Below is a list of frequently asked questions by potential adopters:
1. Is my dog housetrained?
If we do not have noted the dog is housetrained, this normally means we do not know. We have some who have been inside dogs but we aren’t sure if they are housetrained. Most of the time we do not list a dog as housetrained even if we think it is, due to the sole fact that when they change houses and change routines, sometimes this will make the dog have a few accidents. This isn’t always the case, but a lot of times it is. They also will be more apt to use the bathroom in your house if you’ve had another dog who has used the bathroom before. Even the best trained house dog will do this sometimes, as a sign of marking territory. We would hate to tell you the dog is housetrained, then you get home with it and it has an accident in the house. If we know it has been in a house situation we will do our best to list the dog as such, so you know it has been in a house environment before. Most often we will not list a dog as housetrained because we don’t want to be misleading to you as the potential adopter.
2. Do you adopt out of state?
Yes, we do adopt out of state. Our number one goal in being a rescue is to find homes for the babies we rescue. It doesn’t matter what state you live in, as long as our dogs find the best homes possible.
3. Do you ship your dogs?
No. We have never shipped. It is too much stress on the dogs to be shipped. I have heard of too many horror stories of bad things happening. The one that is most prominent in my mind is the story heard from a friend. A guy was moving from the east coast and was having his dogs shipped to the west coast. He had 2 dogs, both shipped in separate crates. 1 dog made it to the proper place, the other dog was sent to Hawaii. The owner did not know this until 1 day later, and then arrangements had to be made to get the dog brought back to the west coast. For this reason and many others we do not ship them. It is possible to have your dog hand-delivered, to certain areas throughout the USA. We have a individual who will do this for a non-refundable fee, paid up front. He has met people all the way to their location before, half way, 3/4 of the way and a 1/4 of the way. If interested please contact us for more information. Please also provide your City, State and Zip and if you want to possibly meet all the way or part way.
4. Can you provide more information on “fill in the name” dog?
Whatever information is listed for the dog is normally the only information we (the volunteers who run the email) have for the dog. We do our best to list any and all information about the dog possible. We try to do this for your sake and ours. We want you to have all the information you need listed so you don’t have to ask, but also so we can limit our time in answering questions. We gladly answer and help in any way possible, but if we can eliminate a few questions per email this cuts our time down considerably. If we have just 15 emails come in each day, and each email takes 10 minutes to respond to, that’s 2 ½ hours of responding to emails. We will gladly do this to find the dogs homes, but if we can cut that time in half by providing you with all the information we can upfront, it allows us the chance to spend more time listing the dogs on numerous websites, spending time with them, going to the vet, etc.
5. What is the adoption fee?
If there is no adoption fee listed, then we do not know how much it is. All internet pages for HART are run by 2 volunteers of HART. Petfinder, our website, HART’s facebook, ALL of our emails, any classified ads, etc. are all ran by a few volunteers from the same family. They do this on a strictly volunteer basis using their own time. They know most all of the information about the dogs because they spend time with them (almost daily), are the ones who take pictures of them at the rescue, etc. They do not decide the adoption fees though. Amy (HART’s Owner/Founder) decides all adoption fees. The adoption fee varies with how much has been done to the dog. If you are want to know the adoption fee of a dog please call 336-787-5786 and ask to speak with Amy. Please have the name of the dog you are interested in ready.
6. What steps do I take if I’m interested in adopting a dog?
First of all you will need to fill out an application, which can be found on our website or petfinder page. You can then email it to us, and we will review it. It may take a few days for us to get back with you. The volunteers who run the page will have to print our your application and review it with Amy. Amy then will look it over, call references, and whatever else she needs to do. Once she decides if you are approved or not, she will call you or have the volunteers email you to let you know the decision. From there you can schedule a appointment to come visit the dog.
7. Has said dog been on a leash?
Most of the time they are put on a leash at least once when at the rescue, this is so pictures can be taken of the dog standing on the ground. You can see it better this way and we have a nicer looking picture without a lot of clutter. Just because they are on a leash doesn’t mean they fully accept it. We try to spend as much time with the dogs on leashes, but with just a handful of volunteers we don't always have the time. If the dog is leash trained we will normally put this on their listing. Even if they aren’t fully trained we will normally try to put something along the lines of “Has been on leash. Still needs some work, but does okay.”
