Rehoming Policy | Happy Staffie Rescue

Our Rehoming Policy

Please only enquire about a dog that is available. Please do not enquire about dogs that are reserved, adopted, or suspended, or enquire for a dog that we do not have in our care.

Due to the huge number of enquiries we receive we are now only replying to enquiries when we can arrange a viewing.

Please do not enquire unless there is a dog available that you want to adopt. We do not keep lists of people interested in adopting.

Please do not enquire unless you are ready to adopt right now - if you have a future holiday or another reason that means you cannot adopt right now, please only enquire when you are ready to adopt.

Prospective owners must be aged 18 or over and must be capable of looking after and safely controlling and exercising a dog, particularly dogs that may be strong and/or require high amounts of exercise and play, additional training, and/or supervision. We want the dog to enjoy a life that exceeds the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.

Further to the above, we are not allowed to ask about any disabilities you may have, or make any judgement about you in this regard. We would expect that you honestly consider whether a dog is suitable for you, as almost all of our dogs will be strong, and athletic. Please do not enquire if you are not able to handle a strong or athletic or even a challenging dog.

Please ensure that you talk to family members about getting a dog - particularly if you feel that they may be concerned that the dog is appropriate for you. Other family members may ask you to consider if it is the right dog for you based on its size, age, behaviour, etc. All members of the household should attend the viewing.

Descriptions of the breed of a dog is only given as a guide, and may reflect information provided by previous owners. Please be aware that when there are fewer dogs looking for rescue spaces we may take any dogs that need a rescue space irrespective of breed, provided we can accommodate them based on their size and behaviours and as long as they do not have the appearance to us of a banned breed. For many of our dogs we will not mention a breed, even if we are confident that they are staffies, simply because staffies come in many shapes and sizes. If we are certain a dog is a mixed breed we will say so in the profile of the dog.

Dogs that we know are KC registered will say so on our web site, and this will only be stated if we have the paperwork to prove this. This is only provided for information purposes. We will not make any changes to the Kennel Club paperwork in any way. We will not copy the paperwork for new owners, nor will we make any changes with Kennel Club. The KC paperwork will be retained in our records.

We will not rehome dogs to any household with children under the age of 5 years and reserve the right to increase this minimum age level for specific dogs, particularly larger dogs or dogs that are stray or have never lived with children before.

We will not rehome a dog if it is to be left alone for more than four hours at a time. This is in line with most other dog rescues and is done solely for the health, welfare and wellbeing of the dog.

If you do not own your home, you will need to provide written permission from your council, housing association or landlord that you can keep a dog at your home before you can adopt a dog.

As Staffies are companion animals we will not rehome to potential owners who are likely to leave a dog alone for long periods of time. More than four hours would be too long for most dogs. If we believe a dog can be left for longer, we will put this on their assessment on our web site. If you are likely to leave the dog for longer than four hours your dog may become stressed, frustrated, destructive, noisy and messy.

We will not rehome a dog to an environment where the dog will be kept outside the home, e.g. a garden kennel, tethered or tied up outside.

Priority will be given to potential homes that have their own private secure garden. This does not rule out dogs living in flats/apartments, but it may limit the number of dogs we feel would suit this living arrangement.

We will not rehome dogs to working roles such as security or policing – all dogs will be rehomed to a loving home environment as a family member.

You must bring any other dog that resides at your home and any dogs that regularly (i.e. daily, weekly) visit your home to be introduced to your prospective new dog at the original time of viewing. Many dogs that are described as good with dogs may not necessarily be good to live with other dogs, equally established family dogs can often reject a new dog coming into the home and these things can often be established at the first viewing.

Rehoming a rescue dog is a serious commitment and to give their new dog a reasonable amount of time to settle to its new life. A dog can take 14 days, and sometimes several months to start to bonding with a new owner, sometimes it can be less time, other times longer.

If you do adopt a dog from us, please ensure you keep the dog on a leash until you are confident you can recall the dog. Please do not tease the dog with toys or treats or food, many dogs have been stray, or mistreated, and may be defensive over these items simply because they were not readily available before.

Enquiries about a dog in our care or a dog coming into our care will not mean any dog has been reserved. We do not reserve any dogs until they have been viewed, and the potential owner has committed to adopt and has passed on the necessary steps for us to proceed. If we tell you about a dog in our care, or a dog coming into our care that dog remains available for adoption for anyone to view, and priority will always be the to the first suitable potential home that is able to come and view the dog at the earliest opportunity. We are very fortunate that we often have multiple enquiries underway for each dog, and several people may be offered the earliest available viewing slots, and this means that someone else may reserve a viewing slot if you are not the first to reply

The viewing of dogs is made by appointment only, and dates and times are agreed by e-mail in advance. We do not under any circumstances accept drop-ins to view dogs. All members of your household should attend the viewing.

To enquire about adopting a dog you must complete an online adoption enquiry form providing all the information asked for and attaching photographs of your garden showing the type of fencing/boundaries that you have.

