“Every time I lose a dog, I lose a piece of my heart as well. That vacuum can only be filled by a new canine companion.” – Anonymous
Want to adopt a Lab? Here’s what you need to know.
Please read the following information before contacting us for our Adoption Questionnaire, we have strict travel limits.
Labrador Retrievers and Lab mixes:
- Are intelligent, loving, devoted, energetic, powerful, and chewers
- Can be protective, possessive, bossy, territorial, noisy, and did we mention chewers?
- Bred to have strong retrieving instincts and usually have strong prey drive
- Shed all year long, and will shed twice as heavily in the spring and fall
- Need ongoing socialization, structure, leadership, exercise, training and affection
- Need to be made a part of the family, and are not good as outside-only dogs
- Need a purpose in life, or will find their own amusements by barking, chewing, digging and escaping
Adoption Policies
Our Philosophy is that our dogs are our clients and we do what is in the dog’s best interests. We match the dog to a suitable home where the dog will be happy and fulfilled, and the dog must approve of the match as well. Not everyone is the right match for every dog. We do what is in the dog’s best interests. Because of this we don’t adopt dogs over the internet, as gifts, or sight unseen. In Addition, since most of our dogs are strays and we don’t know their background you MUST have a safe escape-proof fenced yard for our dog, we won’t adopt without one. Invisible and electronic fences will not work for us either. Community or public yards are not acceptable as a substitute for their own fenced yard.
Adoption Fees
Our adoption fees are $500 for Adult Dogs, $250 for Senior Dogs (9 years and older), and $600 for puppies under 1 year of age.
All of our dogs are spayed/neutered (per California State Law), vaccinated, heartworm and fecal tested, given flea and tick medication upon entry into the rescue, and microchipped. With the rising costs of veterinary care, medications, and dog food the adoption fees don’t cover these costs anymore. The average cost of caring for our dogs, including spaying/neutering, vaccinations, fecal, and heartworm testing, transportation, boarding and feeding, exceeds $600 per dog. We appreciate any additional contribution you may be able to make to help us save more dogs!
We have to limit the distance we travel for our adoptions, we usually take all our dogs to their new home. We typically will not travel more than 1 hour outside of the Lincoln area (we make exceptions for senior and special needs dogs).
Home Visit
Once we have a completed questionnaire and photos of the potential adopter’s back yard (fencing as well) we contact the families we think will be a great fit for our dog. It will either be via email or phone, keep in mind there may be a lot of adopters interested in the same dog. The next step (if we think the dog is likely to be a fit for everyone in the home) is a potential visit the adopter’s home. We bring the dog they are interested in adopting in order to meet all members of the household and all other pets at that time to make sure the environment will work for our dog. The home must be safe and suitable for our dog, and that means we won’t adopt to a home with out-of-control children or out-of-control resident dogs. If everyone is a fit for our dog and the adoption is approved we complete the adoption contract (provide medical records) at that time and the dog begins their new life with their new family that day. We occasionally have adopters come to our area, if they live within our travel area, to meet the dog they are interested in adopting just to make sure they are really interested in the dog, if we think its a fit then we can bring the dog to their new home when convenient for all. If we have a senior aged dog with little interest in our area we will consider adopting outside our travel limits within reason.
Outside Dogs
We NEVER place our dogs in outside only homes. Most of our dogs come out of shelters and into our homes where they live in the house with us. Once they get a taste of inside family life, love, and attention they don’t want to go back to living outside (even if that was where they originally lived in their previous homes). We believe that dogs are happier living and sleeping inside with their family pack, which has been borne out from many years of bringing dogs into rescue.
Adoption Requirements
Our Adoption Agreement and Contract is a legal document, therefore we will only adopt to adults, and all the adults in the household must agree to adopting the dog. The home must be safe and secure, and allowed to have a Labrador Retriever or Lab mix, and be within the allowable number of dogs. We require landlord consent for renters. The entire household must be a good match for the dog. Our apologies but we cannot adopt young active dogs to folks in apartments or condos, plus there is no backyard for the dog to call their own.
Please see the “Our Labs” page for our dog rating levels and adoptable dogs.
Adoption Restrictions
If there is a long vacation or major life change imminent don’t adopt a dog. Those events are extremely stressful and it wouldn’t be fair to expect a new dog to adjust well to them. We hope adopters think about the hourly, daily, life long commitment they are making by adopting a dog. If you aren’t up to it don’t do it because it’s not fair to the dog. EVERYDAY we get calls and emails from folks (who never ever intended to surrender) begging us to take their beloved pet and re-home them because of a decision they made without thinking short or long term.
We Reserve the Right to refuse to adopt to anyone who we feel isn’t a good match to our dog, in particular or in general, as not every household is suitable for a rescued Labrador Retrieve or Lab mix. We will not adopt to anyone who is hostile, belligerent, deceitful or disrespectful to our volunteers, our dogs, our organization, or otherwise refuses to follow our policies or accept our guidelines.
Please contact us via e-mail at [email protected] to request our Adoption Questionnaire. Our questionnaire will help us match your needs with the dogs in our rescue. Please email the completed questionnaire back to us. We won’t adopt to you without it.
We thank you for your interest in adopting one of our Labs!