Adopt A Dog
Find and offer dogs for adoption in Costa Rica.
Most dogs looking for a home in Costa Rica are zaguates, the local word for a mixed-breed dog of no predictable size. They come from rescuers who keep them in a casa cuna, a foster home, until the right family turns up, from people who took in a stray, and from owners whose lives have changed. A husky or German shepherd turns up when a family moves abroad. Dogs here pass from one family to the next, never as stock. Before meeting one, ask whether it has had a recent test for erliquia (ehrlichiosis), because close to four in ten dogs in the country have met the tick-borne infection.
A zaguate puppy or an adult zaguate:
the difference is how much you are guessing. A puppy from a street or backyard litter is easy to fall for and impossible to size; the mother is the only real clue, and big paws at ten weeks usually mean a big dog. An adult of two or more arrives with its size, coat and temper already settled. After a few months in a casa cuna, the foster can tell you how it walks on a lead, whether it chases cats and how it copes with being left alone. Older dogs of eight or nine wait the longest and are often the easiest to live with. If the dog you picked up looks cared for, post it in animals lost and found first, in case someone is searching. A lead, bed and kennel are in dog supplies, and a household torn between the two can try adopt a cat.
A dog for a condo in Curridabat or a finca in San Carlos:
match energy before looks. A young Labrador or shepherd cross left alone from seven to six will take the apartment apart, while a calm older dog will sleep through it. If you rent or live in a condominium, read the pet rules before you fall for a large dog, since a dog that has to leave again goes straight back to a casa cuna. On a finca the question is different. Rescuers ask where the dog will sleep, and many will not place a dog that is wanted only to guard a gate on a chain.
What a rescue’s adoption contribution pays for:
the vaccines, sometimes the castration, and part of the cost of keeping the dog while it waited. Around it, an organised rescue runs much the same steps: a form or a call, a home visit, a short signed agreement, and follow-up photos once the dog has settled, plus a castration reminder if it was too young. At a low-cost castration campaign the operation is priced by weight and runs around ₡15,000 to ₡25,000, while a private clinic asks several times that, so a contribution of that order with the vaccines on the card is paying for real work.
Erliquia, mange and parvo in a dog you are about to take home:
these are the three to rule out. Erliquia is spread by the brown dog tick, which breeds in kennels and house walls rather than in grass; in Guanacaste close to two in three dogs have been exposed. Nosebleeds, pale gums, bruising on the belly or a dog that will not get up point to it, so ask for a recent test result rather than trusting a glossy coat. Look inside the ears and between the toes for ticks. Patchy hair loss with crusts on the elbows and ear tips can be sarcoptic mange, which passes to other dogs. In a puppy, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea mean parvovirus until a vet says otherwise, so check the dates on the vaccination card. The one listing to walk away from is a “free” husky or French bulldog with catalogue photos, offered on condition that you pay the transport first. Meet the dog, or at least see it on a live video call, before money moves.
Rehoming your own dog, from the first photo to the handover:
start with what an adopter will ask anyway: age, sex, weight in kilos, whether it is castrated, its vaccines with dates and any erliquia result. Say how it behaves with children, cats, other dogs and on a lead, whether it has lived indoors or on a patio, and why it needs a new home, so nobody drives out to San Ramón, Turrialba or Golfito to find a surprise. Daylight photos and a short video of it walking answer most of the rest. Meet the adopter and ask to see where the dog will live, the way a rescue would. Hand over the vaccination card, a few days of the food it knows and the lead it is used to, and ask for a photo once it has settled in.