Frequently asked Questions and General Information

We do not use kennels or centres to accommodate our dogs - they are all kept in foster homes and these are the private homes of our volunteers foster carers so there is no-where people can go to look at dogs.

We work in a different way to most rescue organisations. We match dogs to homes and people and only offer a dog if it is suitable to both.
We don't want people to see a dog, ask to adopt it and then be told it is not suited to them.
We will only show people dogs suited to them so they won't fall in love with an unsuitable dog.

If we think we have a dog that is suitable to an applicant we will tell them about the dog, send photo's by email and if they agree it is a good match we will do a home visit and then have the dog moved to a location as close as possible to the new home so the applicant can meet it.

To be absolutely sure we offer all dogs on a months trial period and if it does not work out, the dog comes back to us.
The trail period is monitored and we expect the applicant to keep in touch with weekly updates.
We only accept a donation for the adoption if the applicant decides to keep a dog at the end of the trial period.

We have volunteers all over the UK and when necessary one of them will contact an applicant to arrange things like home visits, follow up calls, meetings, etc.
Our volunteers can only be contacted through HQ - they do not give out their home numbers and we do not use regional or local numbers in different parts of the country.

We only maintain one office for the whole of the UK and all enquiries are made directly to us there.
This office is based in Yorkshire but as we use a non-geographic telephone number it can be moved anywhere because the number can be relayed to any land line anywhere in the UK.

The number to use to contact us is 0845 6044941 - there are no other contact numbers for Border Collie Rescue.

First - phone us - 0845 6044941 between 2pm and 5pm any weekday.

The duty officer will be able to help you with your enquiry.
Do not email us about Adoption, Rehoming or Advice - we only deal with these matters by telephone and we may be too busy to get back to you by email or a response may be delayed.
If we do manage to email a reply it will only be to ask you to phone during office hours.

There are pages on this website that give some basic information about Adoption and Rehoming but each process is explained in greater detail on our main website.

Adopt a dog

Re-home a dog

That depends on what you class as aggression.
Some Border Collies can nip under certain circumstances and that should not be classed as aggression in the true sense.
If a dog is truly aggressive we won't be able to re-home it - so unless it is going to spend the rest of its life in a kennel with very little freedom, it does not have a future.

People don't apply to adopt aggressive dogs so unless a dog can be rehabilitated no-one is going to want to adopt it.
Even after rehabilitation it is almost impossible to rehome a dog with a history of aggression because there would always be a risk involved in keeping such a dog.
With the laws as they stand at the moment, the person keeping a dog is responsible for the actions of the the dog and if it bites someone, attacks another animal or even scares someone into thinking they may be attacked or injured, the keeper could be prosecuted, fined and even imprisoned.
People do not want to take the risk - especially as there are so many nice natured dogs looking for homes.

The future is difficult for dogs with a history of aggression and rescue spaces difficult to find.

Yes, you can.

We run a weekly advice line between 2pm and 4pm every Thursday.
This service is for behavioural and training advice.

If you need advice about adoption or rehoming or are looking for more information about the charity or our work, phone any weekday between 2pm and 5pm (not bank holidays)

For more information about getting advice see the page on this website or visit our main website -

Get some individual advice

On our main website we have a breed advice section with access to articles, information sheets and other resources that may help you understand or resolve a problem.

Breed Advice

Yes, we do, but there are conditions.
The minimum age is 18 but there is no maximum.

We match dogs to homes and we look at it from the dogs point of view first. What does the dog want from life - what are it's needs?
We assess dogs in a variety of ways to find this out.

We invite people to register with us and offer a home to a dog which they do by applying to adopt on a form that provides us with information on what sort of dog they are looking for and information on the type of home they are offering.

Having assessed the dog we then look at these applications to see if we have a home out there that provides the dog with what it needs and is looking for a dog of that sort.

When it comes to age of applicant we have to look at age of the dog. If there are a number of homes that will suit a young dog and some are from young people and some from older people it is more likely that we would offer the dog to a younger person.
But it's not as simple as that - nothing ever is.

We take a lot of factors into consideration and it does not always mean a younger person is offered the dog but reason must win out.
If an older person asks for a young dog they may be waiting a long time so we always advise people to be flexible and pick an age of dog they are requesting to suit their own age and activity levels - then everyone is happy!

No - we do not allow dogs to be adopted by people living overseas - that includes the Republic of Ireland.
When we take in a dog we take on the responsibility of proving for it's care for the rest of it's life. If anything goes wrong, if it needs to come back to us for any reason - we want to be able to provide for it's needs.

If a dog lives abroad this presents obstacles.

We only place dogs in homes in the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Ulster

Yes - we do, as long as the dog is on the pet passport scheme and it is only visiting countries where the scheme is recognised and the country is recognised by the UK Government.

We do not want dogs to be quarantined when they return from abroad.

No - we do not
We only take dogs in from England, Scotland and Wales

There are enough problems here in the UK with unwanted and homeless dogs without adding to the problem by bringing more in.
Although the situation in some of these countries is bad for animals and the animal welfare laws are poor, look around the UK and you will see horrendous cases of cruelty and neglect.

There are not enough homes available in the UK for all the UK born and bred dogs that need rescue.
Every imported dog leaves a UK dog homeless.

We do not make a 'charge' for a dog. Anyone adopting a dog from us makes a donation towards our future work but we do not have a fixed amount.

We neuter or spay dogs and bitches, we vaccinate, we worm, we treat for parasites, we microchip, we groom, bathe and take care of health issues - and we feed them!

What we need to do and how much it costs varies with each dog and we are a charity so that is what we are here to do.
It would be a terrible shame to loose a good home simply because the applicant could not really afford to pay a fixed fee.

We are a charity and we make up any shortfalls between donations we get for taking in a dog or placing it in a new home and what it costs to care for it by fundraising.