LOLIN, Love of Labs Indiana, Indiana Lab Rescue

Before submitting an adoption application, please review our adoption process thoroughly. We hope you understand it is important for us to go through these procedures prior to submitting your application!

Please print this page and keep it for future reference while you are completing your adoption application.

Please do not submit an adoption application if you plan for the adopted Lab to be an outside dog or plan to use the dog for breeding purposes. All our dogs must be made a part of your family and kept indoors. Our dogs are spayed or neutered before going to a forever home. Also, please do not submit applications to multiple rescue groups in the same area; most rescue groups are staffed by volunteers, as are we, whose time is precious and there is considerable work involved in processing your adoption application. We only adopt dogs to families who live in Indiana.

***Please note.. We try to match our dogs with the people we feel would best suit the dog's needs. Not the other way around. Our adoptions are not first come first serve. Making the perfect match is vital to a successful adoption placement. In addition, we reserve the right to refuse any adoption for any reason based on our judgment and without stating a reason.

Our Process

Once we receive your application, Love of Labs will screen the application as an Adoption Team. We will notify you via email or telephone within 48 hours after receiving your application, that we have indeed received it. If it is over 48 hrs and you have NOT heard from us, please email us requesting the status of your application.

We try very hard to let you know when we receive your application. Then, our goal is to have the initial screening and references checked within two weeks after receipt. When an unusually large number of applications are received during a short time period, however, the follow up contact may take slightly longer, just email us and ask the status of your application if you are uncertain where you are in the adoption process.

In order to help offset the costs of processing applications, we require a $10 Application Donation Fee. Once you submit your application electronically, you will need to send a check or money order to LOLIN, PO Box 237, Noblesville, IN 46061-0237. Once we have received your Application Donation, we will begin to process your application as expediently as possible.

As part of your application, you will submit a list of any and all veterinary clinics you have used. We will call those clinics to verify that your existing/prior animals were properly vetted with full vaccinations and all appropriate care. As stated in the application, please be sure to call the clinic(s) to give them permission to speak with our volunteer. If you do not call ahead of time, your application will most likely be delayed.

Also on your application, you are required to list a personal reference. One of our volunteers will call this person to verify their relationship with you and how they feel you will suit as a home for one of our labs. This step is required; please make sure the person you use as a reference is someone on whom you can rely to return phone calls promptly. After all, we would all hate for this step to be the one that delays your application.

During the telephone interview, the volunteer from LOLIN will go over your application with you as well as asking any questions that have been raised thus far in the process. This call shouldn't take more than 10-15 minutes at most, but does allow us to clear up any issues and get to know you better.

After the phone screening, and the reference checks, the next step in the adoption process is a home visit. After the home visit, the volunteer performing the visit sends a report to our Adoption Team. The Team then reviews the Home Visit sheet and your application. They then make a final decision regarding whether or not your application is approved. The Adoption Team may at times seek input from the board of directors on the final approval decision, which will take longer.

Once your application is approved, your information is forwarded to one of our Adoption Coordinators. Our Adoption Coordinators work to meld your desired characteristics in a dog with dogs in our program that are appropriate for your life style and with our perception of the dog's needs as well. Depending on the specifics of your situation and your desired characteristics in a dog, it can take from a day to several months to locate a match between you and a dog in our program. In some cases, we may never be able to help you with a match (especially if the only dog you are willing to consider is a yellow, purebred female of no more than 8 weeks old); in these cases, our Adoption Coordinator will be honest with you as to the situation. We appreciate your patience while we do our job of finding a Lab for your family and your willingness to consider alternative colors, ages, or gender for your “ideal dog”.

If you have to have a dog in a matter of days from submitting your application, you WILL want to go elsewhere to find your dog since most of LOLIN's volunteers have full time jobs outside of our volunteer work. Please remember, we are VOLUNTEERS, and we do this truly for the Love of the Labs! Love of Labs strongly feels that you do not rush into adopting a dog ever, even though we want you to help us make a difference in the life of a Lab!

LOLIN cannot guarantee that dogs adopted from us will be compatible with cats. Not all foster homes have cats, so we are unable to screen every dog in our program for aggression towards cats. LOLIN’s website offers links to various educational resource websites that provide instructions for introducing a new dog to family cats, but we cannot accept responsibility for any adverse outcome including injury to your cat or dog. It is up to the adopter to exercise caution and use good judgment to ensure the safety of both animals in your home at all time.

Many people want a dog no more than three years old. Many times, however, these dogs have had little training in their former home, were prior stray dogs, were kept in a pen or tied outside. This age groups requires consistent exercise 2 - 3 times a day. For these reasons, certain characteristics are most desirable in certain applicants that prefer these younger dogs such as:

If you want a dog and do not have a fenced-in yard, you may want to consider adopting an older dog that will be more settled and adequately exercised on a leash. Labs of any age do enjoy an occasional romp in a fenced yard, so if you are thinking about installing a fence, now is a great time. We recommend a solid wood fence at least 6 feet tall.

