What Does It Mean to Surrender a Golden Retriever?

When you surrender your Golden Retriever, it means that you have given up your legal rights to them. Typically, you’ll surrender your dog to a shelter or a rescue. If you’re finding a home for your dog on your own, it’s called rehoming rather than surrendering. Let’s take a closer look at what surrendering means and what you’ll need to do.

Contacting the Facility

You can’t show up at the doors of a shelter or rescue with your dog and just hand over the leash. These organizations have protocols that need to be followed, and this means you’ll need to make an appointment first. Check out websites of local shelters and rescues. Sometimes, you might even have a rescue in your area that specializes in Golden Retrievers.

It’s important to note that many times, rescues will be full whether they specialize in a certain breed or not. These are no-kill facilities, and this means that people typically want to place their dogs here rather than putting them into a shelter. Be prepared to find out that the rescue is full.

When you call the shelter or rescue, they’ll need to have some information about your dog. They’ll want to know the breed, the age, and the temperament, for example. They’ll also want to know why you need to surrender them. They aren’t trying to pry, but they may have some solutions that would let you keep your dog.

Keeping Your Dog

For example, if your Golden Retriever has some behavior problems, it doesn’t always mean you need to surrender them. The shelter or rescue might recommend some trainers that could help with the problem. If you aren’t able to walk your dog during the day because of work, they might have contact information for local dog walkers. There could be ways that you can keep your dog rather than surrendering them, but we understand that this is not always possible.

Consider Rehoming Your Golden Retriever

You could choose to rehome instead of surrender, too. With this option, you’ll put in some time to look for the perfect home for your Golden Retriever. You can put them up for adoption on pet adoption sites, such as Rehome by Adopt-a-Pet. This is an easy-to-use platform that will make it possible to put your pet up for adoption and get them in front of the many potential adopters that visit Adopt-a-Pet every month.

When you set up a profile, you can add photos and videos. You’ll also create a bio for them that will let the potential adopters know more about them. It’s important that you’re honest in the profile and that you mention all of the good things about your dog, as well as any problems that they might have. Do they have a great time chasing cats? You probably don’t want to let someone with cats adopt them. It wouldn’t be fun for those cats, and the new owner might have to give them up.

Once you have some adoption applications rolling in, you can go through them to find the perfect new home for your dog. Many prefer this option to surrendering them to a shelter.