Adoption Process

Our Adoption Process and Application

Leia’s Hope is foster based, therefore all dogs live in a home. Meet and greets with available dogs are made ONLY AFTER the process is completed. 

Step 1: Before submitting an application, please read our facts and questions tab located at the top of this page under Adoption Process. Once you have read those then submit an application. Nothing can be started without first having an application in our system. Second we ask for a donation to help us continue in our mission.  Applicants who donate are reviewed first and if a match is not found from one of them we will continue with applicants who did not donate. A donation helps us continue our mission of saving as many dogs as we can, providing a lower adoption fee, and providing them with quality vetting.  It helps us to know you are serious about adopting the dog you are interested in and have read our requirements and meet the needs of this dog.  You can see our standard requirements above and for specific requirements for the individual dog, please read their bio. 

Many of our dogs are retired puppy mill dogs that require a physical fence and a canine companion that is established in the home. Rarely do we adopt two adult mill dogs together unless the adopter has other pets and has mill dog experience. 

Our puppy requirements will be posted on each individual puppy. However, we do not adopt littermates or two dogs similar in age out together due to Littermate syndrome. This can cause major behavioral problems for the dogs which is unfair to the dogs and you. For more information on littermate syndrome please do a google search. Interested puppy applicants must either work from home or have someone home the majority of the day until the puppy is 9-12 months. A puppy is YOUR responsibility and not that of a dog sitter, neighbor, or outside family member. 

Puppies not born in our care were not properly socialized during their critical socialization period (3-12 weeks), so it’s imperative they receive  appropriate socialization  when they are adopted.  For our puppies born in our care, they will go through the Puppy Culture program. This is a training and development program for puppies with age appropriate protocols to aid in developing well rounded, social and happy puppies. The puppies are handled daily, experience many new things that they will encounter in a home and even start on basic training. We strongly encourage any of our Puppy Culture puppies go to a home where they will continue the journey with Puppy Culture. 

Our mission of saving senior dogs and puppy mill dogs come at a high cost to us. We very much appreciate you supporting our efforts! We hope this step is the first step in becoming part of the LHCR family! We are committed to our pets for their lifetime and are here to help in any way we can once they are adopted.

 Applications received for dogs not available or generic applications not specific to a dog are not reviewed. Submitting an application does not guarantee adoption. We strive for finding the best fit for everyone involved. Please be sure you have reviewed the pet’s bio to see if you meet the pet’s needs. Our first priority is meeting the needs of the dog and doing what is in their best interest. 

Please Note: We are a small volunteer ran organization, we have full time jobs, families and dogs of our own. Therefore, we need to prioritize our time and cannot respond to every email, phone call, and application. We may only contact applicants who we believe can meet the needs of the dogs we have now or in the future.