Surrendering your GSP
GSP Rescue of New England accepts dogs from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Shelter and stray dogs are our highest priority. Our availability to help an individual dog is based on foster home availability, location of the dog, and temperament evaluation results. Ideally, a GSP being surrendered to us would be placed directly from the surrendering home to the new adopter's home. The less change and stress the dog experiences, the better. Thus, if you are surrendering your dog to us, we will first ask you to keep the dog in your home until a direct adoption match can be found. If this option is not possible due to special circumstances, only then do we explore foster care options. Accepted dogs may require a delay until foster care is available.

We are an all volunteer organization and we do the best we can with limited resources. Our approved adoptive families have been phone screened, vet referenced and home studied. They are also required to have fencing installed prior to adoption. You can be assured that once GSP Rescue accepts your dog into our program, we will always be here as its safely net, so to speak. Any dog placed by us is bound by contract to return to GSP Rescue if the new owner can no longer keep him or her at any time in the future OR is not living up to their contractual obligations agreed to at the time of adoption.

Requirements for surrender to GSP Rescue
Surrendered dogs must:

1. Have no history of bites or aggression
2. Be up to date on all shots, including a recent heartworm test, and preferably be on heartworm preventative medication
3. Pass a temperament evaluation
4. Be surrendered with a signed surrender contract, giving GSP Rescue responsibility of the dog

GSP Rescue Surrender Process

1. Owner fills out Surrender Form and submits it via email. If you prefer to receive the surrender form via e-mail, please contact Celeste Long at: clong@gsprescuene.org
2. Volunteer coordinator receives and reviews form.
3. Coordinator contacts owner to get further details on the dog and the situation. During the conversation, the coordinator may suggest solutions to short term problems or alternatives to surrender.
4. If the coordinator believes the dog is a candidate for surrender to GSP Rescue, they will then contact a local volunteer evaluator with the dog's information and request that an evaluation occur.
5. Evaluator schedules an in person visit to evaluate the temperament of the dog. Written documentation of the dog's vaccinations and recent heartworm test and/or heartworm medication must be in hand for the volunteer AT the visit to take with them. Also, the surrender agreement/contract will be signed at that time.
6. The evaluator passes the information to the coordinator, who reviews the results and determines if we have any approved adopters that may be a direct match for adoption. If we have no immediate matches, we ask for the dog to remain in their present home if at all possible awaiting adoption.
7. If the dog must be relocated, the coordinator works within our volunteer network to determine if a foster home is available.
8. If immediate foster care is available, the coordinator informs owner and asks them to prepare for the surrender.
9. If foster care will be available in the next couple of months, the coordinator works with owner to determine if they might wait.
10. If suitable foster care is not available, coordinator will work with owner to find alternative solutions.
11. If the dog remains in the home until a direct adoption occurs, we ask the surrendering family NOT pursue other placement options so as not to cause disappointment on the part of potential GSP Rescue adopters.
12. Finally, GSP Rescue suggests a donation for our services in placing a surrendered GSP in a safe and loving forever home environment.

Shelters
(from North East Rottweiler Rescue and Referral)

Shelters and humane societies were created to care for stray and abused animals. They weren't meant to be a drop-off for people who don't want their pets anymore. Shelters, on average, take in 100 new animals or more each day. Let's face it -- there won't be enough good homes for all of them. Even the best shelters can't boast much more than a 50% adoption rates. Only the youngest, friendliest, cutest and best-behaved dogs are going to be adopted.

By law, stray pets must be kept several days for their owners to reclaim them. They may not be destroyed until that period is up. These laws don't protect dogs that have been given up by their owners. They may be destroyed at any time. Shelters don't want to kill all these animals, but they don't have a choice. There just isn't enough room for all of them. Shelters today are so overcrowded that your dog could be killed the same day it arrives.

A shelter is your last resort only after all your best efforts have failed.

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