What checks does your rescue do?

Following on from the "breeding - rescues" thread, I thought it might be quite useful for those of us who are volunteers in rescue to discuss what checks we put in place to ensure that our dogs get the best possible homes. We may be able to pick up tips from each other.

I will kick off.

* Our rescue is a GSD breed rescue.
* A potential adopter fills in a form on our website (or telephones one of us if they have no access to the web and we fill the details in for them)
* We make an initial screening telephone call where we go through the details on the form, explain our procedures (ie adoption fee, homecheck procedure etc), we also discuss insurance/neutering and general chat about what dogs they have (have had), what GSD experience (if any) they have etc.
* If they pass the initial screening then we take up a vet reference if the prospective adopters are registered at a vet.
* We then arrange for a homechecker to go out. The homechecker obviously checks the house and garden for suitability, but also spends time filling in another form with more indepth details than on the initial form and hopefully gauges the person's ability to take on a rescue dog, whether they can cope with any issues, what kind of dog they will need (ie good with children or cats, other dogs etc).
* If they are successful at the homecheck stage, then they are asked to telephone the lady who runs the rescue to discuss what dogs we currently have in, what kind of dog they are looking for and whether we can match them.

ETA: That once the prospective adopters have adopted their GSD, we keep in contact with them for the life of that dog, meeting up, doing a couple of follow up checks at their home and by telephone calls.

That sounds really thorough.

As someone who has considered a rescue I have concerns about wasting the rescue's time by having a homecheck before talking about a particular dog. Would it be useful to have an initial telephone check and then a discussion about and a meeting with the dog and then a homecheck. This would save time if the dog was not suitable. This has stopped me enquiring about a dog before now.

That is a good system you have Similar to ours actually...

The potential adopter fills out a pre-adoption form (detailing their circumstances etc.) for a dog they are interested in.
Our adoption coordinator then phones them for a discussion about the potential adoption... making sure they are fully prepared for the commitment and are a suitable owner.
A home check is then carried out to make sure their home is suitable for the specific dog.
If all previous steps are successful then a meeting is arranged for the new owner/s and resident dog/s (if any) to come and meet their potential new dog and see how they all get along.
If successful still then forms are filled out, contracts are signed and adoption takes place

With regards to you talassie, we will add an extra meet in if the potential new owner would like to

xxx

Very similar here

Form filled out on line
we contact when we have a potentially suitable dog via phone
we then do homecheck and take vets or personal references, after these are complete we invite them to come and meet the dog, with all other dogs etc, if everything goes ok, they can then take the dog home and we encourage them to keep in touch via our own forum, if they don't come on the forum i tend to do a follow up check in a couple of days

All rescues work differently Talassie, so it would be worth your while contacting a local one and see what they think. Personally, I would want to do the initial phone screening and then the homecheck with you before we discussed any dogs in particular. Simply because, once you have had (and passed!) a homecheck then you are ready to meet any number of dogs that we may feel would be suitable for your situation.

I like the idea of a forum for the rescue dogs, and may put that idea to "the boss" Also, if your prospective adopters don't have a vet for us to contact for a reference, what kind of personal references are acceptable to you?

Thanks Kaye. Do you find this system works well for your rescue? Are you breed rescue or general?

I think that is a good approach for breed rescues where the potential new owner is more likely to stick with you until a possible 'right dog' comes up.

But for general rescues, potential owners tend to be drawn to individual dogs and if that dog isn't suitable, would carry on looking round other rescues. In that case, a homecheck before meeting the dog could be a bit of a waste of time.

I've only had one homecheck with the SSPCA (even though I've had 3 dogs from them and the homecheck was for the 3rd one!) but they did that last. so the order was:

we saw Stumpy
we filled out the forms
we met Stumpy
we went back with Hoki to meet Stumpy again
we had the home check
we got approval from the home check and went and picked her up.

That is a very good point Hali, and not one I had considered, having only ever helped out in breed rescue.

With one rescue they were so worried about the condition of the dog (he`d stopped eating) that they gave him to me then followed me home to do the home check!
Of course, it did help that I had the resident dog with me - a big happy rescue GSD.