Home for Good Dog Rescue Inc.

My experience with Home for Good Dog Rescue was deeply disappointing due to the unprofessional and hostile behavior of their staff. On December 13, we visited their location in Berkeley Heights and were met with rudeness and condescension. One staff member, seated on the right side of the U-shaped table when we arrived, repeatedly interrupted my conversation with another employee, harassing and yelling at me. She was also shouting at another visitor behind me, accusing him of previously taking pictures. The situation was chaotic and unsettling, leaving my children concerned about her erratic behavior.

Later that evening, I discovered this same employee had intentionally denied my adoption application less than an hour after I submitted it, without providing any reason. Determined to follow up, we attended their adoption event in Summit the next day. Two employees at the event reviewed my application and could not identify any valid reason for its rejection. They were troubled by this, and I was told someone would contact me to discuss my application further, but no one ever did.

While reviewing the sign-in sheet at the adoption event, I noticed it was the same sheet from the previous day, and my name was at the top. Under the “for office use only” section next to my name were the letters “DNA,” which a volunteer explained stood for “do not adopt.” It became clear that the employee from the previous day had arbitrarily decided that my family was unfit to adopt, despite no legitimate basis for this decision.

I attempted to contact Home for Good Dog Rescue by leaving multiple reviews on their Facebook page. Instead of responding to me in any way (they have my phone number, email address, and Facebook profile), they blocked me from their Facebook page.

This experience was both frustrating and disheartening. My family is highly qualified to provide a loving home for a dog, and it’s upsetting to think that one employee’s hostility and poor judgment could prevent animals from being adopted. It’s unfortunate that Home for Good Dog Rescue allows their pets to remain without homes because of one individual’s unprofessional behavior. Animals should not have to suffer due to personal biases or mistreatment of potential adopters.

Awful experience- they are unprofessional and negligent. We adopted a dog who they claimed was 1.5 yrs old, potty trained and great with kids. When we got home the dog chewed and ate everything in sight including couch cushions and the wall!! She jumped up on the dining table, kitchen counters - you name it. Also peed and pooped in every room and on every surface. It was becoming clear this was probably a much younger dog and that she wasn’t trained in the least. Then we found papers in the paperwork they gave us from a vet in S.C. that saw her a week earlier and listed her age as 9 mos! Why did HFGD double her age?? Nonetheless we worked very hard on training the job, exercised her a lot, took her out for potty breaks on a schedule, bought her a ton of toys and chew toys and got a crate. She was not safe without the crate as she could chew wires or jump on the stove for all we knew! She loved the crate and snuggled in it feeling safe. The 3rd day we had her as she became more comfortable with us she started becoming very aggressive with my kids - ages 4 & 6. She would nip at them and tackle the 4 yr old all the way down and pin him. This was alarming. I called HFGD because I thought it was the right thing to do. I wanted to ask if they had training or a local trainer recommendation because this dog needed a lot of training! I also wanted to ask if they knew she was possibly a puppy and not an adult as they had listed her and said to us. The woman that answered the phone was horrid! She demanded I surrender the dog immediately! She accused me of never walking the dog and said I probably locked her in a crate all day because I have kids and said I punished the dog by using a crate!! She was very mad I said I had gotten a crate. She said they should never be used. I don’t understand crates are used all the time! And it kept the dog safe and she liked it. She said she would have never adopted the dog to me if she were there the day we got her because I have no fence around my yard and I have young kids! But they knew I didn’t have a fence and my young kids were there to meet her when we adopted her! We then went in to the place, I thought maybe we could speak in person. Two people were there and grabbed her from me and took her in the back!! Didn’t even let us say goodbye!! They made me sign a paper. I was so scared and confused. Then I asked for my $500 back since they were forcing us to surrender her and claimed they knew she wasn’t a good fit for us. They said only Toni Ann could talk about that. She was the woman who had spoken so awfully on the phone to me. They said she wasn’t there but would call me. She didn’t. I called her and she said a bunch more awful things to me, laughed at me when I asked for a refund and then hung up on me!! When I tried calling back someone picked up and said they were calling the police on me for harassment if I ever called them again!! Can you imagine!?!?! I did the responsible thing by calling when the dog started showing signs of aggression and when I needed help with training! I wanted to ask about her past to train her better! You’d think if they cared about the animals, they would appreciate that I called in and try to find a solution with us! If they really didn’t think she was a good fit for us after all, why not try to match us with another dog? We were already approved and there are so many dogs who need homes. It doesn’t make sense for them to be so hostile to me right off the bat. And this Toni Ann lady saying that they knowingly adopted us a dog who wasn’t a good fit for us?? Why do that? To the dog, to us, to my kids? Cruel. So I googled Toni Ann, her last name is Turco and found she has multiple criminal charges against her for falsifying documents and records of dogs to mislead people she adopted them to! One case she adopted out a dog who she knew had distemper and lied and said it was healthy! How is she still allowed to have a Dog Rescue after being criminally charged!

