How to Rehome a Dog Safely

Things worth ruling out first

Plenty of rehomings are unavoidable. Some are not, and it is worth half an hour to check which one you are dealing with, because the alternatives are less painful than rehoming if any of them apply.

• Housing. If a landlord or a move is the problem, look specifically for pet-friendly rentals before concluding there are none, and check whether a pet deposit or a pet CV of references would change your landlord's answer. Some jurisdictions also restrict blanket no-pet clauses.
• Cost. If it is veterinary bills or food, many areas have low-cost veterinary clinics, charity vet schemes and pet food banks. Ask your vet directly what payment plans or charitable funds they work with — they field this question constantly and will not judge you for it.
• Behaviour. Most of the behaviours that cause people to rehome dogs — pulling, barking, reactivity on lead, separation anxiety, house-soiling — are treatable with a qualified behaviourist. A few sessions cost less than most people expect and often less than the emotional cost of rehoming.
• A temporary crisis. If the problem is hospital treatment, a deployment, fleeing domestic abuse, or a few months of instability, temporary fostering exists. Some rescues run foster programmes precisely so that people do not have to give up an animal permanently over a temporary situation.
• A new baby or a pregnancy. This is very often solvable with preparation and management rather than rehoming. Talk to your vet and a behaviourist before deciding.

Getting your dog ready

A dog that is ready to go finds a home faster and holds it better.

• Vaccinations up to date, and the record in hand.
• Neutering, if appropriate for the dog's age and health. An unneutered dog attracts a different and less desirable set of enquiries.
• Microchip details current — you will need access to the registration to transfer it.
• Flea and worm treatment done recently.
• Veterinary history collected, including anything ongoing.
• A written routine. Feeding times and amounts, the food brand, walk schedule, commands the dog knows, where it sleeps, what frightens it, how it behaves when left. This document is worth more to a new owner than anything else you hand over.

Where to list a dog for rehoming

Most people do best running two routes at once: a rehoming app for reach, and an enquiry to the relevant breed rescue in case they have a suitable home already waiting.

Writing a listing that works

Two things decide whether you get good applicants: photographs, and how honest you are.

Photographs

• Six to eight, taken outside in daylight or by a window. No flash.
• At least one full-body shot standing side-on, so size and build are obvious.
• One head shot with the eyes visible and in focus.
• One of the dog doing something ordinary — on a walk, asleep, being stroked.
• If the dog is good with children or other animals and you can safely photograph that, do.

The description

Write in concrete detail rather than adjectives. Compare:

The second one gets fewer enquiries and far better ones. Include:

• Age, breed or best guess, weight, sex, neutered or not.
• Good with children? Which ages? Good with dogs? With cats?
• House-trained? Crate-trained? Recall?
• How long it can be left alone.
• Any medical condition, ongoing medication, or known behavioural issue.
• Why you are rehoming. If you leave this out, applicants assume something is being hidden.
• What the right home looks like — secure garden, no small children, someone home most of the day, an only-dog household.

Screening adopters

Ask everyone the same questions and keep the answers. You are looking for consistency and for people who have thought past the first week.

1. Who lives in the home, and how old are the children?
2. What other animals do you have? Neutered? Vaccinated? How would you introduce them?
3. Do you own or rent? If renting, does your agreement permit dogs — can you show it?
4. Is the garden fenced, and how high?
5. How many hours a day would the dog be alone, and where would it be?
6. What are your working hours, and who is home during the day?
7. Which vet practice would you register with?
8. Have you owned a dog before? What happened to it?
9. What would you do if the dog developed a health problem costing several thousand?
10. What would make you decide you could not keep it?

The meeting and the home visit

Meet in a neutral public place first — a park, a car park, somewhere the dog is not defending territory. Bring someone with you. Watch how the person behaves around the dog rather than how the dog behaves around them: whether they crouch rather than loom, whether they let the dog approach, whether they are still interested when it ignores them.

Then go and see where the dog will live. This is the step people most often skip and most often regret skipping. You are checking that the house and the garden are as described, that everyone in the household knows a dog is coming, and that the other animals are as represented. If someone will not let you see the home, you have your answer.

Where possible, arrange a trial period of a week or two, agreed in writing, with a clear understanding that the dog comes back to you if it does not work.

The rehoming agreement

Write it down. Both parties sign, both keep a copy. It should cover:

• Names and addresses of both parties.
• The dog's description, age, microchip number and veterinary history.
• Everything you disclosed about health and behaviour — this protects you as much as the adopter.
• The date of transfer and any fee.
• A return clause: if the adopter can no longer keep the dog, it is returned to you. It is not sold, given away, or surrendered to a shelter.
• An undertaking to provide appropriate veterinary care and not to breed from the dog.
• Whether you have agreed to any follow-up contact, and how often.

The return clause is the most important line in the document. It is the thing that stops a dog entering the chain of hands that ends badly.

The handover

• Send the dog with its own bed, blanket, toys, collar, lead and current food. Familiar smells matter, and an abrupt food change on top of everything else causes stomach upsets.
• Hand over the written routine and all veterinary records.
• Transfer the microchip registration to the new owner. This is a legal requirement in some countries and a good idea everywhere. Do it on the day.
• Tell the new owner about your vet practice so records can be requested.
• Keep the goodbye short and calm. Dogs read distress, and a long emotional farewell makes the transition harder for them, not easier.
• Agree the check-in in advance — a message at one week and one month is typical. Then let them get on with it.

Rehoming a puppy

Puppies find homes quickly, which is precisely the risk: speed removes the screening you would otherwise do.

• Do not let a puppy go before eight weeks. Puppies separated earlier miss critical socialisation with their mother and littermates, and in many places it is illegal to sell or transfer them younger.
• First vaccinations and worming should be done, with the record to hand.
• Be alert to resellers. Free or cheap puppies are actively sought by people who will flip them. Enquiries that arrive within minutes, want several, ask about the litter rather than the individual, or are vague about where they live deserve real scrutiny.
• A "free to good home" puppy advert is the highest-risk listing there is. If you are set on not charging, at minimum screen hard, do a home visit, and use an agreement.
• Be honest about the mother and the litter, including any that did not survive and any health problems that showed up.

Coping with it

This part gets left out of most guides, and it is the part people actually search for at two in the morning.

Expect grief that behaves like bereavement — it comes in waves, it ambushes you at the times of day you used to walk, and it is worse for being a loss you chose. Expect guilt that is out of proportion to the facts. Both of those are normal and neither is evidence that you decided wrongly.

A few things genuinely help:

• Do the process carefully. This is the single best protection against later regret. People who met the family, saw the home, and signed an agreement cope far better than people who handed a dog to a stranger in a car park, because they know something concrete about where their dog is.
• Write down why. On a bad night, the reasons that were obvious in daylight get hard to recall. Having them written down in your own words helps.
• Agree the updates in advance, and keep them limited. Occasional photographs help most people. Continuous contact tends to prolong it for you and unsettle the dog.
• Give it time before getting another dog. A replacement acquired during the acute phase rarely goes well for either of you.
• Talk to someone who has done it. Rehoming carries a stigma that does not survive contact with people who have been through it, most of whom will tell you their dog was fine.

The measure of whether you did right by your dog is not whether you kept it. It is whether the home it went to can give it what it needs.

Frequently asked questions