There are many reasons people give for having to rehome their dog. Common reasons are: 1) behavior problems, 2) moving, 3) the dog got too big, 4) not enough time, 5) the person caring for the dog has either died or too ill to care for the dog, or left for college. Behavior problems can be as minor has housetraining or as major as biting. Many people will get a small puppy and not seem to realize the dog will grow up and get bigger, and that a dog cannot raise himself. He needs training, boundaries set, and exercise. Before you try to re-home your dog, there are some important things you should consider.

If the dog has a behavior problem, you basically have 4 options:

1. You can continue to live with your dog the way he is.
2. You can get help to correct the problem.
3. You can try to give your problem to someone else.
4. You can have the dog destroyed.

If you were looking for a dog and could select from all kinds of dogs and puppies, would you deliberately choose one with a behavior problem?  To make your dog desirable to other people, you are going to have to take action to fix his problems. Most behavior problems are not that hard to solve. Think hard about Option 2 before deciding it will not work for you - because the only option you have left is number 4: Having the dog destroyed. That is the bottom line. If you will not give him another chance, why should anyone else?

If your dog is aggressive with people or has ever bitten to injure anyone, you cannot, in good conscience, give him to anyone else. Could you live with yourself if that dog seriously hurt another person or someone else’s pet? Can you deal with the lawsuit that could result from it? You stand to lose your home and everything else you own. Do not consider hiding the bite-history of the dog. If the dog does bite, and it is discovered you were aware of the dog’s history, the law suit costs could be substantial. As hard as it is to face, putting a potentially dangerous, biting dog to sleep is the only safe and responsible thing to do.

If you are moving, inherited the dog from a deceased relative, the dog grew “too big” for your small apartment, then there is a good chance that you have time to find your dog a proper home. In most of the cases, there was warning about the elderly or sick relative, you have known for at least a month you were going to move. If the pet cannot stay, DO NOT WAIT UNTL THE LAST MINUTE to start looking for a new home. Start right away. The longer you wait to start looking, the fewer options there will be.

If you bought the dog from a breeder, call the person you got your dog from and ask for help. Even if several years have passed, responsible breeders should care about the puppies they sold and will want to help you find a new home. They may even take the dog back (sometimes only if the dog is not altered). If you got your dog from a rescue organization, read the adoption contract you signed when you adopted him. You may be required by the contract to return the dog to that shelter or rescue group.

If your dog is a pure breed, contact the breed-rescue in your area to see if they can help you to rehome your dog.

about Open Door Animal Shelters...

Shelters and humane societies were created to care for stray, neglected, and abused animals. They were not meant to be a drop-off for people who no longer want their pets. Shelters, on average, take in 100 new animals or more each day. These shelters are referred to as “open door” shelters because they will not refuse or turn away any animal that comes through their doors. Recognize there will not be enough good homes for all of them. Even the best shelters (including the Bay Area shelters) cannot boast much more than a 50% adoption rate. You may have heard that some shelters have 100% adoption rates, but read the fine print. That is 100% of “adoptable” animals find homes.

By law, stray pets must be kept by the shelter for several days so that their owners can have an opportunity to reclaim them. The animal may not be destroyed until that period is up. For most shelters, this is 10 days if there is some kind of proof (ID tags or microchip) that the dog is owned and cared for, though some counties the laws are as short as 5 days. Dogs given up by their owners are not protected by these laws. They may be destroyed within 24 hours (or less if the dog shows clear signs of aggression) of being left at the shelter. Shelters do not want to euthanize all these animals but they have no choice. There simply is not enough room for all of them. Shelters today are so overcrowded that your dog could be killed the same day it arrives.

Being purebred will not help your dog's chances of adoption either – one-third to one-half of the dogs in shelters are purebreds. If your dog is old, has health problems or a poor attitude or fearful of strangers, has food or bone guarding issues, or has a bite history, is very scared and hides, the dog has basically no chance of  being put up for adoption. Burdening the local shelter should be your last resort. Even the nicest shelter is loud, crowded, and is very active. A dog with a soft or fearful personality is unlikely to fair well in a shelter environment.

about "No-Kill" shelters...

True "no-kill" shelters are few and far between. Obviously, no one wants to see their pet killed so the demand for no-kill shelter services is high. These shelters are forced to turn away many pets because they do not have room for them all. Because they are no-kill, they will not euthanize a dog for space or because a dog is taking a very long time to be adopted (though they will euthanize for illness or behavior), therefore, they will take only the most adoptable dogs. By taking only the most adoptable animals, these shelters can have a high adoption rate, which allows them to save more animals. Often, No-Kill shelters will not take in owner-surrenders because those dogs are not in immediate danger of euthanasia. If you try to leave your dog at a No-Kill shelter, say in a crate or tied to the door in the middle of the night, they will simply take the dog to the public shelter or call the shelter and have the dog picked up. They cannot take in strays, and a dog without a confirmed owner is considered a stray. Most No-Kill shelters pull their dogs from High-Kill, out-of-county shelters to relieve the burden in the overcrowded shelters and move those highly adoptable dogs to a more populated, urban shelter where the dog will have a better chance of quickly finding a home.

about Rescue groups...

