Doggedly Dog Rescue Society is run by Barbara Zuluaga of Houston, Texas. She contracted with the non-profit Further Animal Outreach to have many of the animals in her rescue spayed and neutered in April 2024. She has not paid her $2000 bill to date.
Fake dog rescue. I filled out an application and submitted photos as requested. Emailed twice. I met all of the qualifications and was extremely polite and excited to potentially give a dog a forever home. I NEVER heard back. One star.
We adopted our dog from Doggedly last year and we couldn’t be happier. They do such amazing work, we’re so lucky to get to be a part of the Doggedly family now!
We really appreciated how thorough their application process was. There was a lot to it but it was all reasonable inquiries and worth it. We appreciate that they take the time to thoroughly vet each adopter to be sure it’s the best fit for the dog and for the family.
Since adopting from them I’ve had the pleasure of volunteering with them to help with other aspects of the rescue/adoption process. I’ve gotten to see the back end of their rescue and I’m very pleased with how they run things. They do everything by the book and every penny made from adoptions and donation goes to the care of their dogs.
My dog, and so many others, have been saved from the most horrible situations imaginable - we are so grateful for Doggedly!
I'm so thankful for the folks at Doggedly for saving dogs who were abused, abandoned, or have somehow found themselves homeless. The effort and medical costs they go through to rehabilitate dogs and prepare them for rehoming is extensive.
My dog was rescued and went through heartworm treatment, a litter of pups, and amputation to save her life. Doggedly went through great lengths to successfully find a good match, and I am fortunate to have been chosen as an adoptive family for a special needs dog. She now has her forever home and is thriving here in the Pacific Northwest!
I have worked with many rescue groups in Houston and Doggedly is one of the best. Their dogs are healthy, well cared for, socialized and some of the best. Their transports are among the safest I’ve ever seen! Their organizers are caring, compassionate and very knowledgeable. Their highest priority is the safety and well being of their animals.
Anyone would be lucky to adopt a pet from them. I am proud to continue supporting them.
Doggedly is an amazing rescue! I got a call in the middle of the night for a senior dog in extreme pain. Barb came out and helped me get her through the night and into surgery the next day. Doggedly is phenomenal and goes above and beyond for every dog in their care. Hands down the best rescue I’ve worked with!
I love this rescue. They helped me find my fur babies and I couldn’t have asked to have the most perfect fur children. Barb & Ashley have helped walk through me the process and made me feel comfortable with finding the perfect pup!
I've worked with many rescues and Doggedly is in the top 5 I have dealt with. They have always been responsive when I have needed anything for my fosters and have continued to provide me with updates on the furbabies I have had in my care. I love seeing them in their new homes!
I found Doggedly last year when I was looking for a companion for my dog Harley. I applied for an adorable young pit mix, after interviewing Doggedly let me know they think they had a better fit for my dog, and they introduced me to Happy. And she has been the PERFECT addition to my family. They were very up front about her personality, behavior traits, and how the transport process works. I enjoyed every step of the process of working with Doggedly and the amount of effort and dedication they put into every dog.
Doggedly Dog Rescue Society in Houston TX needs to be shut down.
We adopted Steel (who we re-named Steve) from Doggedly in August of 2020. We were not told that he had resource-guarding & dog aggression issues, even though I'm now aware that this was documented 4 months prior to our adoption. We welcomed Steve into our home & worked with him, & he did settle in eventually, but not without sending our boy Buster to the emergency vet after we had to choke Steve to get him off of Buster's neck. Steve just saw red when Buster went to lick his food bowl. He immediately acted remorseful & licked at Buster's wounds, & we are now aware of all of his triggers, so we're confident this won't happen again...
but I'm now aware that others in the rescue tried to tell Barbara that Steve needed to be in a single-dog household. Barb ignored this information from people who had spent months with him, insisting she knew him best, even though she spent [at most] a week with him in Texas.
Steve was found in the street with metal fragments embedded in his skull, after he was adopted out from a Petco event. He was shuffled around to a few different homes, one in which he was beat up by another dog who lived there, & the owner kept Steve crated immediately next to the dog that would attack him. Imagine the stress & anxiety he was going through every day! All of this could've been avoided if Barbara had an ounce of sense & homed Steve appropriately.
We let Barbara know we needed to have Steve re-homed on March 9th, & for months she made excuse after excuse as to why she couldn't get Steve into a single-dog foster home. We were told that Ashley, Steve's foster mom that we had kept in touch with, was no longer with the rescue. Barbara REFUSED to let us help in the process, even after we told her we have great relationships with rescues up here & could certainly help. In late April, Barb had her assistant Kat contact us. After a few more weeks, Kat called & made accusations that Steve's behavior was our fault, & that they were going to put Steve on a truck back to TX.
