General
What is (insert dog's name)'s adoption fee?
Our adoption fees range depending on many factors such as age, size, length of transport (from Texas, Puerto Rico, Korea, etc). Typically our adoption fees are between $350-$600, but if we have a dog that is a senior or has special needs, that will of course be reflected in a lower adoption fee. Our adoption fees also vary based on various factors such as the dog's age, size, length of transport ( from Texas, Korea, etc.) and more. The estimate above is a fixed fee donation and can be paid by venmo, cash, or paypal. The price listed is an estimate, and can be less than the above range. In some cases we may charge more for a dog that is in incredibly high demand.This helps us cover the costs of rescuing, caring for, feeding, transporting the pup all the way to NJ, getting him or her fully vetted and up to date on shots... and more!
If we think you could be the perfect match, we’ll reach out to chat more about the adoption process and fee for that specific dog.
A helpful hint -- We are at the Marlton NJ PetSmart every Saturday from about 10-2ish. If you come by to meet us one Saturday at PetSmart, it could really help your chances of us finding you a match! It’s not uncommon for us to receive a large amount of applications for some of our rescue pups, so it always helps to put a face to a name and meet you in person. Remember it's best to submit an application first of course and if you do adopt from us, the entire household must be present to do so. We do not make any promises, but we always try our best to find our rescue dogs and our applicants their perfect match!
(The Marlton PetSmart address is 315 W. Rt. 70 Marlton, NJ)
Thank you for your interest in adopting!
I'm interested in ( Insert dog's name here), is he/she available?
Thank you for your interest in one of our dogs! Please visit our website, matchdogrescue.org to see which dogs are available, submit an application and get more information. Please be sure you indicate which dog(s) you would like to be considered for on your application. Each application allows you to list up to 4. If we review your application and feel you could be the potential match for that dog, we will contact you to discuss further.
A helpful hint -- We are at the Marlton NJ PetSmart every Saturday from about 10-2ish. If you come by to meet us one Saturday at PetSmart, it could really help your chances of us finding you a match! It’s not uncommon for us to receive a large amount of applications for some of our rescue pups, so it always helps to put a face to a name and meet you in person. Remember it's best to submit an application first of course and if you do adopt from us, the entire household must be present to do so. We do not make any promises, but we always try our best to find our rescue dogs and our applicants their perfect match!
Marlton PetSmart address - 315 W. Rt. 70 Marlton, NJ.
Thank you for your interest in adopting!
Is (Insert dog's name here) good with other dogs and/or cats?
We are happy to say that all of our rescue dogs have been very well socialized with other dogs while in MatchDog care. However, we infrequently have the opportunity to socialize them with cats and cannot make any guarentees in this regard.
Of course we understand that finding that perfect match goes beyond just the dog and the people in the household. We want a good fit between other pets in the household as well! Although we always ask that adopters do not bring their current pets when coming to meet one of our rescue dogs, if all goes well at the meet and it is a match for our matchdog and all people in the family, then we do sometimes allow for a 24 hour trial at home between that matchdog and your current dog(s) before finalizing the adoption and donation fee. Most of the time these ‘doggy sleepovers’ are such a success! We do not do a 24 hour trial with any other of your animals other than your own dog. We also do not do 24 hour trials with our puppies.
We don't live in New Jersey, can we still adopt?
We are certainly open to adopting our matchdogs out to great adopters who live a distance away! However, we do require that the entire household does make the trip to the PetSmart in Marlton NJ for the meet with us and the matchdog, if we think you could be a match.
We also want you to be aware that many of the great deals/offers/services included in a MatchDog adoption ARE available to you, but may be difficult or not possible for you to access from a distance, such as those at our local affiliated vets.
If you understand and still would like to adopt a MatchDog, then please don’t hesitate to visit matchdogrescue.orgto view all our adoptable dogs and submit an adoption application!
What is the adoption process?