8. Has said dog had any obedience training?
We have a handful of volunteers, literally. Therefore any obedience training that isn’t on the dog before it comes into HART has been trained by one of our volunteers. When a dog first comes into the rescue the volunteers assess whether it appears to know any obedience training. If so, they will list this on the dogs listing. If the dog appears to know very little to nothing, as time allows they will do their best to work on the basics. With so few volunteers, free time isn’t always an option, but they do the best with what they can.
9. I emailed you and haven’t heard anything back from you in 24 hours?
If you have emailed us, and have not received a response within 48 hours please email again. With so many emails coming and going daily, sometimes an email can get mixed up and will not be responded too. Other times we may never even get your email or it may go to the bulk/spam folder. Please be patient though and wait to hear from us. Please don’t email us every hour asking if we have heard from you, etc. This helps emails get lost & covered up, because they all start running together after seeing them so much.
10. I’m interested in volunteering, what do I do?
If you would like to volunteer please call Amy at 336-787-5786. We will gladly accept any volunteers. Please note volunteering is not always very pleasant. It can be cold, hot, dirty, sweaty, smelly, etc. work. It also on the other hand can be a very rewarding thing. Seeing and even feeling the love from the dogs you are helping is an amazing feeling. Words can’t describe how good you will feel after doing so.
11. I would like to donate how can I do this?
If you are interested in donating, you can do it in two ways:
Mailing a check to HART or via Paypal (Check out our Contact page for the Donate button)
12. Is the dog spayed or neutered?
If it is not listed on the dogs listing, then it means they are not fixed. If old enough it will be fixed before leaving HART. If still a puppy, you will be required to sign a spay/neuter agreement before adopting.
13. Is the dog current on shots?
Most of the time they are. If it is not listed on the dogs listing, it will be current before leaving. Depending on each situation as to if the dog gets a shot immediately upon coming in, if we are waiting on health records from the previous owner, etc.
14. Is the dog on heartworm prevention?
Most of the time they are. If it is not listed on the dogs listing, it will be on heartworm prevention before leaving.
15. Has the dog been around any kids?
Unless it is noted, we normally do not know. We could tell you about the dogs personality and how it responds to people, but the youngest volunteers we have is 16 years old. Therefore, we don’t have them around any young kids normally.
16. Has the dog been around any cats?
Unless it is noted, we normally do not know.
17. Do you take in or adopt out cats?
No. We do not have the proper facilities for housing cats.
18. What dogs do you take in/have at the rescue?
We take in dogs from birth to 40lbs. We have dogs ranging from puppy to senior at various times throughout the year. We specialize in Pregnant, Nursing, and Bottle fed puppies.
19. Do you accept owner surrender?
It depends on how full we are, what size the dog is, and a bunch of other factors.
20. Where do the dogs at the rescue come from?
Many are owner surrenders for many different reasons. Others are dogs we have saved from death row at high kill shelters who kill with the gas chamber, heartstick, etc.
21. How tall is the dog and how much does it weigh?
Most of the the dogs we've weighed and got measurements on height. We've tried to post this on each of their listings. Some of them we don’t measure or weigh the dogs because we haven't had a chance to, so we will just do it by our best guess. If it isn’t listed you can ask us and we will do our best to get you an approximate.
22. Does the dog ride well in a car?
Most of these dogs have rode in a car once when we have them. Either riding from the shelter to our rescue, or from the owner who surrendered the dog. Therefore unless we can tell the dog enjoys it, or we are told they like car rides we do not know this. We try to list it on the dogs listing if we know they enjoy car rides. Some will jump in a vehicle and load up without hesitation, others are scared and act like they’ve never seen a vehicle before or if they did it only brought about bad memories.
23. Are you a kill facility?
HART is a No-Kill State Licensed 501c(3) facility. Unless a dog comes in with severe health problems, is overly aggressive or has some other major issue we do not kill. A lot of thought, discussion, etc. goes into making this decision. If we put one down it is humanely euthanized.
We normally do our best to work with any aggression issues, but if we are concerned the dog could injure itself or someone else, because of the aggression we will take the necessary steps to see that no one is hurt.
24. If I adopt a dog and things don’t work out in the future what do I do?
The contract you will sign before adopting requires you to contact us before doing anything with the dog. We cannot always take the dog back in due to space, but we will talk with you and decide from there.
25. I've had my application approved and want to come visit the pup/dog what do I do?
or I'm interested in visiting the pup/dog what is your schedule and when can I visit?
Get in touch with Amy at 336-787-5786 after 7pm. She will schedule an appointment with you to come visit the dog.
