We receive phone calls on a daily basis from owners who are having problems with their dog and want to know if we could help. The short answer is "generally yes". There are three ways of working with rescue to place your dog:

1) You can place the dog yourself. This means that you will be responsible for caring for the dog until placement, screening potential adopters, and assuming liability once the transfer to the new owner has been made. We will support you in lots of ways in order to help you along in this process. You should start by listing your dog on the web pages as one that is up for adoption. All you have to do is to fill out a listing on our web pages. You can be as complete as you want in the bio (within reason) and are free to include several photos to help people get a better idea of what the dog looks like (they help in getting a dog adopted!). You may also use our online rescue forms for your own purposes if you need adoption applications, adoption contracts, spay/neuter agreements, etc. They are free to use with modification. We can also help answer any questions that you might have or can serve as an information resource for your potential adoptive families.

2) You can relinquish your dog to a local rescuer or to Border Collie Rescue and maintain possession of the dog. Basically you can serve as the "foster home" until the dog is ultimately adopted. The burden of the decisionmaking process and the liability switches to the rescuer (or BCR) and you are not stuck with doing all the work (screening homes, home visits, paperwork, etc.). The drawback is that you are not part of the ultimate decision in the placement of the dog (if that is important to you) and you will not have contact with the new adoptive home. This can be a benefit too though, as this also avoids the potential liability associated with the new placement.

3) The final way is simply to relinquish your dog directly to rescue. The dog then becomes the responsibility of BCR and ownership is permanently relinquished to the organization. If the dog does not have aggression or other behavioral problems, then we would suggest contacting a local rescuer to see if they might be able to foster the dog or know of someone else that might be able to take it. Your local rescue contact might have homes waiting for a dog or can work on the adoption on a more relaxed basis (many people that must give up their dog do so "under the gun" and often rush their decisions due to the pressures of the situation). Please note that our facilities are currently full and we cannot take any additional dogs at this time.

If the dog has an aggression problem or other serious behavioral issue, then a local rescue person will not be able to help you in all likelihood. Most are not equipped to deal with such a dog, do not have the training to rehabilitate more serious behaviors, and are not willing to take on the liability associated with having a known aggressive dog. Many owners are told that they are out of luck because they can't take such a dog and that they would suggest that the dog should be put down. Most rescuers are kind folks doing this out of their homes and are typically Border Collie lovers that have extensive experience with the breed. To expect them to bring into their homes an aggressive dog, when they have little or no formal training on how to deal with aggression, and no liability insurance that would cover them if something should happen, is just too much. If you're going to save a dog, why not save an easier one that won't have to spend as much time in rescue and won't be as much work? It just makes good sense.

You can ask others about your issues and they may be able to help you.

Unfortunately, this facility is only available for purebred Border Collies and we do have limited space. We will ask for some sort of verification of the dog's breed before agreeing to accept them (i.e. registration papers, a local rescuer's evaluation, photos, etc.)

And if you do have to relinquish your dog, don't forget to bring (send) as much of their paperwork as you can - vet records, registration papers, lists of commands, etc.. It helps us out tremendously in working with each dog.