It all starts by visiting our website, matchdogrescue.org , to view all our available dogs and submit an adoption application. Please be sure you indicate which dog(s) you would like to be considered for on your application. Each application allows you to list up to 3. Our team of “matchmakers” will review your app and if we feel you could be the potential match for that dog, we will contact you to discuss further and plan a meet.
We do require that the entire household is present for the meet so that we can make sure it is a good match for everyone involved! Sometimes these meets are on the same Saturday the dog arrives to NJ on the transport van with many others. Or it may be a meet planned outside of our adoption events if the matchdog is already in NJ with one of our fosters.
When you and your family are lined up to meet one of our dogs, we go into the meet with the expectation that you are ready to adopt and take the dog home that same day if and only if we all feel it is a perfect match.
Where is your shelter?
What makes Matchdog Rescue unique is that we are not a shelter, rather that we are an all-volunteer, foster-based rescue community. This means that our volunteers all over the New Jersey/ Pennsylvania area foster our Matchdogs in their own homes. Although we do not have a physical location, we are always at Marlton Petsmart in New Jersey every saturday from 10am-2pm, where you can come meet us and see our MatchDogs in person!
What's your HeartWorm policy for dogs that are HeartWorm Positive?
Matchdog Rescue conducts 4Dx testing on all its rescued dogs. If a dog tests positive prior to adoption MatchDog Rescue will disclose this information to you and will commit to paying for the treatment of one round of heartworm treatment at our affiliated vet. At the time of adoption a volunteer will discuss with you the treatment plan which you will have to agree to prior to finalizing the adoption.
If your new pet tests positive for heartworm post-adoption and MatchDog Rescue has records indicating negative results, MatchDog will not be responsible for the treatment or costs associated with treatment.
I send an Email/ Direct message and haven't heard back! why?
If you have a question and we do not respond, that will mean we have already listed the answer to your question in our FAQ's at www.matchdogrescue.org/faq-s ! :)
We are first time pet owners, and do not have vet records as a result. Will this hurt our chances?
Absolutely not! Just make sure to put you are first time pet owners in the part of our application that is for vet information, and you're set!
Do you transport dogs to adopters in other states?
We are certainly open to adopting our matchdogs out to great adopters who live a distance away! However, the only place we transport our dogs to is Marlton NJ, we will not transport dogs to any other locations. We will not set up meets anywhere except in our local NJ area.
If you are selected for a pup, you would need to travel to us to meet them and pick them up! We also do require that the entire household does make the trip to the PetSmart in Marlton NJ for the meet with us and the matchdog, if we think you could be a match.
We also want you to be aware that many of the great deals/offers/services included in a MatchDog adoption ARE available to you, but may be difficult or not possible for you to access from a distance, such as those at our local affiliated vets.
If you understand and still would like to adopt a MatchDog, then please don’t hesitate to visit matchdogrescue.orgto view all our adoptable dogs and submit an adoption application!
Where do MatchDogs come from? What is their Journey?
To learn more about a MatchDog's journey to NJ, to to the About Us tab of our website and click "A MatchDog's Journey"
I am the friend/family member of the Adopter or the adopter is my Client and I want to get them a matchdog! Can I apply for them or adopt for them?
Only the person that would have the dog and own the dog as theirs in their residence is allowed to apply for one of our MatchDogs. your family member/client would need to apply theirselves for theirselves and be fully aware and involved of the process, and present at all stages of the process from start to finish.
What is your non-profit tax ID number?
82-2627297
COVID-19
How has COVID-19 Changed the Adoption Process?
Unfortunately, we can't have meets right now as it is not safe, and we are following guidelines set by the local/state/national government and the WHO. Fosters are still working the same way, but adopters are only able to apply for a pup online. If you are selected as a match for that pup, we'll absolutely contact you for a meet one on one!
We are absolutely inundated with applications because of the COVID-19 crisis and are unable to update everyone individually on their application status.This is why we have the petstablished page and are keeping it completely up to date so you can always see the status of the pup(s) you applied for, and everyone knows at the same time and it's fair! We recommend you checking that once a day, and that will keep you updated on the status of the dog!
