Camp Cocker Adoption Process

We’re not here to rush you—we’re here to help you find the dog that’s truly the right match for your home, your heart, and your lifestyle. Our adoption process is thoughtful and supportive, with plenty of guidance along the way.

Our adoption process begins with an online adoption application. The application is linked at the bottom of this page, but please take the time to become familiar with the information contained here before starting your application!

Camp Cocker Rescue dogs are available for adoption in the United States mainland. Once approved for adoption, adopters will need to travel to the dog’s foster location to pick up their new dog. Most of our dogs are fostered in Southern California. Please check our listings to learn where each dog is being fostered. We do not ship dogs.

***If you are interested in a specific dog, please view our Available Dogs section and read about them first!

We understand that our application is lengthy, and we hope you will be willing to spend the 30-60 minutes it may take to complete it. We rely heavily on the application to decide whether we have a dog who might be a good match for you. Unfortunately, we do not have a rescue facility of our own, and we are not able to introduce you to dogs before you have filled out an application.

Please understand the our volunteers & staff are always multitasking, so it may take us a few days to respond to inquiries about applications. We will provide a response to each and every application submitted, generally within 2 – 5 days, to advise you of the status of your application.

We appreciate your patience with our adoption process. We work very hard to attempt to be good matchmakers between our dogs and their adopters!

The application is the first step in the adoption process, and it will be followed by an interview only if this initial screening indicates the likelihood of a good match for potential adoption. We carefully review every adoption application we receive, and when we believe that we have a potential match, we contact the applicant for an interview.

The purpose of our phone interview is to learn more about the applicants’ expectations of a dog, and to discuss any dogs that may be a potential match for them. This is also an opportunity for potential adopters to ask us any questions they may have.

Please understand that we receive a large number of applications, and we do not have the resources to interview every applicant. Our multi-step adoption process, beginning with our application, helps us to best utilize our resources to ensure that every dog we rescue gets the right home!

Before the phone interview is completed, vet references will be checked, and landlords will be contacted to confirm that a dog is allowed.

The adopter, co-adopter, and any other adults that reside in the home must be present for the phone interview.  All members of the household will be asked to be present at the home safety check.

We often share nutrition guidance during our phone interview. We encourage all adopters to check out DogFoodProject.com, an amazing resource for nutrition and giving your dog the best chance for longevity and health. 

Next we schedule a home safety check which may be via FaceTime, Zoom, or in-person, depending on your location and the volunteer providing the check.  Most of us are based in southern California, but we have volunteers throughout the state of California who are willing to assist us.  Technology has made this process much more efficient for all of us, and in some cases, your interview and home safety check can be accomplished on the same day via FaceTime or Zoom.

The purpose of the home safety check is to help adopters check their homes for dog-proofing and also point out any other potential safety issues that you might not have noticed (for example, snail bait or chemicals in the garage that are within reach of a dog, or a front door that faces a busy street where a dog can slip out, or a backyard gate that needs repair or requires a lock).

All adopters – local, in-state, and out-of-state – will require a home safety check.  Again thanks to technology, your location will not prevent you from being included in all aspects of our vetting process.

We also ask that all members of the household be present for the home safety check because we want to meet everyone and ensure that all members of the home are enthusiastic about bringing a new dog into the family. Even if there is one person who will be the primary caretaker of the dog, we want to make sure everyone is prepared for the long-term commitment of a dog and being prepared for the responsibility of the dog, for what could be up to a sixteen-year life span.

Once the home safety check is passed, the adopter is now ready to adopt a new four-legged cutie pie!

Once an adopter is approved, we work out the logistics of having the adopter meet our dogs. While most of our dogs are located in Ventura, Los Angeles, and Orange Counties, we increasingly have dogs being fostered in many other areas of the state as well.  Each dog’s listing includes the general area of the state they’re in. Most adopters come to meet a dog with the expectation of adopting her or him and are prepared to take the dog home with them. Others may be interested in meeting more than one dog and will want to take a little more time.  Adopters need to be aware that as a rescue we cannot “hold” a dog while those decisions are being made.  Our goal is to get every one of our rescues into their new home just as quickly as possible – for their sake as well as for the next dog waiting to be rescued!

