Surrendering Your Ridgeback for Rehoming

There is no shame if circumstances beyond your control force you to surrender your Ridgeback to us for rehoming. Your, and our, primary concern is the welfare of your Ridgeback.

But if you do have to consider rehoming your Ridgeback this section deals with some of the most frequent asked questions from people in your position.

The Rhodesian Ridgeback Welfare Trust fully understands that it can be a heart breaking time for you so our first option will be to see if we can help to find  a solution that enables you to keep your Ridgeback.

If however after our initial discussion we both agree that rehoming is the only option available we will send you a set of forms to complete, this is not through love of bureaucracy, but so that we have ALL details legally declared in one place.

We will need current photographs of your dog, medical history, microchip details and a summary of your Ridgebacks behavioral personality.

In an ever more litigious society it is important for the protection of both parties that you fully disclose any excessive behavioral traits, aggression and biting incidents

Depending on the individual circumstances we may arrange for one of our Trustees or supporters to visit and assess your dog.

Normally rehoming will involve you bringing your Ridgeback to our facility at Rosehill Farm so that once they are settled in we can further assess each dog and match their attributes & personalities to the waiting list of potential adopters.

We can, for those that cannot easily travel to our facility, organise the transporting of your dog. We would normally expect you to contribute to the cost of this transport

We actively discourage "home from home" adoption as experience has shown that it is very seldom successful, we also have grave reservations, again born of experience, about the rehoming of Ridgebacks via social media and internet based trading sites as they can and do lead to totally unsuitable people gaining ownership of a Ridgeback. The mess created has a habit of ending up back with us to sort out.

Sometimes owners are reluctant to let their dog go "into kennels"  Our kennels at Rosehill Farm are in a £1,000,000 plus purpose built building, that has under floor heating & full climate control, where the individual kennels are five times the size required by the Authorities. All the Ridgebacks are handled and cared for 24 hours a day by people with over 36 years experience of the breed, backed up by immediate veterinary access to a Practice that has also been involved for over 36 years. All the Ridgebacks are walked three times a day with access, along with other Ridgebacks, to some 40 acres of our own land

If you need to, please first email us here  ridgebackwelfare or telephone us on 0300 10 10 030

Please remember:

 We cannot accept cross-bred dogs.

We are a charity, our only source of income is donations from our supporters. The average cost to us of rehoming a Ridgeback is currently £395.

We would like to think that every dog surrendered to us would come with a donation, but if your circumstances do not permit this, it is not compulsory, for us it is far more important that we protect the welfare of your Ridgeback