What are the adoption fees?

• Puppies 6 months and younger – $550
• 6 months to 1 year – $450 – $500 
• Adult – 1 to 7 years old – $300 – $450 
• Mixes/Seniors 7 years of age and older – $300 or below (depends on age)

Why are adoption fees so high? 

CBR is a non-profit volunteer rescue. All adoption fees and donations go towards the healthcare of the boxers. Adoption fees typically do not cover the average healthcare needs for these boxers. Average intake healthcare costs are anywhere from $350-$1,000 or more depending on what healthcare is needed.

What is a home visit and why is it required? 

A home visit is a meeting between the applicant and a CBR volunteer. Our volunteer will come to your home to meet you, your family and any pets in the house. We will ask to see your yard, where you intend to keep the dog when not at home and get to know a little about your existing pets. A home visit is required to ensure that our dog is entering a safe, friendly and healthy environment.

I live in a house but don’t have a fence. Can I still adopt? 

Yes, although we do not adopt to families who leave their boxer tied up outside unsupervised (against the law in many counties) or left outside in a pen. Dogs who are not on-leash can be stolen, lost, hit by a car, reported to animal control or fight with other dogs. Adults, children and other animals can access and taunt a dog who is tied out and unsupervised. We do adopt to applicants with invisible fences. However, realize dogs can and do escape from invisible fences, and they do not keep other dogs from entering your yard.

Does this mean that a dog can’t escape a 6′ privacy fence? No, not at all, but the chances of the dog getting out or someone coming in to tease or steal the dog are much smaller than if the fence were not in place.

How soon can I adopt? 

We are a completely volunteer run non-profit, so the approval process can take up to 2 weeks after filling out an application. Please note we have prior approved adopters and waiting lists for those already looking at certain dogs so the adoption process can sometimes take a couple of months from approval to actual adoption. Please be patient as we try to give each adopter the attention they deserve and help them find the right dog for their family.

How do I surrender a boxer to CBR? 

Carolina Boxer Rescue will accept owner surrenders ONLY when space allows. We can place your boxer on a waiting list if we have no foster homes available at the time. Shelter dogs and abandoned/ injured dogs take priority over owner surrenders. We are only able to accept pure bred boxers. If you have a boxer mix, we can place a courtesy listing for you on our “Courtesy listings” page and potential adopters can contact you directly. Please send a short paragraph about your dog, the contact information you would like us to list, and a picture to cbrintaketeam@gmail.com. If you have a boxer that you can no longer care for that you would like for Carolina Boxer Rescue to consider placing into a foster home, please click here to go to Owner Surrender Form.

See following notes about filling out Owner Surrender Form: Every field must have something in it even if 0000 and you will get a confirmation email if done properly. There are also instructions on how to send vet records- it says they must be spayed or neutered but each case is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once this has been received, we can see if he/she is a candidate for rescue. You may either scan vet records or fax to 800-450-0563.

What areas do you adopt to? 

We only adopt to North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and parts of Georgia. There are several reasons we do not adopt to applicants outside of these areas. In order to do home visits, we have to have a volunteer in the vicinity of the applicant. If you don’t live in these areas, then we won’t be able to do the home visit.

Lastly, there are boxer rescues covering just about every state. They have plenty of dogs that need homes, and it wouldn’t be right to ship a dog several states away when there are already many boxers looking for great homes. While each dog is different, the same boxer personality exists in all of them.

Is there a return policy? 

We hope that a return does not happen, but sadly they do. Yes, we have a return policy on all of our dogs, which means that should the adoption fail, or an emergency arise, we need to be within reach for the adoptive home to return the dog. This information is provided in the final signed adoption contract.

Is it true that adult dogs don’t bond as well as puppies do? 

Absolutely not. In our experience, rescued dogs no matter the age bond tightly with their adoptive family. As most any adoptive family will tell you, the dogs honestly seem to know they were saved and spend the rest of their lives thanking you for it. The only time we recommend that you purchase a puppy instead of adopting is when you have an existing pet in the home who doesn’t do well with strange adult dogs or who is very dominant in personality. In cases like these, it is sometimes better to introduce a puppy to the home to avoid provoking the existing dog’s protective, possessive or domineering instincts.