Before you adopt your Lab, please be sure that your budget can accommodate the expenses involved in owning a large dog. Owning a Lab can easily cost $800 to $1,200 a year for food, Vet bills, etc. Remember, if you cannot afford the Vet, you can't afford the pet. DO NOT ASK for discounts, we lose money on the majority of dogs that we adopt out. If we do not lose money from 1 particular dog, then the money (up and above the actual amount we have in that particular dog), goes into our Special Needs dogs, such as a Heartworm positive dog, so we do NOT make money, that is why we are a 501(c)3 NON PROFIT Public Charity. We are the same as the American Cancer Society, or any such charity. Therefore, if you are on a tight budget, we suggest you consider adopting a smaller dog from the humane society or your local animal control.

Most people expect a year-old dog to be fully matured, which is NOT the case in a Labrador Retriever. It can take up to 3 years before some Labs mature. So, by the time the dog is a year old, it has turned from a cute puppy into an 80 pound obnoxious beast that is knocking over the children while playing, digging everywhere, barking from sheer boredom, as well as trying to run out the door for more exercise. And by this time, the inexperienced family is ready to give up the dog because the novelty has worn off, or the child(ren) become allergic to dogs, or the fence gate or house door is not properly latched by a child and the dog escapes to explore and isn’t able to find its way back home. You must teach your children to respect a dog and to treat the dog well at all times.

We are always concerned that busy families may not have the time to actually care for a dog, especially when both parents have full-time jobs outside of the home. Adding a Lab to a home with children is like adding another child. Are you ready for this additional responsibility? Each case will be given individual consideration.

We rarely get very young puppies into rescue. Usually they are a little older - four to 18 months. If you want a young puppy, please contact the local humane society or animal control as they are more likely to get young puppies. Typically we do not like to place dogs in homes that have toddlers under the age of 2 years. For families with children ages 2-8, dogs over the age of 3 are generally a better choice than a younger dog. We also prefer that the family, as a whole, research the breed and understand the time required to care for a Lab. Why are we so concerned about families with kids? Because one of the top reasons dogs are turned into shelters is because a busy family purchases a puppy for their children and does not have enough time for training or caring for the dog. We also have some wonderful links for children and dogs on our "Links & Info" page to the left here.

We do not allow Applicants to view dogs for adoption until their adoption applications are approved, since all of our dogs are kept in private foster homes. Once your application is approved, however, we strongly encourage owners with resident pets to have a “meet and greet” between their resident pet and the potential adopter on neutral territory. If owners are not experienced in dog-to-dog or dog-to-cat introductions, we encourage them to use the educational resource links ("Info we Love" on the left) to learn how to properly introduce pets. A well-planned introduction cannot be over-emphasized.

We currently do not have a facility where all the dogs in our program can be viewed. In addition, since our dogs are kept in private homes, we can't provide you the opportunity to "shop" for a dog by meeting with several of our dogs. We ask that you work with your Adoption Coordinator in matching with the correct dog for a meeting, as he/she truly does know these dogs and has the best interests of both your family and the dog at heart.

When Love of Labs screens applications, we reject some applications immediately for various reasons. Please keep in mind that we are trying to take into consideration the special needs of our rescue dogs when finding homes for them. If you receive a rejection letter, we are not passing judgment on your family, but rather we are trying to meet the special needs of our rescued Labs that may have already been displaced from a home or two. If you receive a rejection letter and would like to correspond with us for reconsideration by the entire LOLIN board of directors, please do so. We do the best job of evaluating your application based on the information you give us, but if you want to provide additional information that may better clarify an issue or additional references on your behalf, please feel free to do so. Unfortunately we do not have paid staff to call all applicants individually to discuss the basis for rejections, so we must rely on letters. If you have a question on the status of your application, please email us at adoptions@lolin.org .

By submitting an Adoption Application, you are attesting that you have read and understand all of the above information; if you simply skimmed to find the application, please take a moment to truly read this information.

***Please note.. We try to match our animals with the people we feel would best suit their needs. Not the other way around. Our adoptions are not first come first serve. Making the perfect match is vital to a successful adoption placement. In addition, we reserve the right to refuse any adoption for any reason based on our judgment and without stating a reason.

We encourage you to utilize our Online Adoption Application at this point in the process. Applications submitted online are able to be processed by the Adoption Team much more quickly than those submitted manually.

If you for some reason cannot use our electronic application, we do offer a PDF Version of our Adoption Application. Adobe Reader, a free software available here, is required to view this document. You can then submit your completed application to either our email (adoptions@lolin.org) or mailing address as listed below.