Our adoption policy

We feel that every dog is as unique as every person, pet and home. Not all Podencos are a match for every home, but we believe if all safety and wellbeing requirements can be met then there is a Podenco out there for everyone.

1. Our approach to adoption

We have a very diverse team with a range of experiences, skills and also a variety of Podencos that they have adopted and fostered themselves! When we speak to potential adopters, we are looking to match your home set up, lifestyle and family (including current pets) to the needs of the Podencos we have available for adoption.

We don’t have blanket approaches, and take each application on it’s own merit. We live and breathe Podencos 24/7 and understand their quirky and varied characters, defining qualities, their fears and their challenges. Our aim is to ensure the best match possible for both Podenco and adopter so if we feel another dog is better suited, we will always provide that recommendation.

We will never put a healthy dog down; they’ll stay with our vetted partner associations until they find their forever home.

2. Getting Podencos ready for adoption

Once the dogs arrive in to our associations they are assessed in a variety of situations such as with other Podencos, other dog types, different people, and we can also cat test if needed. This helps us understand their needs, what type of home they will be suited to and gives us the vital information needed to support adopters and dogs through any training when they are adopted.

All our dogs are microchipped, vaccinated and fully vet checked for medical conditions and tested for Mediterranean diseases* so we can advise of any special care they may need. They are also castrated/neutered if they are at an appropriate age.

*Anaplasma, Babesiosis, Brucellosis (not a Mediterranean disease but we test to keep in line with UK vet best practice), Ehrlichiosis, Filariasis and Leishmania

Some of our Podencos are placed in foster in either Spain or the UK if we think they need a little extra support before going into a new home, or if they are struggling with life in a kennel.

We consider all applications; from first time dog owners to multi dog households, as long as we think the match works for everyone involved. Our form is designed to capture the key criteria required to adopt a Podenco, but it is only the start of our process.

3. Our only rules for adoption

We are a breed specialist, and whilst we champion the quirkiness and diversity of the Podenco breed, there are certain rules we will not be flexible on:

We will not adopt Podencos to live an outdoor only life - unless through our assessment we consider it to be in the best welfare interest of that specific dog. In this instance the dog must never be chained or tethered. This is an extremely rare occurrence and any adopter would need to be assessed and able to provide experience of working with a dog with this need.
We will not adopt an unvaccinated dog to a household with an existing unvaccinated dog and no un-neutered dog will be adopted to a household with an existing un-neutered dog.
We will not adopt to a home with a garden where the boundary is not 5ft minimum and fully secure, Podencos are known jumpers and escape artists - unless the dog has an injury that through our assessment we consider it is not able to jump this height.
We will not adopt to a home where the Podenco is left for more than 4 consecutive hours a day more than twice a week, Podencos are intelligent and curious dogs and long periods can introduce undesirable behaviours - unless through our assessment we consider it to be in the best welfare interest of that specific dog.
We will not adopt to a home where the Podenco is used for hunting of any kind.
We also won’t adopt to any person, or a household containing a person, where we believe there is an unspent conviction for offences relating to animals.

A note on training - we don’t use any aversive methods to train our dogs and will not adopt to those who wish to use them once their dog is home.

4. How to adopt a Podenco

Our available Podencos for adoption can be found on our website adoption pages, Facebook and Instagram profiles. Adopters will need to complete a pre-adoption form on our website so that we can respond on email. We will advise if the requested podenco is a potential match or if we think we have a better suited dog.

If everyone is happy to proceed we will arrange a suitable time to have an initial adoption call with at least 2 team members in a WhatsApp group. We will discuss more about the adopter, their family, lifestyle, pet experience and home set up as well as providing the adopter with more information about the agreed Podenco(s), and a comprehensive overview of the breed itself and our process to make sure we get a good match.

We will share a key page with the adopter after the call that explains the commitment the adopter is making to their potential podenco - https://www.hopeforpodencos.com/your-promise-to-your-pod. Adopters are given 3 days to make a decision if they would like to proceed, in this period we will not speak to other adopters about that Podenco to ensure no rushed decision is made and that the adopter has all the relevant information to make an informed decision that is right for them.

Adopters can reach out anytime in their WhatsApp group with the team to ask any further questions that arise for them, or clarify anything they may have been unclear about on the call.

If both parties agree to proceed we might add in a second adoption call to run over any additional points. Shortly after we arrange a home check, which allows us to confirm that the home set up is as discussed and suitable for a Podenco.

Once all the checks are in place and both parties have agreed that we have a perfect match we confirm the adoption via email and include information on next steps which includes donation fees, transport dates, equipment included in adoption (microchip, passport incl. vaccines, collar, harness and tracker) and additional equipment required to be sourced by the adopter (leads and dog tag). In this email we provide access to our adopter pages and links to our training and behaviour material.

5. Support for you and your Podenco

We pride ourselves on the support we provide our adopters, our entire ethos is based around a successful match for life. The WhatsApp group created in the adoption process remains open for the duration of the Podencos life and the team can always be reached in here for any support request such as settling, training, diet, physical and mental stimulation and behaviour.

Once a podenco is in their new home we will be in communication on the 3 key settling stages, we will check in on day 5, week 3 and month 3.

In cases where we feel the team are not the best suited to manage the support request we have a licensed training and behaviourist who specialises in Podencos that we can put our adopters in touch with. We then work with both parties to ensure the history is passed over and assessment of the dog with follow up support takes place.

In the worst case scenario for an adopter where rescue back up is required, we work in the following way:

If the situation is not critical or an emergency we would ask for up to 2 weeks to find the Podenco another home so that we do not have to rely on a foster and introduce unnecessary additional movement and unsettlement of the dog.
If the situation is urgent a team member will step in as emergency foster or we will source a foster form our approved network that will collect the dog within 24-48 hours.

Should a Podenco go missing or escape we work with a canine capture team who specialise in overseas rescues, to help get the Podenco home. We work with both parties to ensure both adopter and Podenco are supported and actioning the necessary steps to get the dog home.

6. Health and wellbeing of your Podenco

We promote neutering as the most effective method of humanely controlling the dog population and reducing the risk of disease transmission. Where a dog is adopted un-neutered, we will follow up to ensure the procedure is carried out at the correct time for the individual dog. All our dogs will be vaccinated and microchipped prior to adoption.