The Rehoming Decision: Can you try a little longer for his/her sake?
Dogs Forever advocates keeping a dog for life. Millions of dogs die each year in the United States; thousands of these dogs die in Iowa shelters.

If you are willing to work through the crisis that has caused you to think about giving up your dog, we have volunteers knowledgeable in many dog behavior and health issues. Any of the bad things you are experiencing we, as dog owners, have likely also experienced. Because our goal is to keep dogs and families together, we are happy to share our wisdom and/or refer you to our professional dog trainer who has the expertise to advise you as well. Just send us an e-mail at adoption@dogsforever.org and explain the situation. Attach a dog photo and include your phone number.

Another option would be listing your beloved dog on your own through Adopt A Pet. Because Dogs Forever receives more re-home requests that we can accommodate, we often suggest that owners post their dogs on Adopt a Pet. By using our link, owners who list their pets will have their fee reduced by 90% if owners use our unique referral coupon code. You’ll want to use this link: https://rehome.adoptapet.com/r/84009 and use this referral code: RCXHAQTL2U8AD8Z Your listing will go live immediately for others to connect with you. If you want to learn more about how it works to post on Adopt a Pet, you can review their process HERE. Visit their FAQ page for more information HERE.

Rehoming Your Best Friend
If, on the other hand, you have already reached the decision to give up your dog, or if circumstances are dire— such as the death or declining health of the dog’s owner— we might take the dog into our care. However, because we focus our efforts on rescuing dogs that might be euthanized at kill shelters, accepting owner-relinquished dogs into our shelter is only possible when we have room.

If we have no open kennels or foster homes, you will be asked to foster the dog until we can help rehome him/her.  Either way, you must first complete our: Dog Information Form

Dog Information Form
After completing the online form, email 1-2 photos of your dog to adoption@dogsforever.org with REHOME <your dog’s name> in the subject line. For example: REHOME SPIKE.

Procedure
Dogs Forever is an all-volunteer organization. We are also one of the few Adoption Guarantee (AKA no-kill) shelters in Iowa. Because of this, we are overwhelmed with calls and emails asking us to help dogs.

If you are asking for help to rehome your dog, you must complete the Dog Information Form. Please do not message into our Facebook. We will not return a phone message from an owner regarding their dog unless you have already complete the form. Upon receiving it, we will check to be sure your dog is spayed/neutered and current on vaccines. We will contact you within a few days if we have questions.

To inform our intake decision, we meet dogs before accepting them either into our shelter or our foster program.

“IF” we are able to take the dog into our care, we will notify you by either email or phone call within 72 hours. If you do not hear from us, we are unfortunately not able to take your dog at that time.