**Unprofessional, Dismissive, and Questionable Practices – Proceed with Caution**

I recently had a troubling experience with this rescue organization while trying to adopt a Boston Terrier. After renting a car and driving hours from Manhattan, I arrived hopeful and excited to potentially welcome a new member to my family. Unfortunately, my experience was anything but welcoming or professional.

From the start, the communication was cold and unengaging. I was told through email that the adoption fee would be $1,500, which was significantly higher than the $550 advertised on their website. This discrepancy already felt sketchy, but I decided to proceed, thinking the rescue's priority would be the well-being of the dog.

However, the moment I walked in, the owner's demeanor was judgmental and dismissive. Without giving us a fair chance to interact, she whispered to her colleague that “it’s not going to work” and quickly decided against the adoption within minutes of our arrival. The second staff member, who had barely witnessed any interaction, immediately began listing reasons why we weren’t a good fit. This predetermined rejection and the lack of a proper greeting or acknowledgment of my effort to provide a loving home for the dog were incredibly frustrating and unprofessional.

Let’s be clear: I completely agree that not every adoption is the right fit, but decisions should be made through a caring, open discussion, not a shady, dismissive process that makes potential adopters feel unwelcome. I was there to rescue the dog, not to be judged by someone who seems to think of themselves as the ruler of all dog kind. Get off the high horse and have a personable, compassionate conversation instead of making snap judgments.

The dog I met was overly hyper and alarmingly underweight, and the owner bizarrely insisted that showing bones was a sign of being “healthy.” This attitude towards the dog's weight was disturbing. Proper nutrition and care are crucial for any pet’s health, and to suggest that a dog should be visibly underweight to avoid being “heavy on their legs” is harmful and misguided.

If this is how they treat potential adopters—people willing to go out of their way to rescue a dog—it’s concerning to think about how they might treat the animals in their care. Rescue organizations should focus on making the best matches for both the animals and adopters, not on hasty judgments and dismissals.

If you’re considering adopting from this organization, proceed with caution. My intention is not to prevent adoptions but to encourage potential adopters to look for reputable rescues that prioritize the well-being of animals and treat potential adopters with respect and

Home for Good Dogs is simply the best. This foster based organization cares so much about each and every dog they save. They rescue dogs of all shapes and sizes and from all different situations. After given medical attention, they are sent to a foster home where they are given a bed and love for probably the first time in their life. Home for Good Dogs ensures these dogs are adopted into the best home possible that is a good fit for both the dog and their forever family. Saving as many dogs as possible is at the core of this organization and it’s what drives each and everything they do.

I am a volunteer, client (recently adopted my senior pup from Home for Good Dog Rescue) and a donor! The staff and volunteers are extremely dedicated and caring. They do a great job screening potential adopters to ensure human and pups will be compatible! I am very happy my new family member! The group is very organized and driven (and maybe more so than some for profit businesses)! It is very satisfying and rewarding to see our furry friends find their forever homes. I am proud to be a part of HFGD Rescue!

