Smiling Dog Farms Intake Procedure

There are three ways a dog comes to Smiling Dog Farms: • A shelter • Another rescue group • A private party Our goal is to make ourselves accessible to anyone who needs to send a dog here. We try to always say "yes". And we have the most liberal Intake Policy of any sanctuary in North America! We don't ever want a dog to be turned away over money, and yet we have to acknowledge that every new dog coming here adds to our expenses. So we ask the person or group sending the dog to help us with funding. There are two kinds of funding we need help with: • Housing • Day-to-Day Operational Costs Housing is a one-time expense. As of 04/22/2011, our current cost for materials: • To build a standard 12x16 play yard with a 4x5 townhome and loft: $1,262 • To increase the length of the yard: $87 per 4-ft extension • To install Jumper Panels for jumpers and climbers: o $127 for standard yard o Plus $21 for each 4-ft extension • To install Subterranean Reinforcement for diggers: o $114 for standard yard o Plus $19 for each 4-ft extension PLEASE NOTE: If you are uncertain whether you dog may be a climber, jumper or digger, we strongly urge you to purchase jumper panels and perimeter reinforcement so that your dog can not jump, climb, or dig out of his new play yard! We tell people sending a dog here, "If you have the money to build the townhome, you need to send it to us. But if you don't, we will show you how to raise that money." We create a ChipIn webpage and ask the person sending the dog to circulate the link to this page to all their friends, family and business contacts. The ChipIn widget on the page tracks how much has been raised and how much is still needed. All we ask is that the sending party donate time on their computer to keep circulating the ChipIn webpage until we meet our goal. Once we have housing covered, we still have to pay for the day-to-day costs of caring for a dog. It costs us $2.67 per day, which is pretty reasonable compared to boarding facilities. But that still adds up to $80/mo. That pays the salaries of our team members who service the dogs each day (Ricky and Jay do not receive a penny in compensation; they are 100% volunteers) and buys dog food and pays for vet care. We don't ask the sending party to pay $80/mo from their checkbook. We ask them to donate more time on the computer to sign up monthly sponsors. Just 8 people at $10/mo will cover the costs for one dog. Or 4 people at $20/mo. You get the idea. But we must cover our operational costs, or every new dog will just stretch our meager resources that much thinner. Everyone has sadly read of rescues which have to close their doors because they said yes too many times, without keeping an eye on the bank account. And then all their dogs are at risk! We are clear with people sending dogs here that they must commit to meeting these funding goals. We provide the emails and ChipIn pages to send out. They just need to diligently keep sending them out to their family, friends and acquaintances until we meet our goals. It is sad but true that rescue is all about money. If you have it, you can do anything. If you don't have it, you can do nothing. Still have questions? Please refer to our FAQ page. Our Intake Procedure: What you need to do