How to Adopt a Stray Dog?

Adopting a stray dog has countless advantages, but it also comes with certain responsibilities. The first is being aware of the steps to follow to complete the adoption and the preparations for your new best friend's arrival home.

At Soyunperro, we tell you how and where you can adopt a homeless dog, as well as the main requirements to make sure the adoption is done properly.

What Should I Know Before Adopting a Stray Dog?

First of all, you need to ask yourself whether you're ready to take this big step in your life. While the idea of adopting a stray dog sounds noble — and it truly is! — in reality, it means committing to providing all the essential care for its health and wellbeing.

Giving your new best friend quality food, veterinary care, good training and socialization, vaccines and preventive treatments, and a comfortable environment (among other things) requires not just the will to adopt a dog, but also time, dedication, patience, and enough financial stability.

Where to Adopt a Homeless Dog?

If you feel ready to take the next step, it'll be time to decide where to adopt a stray dog. The most recommended, safest option is turning to a shelter or pet rescue center.

A big part of these organizations' work is ensuring dogs up for adoption are ready to receive a new home and family. Also, there you'll find professionals and volunteers happy to guide you through the adoption process, whether by answering your questions or helping you with the adopted dog's adjustment to its new home.

Another advantage of adopting a stray dog at a shelter or rescue center is that you can visit before finalizing the adoption. This way, you'll get the chance to meet the animals available for adoption, their character, their specific needs and care, their history, and so on.

All this will help you choose a companion more compatible with your lifestyle, the space you have at home, the time you can dedicate to raising it, and your own personality.

How Much Does It Cost to Adopt a Stray Dog?

Many people are surprised to learn that adopting a dog isn't a 100% free process. In Spain and many other countries, adoption comes with a symbolic cost to help shelters and rescue centers stay afloat and keep helping other animals.

It's a contribution to help cover the costs of caring for and providing veterinary attention to the animals these organizations take in, as well as certain administrative, infrastructure, and service costs, among others.

Formally adopting a dog from a shelter, rescue, foster center, or pound isn't always free. Again, consider whether you have the financial means to cover these costs. We even wrote a specific article about this topic, which you can find here: "How Much Does It Cost to Adopt a Dog?"

If you can't handle this financial commitment right now, we recommend not adopting a dog. Because this is just the first of the expenses you'll have with your dog — on top of this, you'll need to add food, vet costs, and so on.

What Are the Requirements to Adopt a Homeless Dog?

Whether you decide to adopt a stray dog or a purebred one, there are certain basic conditions to formalize the adoption process. These are:

• Legal adult age: which can be 18 or 21, depending on the country you live in. In Spain, legal adult age is 18.
• In-person process: you need to show up in person to finalize the adoption (others can't do it on your behalf).
• Adoption readiness form: the shelter or rescue responsible for the dog will likely ask you to fill out an adoption readiness questionnaire or form. This is a basic record that also includes questions about your lifestyle and routine, the time and space available at home, and so on.
• Adoption contract: nowadays, formal adoptions are done through specific contracts, where both parties (the shelter and the adopter) declare they know and accept their responsibilities in this process, their commitment to fulfilling them, and the consequences of not doing so. Here you can learn more about the clauses and obligations in a dog adoption contract.
• Legal ownership license (for dangerous breed adoption): if you decide to adopt a dog considered potentially dangerous, you'll need to process a dangerous breed administrative license for legal ownership, renewed every 5 years. To do this, you need to meet certain specific requirements, like taking out liability insurance with coverage of at least €120,000.

Steps to Adopt a Stray Dog

Let's make a short summary of the steps you need to follow to adopt a homeless dog:

1. Contact or visit a shelter, rescue, or pet rescue center (or a pound).
2. Meet the dogs up for adoption and complete the adoption readiness form to move forward with the process.
3. The shelter may request a visit to your home to see the space/environment where the dog will live if the adoption goes through.
4. Once the adoption is approved, the rescue or shelter will request new personal and contact information to follow up on the adoption. They may also ask for your trusted vet's information.
5. Sign the adoption contract.
6. Make the corresponding adoption fee payment, whose amount can vary depending on the region you live in and the age of the dog you decide to adopt. Many shelters offer an incentive for adopting adult dogs, and in some countries, it's possible to adopt elderly furry friends for free.
7. Finally, alongside the shelter, you'll coordinate transporting the adopted dog to its new home, as well as follow-up visits.

Lastly, we invite you to check out our Practical Guide to Training a Dog, since training your new best friend will be key to strengthening your bond and preventing behavioral problems.