Thank you for your interest in adopting from New Zealand Chihuahua Rescue. Please read the below information, adoption FAQ and adoption agreement for information on our terms and conditions. The dogs we have available can be found at the above link under "available dogs".
When re-homing our dogs our main aim is the welfare of the dog and to find the most compatible home for them. It is not a case of first in, first served. We work first and foremost for the dogs in our care and strive to ensure we find the best possible match in terms of a new home. We appreciate your patience and respect of our decisions relating to the dog adoptions.
THE ADOPTION PROCESS:
Stage One - Submit an Adoption Application and Supporting Information:
To apply to adopt, simply complete the adoption form below and submit this via email to the Trust, together with photos of your property. If you are renting, we require written consent from your landlord or Housing New Zealand. Failure to supply the required information (ie. no property photos) or incomplete forms may result in a delayed or rejected application. Please read the Agreement portion of the application form for your obligations and ensure that you are able to agree to these.
If you cannot email the application, it will need to be printed and sent to our PO box with photos of your property.
Please Note: We do not accept applications via Facebook messenger, or a quick chat over the phone. We also do not contact prospective applicants via phone to discuss individual dogs without the adoption forms and supporting information. The reason being, as you can appreciate, we receive a large volume of queries and would not be able to personally contact each and every prospective adopter. The forms streamline the process for our organization and all of the information we require is noted on the form. As volunteers who work full time outside of the Rescue, it is a more efficient way of us confirming whether you and your family are a match for any particular dog.
If you have any queries, please see our website and adoption FAQ first. Secondly, feel free to email us via the contact form on our website if your question is not answered by our FAQ.
If we feel that you are a match for a dog in care, we will be in touch to progress this. If we do not have a match for you currently, we will email you back and confirm if you have been placed on the database. We reserve the right not to enter into arguments or reasoning in terms of why we have not selected a particular adopter. As noted above, we are looking for the most suitable match.
Stage Two - Meet and Greet and Home-check:
If you are considered a good match for a particular dog, the Managing Trustee will be in touch to organize a "meet and greet" with your prospective dog. At the meet and greet we will also conduct a home check and make sure fencing is complete. If outside of Canterbury, we will organize with another rescue to complete the same.
If there are no dogs that currently match your criteria but you are approved, we will advise you that you have been added to the database in the event that a match is found.
Stage Three - Trial:
If successful, the dog will go on trial with the prospective Adopter. At this time the adoption fee is to be paid to the Trust and will remain in the trust account throughout the duration of the trial period. Please ensure the fee is paid into the trust account prior to the day the dog is organized to be dropped off as the account is checked prior to changeover. If you wish to pay via cash, please inform the Rescue prior.
Trials are for a maximum of one month. During this time our Team will check in regularly with you, please feel free to make contact with us also to provide updates or ask for any support or advice you may require. At the end of the one month period, all going well, you will be advised in writing that the trial period has concluded and the trust is happy to deem the dog successfully adopted.
In the event that the Adopter, or the Trust, terminate during the trial period, the dog is to be returned into the care of their foster carer and the adoption fee is refunded to the Applicant in full. All items supplied with the dog must be returned.
For information on adoption fees, out of Christchurch adoptions, de-sexing, council registration and much more, please see our adoption FAQ as below. We are happy to answer any additional queries you may have via email or our "contact us" box.
Please Note: We do not provide harnesses, leashes, bowls, crates and the like upon adoption, these items are retained for other dogs in the care of the Trust.
It is the Adopter's responsibility to purchase these items prior to the dog arriving for it's trial. Dogs do come with their bedding, any vet books provided to us, an Orijen/ACANA adopter pack and PetNSur pet insurance offer and 30 day trial if the dog is less than six years of age (ask us more about this!)
PLEASE READ THE BELOW FAQ FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THE ADOPTION PROCESS, COST OF ADOPTIONS ETC.
OUT OF TOWN ADOPTIONS:
Although we do not have an adoption center at present, New Zealand Chihuahua Rescue is based in Canterbury, where our Trustees and many of our experienced foster carers reside. However, we take in dogs from all over New Zealand, have foster carers located all over the country and have adopted dogs to as far away as Auckland. We do not adopt outside of New Zealand.
Stage One - Check that the dog you are interested in is available to be adopted outside of Canterbury. If so, submit your application:
See the "dogs in our care" page for individual adopter requirements and to ensure you meet ALL of these requirements. As noted above, we will need your adoption application and attachments to consider you as a prospective Adopter.
Stage Two - Meet and Greet:
If you are selected, we will have another Rescue conduct a home-check on your property and then invite you to attend a meet and greet at the foster home of the dog, if approved.
Adopters will need to be willing to arrange and pay for their own travel costs to meet the dog, if it is not located close by. This is to a make sure the dog and Adopter are a match prior to the dog flying to their location. We do not send dogs to prospective Adopters that they have not met.
Stage Three - Trial Arrangements:
If steps one and two are satisfied, we will liaise with you about the trial phase. The trial is for a period of one month to ensure that the dog is a fit for your family and/or your family is a fit for the dog!
At this stage, flights for the dog and an airplane compliant crate would need to be arranged, purchased and sent to the dog, at the Adopters expense. A pet exporter will need to be used as AirNZ no longer allow private clients to book airfares.
Please note: we are not comfortable using other methods of travel. A short trip by plane is much less stressful then a week or longer in a vehicle.
We also need to keep the cost of return flights in our trust account, in the event the trial does not work out and dog has to be returned. We ask that the return flight “bond” is paid upfront so that the Charity does not have to spend its minimal funds getting a dog returned. If the one month trial period is successful, NZCR refund the cost of that additional flight to the adopter.
Therefore, the Adopter will need to pay the flight cost, the cost of the crate, the adoption fee and the price of a return airfare fee to the trust account prior to the dog being placed on a flight. If successful, the latter fee will be refunded.
PLEASE READ THE BELOW FAQ FOR MORE INFORMATION ON OUT OF TOWN ADOPTIONS