Dog Adoption Agreement: Fill & Download for Free

I rehomed my dog. The new owners said I can visit him whenever I want to see him. Is 5 days later too soon?First, they were being nice. They were not really expecting you to stop by on any random day without calling (i.e. “whenever I want”). Or to visit at all. Ever.Second, if you gave your dog up through a rescue or shelter, the rescue or shelter might have rules about disrupting the dogs’ new life. Check the surrender agreement and adoption agreement.If you have an informal agreement with the new owner(s) - no shelter or rescue adoption contract - then the new owner is an idiot because you could randomly demand your dog back claiming you just asked them to take care of your dog for a while.Most adoption contracts indicate you have 3 business days from surrender to change your mind. After that 3 business days is past you have no legal right or privilege to be anywhere near the dog. You’re just another person on the street.When I’m asked to foster a new rescue, for example, I do not tell anyone I have the dog for those 3 business days. Once the 3 business days is past, I can post pictures and let friends and family know about my new foster. The rescue is responsible for advertising when the dog is available for adoption, which might be a few days, weeks or even months after those 3 business days.Third, if you gave the dog up then you should never visit the dog because it will confuse the dog and delay settling in, training, confidence, etc. The new owners will have all sorts of behavioral issues to deal with given the confusion.

We adopted a dog, Buddy, from someone we knew but weren’t close friends with. His partner had died, leaving behind the dog, and he wasn’t a dog person. Although our friend did walk Buddy twice a day, the dog was spending most of every day completely alone. Buddy’s history was that he’d been found living on the streets in “Uptown”, the expensive part of town, and the shelter he was in had kept him back from adoption for many months, thinking that his owner surely would claim him (he’s a Schnoodle), but eventually our friend and his partner had adopted Buddy, and then within a year the partner died suddenly. Buddy has abandonment issues, profoundly.Our adoption agreement was that our friend could visit with Buddy and even take him out for walks. On the few times when these visits occurred, Buddy’s abandonment fears were active for several days afterward. We finally had to ask our friend not to take him away from our house for visits, but just to come by the house and say hello. That probably happened one time and still left Buddy uneasy afterward.There is no question that Buddy recognized our friend and was happy to see him. But that doesn’t even mean it was good for Buddy to see him, and in our case it turned out not to be.All our dogs are rescues. They all have a story. Of course they will recognize past owners. But we’re their family.

Which rules? I have encountered every level of adoption rules from “do you have ID and $35?” to “sorry, only homes with purebred breed experience and a physical fence and no children under 12 and the dog never being alone more than four hours need even apply.”There is certainly a balance.The rescue where I most recently volunteered I felt struct a happy medium. They are a high volume rescue (1500–2000 dogs a year) with a great deal of variety in the dogs we have coming through.Our adoption rules were: we have to believe that this is a good fit for you and the dog or it isn’t happening. The only unbreakable rules were things like proof that you could own a dog where you lived (proof of ownership or copy of the rental agreement) and that you were willing to sign our conditions of adoption.We had families with kids of all ages, senior citizens, renters, people in apartments, and so on adopt from us. The work was always to determine which dog(s) might work with very few people turned away and told they couldn’t adopt from us at all.My task at rescue was largely handling the, ahem, “free-spirited” dogs. Like Razzle Dazzle the Border Collie whose brain about exploded the day she found out that you could put a squeaker inside of a tennis ball, or Denali the Siberian Husky plus Moose (or maybe Polar Bear?) ginormous and gorgeous idiot dog who didn’t know about leashed or manners, or Rommel the 85-lbs-at-8-months Doberman-plus-bigger who felt so very bad that he couldn’t control his insane puppy impulses - but really couldn’t control them yet. I spent a lot of time talking people out of those beautiful and a little bit nutty dogs, but I didn’t tell them not to adopt, instead I pointed them to our mature Labradors and such that would better fit them.That is what shelters and rescues should do - look at fit more than anything.