Are you still adopting out dogs during COVID-19?
Yes! We are still bringing dogs from texas and adopting them out here in NJ, and folks from out of state are still welcome to apply to adopt as well! We are bringing around 100 dogs every month!
What's going on with my application? I haven't heard anything back! Can you tell me where i stand in the application process?
We are attaching this memo that we made to help folks like you who have applied for a pup, looking for the status of their application, or are looking for a pup's status! This has all the info you need! We are absolutely inundated with applications and are unable to update everyone individually on their application status. This is why we have our petstablished page and are keeping it completely up to date so you can always see the status of the pup(s) you applied for, and everyone knows at the same time to make it completely fair:) If you are selected as a match for a pup, we will absolutely contact you! Please keep an eye on the petstablished page in the meantime.
FOR THOSE WHO HAVE APPLIED FOR ANY MATCHDOG:
Since the COVID- 19 situation and the new social distancing rules were put in place, Matchdog has been completely overwhelmed and are currently flooded with applications for our MatchDogs.
While we appreciate you supporting us, applying for dogs, and keeping in touch about the status of your application, we are trying to focus on sorting through the immense number of applications we have to review them and make the best match.
Unfortunately, due to the numbers who have applied and that our mailbox and fb messenger account is absolutely flooded, we are unable to individually notify everyone and keep everyone notified of a dogs status. It is only those people who are matched and offered a meet with the matchdog that we are able to contact. All of our completely up to date statuses of our MatchDogs are on Petfinder, and so if a dog on the website is listed as pending it means that the match meet is confirmed with an adopter and the pup is no longer available. So that is how you will know the status and that is how we are able to notify everyone together at the same time, so just keep an eye on the website!
Thank you so much for your patience and for supporting MatchDog, we are all volunteers and are doing our absolute best in this trying time!:D
Are you still having saturday adoption events? I miss seeing you guys at petsmart, and want to make a connection with the matchmakers in person!
We totally get it, we miss seeing you guys too, and you're right, seeing us in person is super helpful to your app!
We WILL be at petsmart in a full/complete capacity every saturday, but will still be following COVID19 guidelines (social distancing, masks, and lots of sanitizer!) we also have virtual adoption events via zoom every so often! Virtual events are announced on our social media pages.
What's Matchdog doing during this Crisis? How are you tackling it? How does this look from your side of the process?
You guys always respond very well when we explain why we do the things we do, and we wanted to say something about our situation, and the situation many of our potential adopters are finding themselves in, recently and during this COVID19 crisis. We are always very transparent about our process, and some of you may already know the below information, but we wanted to make a PSA to make sure everyone has access and knowledge of our situation.
We have recently had lots of folks asking us why we are finding ourselves with such large numbers of applicants for such a limited number of dogs. We are also being told that we should have a cut off point for applicants for a dog. To be honest, we are just getting our heads around this situation ourselves just like our adopters are! We’ve never needed a cut off for applications before, and we’ve never had a problem with it before. Folks are hearing that we are getting a huge number of applications for our dogs, and some folks are getting frustrated and upset about this and taking it out on our rescue and our volunteers.
For us as rescuers, it’s so heartbreaking to know that right now so many people want a dog, and yet right now there are dogs that are dying in shelters and on the streets, dogs that are being abused and that are unwanted.... And we are beside ourselves that even though we have grown larger over the past two years, we are still not a big enough rescue to have the manpower and resources to get them all here to you wonderful folks that would give them the best lives! We’ve already doubled our numbers to try and push ourselves to get as many pups here as possible (we usually bring around 50 dogs a month, we are now bringing 100!) But the demand is just so great right now we are still getting so many folks who are ending up disappointed, and it is devastating for us when we are doing our very best to match everyone with a perfect pup! We save more dogs normally than most but even we can't keep up with the numbers of interested adopters right now...
