PetFinderReviews 353

I have be searching for a dog for about 3 months. Petfinder has thousands of listings and it takes great deal of time to search through. Many times searches are dropped midway, which is very frustrating. The absolute worst thing about this site, is that once you click on contact this organization, NO ONE ever gets back to you. I filled out nearly 20 application for different shelters and rescues, and have not been contacted saying that my application has been approved. Not sure this is a fault of petfinder, but it would seem much easier to have one application approved by petfinder that person could fill out. It would also seem better to make sure that shelters make contact when an application has been received. Terrible experience. With so many homeless pets, one would think better efforts would be made to get these animals adopted.

Most consumers will check the BBB or online reviews when they are purchasing something of value. I just recently purchased a dog from Sunset Acres Kennels in Butler, MO. I was so impressed with the owner, Elaine Craig. Her professionalism, knowledge, and her attention to detail is what makes her kennel stand out from the rest. My pet came home with a completed full color book filled with care instructions, medical records, building inspections, family tree history, photos and so much more. I was contacted immediately the next day to make sure the transition was a positive one for my pet. My pet has adapted beautifully in my home, not only with his socialization skills with my other animals but also with his acceptance of his kennel. He plays well with his toys and goes in his kennel when we leave. He is almost completely potty trained and he is only 12 weeks old.

I spent hours and hours looking for a dog on Petfinder.com. Even after narrowing the search down, there were over 1500 dogs to choose from. So the website could be changed so that you could narrow the searches even further. And if that happened, maybe the site would not crash as much. Two weeks ago, I found a dog that was a good match. So far, the rescue group hasn't even checked my references. I have filled out several applications, but I have not even met one of the rescue/foster dogs yet. I think maybe there should be only one application to be filled out that gets the Petfinder "Seal of Approval." Then you should be able to adopt from any group that advertises on the site. Lastly, I think that we should be able to give feedback concerning the individual rescue groups we deal with. At this point, I would give all the rescue groups I have dealt with a negative rating. The local shelters have been great to work with, but the small rescue groups have been all but impossible to work with.

The site is woefully dysfunctional. Search settings are routinely lost, mid-search, so that all of the settings have to be reentered. So-called saved searches aren't immune from this problem either. The dropdown menus get stuck with regularity, so that only the top option displays for checking off. The message "Sorry, no pets available within specified distance" displays for no reason, extremely often. Pets that have already been adopted continue to be listed for many weeks. (I realize this may be more the fault of the individual shelters than petfinder; still, it renders the information much less useful than it should be.) The distance parameters make no sense; why jump from "within 100 miles" to "within 500 miles"? What about 200,300, or 400 miles? In other words, one has to choose between shelters within a couple of hours' drive vs. ones that would take a day or more to reach! I've e-mailed petfinder about the problems I've encountered repeatedly. Replies have ranged from "You don't *have* to use petfinder" (really?) to claims that the problems are "infrequent" even though they are nearly constant. It seems reasonable to wonder whether tech support with more expertise might be able to improve this very user-unfriendly site, which is nevertheless performing an important service and therefore should be MUCH, MUCH better.

I have been looking for a small, young or baby dog for over a year. Several puppies caught my eye and after filling out many applications, I either got no response or one organization requested pictures of my house and my 2 deceased Springer Spanials, who died at 15 and 16 years old. I would think they would be most interested in my vet referral. Ultimately I purchased a beautiful toy poodle from a private breeder listed on the AKC site. When I brought her to my vet for her first appointment my vet said my new puppy has no idea how lucky she is to have landed with me. Too bad these organizations were not interested in my vet referral.

I am extremely upset by the way Posey Pet Promoters on Petfinder handled my adoption process. They were not attentive to my calls, emails, or voicemails concerning a dog I thoroughly wanted to adopt. When I first called the shelter, they told me there were no applications for him. I was the under the impression that I was the first applicant for him, and I should have been notified when other applicants applied to adopt him. She never picked up the phone once to call me and had my number. I called her multiple times and she had plenty of chances to notify me of this. I thought Gail Posey had a wonderful facility to help animals, but helping the people adopt them out is important, too. I will not recommend her services to any animal lover, for they will probably be just as disappointed as I am. She was apparently too busy to ever contact me, but that is no excuse. I bought everything for that dog and was under the impression he would be mine once she finally reviewed my application. I called her for the fifth time and said the dog was adopted out the morning I called... not pleased with this process in the least bit.

Petfinder needs to screen or more thoroughly screen the organizations that are placing "adoptable" pets on their site.
I know some people who have had very positive experiences -I know others (including myself) that have not.
Petfinder is just the host... be sure to do research and read reviews on the organization that you will actually be dealing with!
I just went through a horrible time with NEW ENGLAND ALL BREED RESCUE and ALPHA TRANSPORT of CT, MA and RI. Their ads are misleading and they lie about whatever they think will make the dog look more attractive to the adoptee. They are adopting out sick dogs! Once you have the dog and they have your $$$ it's too late... they are done with you. Trust me and do a ton of research if you are even thinking of doing business with these people. If you are able to try and contact the people who have written the bad reviews and ask them why they had such a bad experience. Remember the "good" reviews could have been written by the organization themselves.

My family recently decided to adopt a dog from petfinder. After weeks of research we found a dog, bought all the necessary supplies and set up a home inspection. Two woman, one who was fostering the dog and another who was higher up in the organization dropped the dog off, approved him to live with us, signed all paperwork and took a check for payment. Not even two hours later after buying a crate and name tag the women were back at our door askin for the dog back. At first they claimed it was "for the safety of our smaller dogs" but soon admitted the foster mother could not give the dog up. We asked that they give us a week with the dog to reconsider our emotions but would not budge. I am simply writing this review to advise anyone who is adopting a dog to look at the history of the foster family. Chances are if this is their first foster they may not be able to part. Only good thing to come out of this is that the woman who fostered the dog will no longer be allowed to foster animals. Be careful before you fall in love!

Over a year ago I applied to adopt a Cocker Spaniel named Rusty and spent several hours filling out a lengthy application that included my vet's name and phone number for a reference. I never got a response from Petfinders.com as to whether or not the dog had been adopted or otherwise. Just logged on Petfinders and saw that Rusty had been adopted... A WHOLE YEAR LATER! Hallalujah! It seems like Petfinders would have the common decency to let you know whether or not your application had been accepted or not... at least within a couple of days after spending all that time filling out the application... also, lol, after a year the dog has been adopted so they could have at least informed everyone that applied for adoption of the dog so we would all know that the the animal had finally found a home. And now, I've done it again for another Cocker Spaniel and the same thing happens... I've decided the best thing for me is to find a breeder and buy a puppy. So sorry it has to be this way... I've owned six Cockers in the last 20 years... love the breed and am an excellent care giver for these dogs and would rather adopt a dog in need of a good home rather than start from scratch. What is wrong with you people?

No matter the breed, sex or age - this site seems to have them all! I have decided rather than purchase my next dog from a breeder, I will check out available animals on this site. You can search by age, sex, breed, species and location. This is a VERY well designed site. Sometimes it's a little heartbreaking to read the stories of the little critters looking for homes. Before you buy from a breeder, consider adopting from here!