Do you have the TIME a dog needs? Time to exercise, stimulate and spend training, especially initially, we recommend no matter how experienced you are you go to a training class with your new dog.
Can you AFFORD a dog? Yearly innoculations? Flea & Worm treatment? Good quality complete dried food? On going vet bills? We recommend you take out insurance on your dog to help with these.
Are you COMMITTED? If your dog has or develops an issue are you happy to work with your dog to resolve it? Dogs rarely come ready made to suit you - they need your help to behave as you wish for your lifestyle!!
If you are interested in adopting one of our dogs, please read our terms and conditions and procedures below before contacting Lyn or Rowena (see contacts page). Thankyou!
Dogsfriends have all dogs that come into them vet checked and they are given at least their first vaccinations and kennel cough vacination. They are also given flea and worming treatment. The person adopting should get their follow up vaccination done however this too is sometimes done by us if the dog is with us for some time.
All dogs are microchipped by us when they are old enough.
All adult males are neutered except in exceptional circumstances (e.g. a very elderly dog).
Female adults may be spayed only halfway between seasons for the good of their health. The adoptor needs to contact us when the dog comes into season and we try to get them a place, however only a few are allocated to us so the adopter can either have the dog spayed at their own vet at their own cost or we have a vet in Clevedon who will spay at the reduced rate of £100 which is what they charge us.
Puppies are neither spayed or neutered the persons adopting must undertake to get this done. (We check with the vets this has been done).
For all this a donation of £140.00 is required. This does not cover all our costs when you consider the huge vet bills we incur. We often rescue elderly and sick dogs needing medication. Often the dogs need surgery. We get very sick puppies arrive that have been thrown out with the rubbish. On top of the vet bills there is the cost of transporting the dogs, travelling to mid
We also do put dogs up in kennels when we have no fosterer carer available and it is a life or death situation for that dog – this drains our funds considerable.
We do not make a profit on the dogs, some dogs do not ‘cost’ us much as they arrive healthy and are quickly adopted however the donation remains the same as the money goes towards the hundreds of pounds we spend on vet bills on all the other dogs.
The only time the donation may be wavered or reduced is for very elderly dogs that need on going medical attention.
The only money we get is from the donations given when a dog is adopted and from various fundraisers and collections we hold.
The dogs are not adopted on a ‘first come first served basis’. Each case is assessed individually depending on the dog and the adopters circumstances. The dogs are assessed by the foster carer who decided what the very best home would be for that particular dog. Any potential adoptors are visited at home to ensure their accomodation is suitable for their chosen dog. Please understand if you are not considered suitable for one dog you may be perfect for another. The fosterer in conjunction with the home visitor decide if yours is the appropriate home for the dog in question.
All of this is done on a purely volunteer basis by our dedicated team of dog lovers.
Recently someone asked, "Why would you charge for a rescue pet? Why not just place it in a good home?" The answer is because we need adopters who are willing to support all rescue pets, not just the dog they adopt. A young, healthy dog might cost us £50-100 in vet care, and many people will want to adopt it. An older one with health issues can easily cost £500-£1,500+ in veterinary expenses, and it may require months of foster care for rehabilitation; yet we can only ask a minimal donation, and it may be a long time until anyone comes forward to adopt it. Donations from the younger, more adoptable dogs help offset the cost of caring for the others. Most of our dogs have a sad story to tell, and some have suffered through years of neglect or abuse. We hope that you too are willing to give an opportunity for a better life to ALL of our dogs by supporting them through donations. Without these funds, our rescue efforts would not be possible."
Conditions for rehoming a dog from
Dogs Friends
The dog remains the legal property of Dogs Friends.
As the dogs legal guardian you have overriding responsibility to promote and maintain the welfare of the dog, such responsibilities include, but are not exclusive to:
You will surrender the dog to an authorised official of Dogs Friends should the conditions under which the dog is kept be considered unsatisfactory. You will also give Dogs Friends officials full facilities for visiting the dog from time to time either by appointment or an unannounced visit or telephone call.
You agree to all the above conditions and, if not complied with, accept the rights of Dogs Friends to reclaim the dog. For the avoidance of doubt, Dogs Friends would only exercise the right to recover the dog from you if you were in breach of this agreement.
The personal data provided by you will be processed in accordance with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and for the purpose of enabling us to deal efficiently with the long-term welfare of the dog to which you are becoming a guardian. You have a right to make a formal written request for access to personal data held about you to inspect it and have it corrected if it is wrong. We may, from time to time, use these details to send you information which we think may be of interest to you.
Please ensure when you apply to adopt a dog you are available to adopt it! We have had cases where people have been through the adoption process then revealed they are going on holiday soon and would like us to keep the dog until after then! Sorry but we cannot 'keep' dogs for people. In exceptional circumstances the foster carer may agree to look after the dog for a short period of time but this must be taken into consideration when making the donation for the dog - whilst that foster space is taken we cannot help another dog that we may have to board in kennels at considerable expense!!
If you've seen a dog on here you are interested in adopting, please call Lyn or Rowena to complete an application form. Before you apply for a dog please check that it isn't already reserved, you will be able to tell which dogs are reserved as they will be marked 'Being Homevetted'. If for any reason the dog becomes reavailable then the 'Being Homevetted' tag will be removed.
Please be considerate when calling any volunteer and don't call too late in the evening or too early in the morning and remember some of our volunteers also have full time jobs so leave a message and they'll get back to you asap.Thankyou!