For example: We posted a Lab Puppy recently (during this crisis) on our petstablished site, and by that afternoon we had approx. 150 apps accrued already. Nobody was even looking at applications at that point for that dog, as we had just posted them! We are in our 3rd year since matchdog was founded and never have we encountered this situation. We usually wait 3-4 days after a pup is posted to start looking through applications.
Another example that shocked us: We posted a small breed scruffy puppy last weekend, the likes of which we’d had many before. This puppy was going to a foster home because it was too small to be adopted out this saturday, and our focus was on finding homes for the dogs that were able to be adopted out this saturday. When we finally had time after transport was over to go back to look at the applications for that puppy, in approximately 6 days, we had received 1000+ apps! We are certain that you will find this hard to believe, shocking, and disheartening… and we feel the exact same way as well! This is truly unprecedented for us. We feel so upset for you wonderful folks too as we know that in this case (which is not the only one like this recently) at least 999 wonderful potential adopters are going to be disappointed that they were not successful.
How we are running the rescue has drastically changed to adapt to COVID19… we’ve had some amazing changes (like the amount of folks opening their hearts and homes to adopt) but it’s been really tough to meet that demand. The sheer number of applications we are receiving and reviewing, the need to get dogs out of shelters and board them in private facilities now that all the shelters are shut down, the higher cost of transportation, the huge loss of donations (especially food) that we usually get from folks when they shop in petsmart, and the sheer number of dogs we are trying to move to safety… a lot is really affecting how we operate.
At this challenging and frustrating time, the best advice we have for folks is: Don’t give up! be flexible and diversify, be open to the dogs that may look more “ordinary”, the beautiful wallflowers, the ones that people often overlook, the ones that don’t have great pictures. The most seemingly “ordinary” dogs can have the most beautiful souls and loving personalities.
During COVD19, matchdog feels almost unrecognizable, but what stands firm is the dedication we have to our MatchDogs, as well as the dedication of our volunteers and adopters and how they have stepped up to the challenge. We know this will all calm down and settle after this crisis is over, and it will be way easier to adopt a dog. We truly appreciate folks putting their trust in us to find their new family members and sincerely appreciate the support and patience you have all shown to us! It means a lot to know that even though we wish we could do a whole lot more, what we are doing now is making a difference, and that’s truly all we can ask for.
From all of us here at MatchDog: It’s tough for everyone, but we are all going to get through this! We will not give up! And happy days with your best friend are just over the horizon, we know it! Stay safe and well!
Applications
I submitted my application a while ago and haven’t heard anything?
Thanks for checking the status of your application. Rest assured it has been forwarded to the person handling the matchmaking. We receive many many applications for each pup and it takes time to go through them. Our team of “matchmakers” will review your app and if we feel you could be the potential match for that dog, we wil absolutelyl contact you to discuss further and plan a meet.
If you want to check the status of your application/the pup you applied for, the best way to do so is to come to our Saturday adoption events at Marlton Petsmart and speak to us in person! (Right now, as we cannot have saturday events because it is unsafe during the COVID-19 crisis, the best way to check the status of the pup you applied for is to keep checking our petstablished page which has the most current information!)
When you and your family are lined up to meet one of our dogs, we go into the meet with the expectation that you are ready to adopt and take the dog home that same day if and only if we all feel it is a perfect match.
We submitted our application, but would like to add a pup(s) to our application. How do we add this puppy to the list we already submitted?
If you have submitted an application for a dog and wish to apply for more, or wish to add another dog of interest to an existing application, you will need to submit another application. Most prospective adopters fill out several apps before they are successfully matched. We no longer can accept emails asking to add dogs to your app.
My Petstablished Application says "On Hold or " Pending Adoption". What does that mean?
If you get a notification that your app is "On Hold", that is petstablished's way of telling you that the pup(s) you applied for are no longer available, but it is holding your application in case you would like to apply for more pups. To make things easier for you we recommend that you create a free petstablished registration- in this way your application information is saved so you can simply make any necessary changes or personalize your apps for specific dogs. We no longer can accept emails asking to add dogs to your app. We highly recommend applicants to register with petstablished in order to save your application information for future!
