Doggie Protective Services For Homeless Tails

An absolute nightmare of an organization! The list of grievances I have is lengthy. Their non-communication, the outrageous fees and the deception on the dog's profile are just the beginning. My adoptee was somewhat crazy: he bit me, scratched and bruised me, was hyper with pacing and non-stop barking, and lunging while on lead. They failed to disclose a tumor on his side. Within a day, Little Lion Man was reposted as adoptable with no change in his profile. BEWARE!

All I did was send an email to DPS letting them know why I wanted to adopt "back" my kitten and I was belittled and told to, "Stop the behavior" in all capital letters!!! Apparently I am taking up there time by writing to them! If you write to them beware because you might just be left feeling like you have comitted a serious crime like I did! So sad that people we depend on can be this nasty especially when it comes to matters of the heart where animals are involved!

I've waited for a while before writing this, but I had to put some distance between me and all that happened.
I've applied with DPS to adopt a dog described as "shy" and badly socialized, a very insecure dog from Mexico. The application went well, I was able to have a phone interview in a few days and was approved for adoption.

The first bad sign was the absolutely bad communication with the organization/volunteers: I discovered that the dog was apparently not enough healthy (Giardia infection, allegedly) to proceed with the adoption the night before the scheduled adoption, through a text message. I did not appreciate only knowing about this at the very last moment, and receiving what felt like the absolute bare minimum communication from the volunteer in charge. The volunteer never responded to requests for further information (I was pretty scared and upset by then) and I had to "escalate" this with other personnel, who was kind enough to explain the situation a bit, and reassure me.

After a few days, I received a phone call from said volunteer, telling me that the dog was "more shy than expected". While the tone and the way they communicated it was absolutely not implying anything exceptional, I should have picked up yet another clue, or at least thought about this. The dog was being fostered since a couple of months...

When the adoption time finally came, we drove to the meeting place where another member of the organization was waiting for the foster and dog to arrive. The aforementioned volunteer in charge, thought, failed to notify the foster about the adoption, who did not know about it. After this was discovered, I was offered to directly drive to the foster's house to pick the dog up, which was not far.

As it turns out, the dog was the most traumatized creature I've ever seen. She was trying to hide all the time while we were being "presented". She was barely able to socialize a bit with the foster's two wonderful dogs, but was otherwise extremely scared of animals, humans and loud/moving objects alike. The emotion took the best of me, and I opted to proceed with the adoption anyways, sure to be able to make a change for this unlucky dog. The adoption amounted to forcing the dog out of her safe space, and was very upsetting for the dog, me and the foster, too.

I brought the dog home, in a safe and quiet environment, but she would not even try to get out of the crate. It took days for her to understand that she could freely move between the house and her crate, and the yard outside. She had NEVER had a collar and leash on herself, so I was unable to try and bond with her by walking her. She was barely eating and would just spend the absolute majority of her time into her crate, wary of everything.

I reached out with the previous foster for help, and he was WONDERFUL: he begun coming to my house with his dogs almost daily, in an attempt to progressively bring her out of her adamantine shell. Unfortunately, progress stalled and after about a month of pain, we agreed that the dog had to be taken back to try and socialize her better before trying an adoption.

The organization NEVER contacted or supported me during this ordeal, only communicating with me through the foster. Apparently, given the exceptional situation and contrary to the organization policy, DPS offered to give me another dog without paying another fee. After a horrible month, tending to a creature that was fearing for her life, trying to treat her with respect and love only to see her struggle, I really didn't feel like risking again with a selection process that obviously does not work, so I asked the foster to kindly forward a request to just have a reimbursement, referring to the exceptionality of the situation, also agreed by DPS.

The dog was relisted for adoption within 2 hours!!!

Apparently my request was way over the line, and the organization retracted their kind offer to give me another dog, and stopped communicating with me, despite the kind attempts from the foster to broker between us. After a couple of emails, Tera (DPS's chief executive) replied with what must be the most condescending and false email I've ever seen. She attributed their refusal to help me in any way to me being rude to the foster when they came to retrieve the dog after we decided to give her back. While I regret being really upset on that day (it was one of the worst days of my life), I never was rude to the foster, who also agreed once I told them what I was being accused of. Tera never even acknowledged the fact that the dog should NOT have put up for adoption in the first place, until rehabilitated a bit. She never acknowledged the miscommunication problems with her volunteer, nor the fact that the foster was never notified of the adoption date. She just implied that I was paying the price for my impoliteness.