Appointments are scheduled as follows:
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1pm-7pm
Saturday from 10am-3pm
We are closed Tuesday, Friday and Sunday
1. Is my dog housetrained?
If we do not have noted the dog is housetrained, this normally means we do not know. We have some who have been inside dogs but we aren’t sure if they are housetrained. Most of the time we do not list a dog as housetrained even if we think it is, due to the sole fact that when they change houses and change routines, sometimes this will make the dog have a few accidents. This isn’t always the case, but a lot of times it is. They also will be more apt to use the bathroom in your house if you’ve had another dog who has used the bathroom before. Even the best trained house dog will do this sometimes, as a sign of marking territory. We would hate to tell you the dog is housetrained, then you get home with it and it has an accident in the house. If we know it has been in a house situation we will do our best to list the dog as such, so you know it has been in a house environment before. Most often we will not list a dog as housetrained because we don’t want to be misleading to you as the potential adopter.
2. Do you adopt out of state?
Yes, we do adopt out of state. Our number one goal in being a rescue is to find homes for the babies we rescue. It doesn’t matter what state you live in, as long as our dogs find the best homes possible.
3. Do you ship your dogs?
No. We have never shipped. It is too much stress on the dogs to be shipped. I have heard of too many horror stories of bad things happening. The one that is most prominent in my mind is the story heard from a friend. A guy was moving from the east coast and was having his dogs shipped to the west coast. He had 2 dogs, both shipped in separate crates. 1 dog made it to the proper place, the other dog was sent to Hawaii. The owner did not know this until 1 day later, and then arrangements had to be made to get the dog brought back to the west coast. For this reason and many others we do not ship them. It is possible to have your dog hand-delivered, to certain areas throughout the USA. We have a individual who will do this for a non-refundable fee, paid up front. He has met people all the way to their location before, half way, 3/4 of the way and a 1/4 of the way. If interested please contact us for more information. Please also provide your City, State and Zip and if you want to possibly meet all the way or part way.
4. Can you provide more information on “fill in the name” dog?
Whatever information is listed for the dog is normally the only information we (the volunteers who run the email) have for the dog. We do our best to list any and all information about the dog possible. We try to do this for your sake and ours. We want you to have all the information you need listed so you don’t have to ask, but also so we can limit our time in answering questions. We gladly answer and help in any way possible, but if we can eliminate a few questions per email this cuts our time down considerably. If we have just 15 emails come in each day, and each email takes 10 minutes to respond to, that’s 2 ½ hours of responding to emails. We will gladly do this to find the dogs homes, but if we can cut that time in half by providing you with all the information we can upfront, it allows us the chance to spend more time listing the dogs on numerous websites, spending time with them, going to the vet, etc.
5. What is the adoption fee?
If there is no adoption fee listed, then we do not know how much it is. All internet pages for HART are run by 2 volunteers of HART. Petfinder, our website, HART’s facebook, ALL of our emails, any classified ads, etc. are all ran by a few volunteers from the same family. They do this on a strictly volunteer basis using their own time. They know most all of the information about the dogs because they spend time with them (almost daily), are the ones who take pictures of them at the rescue, etc. They do not decide the adoption fees though. Amy (HART’s Owner/Founder) decides all adoption fees. The adoption fee varies with how much has been done to the dog. If you are want to know the adoption fee of a dog please call 336-787-5786 and ask to speak with Amy. Please have the name of the dog you are interested in ready.
6. What steps do I take if I’m interested in adopting a dog?
First of all you will need to fill out an application, which can be found on our website or petfinder page. You can then email it to us, and we will review it. It may take a few days for us to get back with you. The volunteers who run the page will have to print our your application and review it with Amy. Amy then will look it over, call references, and whatever else she needs to do. Once she decides if you are approved or not, she will call you or have the volunteers email you to let you know the decision. From there you can schedule a appointment to come visit the dog.
7. Has said dog been on a leash?
Most of the time they are put on a leash at least once when at the rescue, this is so pictures can be taken of the dog standing on the ground. You can see it better this way and we have a nicer looking picture without a lot of clutter. Just because they are on a leash doesn’t mean they fully accept it. We try to spend as much time with the dogs on leashes, but with just a handful of volunteers we don't always have the time. If the dog is leash trained we will normally put this on their listing. Even if they aren’t fully trained we will normally try to put something along the lines of “Has been on leash. Still needs some work, but does okay.”
8. Has said dog had any obedience training?
We have a handful of volunteers, literally. Therefore any obedience training that isn’t on the dog before it comes into HART has been trained by one of our volunteers. When a dog first comes into the rescue the volunteers assess whether it appears to know any obedience training. If so, they will list this on the dogs listing. If the dog appears to know very little to nothing, as time allows they will do their best to work on the basics. With so few volunteers, free time isn’t always an option, but they do the best with what they can.