If a pup's status says " Pending Adoption", this is another way that petstablished is notifying you that the dog pending adoption is no longer available and has successfully matched with an adopter.
Do I have to fill out a new application every time I see a dog I'd like to apply for?
If you have submitted an application for a dog and wish to apply for more, or wish to add another dog of interest to an existing application, you will need to submit another application. Most prospective adopters fill out several apps before they are successfully matched. To make things easier for you we recommend that you create a free petstablished registration- in this way your application information is saved so you can simply make any necessary changes or personalize your apps for specific dogs.
We no longer can accept emails asking to add dogs to your app. We highly recommend applicants to register with petstablished in order to save your application information for future!:)
We highly recommend that you tailor and personalize and app towards a specific dog (which we love!), but that is not required, you can certainly use the exact same app that you have saved to apply multiple times for different dogs!
Do you pre- approve applications?
No, we do not pre- approve applications because we review every app for every induvidual dog, it's very specific to the dog that you apply for. For example, somebody may apply for a 5 lb puppy and unfortunatly not be succesful ,and the following week they apply for a 50lb lab. The requirements / needs for each pup would be very different. The only exception is if you are attending our in person saturday adoption events (which are currently cancelled due to covid-19) where what you can do is you can put in a generic application, and when you arrive at the event and see a dog that you like, you can ask us to review your app there for that particular pup. Doing so allows you to be prepared the moment you see a dog at the event that you like!
What can I do to increase my chances of being selected to adopt a dog?
We understand that this process can be very frustrating (especially right now during the COVID-19 crisis as everyone is looking to adopt a new best friend). You’ve filled out lots of apps, you aren't finding success or hearing back, it can wear potential adopters down!
-It may feel ike you’re repeating yourself, but it is worth really taking the time to fill the applications out thouroughly. The biggest reason we do not select an app is because it is incomplete or does not have enough information in it.
- Be realistic in your choices! Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, apply for multiple dogs!
-If you’re always picking the most popular types of dogs, unfortunately you’re very likely going to be disappointed on many occasions, whereas if you are open to multiple dogs and select a broader range of choices you’re success rate will increase!
-Come meet us and chat with us when we have events!
-Have up to date vet records for any previous pets (you can even download them on your phone so you are ready the second we ask for them!)
So to review: you have a great app, flexible choices, realistic expectations, coming to the event to meet us when we have events, and having vet records up to date!
Does calling/emailing/texting matchdog about my application increase my chances of being selected?
No, calling/emailing/texting us about your application will not increase your chances of being selected.
The dog(s) I applied for is Pending adoption... is it pending with us? How do we know that the dog is not pending adoption with us or if we will be contacted as the selected adopter?
We do not change the status of a dog to "adoption pending" until we have called the selected adopter, talked to them, and confirmed the adoption with them. As soon as that happens we then change the status to pending. So if you see "adoption Pending" then someone has already heard from us and talked to us and confirmed, if that person was not you then you were definitely not selected for that pup unfortunately.
Are the applications first come first serve? Do you review them in the order that they were submitted?
We usually do review the apps in the order they come in, but remember, our endgame is to find the perfect match, so we still review every single app submitted to make sure we have made the best match for that specific pup! If we have found multiple potential adopters that would be an amazing match for that pup, then we do defer to the adopter that submitted their app first. So it doesn't all depend on when you submit your app, but make sure to put that application in as soon as possible to put yourself in the best position you can!
Do you have an application limit?
You can apply for 4 pups per transport, and usually there's one transport per month. :)
When submitting my application how much should I donate?
You should donate any amount that you are comfortable with- there is no minimum and the amount is not considered by our matchmakers in their selection process. Of course, from our perspective we hope you reach deep and every penny is appreciated and used to saved at risk dogs.
