Our Procedures

Having taken over ownership and the running in October 2004 of Bridledown Kennels, Chancepixies has successfully re-united 549 dogs and re homed 531 (up to 31st December 2006).
All the dogs that are looking for new ‘forever families’ have either come to us originally as strays or through our re homing service.

All the dogs that come into us as strays are bought in by the respective councils and police. All these dogs have the official paperwork with them so we know when, where and by whom the dog was found straying. It is also worth pointing out that to offer this service, we do have to carry twice as much insurance as a 'standard' kennels would be required to do. These dogs are treated much like property according to the law, in as much as on day 7 the Councils or Police are no longer responsible for the dogs, and ownership as "in law, legal ownership changes", in this case to us. This is a huge responsibility legally, morally and financially, and we choose, unlike many establishments, not to kill those dogs that remain unclaimed, but instead to find them homes, however long it takes, we believe there is a home for every dog.

When the dog arrives here at the kennels, the time of their arrival is logged, they are scanned for microchips and the presence of any other identification is sought, this can be in the form of tags (which are in fact a legal requirement, every dog should have a tag on its collar with the owners surname, address and a contact number) and tattoos, if any of these forms of ID are present the information is logged. A photograph is taken of the dog, and the dog is then settled into a kennel where a bowl of water is ready and appropriate size bed is made for him/her .

It is now that any identification that was found on the dog is processed. In the case of a microchip we call the central database and the corresponding contact information is relayed to us. We then use this information to try to track the owner, usually this just means ringing one of the contact numbers given. The owner is then contacted, informed of the dogs whereabouts and a time for the dog to be collected is advised. They are also informed that there is a council fine to be paid, this fine was put in place to deter those people who consistently allow their dogs to stray, after all a dog that is allowed to wander the streets is a danger to themselves and to others. Most owners are just relieved to have their dogs back safe and sound. I would also like to add that the fine is imposed by central government and enforced by local councils and not by ourselves.

For those dogs who have no identification, reuniting them with their owner is made more difficult. However if the owner is looking for the dog they will usually try the RSPCA, local council or police station, these people are then advised to ring us, and as a high percentage of the dogs that are taken in as strays in the area find their way to us, happily we do often have the dog safe and well in our kennels ready for collection. In the event that your dog is not in our kennels, we will take down a description of the dog, area it was lost and contact information, so that if we do get that dog in in the future we can call the owner and re unite them. The balance of re united or re homed dogs is pretty much a 50/50 split, but we believe a percentage of dogs that come to us as strays are actually dumped on the system, due to ill health, age, behavioral problems etc.

After the dog goes home, the bed and bowl are removed from the kennel, the plastic bed is disinfected, the blankets are washed, as is the bowl and the kennel is cleaned ready for the next dog.

This is a long established re homing centre which, after changing ownership in 2004, has adopted a non destruct policy, whereby the dogs are not put down but are in fact reunited or re homed in all cases, which we have done successfully on hundreds of occasions.
Unfortunately, we do have dogs that, for whatever reason (90% of the dogs that come through here are wonderfully friendly and just need a little TLC) are left unclaimed after 8 days. Here at Chancepixies we have a non destruct policy, as such we choose not to put these dogs to sleep, but rather find them new and loving families where they can spend the rest of their years being a friend and companion.

We do endevour to do home checks in as many areas as possible, but this is often the task of volunteers kind enough to give up their time to offer this service to us, so it is not always possible. If a homecheck is done and passed, it is then just down to the new owner to come and collect the dog. We do ask for a non refundable donation when a dog is re homed from us, this donation is to show a level of commitment from the new owners, and that they can afford to keep a dog, after all the last thing we want is for the dog to be in and out of kennels like a yo-yo, we want to see these dogs go to loving and permanent homes and, as with any donation we receive, it helps the next dog that comes in, we often have dogs bought in that require veterinary attention and we have a duty of care to treat that animal in what ever way we can. With the idea of permanent homes in mind, we have a seven day settling in perod, this was put in place so that people, if when they did get one of our dogs home, found that it really was not going to work, they are more than welcome to bring the dog back, after all, as they have come in as strays we have no real way of knowing how that dog will be in a particular home environment. On the other hand we do want to ensure that people are committed to these dogs, so after that seven day period has elapsed the dog is owned by, and becomes the sole responsibility of, that person.