I have been a volunteer at HFGDR since June 2014. I enjoy giving back to the community and helping the dogs find loving homes. Home For Good has saved thousands of dogs from horrible conditions in South Carolina and other places and has taken care of their medical and other needs and placed them in permanent loving homes. I have also been a financial sponsor since I began volunteering and as a retired CPA will say that HFG is a very efficient organization financially and all monies received go back into the mission of rescuing the dogs. Over 5 million dogs are euthanized in the US each year. Home For Good does a wonderful job of saving dogs and puppies from that horrible and senseless fate. I am very grateful to be a volunteer at Home For Good Dog Rescue.

We love Home for Good Dogs. We rescued our 6.5 year old dog after she was surrendered back to HFGD for not fault of her own. They were amazing to work with. Since we had a great experience we decided to sign up to volunteer to help support the agency.
They do great work and are always looking to help more dogs.

Opened my home to fosters in 2022. Besides helping these great dogs I have found it beneficial in ways I would have never expected. Allowing myself to invest in the lives of these dogs and then passing them on to loving families has helped me overcome attachment issues. It has also given me new perspectives and helped me become a better dog parent to the two dogs I own personally. Fostering has been a wonderful experience for me!

Fostering has touched my family's life in more ways than one. We began fostering for HFGDR about 5 years ago and since then, it has become a prominent piece of our day-to-day lives. Every foster that comes through our doors, changes not only their lives but ours as well. Fostering has taught us so much about strength, resilience, trust, and most of all the hope that each one of these beautiful souls fills our hearts with. All of our fosters have their own story to tell, and they show us just how incredibly amazing a rescue dog can be. As fosters, we are the final steppingstone to their forever home journey.

HFGDR's foster program is the most important part of the rescue in itself. Without foster homes, dogs will die, it is that plain and simple. When someone fosters for HFGDR, that foster they currently have, was able to be saved from a dreaded fate, along with another dog currently sitting in a shelter waiting to be saved. HFGDR is unique in itself since they don't have a shelter for the dogs to go to once they are transported to New Jersey. There is no better environment for these deserving shelter dogs to go to, than an actual home, where they can be spoiled with love, have a yard to run in, and a warm bed to rest their tired heads on as they wait to be adopted into their happily ever after.

I started volunteering with Home for Good during Summer 2022. I was looking for a way to give back and fill my heart. Home for Good is the perfect fit! I have enjoyed meeting not only the wonderful staff and volunteers but also spending time with these perfect dogs has truly filled my heart each time. The program puts the needs of the dogs first and the amazing fosters deserve such recognition for giving them loving homes until they meet their forever families. ❤️

I started fostering for Home For Good Dog Rescue a little over 3 years ago. It started out as something fun for my daughter and I to do as we share the same passion for dogs and what it turned into is so much more. During covid I started volunteering with transports and really started to learn and see the process
I was in awe and really began to learn so much! I had no idea the life many of these dogs came from. I’ve been blessed with fostering over 200 dogs/ puppies and even tried my hand fostering a pregnant Mom! No matter what you do Home For Good Dog Rescue is there to help you and walk you thru anything! I feel privelaged to be apart of this orginization. I highly recommend anyone get involved. I never knew the love of a rescue dog, it is unlike any other ������

I have been volunteering with HFG for over 4 years now. I process applications, volunteer at adoption events, and transport dogs to and from events. My rescue cat is also a volunteer since she cat tests rescue dogs to see if they can live in a home with a cat. (She lives with 2 rescue dogs herself.) It is so rewarding to see how the dogs come from deplorable situations in the South and then find warm, loving homes here in the Northeast. HFG spares no expense to save so many dogs. I have also gotten to know some of the foster parents, and they are truly dedicated to taking care of their fosters so they can find the best homes ever. The fosters treat the dogs as their own. To be involved with this organization has been a wonderful way for me to transition into retirement and spend time with so many great people and dogs!

I've been volunteering with HFG for about 9 years now and it's been a great experience. They truly care about their dogs and making sure they find the perfect fit/home for each of them. I also foster with them & they make it a simple task. I highly recommend volunteering/fostering or adopting with them!

