FAQs

At How I Met My Dog, our matching system considers behavior and lifestyle, over breed. Once we have made your matches, you can view a dog’s profile, which includes that dog’s breed(s).

The survey takes about 20 minutes to fill out. We encourage you to take time to thoughtfully answer each question. After all, this is designed to help you find a new family member and we take it just as seriously as you do.

At How I Met My Dog our goal is to find you the perfect match. Just like searching for a human partner, it could be love at first sight or it may take some time. Don’t be discouraged! How I Met My Dog will stick with you until we find your canine soulmate.

Every time we find a match, you will receive an email with a link to your dashboard. That’s where you can access the profiles of your new matches.

How I Met My Dog populates your Common Application directly from your completed adopter survey. In addition, you will need to answer a few remaining questions (e.g., references), and you only need to do this once. Please note that when you submit a Common Application for a dog being rehomed, your phone number, email address, and town or city will be visible. Your street address will be hidden. A shelter or rescue organization will see all your contact information, including your full home address.

All of our shelter partners have agreed to use our Common Application designed to streamline your adoption experience. They might also ask additional questions relevant to their decision-making process, but with your How I Met My Dog Common Application there’s no need start from scratch.

You can have as many as five active applications at one time.

No. Your application has not been sent until you click “submit my application.” You can find the “submit my application” button directly under each dog’s photo on your dashboard.

You are able to change the following matching criteria on your dashboard: sex, age, and size. Being flexible on age, sex, and size widens your search parameters and increases the chances of finding your best matches.

Rehomed dogs are dogs that are currently living with their families but, for countless reasons (e.g., illness in the family, relocation, etc.), need to find a new home. How I Met My Dog matches these dogs with new families, eliminating the need to enter the shelter system.

Every shelter, rescue, and rehomer has its own adoption procedure. You will see that information on each individual dog’s profile page.

Our participating rescue partners work with us because they too believe in the importance of our matching algorithm. We do the match, they do the adoption. Ultimately, many people may be applying to adopt one dog, and the final decision is up to the shelter, rescue or rehomer that is caring for that dog.

We base our matches on detailed surveys filled out by shelters, rescues, and rehomers. Each question that we ask is designed to reveal key behavior and lifestyle factors. We encourage honesty because we make it clear that there are no right or wrong answers in completing a dog’s survey.

Our mission is to help all dogs find homes where they will thrive. How I Met My Dog never charges a fee to shelters or rescues for our matching service. We have designed our Common Application to reduce their paperwork, giving them more time to care for their dogs. Our follow-up data, provides valuable feedback not available elsewhere.

As with all relationships, the dynamics of behavior develop and change over time. The relationship with your dog is no exception. Keep in mind that your new dog is entering a new and unfamiliar environment. Allowing for an adjustment period for both you and the dog will facilitate the best outcome for a successful, long-term match. Each rescue facility and rehomer has their own policy in the event the relationship does not work out. Please ask what that policy is before adopting your dog.

By custom matching you with a dog based on behavior and lifestyle, How I Met My Dog increases the chances that your relationship will be successful, but because of the dynamic nature of any relationship we cannot guarantee that success.

Rescue: A rescue is a non-profit organization, funded by donations, and often run by volunteers. Rescues usually do not have a physical facility to house their dogs. Their dogs are housed in a network of foster homes.

Shelter: A shelter is a brick and mortar facility, run by either a municipality or a non-profit organization. These dogs are usually housed in a kennel type environment.

Rehomer: An individual or family that need to find a new home for their dog.

How I Met My Dog Messaging facilitates your direct communication with rehomers and shelters.

Yes. While we absolutely recommend that you charge a fair and reasonable fee, we stress the importance of the match over the price. Every How I Met My Dog adopter that expresses an interest in your dog has already paid $49 for our matching service.

Yes. How I Met My Dog is the matching service that provides you with the best potential matches for your dog. We provide the matches, but you ultimately decide who adopts your dog.

Yes. Spaying/neutering your dog prior to rehoming increases the chances of matching your dog with the best new family.

Yes. Our rehomer survey includes special needs. Be as open and as honest as possible when telling us about your dog. We want your dog to find his/her perfect match just as much as you do.

No. We cannot accept dogs with a known history of biting a person.

Yes. Our algorithm does take into account that some dogs do not socialize well with other dogs, but it can only do this if you share this information on your survey. For the sake of safety, as well as finding your dog the best new family, it is imperative that you are forthcoming about your dog’s behavior.

Each state has its own laws regarding strays. Please have the dog scanned for a microchip. This can be done at a shelter or veterinary clinic. Be sure to check with your town’s animal control officer and local shelters before putting any found dog up for adoption.

You will receive an email when an application has been submitted. In addition, your dashboard will always list any current applications for your dog. The envelope icon located in the top bar when you are logged in will indicate any new messages.

How I Met My Dog makes the match — the terms of the adoption are totally up to you. We do advise adopters to allow for an adjustment period, telling them: “As with all relationships, the dynamics of behavior develop and change over time. The relationship with your dog is no exception. Allowing for an adjustment period for both you and the dog will facilitate the best outcome for a successful, long-term match.”

How I Met My Dog Messaging facilitates your direct communication with adopters.

Yes. Every How I Met My Dog participating shelter has a customer service representative.

As often as is possible. As soon as a dog is loaded onto our database, our algorithm immediately begins to search for potential adopters.

Keeping the information current in your How I Met My Dog database allows us to serve you better and make better matches for your dogs. Updating a dog’s profile or status is easy to manage from your dashboard.

Yes. You must enter at least one photo in order to complete a dog’s profile.

Indefinitely. How I Met My Dog will continue to search for a match for each dog in our database until you remove them from the site.

Yes. One of the goals of How I Met My Dog is to place challenging dogs in homes with experienced, willing adopters who have realistic expectations and want to provide the best home for these dogs. Our adopter survey and algorithm identifies these people.

How I Met My Dog focuses on behavior and lifestyle, not breed. An adopter sees a breed description only after the match is made.

No. Our matching service is free to shelters and rescue organizations.

An individual dog’s survey takes approximately 6 minutes. For dogs that are in foster homes, there is a slightly longer survey.

You will receive an email that links to your How I Met My Dog dashboard. From your dashboard, you can also see how many times that dog has been viewed by potential adopters as well as how many applications he/she has received from potential adopters.

To assist you in making the adoption process more efficient, How I Met My Dog adopters see a complete profile for each dog as well as your individual shelter policies.

No. We cannot accept dogs with a known history of biting a person.

Yes. How I Met My Dog has a rehoming program that is designed to help lessen the number of owner-surrenders. We match these dogs to new families so they never have to enter the shelter system.

How I Met My Dog Messaging facilitates your direct communication with adopters.