Yes, our $300 adoption fee helps to offset veterinary expenses incurred while your dog was in foster care. Before adoption, every PAWS dog receives:

• A veterinary exam
• Spay or neutering surgery
• Vaccinations according to our veterinarian’s recommendations
• Heartworm and fecal parasite testing (and treatment when necessary)
• Monthly heartworm and flea and tick preventatives
• Microchipping
• County dog license if the dog has been in our rescue for an extended period of time
• The average cost of these services is over $600. We rely on donations to keep our adoption fees low.

Typically, you need to be at least 21 years old to adopt a dog from PAWS.

We typically only adopt dogs to residents of the central Ohio area; however special consideration my be given for dogs with special needs or dogs who have been in our care for a longer period of time. If unsure, please inquire at contactus@powellpaws.org.

On average, it can take 2-4 business days for an application to be reviewed and approved. Calling your veterinary office and providing consent to release information to us, having all current pets up to date on vaccinations and preventatives and/or understanding your rental community’s pet policy and restrictions are all ways to assist in speeding up this process. Once approved, your application will be forwarded to the dog’s foster parent.

Our $300 adoption fee (collected at the time of adoption), helps to offset veterinary expenses incurred while your dog was in foster care.

Before adoption, every PAWS dog receives:

• A veterinary exam
• Spay or neutering surgery
• Vaccinations according to our veterinarian’s recommendations
• Heartworm and fecal parasite testing (and treatment, when necessary)
• Monthly heartworm and flea & tick preventatives
• Microchipping
• County dog license (if dog is within the rescue long enough to order a license)

** The average cost of these services is over $600. We rely on donations to keep our adoption fees low.

Maybe. Our priority is to do the best we can to ensure that a specific dog matches up well to its adopter and their environment. If there are multiple approved adopters interested in a specific dog within a short time frame, we consider all applications. If the dog is placed with someone else, it by no means implies that we felt you wouldn’t have provided a great home for the dog, but that there was reason to believe that the dog’s characteristics and needs were better matched to another applicant that wanted the pup just as much. If the dog does go to someone else, we will work to find you another dog that you will be just as delighted to share your life with — and you won’t need to resubmit an application!

We make an educated guess based on physical characteristics, our experience, and input from veterinarians, but we can never be certain about a dog’s age or specific breed (or breed mix). A precise age is only known if a pup is born while its mother is in our care. We still can’t be certain of the pup’s breed because we can only make a best guess at the mother’s breed, and almost never know who the father was (puppies from the same litter may even have different dads!). Some people choose to do a DNA test after adoption and are often surprised by the results – a dog’s physical appearance and characteristics (phenotype) oftentimes don’t match their genetics (genotype).

Regarding the appearance and weight of puppies as they mature: We will offer a best guess based on weight an age and a veterinarian’s input, but we can never be certain. There are puppy size estimator calculators available for free online that you could use to get a possible range.

Definitely! Unintended pregnancies are the reason rescue organizations like us have to exist. All PAWS dogs are spayed or neutered. We also require that all other companion animals in an adopter’s home be spayed/neutered unless there are special circumstances (e.g., you are a highly reputable licensed breeder that specializes in breeding service dogs or working dogs for law enforcement or there is a medical reason the dog cannot be altered).

If your dog is displaying unwanted behaviors that you don’t know how to address, please contact us – the sooner the better! It’s important to intervene as soon as it’s apparent that the methods being used to address the unwanted behavior are not effective. What starts out as a mild behavior issue will often progress over time as the dog repeats the behavior.

One of the advantages of adopting a dog from PAWS is that our dogs live in foster homes prior to being adopted. This gives us an opportunity to identify any behavior issues that may be of concern to potential adopters. It’s in everyone’s (the dog’s, yours, and ours) best interest for us to be completely transparent about anything we observe that may be an issue for an adopter which may require working with a trainer or behaviorist to resolve and/or effectively to manage.

Please know that transitions to new environments can be stressful for some dogs and can bring out unwanted behaviors. For example, house-training accidents are not uncommon during the first 3 – 4 weeks in a new environment, even if the dog was fully house trained in its foster home. To help you with potential issues that can occur during this transition period, we provide information in our Adoption Packet on ways to prevent or address common issues.

Sometimes, an unwanted behavior may only show up under certain conditions (e.g., in environments that are more active than what the dog is used to, or when a dog isn’t getting sufficient exercise and mental stimulation, or is in a certain environment). Some of our volunteers have learned how to address many of the common unwanted behaviors and may be able to share their knowledge and experience. If necessary, we will refer you to several local, highly reputable behaviorists and/or trainers that can assist you in fixing and/or effectively managing unwanted behaviors using force-free methods. You can find our recommended trainers on our Training page. As there are many trainers who will make the problems worse or even cause severe physical harm to your dog, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for trainer suggestions or to check to see if a potential trainer looks acceptable.

All adopters are now added to our online training service through Petcademy. Adopters can ask reputable, certified positive reinforcement trainers questions about their adopted dog for free. Check them out at https://petcademy.org/ or simply text woof to (380) 800-6611 to start a free 30-days of training and support with Petcademy.

As with most rescue organizations, we require that you contact PAWS at pawsintake@gmail.com before giving away, transferring ownership, or otherwise surrendering your dog. We know our adopters will make every reasonable effort to resolve any issue that would prevent them from keeping their commitment to be their dog’s trusted owner for life. Should an unresolvable personal issue arise, or should your dog develop an extreme behavior that could not be resolved after working with an appropriate behavior professional, PAWS will require several weeks to locate a foster home for the dog.

The short answer is that it depends… on the dog! Some dogs may not be ready for regular leash walking or feel comfortable going to the bathroom on leash (often more fearful dogs). If the dog requires a fence, typically this is stated in the dog’s bio. For most dogs, you do not need to have a securely fenced yard, but you will then be committing to taking your dog outdoors multiple times every single day. You will need to always have your dog on a leash when outdoors and when in an area that isn’t secure.

Rental community pet policies can vary widely. It is important for us to understand and verify the policy for your specific community to ensure that the dog that you have an interest in would not violate their documented community policy. Please be sure to list the contact information for your landlord or rental office on your application.

Yes, you can list multiple dogs on your application, or list the desired type of dog you would be interested in.

For cats, it means that they are up to date on their rabies vaccine. For any dogs currently living in the home, the following applies:

• DHLPP (required)
• Rabies (required)
• Heartworm testing (required)
• Preventative for heartworm (required)
• Preventative for fleas/ticks (recommended)
• Bordetella (recommended)

If your application was successfully submitted to us, you should have received an email response containing a copy of your completed application. If you do not receive the copy of your application, your application was not successfully submitted. Scroll up on the application page to ensure that there is no captcha that needs to be completed to confirm that you are not a robot. If you are still unable to submit the application online, you can download the pdf version of the adoption application, fill it out manually, and then email the completed form to: contactus@powellpaws.org.