I'd also like to know why they charge so much if they are a no-profit AND volunteer-based organization. Moreover, they seem to be active importing rescue dogs from Mexico, Korea and China, but I'd invite everyone to check the statistics concerning dogs currently in US municipal kennels. I understand trying to save dogs, but with so many dogs in need on the US territory I don't see why they'd import so many of them... Food for thoughts.

I'm still shaking as I write.

Terrible organization, these people are literally evil, they do not like or care for the dogs. I am sure they are running a puppy mill. They're price gauging during the pandemic, charging $700 for adoption, I've never seen any organization charge this much, they are entirely run by volunteers. They use a lot of exclamation marks asking for money and when they talk about their pets for adoption, until you are a foster who wants to adopt the dog y you're fostering. There's a 100% shift in the tone of their conversation. This was the worst experience I've ever had with a non-profit. This organization must be investigated.

I filled out the lengthy application in September 2018 and never heard back from this organization. In this application I named 3 dogs I was interested in. A couple of days later, these dogs were no longer shown on the website. I emailed them several weeks later to ask about my application and again got no response. Finally yesterday I sent another email and got a rather sarcastic response from Tara who informed me that "you will want to go with another organization as we won't be pursuing an adoption with you". No reason or explanation. I own my own home, have a large fenced yard, I'm retired so have lots of time to spend with a dog and have owned dogs all my adult life (having had each one from puppyhood to end of life at very old ages).
I'm not sure why they eliminated me, but beware of this outfit. They are, at best, very poorly run and might not have the animals' best interests at heart.

I've been volunteering with DPS for over a year now and I have to say it has been one of the most life-changing experiences of my entire life. To see Tera and Rachel work so hard to save the lives of dogs and the occasional cat all over California is so inspiring, and even more so when I take into consideration that neither of them are payed at all yet still find the time, energy and patience to do all the incredible work they do on top of their 9-5 jobs never ceases to amaze me. I have learned so much from these two brilliant women, as well as the other volunteers and not only about dogs. I have learned about business, and assertiveness as well as the legality of volunteer work, learning how to deal with people who refuse to listen to what they don't want to hear and sad lessons such as how even if you dedicate your life to such a noble cause, there will always be some who refuse to acknowledge all the amazing work you do and will actively try to stop you from continuing that work. As someone who adopted their beloved pooch(pic attached) from DPS, I couldn't have been happier with the process-granted, I know the reasons for all their precautions, unlike many others who choose to take them as some sort of personal offense as opposed to taking the dogs into consideration. $400 is nominal when I think of the joy my new pup brings me everyday. Between fostering, adopting and volunteering I have much more experience with DPS than anyone really ought to, and I still love it more than life itself so if you're looking to save a dogs life and in return, be saved yourself then I highly recommend DPS Rescue.

I used to be a volunteer. I made a large donation to this organization in 2014 and at the time, they did not have their 501(c)3. I was not informed of this at the time of my donation, and neither were other donors. When I found out, and mentioned this, they asked if they could provide me a receipt from a different tax id (to get a corporate match on the donation). I said no, and asked for a refund. Also, they did not update their website or social media or notify volunteers about the loss of their non-profit status.

This is a very shady organization, it is not clear at ALL what they are doing with the money they get from adoption fees ($400 per dog and I've heard they adopt up to 100 dogs per month) and they also take a lot of money in through donations.

Doggie Protective Services For Homeless Tails is Charging $400.00 for each dog is a scam. Their tax records are not reflecting what they are charging. I am contacting the IRS to make sure they know what they are charging for their dogs. This is called DOG FLIPPING. Dogs are being stolen all over this country and sold on the internet, Pet Finder, Craigslist and many, many more. Right now, DPS has a "Go Fund Me" donation of over $15,000. asking for a new van, there's a photo of a newer looking van posted with damage in the front. They say it's totaled, but is sure doesn't look like it. I also have hideous correspondence with DPS, where she calls me every dirty name in the book. Now what kind of nice person who loves dogs would cuss someone out like that? A BAD PERSON.

I had been looking for a dog for a long time. As someone with allergies I needed one of the hypoallergenic dogs and I knew I wanted a maltipoo or poodle. At a DPS event in Campbell, CA I met Blizzard ( I call him Bizzy) and fell in love. They are rigorous in their processes - you do an application, an interview then a contract saying if I can ever not care for him I will give him back. They rescued him from a kill shelter in LA. It horrifies me to think such a friendly little love bug could have been killed - there is just not enough love in the world. I recommend them for their work and their process.