I want to start a small at home dog rescue..?

Question by sweetr72: I want to start a small at home dog rescue..?

I met someone with a 3 month german shepard pup that he needs to find a home for asap. I offered to take the pup and find a home for him instead…this has prompted me to try and start an at home small scale rescue for dogs. I am in Canada where do I start..what do I need to do and how do I do it? Anyone who has started their own rescue..please share you stories of how you got started. How can I get a not for profit charity started or something to that effect?? I really want to do this as I work at home full time and have three teenagers that are more than willing and ready to help me out also. My husband and I are going to take the shepard pup to the vet on Monday for a vet check and talk to him about working out a spay/neuter special fee for rescue…hopefully this will help but I could use TONS of advice..

Thanks!!
Wow what wonderful information everyone has provided!! There are a number of things I have thought about tonight and things I never even thought about that were brought up here!! Terrific!! I have a large 6 bedroom home and am working on building a website so I can post pictures to prospective families and am now working on a contract and will contact my local spca on Monday. I am going to try and find a vet that will accomodate my needs also. I am going to start VERY small, one dog at a time until I can broaden my vision with volunteers. I hope very much that this works out as dogs are my life…I so appreciate your help with this and I will keep this saved on favorites so that I can go back and read over all this information again and again. Thank you for the well wishes and the prayers I know Im going to need them lol..but with God anything is possible right??!!

Best answer:

Answer by mom of 4
i think its great that you have the time to do this , your a good person for it to , may God bless you and keep you safe

Answer by star gazer
Wonderful!! I would definitely talk to your local SPCA and let them know your intentions….maybe they can lead you in the right direction, and perhaps provide training!

Answer by bluebettalady
We started a rescue home in my area. We began with a few small kennels and a large running area to let the dogs out. In speaking to vet’s we were able to determine which vet’s were willing to reduce fees to assist us. We then went to the public asking for donations in food, old blankets, toys and such.
We created a web site, introduce small change boxes at local business asking for money to aid us in addition to having fund raising events (we sold doggie treats and had a doggie wash!)

We were able to get other individuals involved and create foster homes for animals and we now have 5 foster homes (2 for dogs, 2 for cats and 1 for small animals!) We do spay or neuter all animals before they leave and all homes are well screened for any potential problems.

Answer by FairlyErica
That sounds fantastic!

One thing I’d suggest is contacting other rescues in the general area and asking them the same questions you ask here about non-profit status and that sort of thing. They can probably give you a lot of advice on a couple of topics that may have legal or tax implication to your specific region or province, including:

* Non-profit paperwork
* Advise about any legal restrictions on the number of dogs you can keep at one time without a kennel license
* How to file taxes around costs (vet bills, food, etc) and income (adoption fees, donations)

Even if I could give you the full low-down on those, they wouldn’t be the same for you as they are here in Virginia, U.S.A.

Plus, suggestions for, or even samples of, paperwork you will need to have together for:
* Taking a dog in to your rescue (making sure they are legally signed over from their owners)
* Releasing a dog from a shelter (around here, you can’t just walk up and take the dog… rescues need to establish the relationship with the shelter)
* Application for adoption, including adoption fee (you do NOT want to give the dogs out for free, and you will want to do some level of screening, likely including pre-approval home visits)
* Adoption contract, including requirement to return the dog to you if the new family will not keep it for any reason, and any other requirements you decide to put in place (such as “dog must be kept as an indoor companion and not an outside dog”)

You should be able to find some great example of some of the above paperwork from various rescue websites… just don’t try to take any of it directly for your own use without permission.

You will also want to make some decisions about:
* How many dogs do you want to have in rescue at any given time? I am involved with one rescue that places a couple dogs a year and another rescue that has dozens of dogs at any given time. Naturally, the latter rescue requires significantly more in the way of volunteers, foster homes, and donations.

* How many volunteers do you expect to have outside the family? Will you seek out foster homes where you can temporarily place dogs while you look for their forever home? How about people to help with fundraising? Anyone who can help manage the paperwork you’ll need to keep on each dog? Some volunteers to help to home visits before approval of new adopters? Trainers who might volunteer time with any post-adoption training issues that might come up?

* What criteria will you use to select which dogs you will accept into rescue? Some rescues are breed specific, some are specific to a size or type of dog (little dogs only, herding breeds, northern breeds, black dogs), some might choose to simply work with one or more shelters and specifically pull dogs that have great temperament but are out of time at the shelter. Will you accept dogs with temperament problems? Health problems? How severe or a health or temperament problem will you accept? Will you accept dogs from people who call you out of the blue and say they want to get rid of their dog? People who show up on your doorstep? How many dogs will you accept at any given time? Are you prepared to say “No” to some of the dogs when you’re out of room and resources, even knowing that the dog may be put to sleep? Make sure you think about the answers to these questions ahead of time, before you come across them in practice — it can be easy to take on too much and become overwhelmed, and if you get burnt out, it means you save one or two more dogs in the short run but far fewer in the long run.

* Will you require spay/neuter before you let a dog be adopted? Will you always have their basic shots done, or will you sometimes require that the adopter handle some of the medical necessities?

* How will you select adopters? Will you require that they be within a certain local area (such as, from your province) or can they be from anywhere? Will you do home visits (strongly recommended)? What will cause you to reject a foster? It happens very rarely in my rescue, but adopters are turned down if they will keep the dog outside full-time or if they will transport the dog unprotected in the back of a pick-up truck, for examples.

One idea you should consider is to team up with an existing local rescue rather than start from scratch. The benefits are that you don’t have to come up with all of the paperwork and process, you won’t have to worry about administrivia like taxes, but you could be very involved with fostering plus they can ALWAYS use people with your level of gumption and energy. Even if there is not a rescue near you that is a good match, considering offering to form a “branch” of another rescue that is farther away. Even if you are still somewhat on your own, you have a great network of experienced rescue volunteers to help you out on a regular basis. And even if you still form your own rescue, get out there and meet some of these other people, in person or over the Internet, and network, network, network. Knowing a lot of people, and having them know you and know what you are doing, can be invaluable to helping you save a lot of dogs.

I’m sure there is a lot I didn’t cover here, but hopefully some of hte above will give you some ideas of items you’ll want to think about as you get started in rescue. Good for you for taking the initiative, and I wish you the best of luck!

Answer by Sweetiepie!
Well I would say that is that you need a larger house if you have an apartment and that you can also say to the doctor that you need the special fee reduction because the amount that you might get might raise the fee and it wont be great for your finances so youcan get more dogs to hrelp the poor animals that are to left on the street brecause their owners are to stupid to take any care of them, I think what you are doing is the best thng i have evr heard of the normal people in this world doing, you are the type of people this world needs more of!

Answer by shendley04
I am an animal lover and just want to say thanks for what you are doing. May God bless and prosper your every move.

Answer by allanawanna123
I am part of elita animal rescue in cleveland ohio if you live close we are always looking for fosters to keep the dogs and puppies until we get them adopted please send me an email letting me know if you are interested

What do you think? Answer below!

Tiny is a small, Blue Heeler cross dog available for adoption from Dog Rescue Newcastle www.dogrescuenewcastle.com.au She is 4 years old, smart, affectionate and full of fun. She is deaf but it doesn’t stop her enjoying life to the max. For more info about Tiny or our other rescued puppies and dogs available for adoption, visit our website or ring 02-4954-2234 in Australia.

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