Please be aware that we do not keep lists of interested people looking to adopt a dog as this slows the rehoming process down. You can find out about the dogs that come into our care by either signing up for dog updates on our web site, and/or by following our social media – Instagram and Facebook.

Some dogs receive a substantial number of enquiries, and some potential owners are very proactive and check our web site and social media regularly. Therefore, some dogs may have enquiries received within a very short space of time.

Arranging a viewing does not guarantee the dog will be available as we look to arrange viewings at the earliest opportunity for suitable applicants. As our rehoming rate is very good, we can often rehome dogs within a few days. This means that someone else may be able to come to view a dog before you if you are not able to attend the first available viewing, we have. If you have arranged a viewing and the dog is subsequently adopted before your viewing, we will notify you to cancel the viewing. All members of your household should attend the viewing.

If you arrange a viewing and do not arrive, we will assume you are no longer interested in the dog and we will move to the next person interested. If you do not contact us to rearrange the viewing, and unless you have a valid reason for not turning up, we may decide not to pursue an adoption with you again in the future.

Happy Staffie Rescue, or a trusted other dog rescue organisation may send a representative to your home to do a pre-adoption home check before an adoption is agreed.

We are a charity, and our income is solely from public and local business donations, and activities for generating income including organised events and the sale of donated goods, therefore we ask for a minimum contribution to enable us to do what we do. The contribution for adopting an adult dog is £200.00. This is a mandatory minimum amount. When you make this contribution we will treat it as a donation to the charity. The contribution is non-refundable. This helps us cover the cost of kennelling fees, including flea and worming treatment, microchipping, treats, food, etc. and may include neutering and other veterinary costs (including vet check and grooming). This contribution is used to care for all the dogs that come into our care. See below for unneutered dogs.

The contribution to the charity for adopting a puppy under 6 months of age is £350.00. This is a donation to the charity. The contribution is non-refundable.

For unneutered dogs over 12 months of age we may ask for an additional ‘neutering bond’ of up to £300.00 which is refundable when you provide us evidence that the adopted dog has been neutered. The exception to this is dogs too old or too ill to be neutered in which case the neutering bond will not apply. There are time limits to do this. The dog must be neutered within three months for male dogs or 12 months for female dogs of adoption, and you must provide evidence in the form of a veterinary receipt/invoice within one month of the neutering. This neutering bond is separate to the adoption contribution outlined above.

For puppies under 12 months of age we will ask for a ‘puppy bond’ of £400,00 which is refundable when you provide us evidence that the adopted puppy has been neutered. There are time limits to do this. The puppy must be neutered within six months of adoption, and you must provide evidence in the form of a veterinary receipt/invoice within one month of the neutering. This is in addition to the puppy adoption contribution explained above (£350.00). We define a puppy as a dog under 6 months of age, based on the information we have and our own assessment of the dog. Therefore the total cost for an unneutered puppy under 6 months of age is £650.00, of which £300.00 will be returned to you if you have the dog neutered as prescribed above in the time limits set. Puppy bonds will not be refunded if the puppy has had a litter.

Dog adoption contributions are not refundable and are mandatory if you want to adopt a dog.

The dog adoption contribution cannot be paid in instalments and must be paid prior to, or on the day of adoption before the dog will be released to you. We can normally accept contributions by card payment, cash and bank transfer. We cannot accept cheques.

Our decision to rehome a dog is made for the benefit of the dog in question and is entirely at the discretion of Happy Staffie Rescue. We are unable to suggest, or guarantee rehome approval until the home check is carried out and all potential owners and household members are met. A refusal to allow a dog to be adopted by you does not mean you are unsuitable to have a dog; it could be that the requirements of that dog do not match the lifestyle or home that you have.

We cannot guarantee that any dog featured on our web site will be suitable for a prospective owner. See below for further information*

We cannot accept responsibility for the temperament of any dog once it has been rehomed. Dogs do behave differently in a kennel environment and many of these behaviours can change in the home. Any behavioural, anxiety, temperament or health issues that we are aware of will be made clear to prospective owners. See below for further information**.

We strongly advise new owners to undertake reward-based training to quickly encourage your dog to behave in the manner you want and respond to your commands. We can only advise on the temperament of any dog while it is in our care, or in rare occasions based on the information provided by previous owners.

We cannot guarantee how dogs in our care will interact with children or other family pets so care should always be taken and as with any dog no young children should be left alone with a dog unsupervised.

* We cannot guarantee that any dog featured on our website will be suitable for a prospective owner. The dogs currently in our care have differing needs and can only be matched to a new home once one of our home checkers has completed a successful home visit.

** We cannot accept responsibility for the temperament of any dog once it has been rehomed. To the best of our ability all our dogs are given health and temperament assessments. However once a dog has settled into a new home his or her behaviour can sometimes change. Often dogs take several weeks to adjust to a new home. They can display a variety of behaviours from fear and nervousness to joy and excitement.