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2. Adoption process

Applying to adopt or volunteer

Our goal at LRR is to match our Labs with the perfect owners. In order for us to do so, we must have as much information about you and your lifestyle as possible. Our application form may seem a little overwhelming at first but it ensures us that we find the best homes for our dogs. After all, our dogs deserve the best! To apply to adopt a dog, please follow these steps:

The application review process takes up to four weeks, so please be patient. If you are very specific about the type of Lab you want, it will take longer. If you are in a hurry to adopt a pet, applying to a rescue group may not be the best option for you.

What to expect next

The approval process begins with you completing the online application form via the link above. Once you complete the online application, you will be presented with a “signature page” summarizing your application. You must print, sign, and mail this page back to LRR. We must have your original signatures to process the application. We also suggest that you print a copy of the application for your records before submitting it.

If you are married or have a significant other living with you, your spouse/significant other is considered to be the Co-Applicant, and both of you must sign the application. This is to ensure that all adult members of the household want to adopt a Lab. If you are interested in becoming a foster home rather than adopting, you must also complete this same application in it’s entirety.

Once you mail your application to us, please expect to wait up to four weeks for us to possibly contact you. Please be patient—we are an all volunteer organization and we are limited to contacting you as our schedules permit. If we are receiving an abnormally large number of applications, it will take longer. During this time, our Adoption Coordinators will thoroughly review your application and make note of any questions they may have for you. This is also the time that we may contact your references and current veterinarian.

Telephone Interview

During the approval process, an Adoption Coordinator may contact you by telephone and schedule a time to perform a telephone interview. All Applicants and Co-Applicants must participate in this telephone interview.

During this interview, the Adoption Coordinator will ask you questions about your application and try to get a feel for exactly what type/personality of Lab would be best for you. They will also provide you a background of our organization and the Labrador breed. We encourage you to ask our Adoption Coordinators any questions you have about our organization, programs or Labs in general during this telephone interview.

Home evaluation

After a telephone interview, you may be contacted by another LRR volunteer in order to schedule a house evaluation and personal interview. All people and your current pets living in your house must be present and available during this house evaluation and interview.

During the house evaluation our volunteers will want you to show them your potential pet’s living quarters (for both daytime and nighttime hours) and your yard, if applicable. They will also talk to you about our organization and program. They will also bring their Lab to your house so as to see how you, your family members and other animals react to a dog. Again, we encourage you to ask them any questions you have about our organization, programs or Labs in general.

Visiting our dogs

After your application has been fully approved, we will provide you with information on Labs currently in our program that we feel best match your lifestyle. We do not have a kennel or office—our Labs are taken care of by volunteer foster homes. You will contact the foster homes directly and mutually arrange a convenient time for you to travel to their home.

Once at a foster home, you will be provided with the background information packet for that Lab. Each foster home completes written evaluations for their foster dogs. These evaluations tell you both the good and the bad qualities of each dog. You should review each evaluation very carefully and ask the foster home whatever questions you may have.

In addition to reviewing the written evaluations, you will be able to play with the Lab in their environment so that you can best evaluate their personality. We believe that allowing you see how the dog acts in a comfortable environment is the best way to determine if that dog is a good match. Again, we encourage you to ask the foster parents any questions you have about our organization, programs or Labs in general. Please note that we will want you to visit at least three dogs in our program before you adopt.

Adopting

If after seeing several Labs you have fallen head over heels in love with one of them, the actual adoption proceedings may begin. Either the foster home or an Adoption Coordinator will perform the adoption, again at a mutually convenient time.

The adoption proceeding includes: explaining and transferring the evaluation and information packet to you, providing temporary identification tags and collar for the Lab, and the review and signing of the Adoption Contract. This contract helps to ensure that the adopters share LRR’s philosophy on dog care and ownership (read more about the terms and conditions of our adoption contract). In order to finalize an adoption with LRR, the adopter(s) must sign and agree to our Adoption Contract. We also request that a non refundable, tax deductible donation be given to us at this time. This donation helps to offset some of the many costs incurred by LRR in preparing our Labs for adoption, such as spaying or neutering, heartworm preventative, microchipping, vaccinations, medical treatments, and more. You and your Lab are now ready start your new lives together!

Is it worth it?

By now, you may be asking yourself, “why am I going to all this effort just to adopt a Lab?”. We feel our Labs are special and deserve special owners. We believe in quality, not quantity. We cannot accept every Lab into our adoption program—they are thoroughly evaluated before they are rescued. We take in those Labs that we feel would make wonderful pets for new owners. Once rescued and placed into foster care, they continue to be evaluated to benefit both you, as the potential adopters, and the dog. Remember our primary goal is make a perfect match between dog and human.

We invest a significant amount of our time and money into each and every one of our Labs so we feel that to be fair to everyone, our adoption application procedure must be thorough. Our Labs have been through emotionally draining and sometimes, physically grueling experiences before we rescue them. It is our goal to rehabilitate the dogs, both emotionally and physically, and find them loving caring “forever” homes.

If you don’t hear from us

If you have not heard from LRR after four weeks, you should assume that your application was not accepted. We have become overwhelmed with the number of Lab lovers out there wanting to adopt from us. Because of this, we are unable to notify people if their application is not accepted.

Please understand that we cannot accept every application. The majority of applications we receive are not accepted. Your application may not be accepted for a number of reasons, including but not limited to: we may feel that you cannot provide a lifetime commitment to an animal right now, we may not have any Labs available that fit your lifestyle or match your preferences, your application is incomplete, or simply your philosophy on animal care and ownership differs from our own.

We reserve the right to refuse or deny any application. We wish we could rescue every homeless Lab and approve every application, but we cannot. We understand that this process can be stressful and possibly disappointing. Please remember that there are many rescues and shelters in our area that may be able to assist you in your pet search even if LRR cannot.