THE PROCESS (please read carefully before completeing your application)
1. Click on the application link above. Please complete ALL sections of the application, or your application can not be processed. This includes references with up to date contact information, current vet records for all cats, dogs, or ferrets living in your home, and contact information. If we do not receive your vet records, we will not process your application.
2. Once we have received your application, it will go into a queue, and will be assigned to a MABCR volunteer. This volunteer will contact you in order to set up a phone interview. During this interview, we will review your application and get a good understanding of the type of border collie that will best fit you, your family, and your home.
3. Following your phone interview, the volunteer will contact your references. Please be sure your references are available, if we are not able to reach your references, your application can not move forward.
4. Once your phone interview and references are complete, another MABCR volunteer will reach out to schedule your home visit. This visit is typically about an hour, and is simply 'coffee with the neighbors'. This home visit is just another way to help us refine our matching process, and to uncover the type of dog that will best suit your home. Everyone who lives in your home needs to be present for the homevisit, this is very important.
5. Once your home visit is complete, your complete application will be submitted to our Executive Director. Our ED will then look for a border collie that will suit your family. If we do not have an appropriate dog available, you will receive an email stating that your application is complete, but that no appropriate dog is currently available. As soon as we find a dog that suits, we will contact you. In the meantime, should a dog on our website appeal to you, you can contact us for information. When making your application, please keep in mind that the tighter your parameters for a dog, the more difficult it will be for us to make a match.
6. Once a match has been made, you will be contacted either by email. You will recive information about your match and along with photos. You will have the oppurtunity to discuss this match with our ED, and the foster care giver. If you feel the dog may be a match, you will then make arrangements to go to the foster home, or to our main facility in Chestertown, MD. The meet and greet with your potential dog should be done as soon as possible after the match is made.
7. At your meet and greet, you should be prepared to take your new friend home with you, if you feel the match is a good one. You should go to the meet and greet with a crate in your car, a 6 or 8 foot web or leather leash, and a check for $300 made out to MABCR. (you should also be prepared at home, for an article on home preparations, please go here) If for some reason, the dog is a not a fit for you, your application will go back into the queue for another match. There is no penalty for not adopting that dog.
8. After you take your new dog home, you will receive the adoption paperwork via email. Veterinary records will be included. Please sign and return (by mail) one copy of your adoption contract.
9. MABCR will continue to be a resource for you during your lifetime with your new dog. We hope you become a part of our MABCR family, and attend trainings, demos, and family fun days, and maybe even volunteer!
