FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We rescue stray and abandoned dogs in the UAE. Many of our dogs come from the municipality, who bring us strays they've picked up. Others are sadly surrendered by owners who can no longer care for them or have passed away, leaving the dogs with nowhere else to go.

We often take in pregnant females or dogs with litters, which is why we have so many puppies available for adoption. We never breed dogs — we already have more than enough loving souls waiting for homes.

› See our available dogs (in boarding/foster)

› See our available puppies (in boarding/foster)

We carefully screen every adoption application to ensure the best match between dog and adopter. This helps us protect our dogs and make sure both sides are set up for a happy future together. Sadly, some people adopt dogs for the wrong reasons — such as illegal breeding, fighting, or abuse — so screening is essential.

Here’s how the adoption process works at SDC:

1. Start by filling out our adoption application. If you’re interested in a specific dog, let us know in the form. The more details you provide, the better we can match you with the right dog. 😊

2. Application review We review every application and approve or decline based on compatibility and home environment.

3. Meet your match If approved, we’ll suggest a suitable dog (or confirm the one you’ve chosen) and arrange a meet-and-greet.

4. Trial period Take your dog home for a trial period — 2 weeks for adult dogs and 1 week for puppies — to ensure a good fit.

5. Finalize the adoption If it’s a match on both sides, we’ll complete the adoption process and collect the adoption fee.

Our adoption fee helps cover the essential care your dog receives before joining your family, including medical treatment, food, shelter, and transport. It also supports our rescue work so we can continue helping more stray and abandoned dogs in the UAE.

For any puppy or dog, the adoption fee is AED 1900

Every dog receives:

• Full veterinary check-up

• Vaccinations

• Microchipping

• Spaying/neutering*

• Deworming

• Flea and tick treatment
  

* Puppies may be too young for sterilisation before adoption, but it is mandatory and we follow up to ensure it’s completed.

› More about adoption

Yes, we do!

We’ve successfully rehomed many of our rescue dogs to loving families overseas, to Europe, UK, USA, Canada and many more. Some dogs, especially breeds like huskies, are better suited to cooler climates. If you’re outside the UAE and interested in adopting, get in touch by filling our international adoption form (non binding) — we’re happy to guide you through the process.

👉 Read more about international adoption here

We care for over 1,500 dogs, many of whom once lived in homes. Some have been abandoned, surrendered, or lost their families. For dogs used to being around people, the transition can be difficult — they long for the comfort of a home again. That’s why we’re always looking for kind-hearted people to offer temporary foster homes. Fostering helps a dog readjust to home life, makes them easier to adopt, and allows them to take part in our weekly adoption days.

If you’re considering adopting but not quite ready to commit, fostering is also a great way to see what everyday life with a dog is like.

FOSTER PROCESS

If you are willing to open your home for a furry temporary guest (min 2 weeks), please follow these steps.

1. ​Fill out our foster form – you can mention specific dogs you’re interested in.

2. We screen your application to make sure every dog is placed in a safe, caring home.

3. If approved choose your doggy and take them home for a minimum of 2 weeks. ​​

4. We continue working to find them a permanent home (and we secretly love a foster fail! 😉).

We’ll provide support along the way and can help with the basics: a starter food pack, leash, and bedding if needed.

› See more information about fostering

We have partnered with Bed&Biscuits Boarding to improve our dogs chances of getting adopted. We send adoptable doggies from the shelter to boarding so they can gain exposure at adoption events and meet potential families in a nice boarding environment in Dubai. Bostering is a term we came up with, meaning 'sponsoring boarding for a dog instead of fostering'. So all our Boster dogs need sponsors to enable them to stay in boarding while waiting for their adopters to be found. If you cannot foster but want to help - perhaps you can boster a dog, as each of them need a sponsor; including puppies, adults and senior dogs.

› Read more about Bostering

Our shelter relies solely on public support to operate. Money is a constant struggle when having to feed 1400+ hungry mouths saily, pay salaries to the shelter's caretakers, diesel costs to run our generators, not to mention water, medicine and vet bills which all requires a lot of money we simply don't have. We also have a lot of dogs in boarding in Dubai, waiting to find their ways into homes. Boarding is a service we pay for and only the dogs that are sponsored can stay there.

Please donate, every amount helps.

65 AED | 100 AED | 200 AED | 300 AED [ 500 AED | 1.000 AED

PAYPAL: operations@sdc-uaq.com

We are also very grateful for food donations which can be dropped off at our adoption day events every Saturday at The Petshop Megastore in Dubai Investments Parks 1 or any day at Bed & Biscuits boarding in DIP2.

For hotels, restaurants and other corporate food donations we ask to email us.

› Read more about supporting us

We invite you to come help out at the shelter!

Notice: Pre-booking required, contact Marz 052 600 8255. Here are some of the things you can do:

• Shelter doggy walks

  • Children's Walk

  • Public Walk

  • Special Needs Walk

  • Pitbull Walk

• Socializing

• Grooming

› More info about volunteering

Yes you can visit our shelter in Umm Al Quwain, any day of the week - but by appointment only. Please contact Marz 052 600 8255 to book your visit.

If you have found a dog who's life is in danger or has already been hurt, please try to help the poor soul. If an animal is hurt, please take to the nearest vet. They can scan the microchip and possibly identify and contact the owners. If this doesn't help you can email us.

Although we love cats, we have such limited resources we have to limit our operations to dogs. Please contact one of the numerous cat groups for help.

If you are looking to surrender your dog, we advise you to reconsider once more.

Do you really want your pet to move from the comforts of a home to a shelter with 1500 other dogs?

Is there any other option for your dog? We can help with relocations, training and many other things if you are willing to give the dog a chance.

Please read the helpful information on our guide here.

If after reading the above article you still think surrendering your pet to our shelter is your last option, please email us and wait until we have the time to get back you.