of everything we provide for the dogs has gone up, and we spent, on average, $835 per dog we adopted out in 2021.)

For all of our dogs, adoption fees pay for the following:

• Comprehensive veterinary physical exam, including CBC (complete blood chemistry)
• Spay or neuter (including puppies, once they're old enough), if needed
• Rabies shot
• DH2PP - Distemper/Parvo combo shot
• Bordatella - Kennel Cough shot
• Heartworm test and 3 months’ worth of Interceptor tablets (see Collie and Sheltie Health Concerns)
• Microchipping
• Worming
• Grooming
• Dental cleaning if needed
• Temperament evaluation
• Medical history record for each dog