I have been fostering three years with HOME FOR GOOD DOG RESCUE. Originally I had planned to adopt a dog after retiring. I decided to foster first to see if a dog was meant to be part of my life. Fostering has been so rewarding, I decided to continue. I have fostered pups, a mom and her six puppies, a 3 month old that had to have hip surgery and currently have an eight year old boy with lung cancer. All these dogs have given me so much in the past three years. They are loving and funny and silly four legged friends. HOME FOR GOOD DOG RESCUE has given me the opportunity to give renewed life and a loving home to 92 dogs. I have given 92 dogs the opportunity to be adopted into 92 loving homes. That warms my heart.

HFGDR is an amazing organization! We have adopted 2 wonderful dogs from this organization. They are 7and 6 years old. We are involved in fundraising events whenever possible. What they have accomplished is so impressive. The staff in Berkeley Heights and Aiken SC are experienced and professional.

We adopted Carolina from Home for Good Dogs in 2016 and have been in love with her and the rescue ever since. The care and love shown for every rescue pup is incredible- from saving them from unspeakable conditions, getting them healthy and happy, to ensuring that they are all home fostered until they find the correct furever home and beyond. The staff and volunteers ensure that the adoptees are the right fit for the dogs. A great organization to work with and a great cause to support!!!!!

As an adopter, volunteer, and foster for HFGDR for the past 7 years, I can truly attest to their excellence as a dog rescue. Their adoption process consists of an online application that is run by a group of friendly volunteers who follow a strict protocol on adoption that was put in place based off of research and years of experience, with successfully finding homes for almost 10,000 dogs. The protocol was created purely for each dog's and each family's best interest. One of HFGDR’s main goals is to not just find any home for their dogs but to find the RIGHT home, where not only is the family going to be a good match for the dog, but that the dog will fit in well with the family. This is so they can strive to provide a great experience with a happy family and a happy dog, for years and years to come. They are a 100% foster-based rescue, so all dogs live in foster homes prior to being adopted, where they begin training and are child, cat, dog, and temperament tested so HFG can use this information, and updates from their foster families as well, to find every dog the right home. Their investment and knowledge of each individual dog can sometimes mean that despite how cute a dog is, they may not be the right match for you and your family, and HFG will help match you with a dog that better fits you and your family’s lifestyle.

The involvement with HFG doesn’t stop once the dog is adopted, but instead, HFG reaches out after the adoption to follow up and confirm everything is going well with the newly adopted dog. The staff and volunteers are always ecstatic to see one of HFGDR’s adopted dogs stop by with their family or to get updates/pictures sent to them. Their adoption fee only partially covers how much is spent on each dog’s care, which costs them at least $675 and includes spay/neuter surgery, microchipping, vaccinating, feeding, transporting them to NJ, and caring for any medical needs the dog has after being in a high-kill shelter. The people of HFG dedicate their lives to saving dogs from high-kill shelters in GA and SC and work their hardest to ensure the dogs will not end up once again neglected, in another shelter, abandoned, abused, or unloved.

Seven years ago, I never would have imagined anything impacting my life as much as Home for Good Dog Rescue has. The knowledge and experience I have gained over the past few years is invaluable. After fostering over 200 dogs, adopting 2, volunteering for thousands of hours, I truly cannot imagine a better rescue to adopt from, volunteer or foster for. I recommend this organization to everyone I meet, and truly hope others can have the same outstanding experience I, and many others, have had with Home for Good Dog Rescue.

I am a proud volunteer for Home for Good Dog Rescue since 2014. Prior to that, I volunteered for shelters from 2006-2014. Everything Home for Good does from pulling very sick dogs that other rescues bypass because of expensive medical treatment or age, to carefully vetting potential applicants, to matching up the right dogs to the right homes is top shelf and epitomizes what rescue is all about. The foster based program enables dogs to learn the ropes of being a family pet while living in comfort until they find their forever home. Finally, Home for Good works extra hard to match dogs with families to ensure our dogs go to the best possible home.

