How we support you and your dog after adoption

When you adopt from us, it’s the start of an exciting journey for you and your pooch. As you set out together, there are bound to be a few bumps in the road. You might worry about your dog barking at other dogs. Or need help to settle them at night, or with continuing their training.

Whatever the challenge, our post-adoption support is here for you. We’ll give you expert behaviour and training advice over the phone to help support you and your faithful friend. We’re here for you for the rest of your dog’s life. You can contact us when you need help, however long ago you adopted. 

Following up with you by phone

We phone our adopters at around two days after adoption to find out how you and your dog are getting along. We’ll also ask permission to call you again two weeks and four months after adoption.

While the second and third calls are optional, we’d recommend that you say yes to this extra support, so we can help with any ongoing or new settling queries promptly.

This will reduce the chance of problems developing. We’re here to help with every problem, big or small, so don’t hesitate to ask us.

When we call, we’ll check that everything’s going well. We’ll ask some questions about your dog’s health and about their behaviour in their new home.

If we discuss anything that's a concern to you, we'll refer you to our expert behaviour team for specific advice. This can take up to five days as we're always busy helping owners. But we'll contact you just as soon as we can to talk things through and provide help.

If you have an issue that needs a more in-depth conversation, you can ask to speak to our team of dog behaviour experts, or our customer support centre will suggest that themselves. They will let you know how quickly a behaviourist will be able to call you back.

If you have times that you’re unavailable, please let us know as our behaviourists will avoid calling you then.

When a behaviourist calls you, they’ll listen to your experiences so far and may ask a few more questions to make sure they have a thorough understanding. After that, they’ll build a plan with you that’s tailored around your individual situation and your and your dog’s needs.

Our research: helping dogs into the future

If you’d like to go one step further and help adopted dogs in the future, you can sign up for our Post Adoption Welfare Study research project.

At the time of adoption, we’ll ask for separate permission to send you online surveys at specific points after you adopt. We'll use the results to enhance and improve the welfare of adopted dogs worldwide. Your involvement will make a real difference to our work.