Hope Rescue prides itself in being a responsible rehoming centre. All dogs are assessed by our experienced welfare team prior to adoption and will receive at least one health check by a vet. This assessment period is usually for a minimum of two weeks unless the dog is a puppy. The assessment will enable us to find the right home for the dog including whether it can live with other dogs, small animals and children, how long the dog can be left alone for and any training or health issues.

All dogs are neutered, microchipped and vaccinated before leaving the rescue unless they are under six months old. If the dog is under six months old at the time of adoption, the owners are responsible for paying the neutering bill and pups are sent out with a neutering certificate so we can confirm it with their vets. The dogs will be wormed and flea treated, and come with four weeks’ free insurance. Our current adoption fee is £300.

Adoption criteria

Whilst we do have some basic adoption criteria, they are guidelines as opposed to blanket policies. We try to be flexible to match the needs of the individual dog and the suitability of the home offered. Each dog will have its own specific requirements for a new home and this will be detailed in its adoption information. The only exception is that we do not allow our dogs to go to homes with existing dogs that are not neutered, unless this is for medical or behavioural reasons. We believe neutering is a key aspect of responsible dog ownership. We are also mindful that having an entire dog in the house could mean settling a new dog in and building their own canine relationships can be more difficult.

We do not allow our dogs to be adopted into working homes (ie hunting). Generally, we do not let dogs go to homes where they would be kept outdoors in kennels, gardens or runs, except for dogs that have previously lived outdoors and are happiest in this environment.

Post-adoption advice is available by telephone and we offer free behavioural consultations to help adopters through any issues in the first few weeks. If for any reason an adopter is unable to keep their adopted dog, it is a condition of the adoption that they return the dog to the centre unless agreed otherwise.

Adoption Procedure

Due to our site layout and the stress caused to the dogs when visitors walk past, our kennels are not open to the public for general viewing. Appointments to meet the dogs at our rescue centre are therefore by prior arrangement only. 

The procedure for adoption is as follows:

• Complete an Adoption Interest Form
• Telephone chat with a member of the Welfare and Adoption Team 
• Appointment at the centre to meet suitable dogs 
• Home Check
• Final meeting and collection with all canine and human family members (if they have not already met). Some of our dogs may require more than one meeting prior to adoption.
• Adoption Agreement completed
• Follow-up call or visit (if applicable)

To see our dogs available for adoption, please click here.