Our story is only possible because Home For Good Dog Rescue cared enough to save 1 dog…

Dakota was rescued as a 4 month old puppy in 2014. He would not have lived to see the next day had HFGDR not saved him from the euthanasia list of an overcrowded shelter. Dakota added so much to our lives, that we wanted to adopt another rescue pup. Our little Lexi was rescued in 2015. She was being tossed away until HFGDR once again stepped in.
As with many families with grown children, we found ourselves going separate ways, doing our own thing. Because of our pups, we found ourselves back together again in the same room. Our pups brought us a greater purpose and more joy to our lives.
We had so much appreciation for the rescue effort and the wonderful fosters Dakota and Lexi had, we decided we wanted to pay it forward. In 2017 we brought home the first of, what has now been, 60+ foster pups. It continues to be most amazing rewarding experience. The ability to volunteer for transports and at adoption events has also been a way to pay it forward and, in a small way, help dogs into their forever families. I recommend volunteering and fostering to everyone. Even in the smallest measure it makes a difference. I have received so much more than I could give.
To our surprise, 2019 brought us Charlie Dopple. Born to a stray mom, his fate would’ve been as a feral dog fearful of people, if not for a rescue’s loving care.
He was the pup we didn’t know we needed, and now cannot do without. He completed our family! He has so much love for people and is intuitively compassionate. Once matured, Charlie Dopple will earn his certificate to become a therapy dog.
All 3 of our rescue dogs assist with fostering puppies. They show them the ropes, teach them house manners, and offer comfort and assurance. As a result, the puppies learn quickly. The experience would not be same without them!
We are eternally grateful to HFGDR for bringing them all to us. Each of them are unique. Each has a purpose. They were all worth saving. Our pups are our world, and it’s a far better place with them here!
I often say Dakota is the reason for all the dogs that came after him, but it really all began when he was saved.

I have been involved with Home for Good Dog Rescue for 10 1/2 years. They are completely foster-based. HFG has saved many animals that would have been euthanized due being dumped at high-kill shelters, having life threatening illnesses or injuries such as heart worm, mange, broken bones, blindness, etc. I believe we have saved about 9000 dogs (and a cat) over he 11 years it's been operating. I adopted my dog 3 years ago--she was heart worm positive-which kills dogs if not treated. They paid for the treatment and she is now a healthy, happy,
5 yr. old lab mix. HFG has created a facility in S.C. to take the rescued dogs, vet them, spay and neuter them and get them healthy in order to make the trek to NJ where they are placed into foster care and then adopted.

I've volunteered with Home for Good Dog Rescue for at least 10 years and have fostered over 100 dogs/puppies, helped process applications for adoptions, volunteered at adoption events and made a trip to our southern facility in Aiken, SC just to mention some of my involvement. I've seen first hand where these puppies/dogs come from and while it broke my heart so many times, I found solace in the ones we carried out of the deplorable conditions of the high-kill shelters, saving them at the last minute. One of the many things I love about this rescue is that we never leave the Mom behind. So many pregnant dogs give birth in the shelters and many rescues only take the puppies as they are easier to adopt out. I've seen the founder of our rescue seek out the Momma dog if she is in another kennel, and bring her out too.

Some people don't understand how hard it is physically, emotionally and monetarily to rescue these animals. All we want is to save as many as possible, see them go to a wonderful home and be loved for the rest of their lives. Hopefully they will forget their former lives. I adopted a 2 yo, heartworm positive dog who was emaciated and had given birth to litters over and over. We had the privilege of her living with us for 10 years and knew she was grateful to us every day. She gave us more than we ever gave her.

Home for Good is a foster based rescue and once the dog comes into our possession, it is ours. Although it finds a wonderful home through our process, it will always be our dog. Love this rescue and it's mission.

KLB

Our family volunteered with this organization for almost three years. The mission is incredible and the work is rewarding. The issue with the organization is that the founders of the organization do not value and respect their staff nor the volunteers. There is a great deal of turn over with the staff, the volunteers and fosters are at times treated poorly and the reputation of the organization is in jeopardy (read the yelp reviews). The board of directors is ineffective in controlling the behavior of the leadership and like most people there turn a blind eye because they love the puppies and dogs, wanting to help them find homes. If you know anything about "founders syndrome" in the non-profit world, this case is text book. It is sad that the people that started the organization will most likely be responsible for ruining it, they are burning bridges left and right and people are wising up to the fact that if the leadership doesn't change their bad behaviors they don't need to waste their time volunteering or financially supporting the organization.