Rescue groups are small, privately-funded, volunteer groups. Some are dedicated to rescuing only a particular breed, and others (like Grateful Dogs Rescue) will take mixed-breeds or any breed. These organizations are simply a group of volunteers who have regular full-time jobs, but have opened their homes to help a homeless dog. Like no-kill shelters, demand for their services is high. Rescue groups typically will pull their dogs from the local open-door shelter from the dogs that are immediately at risk for euthanasia. The rescue group can only take in a dog if there is a foster home available for the dog, and priority will always be given to a dog that is on the euthanasia list over a dog that is in a home and not immediately at risk. In addition, each foster home has particular requirements. Most foster volunteers have their own pets, so the dog the foster dog must get along with their own personal pets. Size does matter; generally people who own small dogs will only foster small dogs. Likewise, people who own larger dogs, will likely foster dogs of similar size. That is, the foster volunteers must be sure that the dog they are bringing into their home will not endanger their resident pets or be in danger from their own pets.

Grateful Dogs Rescue pulls the majority of our dogs from SF Animal Care and Control, though a significant percentage of dogs come from Madera, Lake County, Tehema, Monterey County, Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo, San Jose Animal Care and Control, and even the occasional surrender. Bay Area shelters usually call upon rescues to take into foster a dog that is not doing well dealing with the shelter environment (e.g., over-stimulated or over-shy), or because the dog has a treatable condition that would simply take too long and absorb too much of the shelter’s resources (e.g., under-aged for adoption, broken leg, demodectic mange). GDR only takes dogs from the Bay Area shelters that are on the euthanasia list, we do not “cherry pick” from the adoptable dogs. For the occasional out-of-county shelters, these shelters are extremely over-crowded and have a high euthanasia rate. In these shelters, only the most adoptable dogs get a chance of finding a home in the highly populated Bay area.

But even if a rescue group cannot take your dog into their organization, they can still help you place your dog by providing referrals to persons interested in adopting a dog. You will have the most success in rehoming your dog if you work with the rescue service's. If you are able to continue to keep your dog until a new home can be found, if you dog is altered, and if you live fairly close to where the rescue group is located, most rescue organizations are willing to help you in find your dog a new home.

Word of mouth does not go very far. Use classified ads, Craig’s List, Petfinder or 1800SaveAPet to advertise your dog. Done right, it is the most effective way to reach the largest number of people. The on-line, web-based sites require your dog to be altered first. Email you local area rescues and ask if they will do a courtesy listing for you of your dog. Most rescue groups will gladly post your dog for you on their site. If a rescue group posts your dog for you, they may also be willing to help advise you on what to look for in an adopter so you can find the best home for your dog.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area or surrounding areas, Grateful Dogs Rescue will do a courtesy posting for your dog. The dog must altered (spay or neutered) and current on his shots to be posted. Please provide the following information

• A short bio
• Basic physical information (weight, age, breed or mix, sex)
• 3 or 4 good digital (jpeg) photos of just the dog (no family members or other pets in the photos)
• A working Email address
• A working Phone number

The photos should be clear, a full face and body shot, with a clean uncomplicated background with good lighting. Send this information to info@gratefuldogsrescue.org. A volunteer will contact you to verify all the information is correct and determine if the phone number and email are okay to post with the dog’s information. There is no charge for this service, though we do ask that you let us know if the dog has been re-homed so we can remove him from the site.

If you must re-home the dog…

Do not wait until the last minute to start contacting rescues. If they are willing to take your dog at all, it might be a month or more before a foster home becomes available. Try to find a friend or relative where the dog can stay who can buy the dog more time. If you know you are leaving the country or moving to a new location where you cannot take the dog, then start looking right away for an alternate plan for your dog.

Contact a local boarding facility to see if the dog can stay there until a permanent home can be found. Some places will allow a reduced boarding fee for long-term boarder, and many work with one or more rescue organizations.

If the dog has behavior problems, think hard if this is a problem someone else would be willing to live with. Many problems can be resolved simply with management and some basic training. More serious problems, like biting or aggression to other animals will make that dog very difficult to place, and it really isn’t fair to ask someone else to accept a dog with dangerous behavior problem.