Out-of-state adopters will need to travel here to meet & adopt their dog in person to complete an adoption. Please don’t request that we ship a dog to you.  It is important that you meet a dog in person before embarking on the lifetime commitment of adoption. We ask that you plan to get a hotel for at least one overnight. If you want to meet more than one of our dogs and spend some time with each one, taking at least a full weekend is smart so that you can be thoughtful about the dog that will be going home with you. It’s a fun way to spend a vacation or a long weekend – coming to California to adopt your new best friend!

An adoption is not a purchase of a dog. We believe that every one of our dogs is priceless and worth far more than the donations made for adoptions. We do depend on adoption donations to partially cover our costs, although they usually don’t come close to covering all our expenses. When you adopt from Camp Cocker, you are making an adoption donation that is in the spirit of supporting our rescue group as a whole! The adoption donation is $500 – and will be made on or before the day you leave with a dog and a signed adoption agreement has been completed. If for any reason the adoption does not work out in the first two weeks, you can request a full refund of the donation and we will void the adoption agreement. In other words, this will be considered the two-week foster-to-adopt period.

For puppies that are too young to be spayed/neutered – the adoption does not take place until the puppy is altered at five to six months of age. Once an adopter is approved to adopt a puppy, they can foster the puppy and enter into a foster-to-adopt agreement that does not become an official adoption until the puppy is spayed/neutered.

We rarely get puppies, and generally, when we do, they are not well-bred. We urge all adopters to get pet insurance immediately due to the higher-than-normal chance that rescue puppies will face medical issues at some point in their lives as a result of backyard breeding, parents not being properly screened for health issues, etc.

Thank you for understanding that your adoption donation supports our rescue group as a whole, and allows us to continue to rescue future dogs in part as a result of your dog’s adoption.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SUPPORTING OUR LITTLE RESCUE GROUP!

We woof you very much!

🐶❤️🐶

Adoption Application

A note about Cocker Spaniels and children

Rescue groups specializing in Cocker Spaniels often take extra precautions when considering families with young children for adoption. These precautions are based on a history of Cockers that have bitten children in response to being grabbed, hugged, and kissed – particulary when the dog has not been well-socialized in their first few months of life.

An interaction between a child that is too young to be taught good doggie manners and a dog that has not been well-socialized can lead to unfortunate consequences. A spontaneous event like the child attempting to retreive their toy from a dog, or the dog in an unsuccessful attempt to steal a graham cracker from a child, are prime examples.

At Camp Cocker we’ve certainly had successful adoptions with young children involved, but only when we’ve had the opportunity to observe the dog to be consistently gentle and patient, especially with young children – and when the parents are fully aware, willing to being engaged in all child-dog interactions, and confident in teaching their children about good doggie manners. (We can help with that!)

If your application is declined based on the age(s) of your children, please understand that this is because we don’t have a dog that would be a good match for you and your family.

The post-adoption follow-up

We love follow-up! We’ll be contacting you periodically via email just to check in and see how you and your newest buddy are doing. We’ll probably ask you if you have any recent photos or videos you might like to share with us. Staying in touch with our adopters also has the extra benefit of encouraging us to continue our rescue work as we hear updates on how our adopted dogs are doing.

We are also always available if you need any additional support with your new dog. We mostly want to make sure that your dog is flourishing in his or her new home environment and if not, what support or suggestions can we offer?

We love love LOVE to get new pictures and videos of our adopted dogs, as well as your stories and updates! We hope you will share your adoption experience with others who might consider rescuing a dog.

What if you need to return your dog?

Camp Cocker will take back an adopted dog at ANY TIME during the dog’s life, for ANY REASON! We never EVER want to see one of our dogs end up going back to a shelter, getting passed around from home to home, or worse! Please contact us immediately as soon as you know you will have to relinquish your dog.