Dog Surrendering Procedure

This procedure is intended to help those who may be in the unfortunate position of needing to surrender a dog into our care for any reason – please read all points carefully Phoenix French Bulldog Rescue appreciate that surrendering a dog can be a very painful and difficult time. To help you decide on whether you wish to surrender to Phoenix FBR, we have compiled these guidelines for your information. Please do call us if you would like to discuss anything in more detail and any member of the Team will be able to walk you through how we work - at no time are you obliged to hand over your dog until you have signed the Surrender Contract to do so, and if it can be avoided by offering support and guidance, we will be delighted to do so.

Should you find yourself in a situation where you are no longer able to keep your dog (with the exception of aggression, please see point 7), the procedure is as follows:

1. When you have submitted the online Surrender Enquiry Form, a member of the Phoenix Team will call you to make arrangements for visiting you and your dog in person, so that they can meet your dog(s) and answer any questions you may have. This is an important meeting because we need to know as much as possible about your dog to be able to place them in the very best home for their needs. .

2. Once the assessment has been completed, and this will be managed in a conversational, informal fashion, the paperwork is passed to the Management Team for discussion to see if we can identify a foster home that is immediately available, or if we need to advertise for someone to come forward – no personal details will ever be given out and your dog will be given an admin name for anonymity purposes. Your details are highly confidential, as are those of our fosterers, who will have been fully home-checked and assessed for their suitability, and will remain in daily contact with the Team once a dog is placed with them.

3. You will be informed when we feel we have the best home for your dog, and a visit will be made to uplift them; it is at this point that you will sign Surrender Contract. This can be a very difficult time and we are extremely mindful of this, but it is important that you understand what you are signing, as the Surrender Contract is a legal document: PRIOR TO SIGNING THIS AND YOUR DOG LEAVING YOUR HOME, YOU CAN STOP THE PROCESS AT ANY TIME. Please do not feel obligated to continue unless you really want/need to, we would much prefer to help you keep your dog in a loving home with you.

4. There is no charge for surrendering your dog unless it has not been vaccinated for a year or more: we require a dog to have valid, up-to-date vaccinations (excluding Kennel Cough) or we ask for a £50 fee to be paid towards the cost of these. You may prefer to pay for and arrange booster vaccinations prior to surrendering the dog, but we will require proof of vaccinations in the form of a vaccination card or vet letter. If anyone claiming to represent Phoenix FBR asks you for a fee to take their dog you should discontinue the meeting immediately and dial 0300 772 7716 to report this+++.

5. There is a lot of legal jargon within the Surrender Contract and this will be explained to you by the attending Team Member, but it is important you understand that once you have signed the paperwork, your dog becomes the legal property of Phoenix FBR and we are under no obligation to ask your permission for any matter relating to the dog, or to send you updates (exclusions apply, see point 7). In practise, where an uplift is a painful one, we will let you know when the dog has arrived and is settled; we are human too and we understand that this can be a stressful time. However, you cannot have contact with the dog or the fosterers, and we ask you not to try to do so in any way.

6. We cannot tell you where the dog is going or to whom, as this is against the terms of the Surrender Contract and in breach of confidentiality regulations, but we will always do our very best to adhere to the plans discussed during our visits to you and will only change these if there is a change in circumstances relating to the dog and we feel that better alternatives are available. Our decision is final when placing a dog.

7. EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: It is vitally important that you tell us the absolute truth about all aspects of your dog; this will protect the dog and ensure an appropriate home is found for them. If the dog shows any form of unprovoked/undisclosed and/or uncontrollable aggression within the first 5 days of collection, the dog will be returned to you immediately, without exception. We are here to help as much as possible but ask you not to pass on aggression problems; we place dogs in people’s homes and will not put the safety of our volunteers or fosterers at risk.***

8. Finally, we know that people may surrender their dogs when they are suffering financial hardship, but in other cases, if you are able to make a donation towards your dog’s future care, however small, particularly where any medicinal or specialist surgeries are needed, we do encourage you to do so, as it means we can help more dogs in need. We really would be most grateful for even a small donation. FAQs:

Why must my dog be placed into foster before it is adopted?

This is a question that is often asked, and it is simply because we use foster homes rather than kennels for our dogs. Most rescues are premise-based and will do as many assessments with the dog as possible prior to rehoming, but we do not have that opportunity. At Phoenix, we believe that it is not possible to adequately assess a dog, especially a Frenchie, in a kennel environment, as they behave so differently. Therefore, we use real homes, pre-assessed and suitable for what you have told us your dog needs. For example, a dog that is unpredictable with children will never be placed with a family; a female dog that is terrified of male dogs will not be placed with one; a dog needing others for company will have them. It is important that you tell us as much as possible, warts and all please. But do consider, your dog may like YOUR cat – in foster it may prove to hate all others! We never want to set up a dog to fail, so honesty is essential. Assessment is vital and part of the terms of our insurance too.

The dog will stay in foster-care for 2 weeks (minimum) for assessment, and to address any medical needs. All our adopters must foster first, and so it is very likely that the dog will stay where it is and be fully adopted by the home offering foster-care; in some cases, we will actively request this, dependant on the dog’s needs. However, once assessed there may be cases where the fostering home is not the ideal match and so an adoptive home will be requested, advertised through our various media, and using everything we have found out about the dog during the foster period to find the very best home. This new home will still have that 2 week foster period.

Dogs of 6 months old and under are not subject to the same rules: They change daily at this age, so assessment is neither accurate nor useful. Young dogs will move straight to foster-to-adopt homes – all adoptive homes are home-checks and regular checks made to them too.

Will I receive updates about my dog?

No. If you wish to contact your Phoenix Representative they may be able to update you, but please do remember that although we try to be as compassionate as we can, we are all very busy volunteers too, so cannot contact you to do so. And, this is why we ask that you understand the document that you are signing when you surrender. You may recognise your dog on the Phoenix media pages, under their pseudonym, so you can see updates there, but please remember that you have signed a contract to say that you will not attempt to make contact, and we do ask that you adhere to this please.

Please note that if your female dog is found to be pregnant after she has been surrendered, in surrendering the dog you have also waived your rights to any surviving off-spring and all confidentiality clauses remain in place.

How log will it be after assessment until you collect my dog?

This is an impossible question to answer, because it will very much depend on the type of home your dog needs, i.e. dog-free, cat-free, child-free, and the homes we have available at that time. At the time of writing, demand for homes is very high with higher than usual numbers of dogs being given up. If your dog is accepted for rehoming by Phoenix FBR, and you will be advised either way, the Team will keep you informed as much as possible during this difficult waiting period, but we do ask for your patience too. Please do stay in contact with your Phoenix Representative to be sure they know you are still wanting/needing to rehome your dog, and they will also keep you updated

If you have any other questions about this, or any of the procedures by which we operate, or maybe you would like to see the Surrender Contract before you commit to it, any of the Team will be happy to chat with you.

***Failure to accept your dog back into your home under these circumstances will render the Surrender Contract and all its implications to be null and void and your dog may be at risk of being put to sleep.

+++ Exceptions will apply in cases of genuine hardship/welfare.