Introducing myself / Adoption question

[dr.girlfriend]

Hi all!  I'm hoping to become an active member of this board, and hopefully I won't ask too many stupid questions.  ;-)  I adopted two dogs in grad school about 18 years ago, and they both passed away in recent years.  We're ready to add to our family again, so I've been trawling all the pet rescue sites.  I'm hoping to rescue/adopt a puppy or younger dog with some Australian Cattle Dog or Australian Shepherd in them.  I'm a little frustrated so far -- I live in the Philly suburbs and most of the dogs I've found, even within 100 miles of me, are listed as being "out-of-area" for a home visit.  Has anyone had any luck rescuing/adopting under these circumstances -- maybe arranging the home visit through a local rescue to satisfy the requirements of an out-of-area organization?  Anyway, if I do get lucky I'm sure I'll have lots of questions about everything -- things have changed a lot since I first brought my puppies home.  :-)  Here are my prior girls:

[cmeon]

Your girls were so pretty. Sounds like they had amazing long lives with you!

I haven't had that exact situation myself, but, I've done tons of home visits for dogs/agencies that weren't local to the applicant, it's no big deal. I've also adopted fosters out all over FL, way more than 100 miles away.

Go ahead and put an application in for dogs you're interested in, make note of being able to manage transport if necessary.

If there's an obedience club nearby, it might be worth making some contact- ours is really active in rescue, as our a lot of the members. And you'll probably need the exercises there, anyway, to keep those breeds out of trouble.

[mmp]

I've done home visits for out of state adoptions.
Good luck!!!

[finally]

No introduction needed  

Have you seen this one/tried this group? 

www.petfinder.com/petdetail/30668285

homeforgooddogs.org/adoptable-dogs/

My brother adopted from them and is in south Jersey so you are probably closer.  He was able to do a home visit.

[redheadbaker]

Home at Last out of North Wales has a young Aussie mix (my brother adopted from them), so does Wags Rescue & Referral out of Feasterville.

Maybe contact the owner of Philly Unleashed dog training. She has an Australian Cattle Dog, and used to work at a shelter. People are constantly telling her about Aussies available for adoption.

[msmerymac]

I've adopted cats, twice, out of the area. I was open to a home visit, but they never went through with it - just checked references and my vet. I'm not sure if dog adoptions are more strict, since they might want to check if you have a fence/yard, but as long as you are open to working something out, I can't imagine its a deal breaker.