By adopting a Senior Staffy you are giving an older dog the second chance they deserve. Many of our seniors have been rescued from the pound and were at high risk of being put to sleep or quite simply their previous owners were not able to look after them for various reasons and realised they needed help.
Some dogs come to us from other rescues – because of the age of the dog they have not been able to attract much interest in them and they have been overlooked by potential adopters due to their age and breed.
When you see a dog you are interested in on our Dogs for Adoption page and you feel that the dog is suitable for your circumstances, the next step is for you to complete our Adoption Application Form at the foot of the dog’s profile page, ensuring you provide all of your information we seek.
If we are able to proceed with your application, this is what will happen next:
You will receive an email acknowledging receipt of your form.
This will be followed by a telephone call to discuss your application and the dog you have applied for. We aim to do this within 3 days, but please bear in mind that we are fully staffed by volunteers who often also work full time in other occupations.
We will provide you with as much information about the dog as we are able to concerning their past history and habits. These are passed on to you in good faith, although many of the statements will have been made by a previous owner so there is no guarantee on its reliability.
There will be occasions where a particular dog may already have lots of interest or be part way through the process already. We will let you know if this is the case and will provide details of other dogs available which meet your circumstances (until a successful home check is completed, we do continue to advertise a dog, just in case the home check is unsuccessful).
Following the initial telephone call, if all is acceptable to both you and us, we will arrange for a volunteer to visit your home. This is our opportunity to get to know you a little better and ensure the dog you have applied for is suitable and the right companion for you. All members of your family should be present, if possible.
Once we receive the home visit information, we will call you to discuss the outcome of the visit. If this has been successful, you will be invited to visit the dog on two separate occasions where they are currently homed (this could be in the Worcestershire or Staffordshire kennels, or at their current foster home). If you have a resident dog, you will need to visit twice with your dog to ensure both dogs are compatible.
If your home check is not acceptable, we will discuss the decision with you and will allow you a set period of time to address the situation – such as garden boundaries not being sufficient or too low, your working hours and other commitments. If you are unable to address the issue we will, by mutual consent, cease the process. Senior Staffy Club reserves the right to decline adoption applications. Please do not take this personally. As a responsible rescue organisation we pride ourselves on doing the best for the dogs, to avoid causing any heartache in the future.
If the visits with the dog go well and you are happy that you have found your new family member, we will arrange for you to take your new Senior home.
There will be an adoption agreement form for you to complete at this stage. Once this has been completed and the adoption fee paid, we will arrange the insurance for five weeks and transfer the dog’s chip to you. We will also forward the dog’s veterinary information to your nominated veterinary practice and you will be provided with information on helping your new Senior settle in.
If you are happy to, we will add you to our ‘Happy Endings’ page on Facebook – our very special area for adopted dogs and their owners where you can share your stories.
Every dog is different and a lot of the time we have no past history on them, for this reason we are sadly unable to re-home our dogs where there are children in the home under the age of 5 years old.
If a dog is able to live with children this will be shown on the individual dog’s information in the dogs available section, along with the ages of children we think the dog could cope with.
We do not have the facilities to test each dog to see if they are able to live with a cat, so please check the individual dogs information in the dogs available section. Where we have been able to test this out or have solid evidence that they have previously lived with another furry this will be shown.
Yes we do on occasions, again please check the information in the dogs available section to see if we have one suitable. Please note – you would need to be able to bring your current dog, on two occasions, to meet the potential dog, wherever they are currently homed, to ensure that they are a suitable match with each other.
No it doesn’t. However we will ask for a copy of your rental agreement to prove that whoever owns the property will accept a dog in the home. We will not proceed with the process without this.
Before our dogs are put up for re-homing they are checked by our vets, and treated where needed, are fully vaccinated, and are assessed over a period of weeks, sometimes months (if necessary), so we can be sure we are placing the right dog with the right adopter.
All dogs are spayed/neutered (unless our vet has advised otherwise), micro-chipped (we’ll transfer this automatically to you at the time of adoption).
We also provide your dog with 5 weeks free insurance (this insurance is subject to exclusions, terms and conditions which you will be supplied with at the time. However a copy policy is available upon request).
Unlike puppies, we find most of our dogs are house trained and know their commands.
Yes we do. We ask for a nominal (non-refundable) fee of one hundred and twenty pounds (£120) for one dog or one hundred and eighty pounds (£180) for a bonded pair, payable at the time of adoption. The fee allows us to continue our work and help save more Staffy seniors in need.
The kennels we use are private boarding kennels and are not open to the public – so please do not just turn up and expect to see the dogs.
If there are questions not answered here or if, having read our Adoption Process, you still have queries, please use our Contact Form to get answers.