This broke our hearts, b/c we knew a 2-5 day drive on a truck crated next to other dogs would be torture for Steve, & would likely set his temperament back to before we even got him. We decided then & there that we were not letting Steve go back to TX, & we would find a forever home for Steve ourselves.
On 5/12, Barbara contacted us threatening legal action to take Steve back, since she saw his posting on PetFinder. Apparently Barb had been leaving aggressive messages with other rescues in the greater Seattle area about "her dog." Hope & I had been watching Steve get better & better with Buster (they're starting to cuddle at times, & Steve even exposes his belly toward Buster, which is huge), & we decided then & there that we'll just keep Steve. This was weird, & we were NOT letting Steve go back to this messed up rescue.
I've become aware of multiple stories that sound exactly the same. Barb has manipulated many good people into helping her lie about dogs, placing them into ill-suited homes, apparently taking some kind of sick pride in "proving" that they can be rehabilitated by her, without actually doing any real work to rehab them.
I know of one case of a foster mom being sent to the emergency room by a dog that Barbara just had to save. She showed absolutely no remorse, & even managed to get that dog back before she was euthanized. I worry that this dog will harm other dogs or people when Barb inevitably re-homes her without being honest about her past.
Once a dog needs to be returned to Doggedly due to Barbara mis-representing the dogs' needs, she turns around & blames everything on that adopter. I've heard from multiple adopters & potential adopters how she's talked ish about other people I've spoken to, completely lying about situations.
Apparently Barbara once asked an adopter to put 2 dogs into an XXL crate (instead of 2 smaller crates), & when the adopter raised concerns about the dogs being aggressive, asked for a video proving this. Barb then used this video as "evidence" that the adopters were the reason that the dogs were not in the right home.
Barbara hordes dozens of dogs in crates for 20+ hours a day in her back room in Houston. This isn't illegal, but it certainly isn't humane. She also raises thousands of dollars off of sad stories like Steve's, & doesn't always spend that money on the dogs. Where does it all go?
Barbara should not be allowed within 10 feet of an animal for the rest of her life, let along running a dog rescue. Please share this information as wide as you can, especially if you know people in the dog rescue world, or in the Houston/Seattle area.
The leader of this dog rescue is a liar. She keeps pulling dogs from shelters even though she has 50+ dogs unaccounted for living in her house or boarding facility in kennels for 22 hours a day about.
She lies to adopters about the dogs history, she keeps aggressive dogs that should be humanely euthanized in kennels majority of day.
Her volunteers and fosters have either been attacked multiple times by dogs she said we’re not aggressive, lied about dogs being kennels trained, dog friendly and my personal experience two fosters I had attacked my dog out nowhere and THE HEAD TO F THIS RESCUE BLAMED US FOR “Playing ball” with the dogs.
She didn’t offer to pay for food for foster dogs, she didn’t offer to pay for dogs emergency vet visit and antibiotics.
She is a LIAR, HOARDER and will take on any medical dog JUST FOR MONEY?
#WhereisKarma
DO NOT SUPPORT THOS RESCUE!!!
As a former board member of Doggedly I feel the need to warn everyone to stay away. They turned off Facebook reviews and blocked anyone who has had an issue with their practices from commenting.
The executive director, who was previously with another defunct rescue busted for fraud and embezzlement, essentially uses donations and puppy adoption fees to hoard dogs at her home and in boarding. There are at least 60 unaccounted for.
This organization is not transparent and frequently hides information about dog's health, money spent on them, and even their veterinary paperwork.
The executive director is also not honest about dog's temperaments or behavior which has resulted in several adopters dogs and a few people (including myself) being injured. The executive director doesn't care who she hurts, dogs or people, as long as she makes herself look good.
On top of all of that when I worked with this organization between December 2019 and March 2021 we received over 6 thousand applications and only facilitated a hundred adoptions. There's a slight chance you're going to be rich enough or high class enough to adopt from this organization anyway. Part of their adoption screening used to be looking up home values. If you rent, good luck. Even when I was on the board of this rescue I sent my friends and family elsewhere because I knew they didn't have a chance.
Not only that but I sat on several interviews where the executive director basically told people they were going to be able to adopt a dog from us, only to hang up and exclaim how much she hated them and would never adopt to them. She never bothered to tell them or decline their application though and would ignore the subsequent emails of them asking what had changed. We were explicitly told to ignore them and that she would respond later, but she never did.
The executive director is unprofessional and lacks empathy and compassion toward humans and animals.
If your adoption doesn't work out prepare to be shamed and blamed, even if her description of the dog is untruthful it always ends up being your fault.
There are many other reputable, transparent, trustworthy rescues out there to adopt from. Save yourself some heartache - adopt elsewhere.