Our positions require volunteers to be 18.
Once you submit your volunteer application, you’ll hear back from our Volunteer Coordinator to discuss how you can get involved and answer all your questions.
In many cases, families give up their Boxers. Sometimes family situations change (births, deaths, moves, financial trouble), and people get nervous or upset. They may think they have to give up all commitments to get through the rough times. Unfortunately that sometimes includes the family pet.
Many times people are very sad and distressed at having to surrender their wonderful animal; other times, we take in Boxers from bad living situations or get them as strays that no one ever claims.
Sometimes Boxers lose their homes simply because not enough thought was given to the level of commitment and training it takes to own a dog, especially a puppy or very young dog
We are a New Hope Partner of Maricopa Animal Care and Control, where most of the stray dogs come from, and a partner of the Arizona Humane Society, who gives us their sick or injured Boxers.
In rescue, we see hundreds (if not thousands) of animals euthanized every year because of overpopulation of dogs and cats. Therefore, we feel that we are obligated to help educate the public about this widespread crisis and encourage all potential adopters to be responsible pet owners. Responsible pet ownership means keeping your pets in good health, current on vaccinations, and spaying and/or neutering all pets in the home.
First, the new dog gets a health evaluation and a temperament test. If healthy, then they are spayed or neutered. If they have behavior issues, we have our trainers assess them. We work on behavior issues in foster homes.
Although we do not have the funds to test every healthy-looking dog for every illness possible, we do treat all dogs that look ill, are undernourished, lethargic, or show any signs of illness.
If a dog has any health problems, we put the dog on medical hold. Then we run blood work and put the dog through testing to identify any illness and treat it before adoption. Dogs with injuries may require immediate surgery. Only when the dogs are, to the best of our knowledge, in good health, are they adopted to the public.
The donation to adopt one of our dogs varies depending on age and other considerations. The average donation fee is $275. This goes towards our dogs’ medical costs, including spays, neuters, and vaccinations and microchip.
When we get puppies into rescue, they have a higher adoption fee. This helps to pay for the added costs of puppies’ spays and neuters, after-care for mom, vaccinations, as well as puppy food, wee-wee pads, worming, and other essentials. As you can see, these costs far exceed the donations received.
We do not refer to any breeders. We do, however, get pregnant females rescued from bad situations occasionally. When filling out an application, you can stipulate that you are looking for a puppy, and we will hold your application and put you on a puppy waiting list. Keep in mind that this could be a year-long wait, since we never know if and when we will have puppies available. We do, however, have many many Boxers who are still young (as Boxers do not mature until approximately 3 years of age) but are already past the house-breaking and chewing! We would ask that you open your heart and mind a bit and consider adopting one of these young, exuberant “toddlers” into your home.