Our adoption fees are $400-$450 for puppies, $350-$400 for most adult dogs.

About the Home Visit

We will schedule a time to come out to your home. The reason for the home visit is to make sure that you can provide a safe environment for the dog and to make sure the dog you want is the right match for your family. We also ask that other family members or people who live in the household be present so that we can meet them and answer any questions about dog ownership.

The person conducting the home visit will provide the report to a board member, who will approve the adoption.

Once the home check is completed and approved, we will contact you to pick up the dog and sign an adoption agreement. Please note that we cannot hold dogs for you while you are on vacation. Once we determine that a match has been made you must pick up your dog within 24 hours.

Working people: Please bear in mind that puppies need lots of socialization so we cannot place them in homes where they will sit alone all day. Even coming home for lunch is not enough for a young puppy. Our shelters are loaded with dogs who did not get the proper puppy socialization and we do not want to add to the problem. Puppies need time and attention. People who work out of the home and those with staggered hours will be given preference and we will consider those with dogs already in the household as companionship for an older puppy or young dog.

Fences are required for families with young children: We require a fenced in yard and a front entry way or breezeway at minimum. This is for the dog's safety in case a door is left open. We also require obedience training for all puppies. We will only adopt dogs whose behavior we can trust to families with young children, i.e., previously raised with children or very submissive with children. It is a NOT a good idea to get a puppy or young dog if you have infants or young toddlers, unless you are very dog experienced. (Here is an article you should read before adopting: Postpone Family Dog Until Kids Are School-Age: Experts)

If you are a "pack rat" or love clutter, you should consider adopting a senior dog who is past the stage of chewing and getting into things.

This may sound like a lot of scrutiny, but our responsibility as a humane society is to provide the dogs we save with the best home environment possible and to ensure that the home our dogs go to will be a permanent one. We have learned a great deal about which placements work best through trial and error over the past few years. We have placed over 1500 dogs since our incorporation and have learned a great deal from experience.

Thanks for working with Save A Dog.

This requires a $50 non-refundable donation, which goes towards your dog's adoption should you decide to adopt with us. If you do not end up adopting from us, it goes as a donation for our program.

A typical request would be for a young lab or shepherd or an adult dog who is good with children. If you're looking for a five pound toy breed, then we probably can't help you. It's best to review our Recently Adopted pages to see the types of dogs that we have adopted out.

To adopt a dog from us, you can either fill out an application so we can contact you for a private appointment or come to one of our adoption events listed on the Events page. If you fill out an application in advance you have a better chance at being contacted when we have a dog who matches your request. Please note that we do not place dogs on a "first come, first serve" basis, but try to match the personality and physical characteristics with the information that you supply on the application. Also, if you are just starting to look for a dog, please come to our adoption events. We don't have the resources to make multiple private showings of dogs. It's best to visit some shelters and attend adoption events to get a feel for which type of dog is best for your house hold before applying for a specific dog. Given the grave situation that many of our incoming dogs are in, we simply can't afford to spend our time in general conversations about dog ownership.

If you are interested in a particular dog, please indicate it on the Application. If you're looking for a certain breed of dog, please let us know and we'll keep your application on file should you see a dog of interest.

Once we receive your application, we review it to make sure that the dog you have indicated is still available and is a good match for your household and lifestyle. If we receive multiple applications for a given dog, then we try to find the best match for the dog. Our goal is to find the best match for each dog.

Please allow us a few days to process your application. We are an all-volunteer group with limited resources. Once we have reviewed your application we will contact you if the dog you specified is still available. We will either schedule an appointment or to let you know of our next adoption event. It's always a good idea to keep a close watch on our Web site as it gets updated often with new dogs. If you see an "adoption in progress" next to the dog's name, it means that an applicant has already met the dog and left a deposit and that the home visit is underway. If you provide an electronic application and you are local to Framingham, MA, then we will keep your application on file so that you do not need to fill out a new application every time you see a different dog.

Please note: We do not adopt outside dogs. When you adopt from us you will sign a contract that states you will not leave the dog outside unattended. This is for the dog's protection.

There are several formats you can use to fill out the application.

1. Web-based. Our Web Application is easy to fill out, but some servers will not let you send it because of fire wall issues. If that happens, then please print it out and fax it to our toll free fax number 877-349-9254.

2. MS Word version of application. You can download this file, fill it out, and email it to adoptions@saveadog.org or fax it back to us at our toll-free fax number 877-349-9254.

3. Text-based version of the application that you can cut and paste into your email message to us.