Before you consider giving up your dog
We completely understand circumstances change and you may need to rehome your dog(s).
We are here to help and support you, we will provide help and advice without judgement, and we aim to make the process as easy and as stress free as possible.
We always advise owners to consider all options before deciding to give up their dog, to explore if there are any alternatives that could help.
Pet Allergies
It’s upsetting and worrying when you or a loved one develop a pet allergy, or an existing allergy gets worse – particularly if it means you may have to give up your dog.
Before taking the steps to rehome your dog, it’s worth speaking to your doctor, to make sure the symptoms are consistent with a pet allergy, and not caused by something else. It is also worth seeing if there are other measures available to help minimise the problem – the NHS advice guide and Allergy UK factsheet below may help.
Behavioural Issues
Behavioural problems can develop at any age or stage in life and for various reasons. If your dog has developed a new behaviour you are concerned about, you should firstly speak to your vet to rule out any medical issues that could be causing the change in your dog.
A lot of behavioural issues can be rectified with the right help and advice, which may mean you can work with your dog and not have to consider rehoming. These links below may be able to offer your help and advice before you have to make that decision.
Lifestyle Changes
It’s tough when your circumstances change, but help is available.
If you are struggling to meet the cost of your vet bills, speak to your vet about it first. Some may offer you a payment plan or another way of spreading the cost.
Animal charities may also be able to help, depending on your location and circumstances.
Veterinary Financial Assistance In Your Local Area | RSPCA
Before making the decision to give up your dog, we know you’ll want to explore all of the options for getting help with your finances. Speak to family or friends who may be in a position to help and make sure you’ve explored all the financial assistance available to you through various government schemes.
Being made redundant: finding work, claiming benefits and managing debts – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
If you are struggling with the financial burden of feeding your dog there are various pet food banks in the area, many of which we support with food donations.
If your housing situation is changing – whether through choice or circumstance – this may affect your ability to look after your dog. Help is available, depending on your circumstances and location.
If you’re escaping domestic abuse and will be moving to emergency accommodation where they don’t accept pets, help may be available.
Still looking to rehome?
If you feel you still need to consider bringing your dog in for adoption, the first step is to fill a ‘gifted’ form in below and one of our team from the Arrivals Centre will assess your application. Please provide as much detail and history as possible. If we feel we can help with your dog you will automatically be added to our waiting list and contacted when a time for assessment becomes available.
Please bear in mind, we will only accept dogs who pass our assessment process. We will email you to notify you if we cannot help with your dog. If we need to gather further information about your dog one of our arrivals team will call you to discuss further.
Our waiting list time for assessment appointments is currently 4 – 6 weeks for suitable dogs.
Gifted Form
Fill in this form to begin the process of gifting your dog to the shelter
Rehoming your dog can be a very emotional experience. Please make a note of the following points prior to contacting us:
- Be completely open and honest about your situation – the more we know, the easier it is for us to understand the best way to proceed. We are not here to judge or criticise you, we are here to help you and your dog.
- When you call you will be diverted to an answer machine, please leave only one message. We appreciate calls are urgent, every call we receive is logged and will be responded to, usually within 48 hours.
- If you choose to fill the application form in, please do not ring us to follow up, we will contact you if necessary using the details you have provided, usually within 48 hours.
- If you are not the sole registered owner of the dog, we will need to speak to anyone else who may have a claim to the animal. The dog(s) microchip details need to be current and correct.
- If we are able to bring your dog in for adoption, we will add you to our waiting list and you will be contacted when space becomes available to arrange a time for our staff to meet the dog and carry out an assessment to ensure we would be able to bring your dog in for adoption.
- Each situation is individual, and we assess each application on a case-by-case basis.
- We will never put an animal to sleep unless they are found to have untreatable medical problems, or to have behavioural issues so severe that we believe we will be unable to safely rehome them, or if the animal is a banned breed and we are legally obliged to.