9. I emailed you and haven’t heard anything back from you in 24 hours?
If you have emailed us, and have not received a response within 48 hours please email again. With so many emails coming and going daily, sometimes an email can get mixed up and will not be responded too. Other times we may never even get your email or it may go to the bulk/spam folder. Please be patient though and wait to hear from us. Please don’t email us every hour asking if we have heard from you, etc. This helps emails get lost & covered up, because they all start running together after seeing them so much.
10. I’m interested in volunteering, what do I do?
If you would like to volunteer please call Amy at 336-787-5786. We will gladly accept any volunteers. Please note volunteering is not always very pleasant. It can be cold, hot, dirty, sweaty, smelly, etc. work. It also on the other hand can be a very rewarding thing. Seeing and even feeling the love from the dogs you are helping is an amazing feeling. Words can’t describe how good you will feel after doing so.
11. I would like to donate how can I do this?
If you are interested in donating, you can do it in two ways:
Mailing a check to HART or via Paypal (Check out our Contact page for the Donate button)
12. Is the dog spayed or neutered?
If it is not listed on the dogs listing, then it means they are not fixed. If old enough it will be fixed before leaving HART. If still a puppy, you will be required to sign a spay/neuter agreement before adopting.
13. Is the dog current on shots?
Most of the time they are. If it is not listed on the dogs listing, it will be current before leaving. Depending on each situation as to if the dog gets a shot immediately upon coming in, if we are waiting on health records from the previous owner, etc.
14. Is the dog on heartworm prevention?
Most of the time they are. If it is not listed on the dogs listing, it will be on heartworm prevention before leaving.
15. Has the dog been around any kids?
Unless it is noted, we normally do not know. We could tell you about the dogs personality and how it responds to people, but the youngest volunteers we have is 16 years old. Therefore, we don’t have them around any young kids normally.
16. Has the dog been around any cats?
Unless it is noted, we normally do not know.
17. Do you take in or adopt out cats?
No. We do not have the proper facilities for housing cats.
18. What dogs do you take in/have at the rescue?
We take in dogs from birth to 40lbs. We have dogs ranging from puppy to senior at various times throughout the year. We specialize in Pregnant, Nursing, and Bottle fed puppies.
19. Do you accept owner surrender?
It depends on how full we are, what size the dog is, and a bunch of other factors.
20. Where do the dogs at the rescue come from?
Many are owner surrenders for many different reasons. Others are dogs we have saved from death row at high kill shelters who kill with the gas chamber, heartstick, etc.
21. How tall is the dog and how much does it weigh?
Most of the the dogs we've weighed and got measurements on height. We've tried to post this on each of their listings. Some of them we don’t measure or weigh the dogs because we haven't had a chance to, so we will just do it by our best guess. If it isn’t listed you can ask us and we will do our best to get you an approximate.
22. Does the dog ride well in a car?
Most of these dogs have rode in a car once when we have them. Either riding from the shelter to our rescue, or from the owner who surrendered the dog. Therefore unless we can tell the dog enjoys it, or we are told they like car rides we do not know this. We try to list it on the dogs listing if we know they enjoy car rides. Some will jump in a vehicle and load up without hesitation, others are scared and act like they’ve never seen a vehicle before or if they did it only brought about bad memories.
23. Are you a kill facility?
HART is a No-Kill State Licensed 501c(3) facility. Unless a dog comes in with severe health problems, is overly aggressive or has some other major issue we do not kill. A lot of thought, discussion, etc. goes into making this decision. If we put one down it is humanely euthanized.
We normally do our best to work with any aggression issues, but if we are concerned the dog could injure itself or someone else, because of the aggression we will take the necessary steps to see that no one is hurt.
24. If I adopt a dog and things don’t work out in the future what do I do?
The contract you will sign before adopting requires you to contact us before doing anything with the dog. We cannot always take the dog back in due to space, but we will talk with you and decide from there.
25. I've had my application approved and want to come visit the pup/dog what do I do?
or I'm interested in visiting the pup/dog what is your schedule and when can I visit?
Get in touch with Amy at 336-787-5786 after 7pm. She will schedule an appointment with you to come visit the dog.
Appointments are scheduled as follows:
Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 1pm-7pm
Saturday from 10am-3pm
We are closed Tuesday, Friday and Sunday