If you feel that you can offer a loving home to a dog from Wiccaweys, please read the following carefully. Once you have read through, our contact details can be found HERE. Please do not enquire about adopting via email, we prefer to have a proper conversation with people. All emails enquiring about dogs are replied to with a standard email asking you to phone us.

IMPORTANT :

**If you are going on holiday in the near future, and are not looking to adopt a dog until you return, please phone to arrange a homecheck once you are back, and you are ready and prepared to adopt.We do not reserve dogs for people.

**If you are about to move house in the next few weeks and are not looking to adopt a dog until then, please phone to arrange a homecheck when you are ready and prepared to adopt.We do not reserve dogs for people.


Our Adopting Proceedure - please read carefully.

Your Initial Enquiry
We will discuss your needs in terms of a collie and decide whether the dog in question is suitable for your circumstances, if not, we will make suggestions towards the type of collie you should be looking at to suit your family and environment.

All our dogs are fully assessed and live in our family environment, so we know exactly who will suit who. This means they live as part of our family and have free range to exercise and toys. They are not kept kennelled. The dogs are carefully assessed within our home environment. They receive basic training, some fun agility training if they are inclined, and are socialised in as many different situations as possible. The dogs are vaccinated, neutered (unless they are too young, too old, or the vet advises against it for a medical reason), wormed, flea treated and microchipped.

Homechecks
All potential homes will be fully home checked. When we carry out a home check we are not just there to make sure the garden is secure, we are there to offer help and advice too. Our home checks are not a 10 minute operation. We expect to spend a considerable amount of time with the family, getting to know them and any exisiting animals they may have. You will be asked to complete an adoption application. We will not accept a vets reference.

We home dogs all over the country, and we have a network of trusted home checkers across the country. All our home checkers are volunteers and very kindly give their time freely to carry out homechecks on our behalf at their own expense, sometimes taking time of work to carry out a check, and often travelling a considerable distance to complete a home check. Home checkers do this all out of the goodness of their hearts - and to do their bit to help rescued dogs into new homes. Please do not ask to have a homecheck arranged unless you are ready to adopt a dog, and are completely committed to adopting a dog.

Please do not be offended if after the homecheck is carried out, the dog you initially enquired about turns out to be unsuitable for your circumstances. This is why homechecks are very important. Just because one dog isn't suitable for you - it doesn't mean that another wouldn't suit your family perfectly, and we will suggest other dogs to you. Please remember Wiccaweys try very hard to match the dogs personalities to human personalities, animal personalities, lifestyle situations and environments at your home.

Meeting A Dog
Once you have successfully passed your homecheck, you will be invited to meet the dog at Wiccaweys HQ, near Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. We see people, by appointment only, seven days a week, 10.30am - 3.30pm.

You will be expected to bring all the family who will be living with the dog, and any other dogs that already live in your home. We expect you to spend time getting to know the dog, and we will observe you and the dog together. This is not a hurried proceedure, so allow plenty of time for your visit. After initial introductions with the dog and Wiccaweys Staff, you and the dog will be allowed to spend time alone together, getting to know each other in one of our paddocks, or out walking around the fields at Wiccaweys.

Once again, on meeting the dog, sometimes personalities do not 'gel' together, so please do not be offended if we say we do not think this is the right dog for you, and make other suggestions to you. We also expect you to say if you do not feel the dog is the right one for you.

Please note: We will not home female pups into a home with a resident un-neutered male, and we will not home male pups into a home with a resident un-spayed female.

For a successful homing to take place - all the pieces must fall into place.


Adopting A Dog
If everyone is in agreement that this is the right dog for you and your family - and most importantly the dog is happy with you - then the adoption can take place.

Adoption Contract
New Guardians are required to sign an adoption contract which can be seen HERE and a donation towards the continuing work of the rescue is requested.
Please make sure you read the adoption contract throughly.
You will be asked to read the adoption contract again at Wiccaweys, in front of Wiccaweys Staff, and will be asked verbally if you agree with all terms and conditions of the contract before signing takes place, and the adoption proceeds. Please note that an adoption contract is a legally binding document.

Suggested Adoption Donation
Our suggested minimum donation is £150.

Please remember you are making a donation towards the continuing work of the rescue, you are not buying a dog. Unlike some organisations we do not have a 'sliding scale' of prices based on age and breed (pedigree or otherwise). All the dogs are equal in our eyes. You can not put a price on a living being and deem one to be worth more or less than another.

Unfortunately, as of the 1st November 2008, we have to raise our suggested minimum donation to cover higher food & vets bills and Wiccaweys' increasing running costs - this is only the 2nd time we have had to raise the suggested donation since Wiccaweys started, the last time being 1st October 2006, and it saddens us to have to do it. Our previous suggested minimum donation of £130 no longer covers the basic vet care a dog receives before leaving for a new home, let alone anything else, and even raising the suggested minimum donation to £150 is barely breaking even to cover vet costs - so any extra people can give as a donation is very, very gratefully received.

Basic vet costs per dog:
Male Neuter: £100
Bitch Spay: £100 - £110
Vaccinations: £40 for a full course
Microchip: £15
Worming & Flea Treatment - £8

Please do not ask for, or expect a free dog.
We find it very offensive to the dogs and our work if people do not want to give the donation - you are not just doing us a favour by taking a dog. . The adoption donations are what keeps all rescues going and without them we can not save dogs, and to put it very bluntly in this day and age, adopting a dog from a rescue is a good deal. Take a look at most rescue organisations suggested minimum donations, and then take a look at how much a puppy or a dog would cost you from a breeder, or even from the free-ads. Add on top of your initial purchase price, the costs of a full course of vaccinations, a microchip, worming and flea treament and finally neutering and spaying. Plus you will most likely have no back up should things not work out as you thought.

Going Home
All Wiccaweys dogs go to their new homes with food and information about the food they have been eating. We make recomendations on other suitable food for collies.
If you have not got a new collar and lead for your new friend, we do have recommended collars, leads and harnesses for sale at Wiccaweys, otherwise dogs will be issued with a going home collar and lead that we ask you to return for other dogs to use.
You will given a form that details any vet treatment received, and will give dates of worming and flea treatments and the products used.

Once that is all completed your Wiccaweys Collie is then officially the newest member of your family.