Surrender

Surrendering your Bedlington (or a cross) to Bedlington Terrier Rescue is not a retractable act, therefore it should be your  last resort. If the reason for your decision to rehome is behavioural our Training and Behavioural team can discuss this with you and suggest you may want to try employing the help of a reputable trainer / behaviourist in your area before signing your dog over to us.

If you have no other options, you can trust that BTR will treat your dog like it is our own - with respect and love. Often, making the decision to rehome is devastating and painful, you can rest assured that the team will deal with this in a sensitive and understanding way - several of our rehomes have been exactly that.  We can help you through this.

You can be assured that we do not breed any of the dogs that come into our care and they will be spayed/neutered when appropriate. We do not buy dogs that are for sale from a private individual or on any public media sites or from rescue centres. BTR do not put dogs to sleep unless in a veterinary surgeon and / or fully qualified behaviourist opinion such a course is required on medical grounds or in the best interest of the dog.

BTR does not exist to provide temporary respite for pet owners with problems. When a dog is officially signed over to us for whatever reason, all persons offering new homes for rescued dogs have to give their assurance that the criteria laid down by the BTR are adhered to.

When you surrender your pet, all legal ownership and responsibility are transferred to BTR. We take your dog's well-being very seriously and have a team of compassionate and dedicated coordinators who vet applicants for adoption carefully and match the right dog to the right home. 

To reduce the stress on the dog and yourselves we would always encourage you to keep them until we can find a new home for them, rather than rehoming them with one of our foster carers. We get a detailed history of the pet by asking you to fill out a Surrender Dog History Form. We ask you to be as honest as you can when filling out the form - if dogs are being surrendered because of behavioural issues we need to know this as it is not only unfair to the new owners adopting your dog but also to the dog if it has to come back to us for rehoming again.

Behavioural Assessments:
We have to arrange a qualified Behavioural Assessment where a dog has shown aggression at any level towards people or dogs.  We would ask that the gifting owner covers the cost of this assessment (generally in the region of £80 - £100) or at least donates towards the cost of the assessment. The assessment is necessary to make sure that we are able to place the dog in the right home and offer the appropriate positive reward based training / behavioural back up and support where needed.

When we’ve found a potential new owner we’ll arrange for them to contact you to discuss the dog. The benefits of this is that it saves the dog from additional stress of staying in a new foster home as they’ll go straight from one loving home to another. It also means the surrendering owner can meet the new owner and find out more about where their pet will be going. We also ask the potential new owner to be available for a home check and then a Meet and Greet with the dog before the adoption takes place.