The Pug Dog Welfare & Rescue Association
Run entirely by volunteers & public donations
Adoption
We are fully open in a selection of regions to receive general adoption applications again, as well as for pug-specific homes appeals.
We are finding the need to re-home more pugs 7 years & over, as well as those with very individual, or special-needs, plus bonded-pairs, so we welcome all applications from dedicated, loving homes to match with all surrendered pugs in our care.
Please find full details for adopting as well as which regions of the country we are accepting general adoption applications from, in our Adoption section. Any Pug-Specific homes appeals can also be found there which are open to all PDWRA regions across England & Wales.
Fostering
Good foster homes are essential in our rehoming process, particularly those that can support age-related or special-needs, or accommodate bonded-pairs, as the number of pugs surrendered to us in these categories has been relatively high.
For specific areas of the country that we are accepting new fostering applications for, PDWRA provides ongoing support with vet costs covered. You may offer short or long-term care, for which the individual needs of the pugs will be matched to your home.
Our Fostering section provides full details and considerations for fostering, as well as the areas where we’d welcome new foster homes from, also where you can apply directly online.
Surrendering
Following our temporary closure last year, we have been able to receive pugs needing to be surrendered from our busiest region, the South East, as well as Central & East of England, plus West & East Midlands. All pugs in our care are matched to our complete region-wide waiting lists for homes.
The difficult decision for that closure was to provide the best welfare solutions to the very high number of pugs in our care with the resources available to us. It enabled the escalation of specific applicants being matched to adopt pugs in our care, while reducing the number of those waiting for a home.
Please go to our Surrendering section for latest information and contact details.
Volunteering
There are a number of ways that you can volunteer to support PDWRA, including:
- Rehoming Coordinator
- Volunteer Area Coordinator
- Fundraiser
- Home Checker
- Transporting a Pug
- Something Else
We are open to applications from England and Wales. Please see our Volunteering section for more details of these roles and how to apply.
Pug Home Appeals
These priority Pugs need a home. Please read about these Pugs and apply to adopt online.
Could You Adopt Brother & Sister, Ray & Carla?
👏 * GREAT NEWS UPDATE: Ray & Carla have found their Perfect Forever Home, together of course! * 👏 ********** RAYMOND (RAY) & CARLA. This Brother and Sister pair, are 8 years old and very devoted to each other. Ray more so than Carla. He’s a sensitive soul and...
5 year-olds’ Daphne & Vera need their Forever Home Together!
👏 ** HAPPY NEWS UPDATE: Daphne & Vera have their Perfect Home Together! ** 👏 ******* DAPHNE & VERA Five years old, and both spayed, Daphne and Vera are a devoted bonded-pair of pugs. Vera is the more outgoing of the two, Daphne prefers to just chill out with...
Devoted Cleo & Elmo are looking for their Forever Home!
👏 ** WONDERFUL NEWS UPDATE: Cleo & Elmo have already found their Perfect forever Home! ** 👏 ********** ORIGINAL APPEAL: Cleo and Elmo are 8 year old siblings, super-bonded to each other. They are used to living with other dogs but are just as happy in each...
Latest PDWRA News
Katy’s Story of Adopting Stitch
In January 2024 we had to say goodbye to our beautiful elderly pug, Jack. I was heartbroken and missed him so much. We had been through so much together during his lifetime and it was hard to think of life without him. After a couple of months or so, I started to have...
Jayne’s Story of Adopting Arlo & Nora
Pugs have been part of my life all my life- my parents had a pug before they had me! But until Arlo and Nora came along, I had never adopted a pug. I first heard of PDWRA a few years ago. I saw an appeal to save stamps and ink cartridges. I decided that I would try to...
The Tale of Buster, Bentley and Mabel: A Story of Everyday Pug Folk
Let me introduce Buster and Bentley, two Pugs that we adopted from PDWRA back in March 2023. They came to join me (Alan), Andrew and Mabel, who is our 11-year-old Puggle. For those who might not know, a Puggle is a cross between a Pug and a Beagle. Mabel has epilepsy...
National Pug Day October 15th
Last week was that special day known as National Pug Day. Traditionally, it’s a day where we celebrate our beloved pug companions and no doubt give them a few extra treats… To commemorate the day, we did a special competition on our Facebook page asking our followers...
The Pug Dog Welfare & Rescue Association 2025 AGM
The Pug Dog Welfare & Rescue Association’s AGM will take place on Wednesday 15th October 2025, from 7pm – 7.40pm. The AGM will be held via Zoom, and we welcome as many of our supporters and members to attend as possible. We will be sharing an update of the...
The Importance of Keeping Pugs Slim, therefore Healthy.
As temperatures drop and Autumn/Winter approaches, our activity levels especially outdoors might reduce, with the potential addition of comfort and seasonal eating. So, it’s a good time to be particularly vigilant about our pug’s waistlines especially as weight creeps...
A Message from our Interim Chairman, Kay Greene
Further to joining the trustee team as Interim Chair in mid-April this year, I thought you may find it helpful to have brief update from me about what PDWRA have been achieving these past few months. One of the most impressive aspects of our charities work which...
In Memory of Ralph
We lost one of our stalwarts of the pug world on 19 July 2025. Dear old Ralph who coped with a multitude of problems throughout his life but despite all, took and gave pleasure to those who came across him Ralph was surrendered in 2019 by a lady who saw him advertised...
Rebecca’s Story of Adopting Ozzy
We are a family of dog lovers who had dogs in the past, but when I had some health problems and we weren’t sure whether we had the capacity to offer a dog a long term home. We’d been a dogless family for several years and we were all yearning for the pitter patter of...
Meet our new Trustee
Iris hanging out with the kittens Meet our new Trustee - Anne McDonald My name is Anne and I’ve recently become a Trustee for PDWRA. This is a bit about me… I’ve been a dog owner from the age of four, my grandad’s dog had puppies and he gave me one for my birthday....
Loveday’s Father’s Bequest to the PDWRA
Loveday's father leaves his beautiful collection of ceramic pugs to the PDWRA. My father was a pug enthusiast for most of his life. Shortly after my parents married, 70 years ago, they welcomed a pug called Bunky into their lives and things were never the same again....
A Sad Farewell
We are saying a sad farewell and a huge thanks to Helen & Malcolm McKee - Voluntary Vet Advisors to the PDWRA from 2018 - 2025 Helen first became involved with the Charity in early 2018, when she made an initial approach to enquire about fostering. At the time,...
Donate to the PDWRA
The PDWRA is completely run on public donations and we wouldn’t be able to help the hundreds of pugs that are surrendered into our care each year without the help of our wonderful and generous supporters. Thank you!
Our vet bills alone run into hundreds of thousands of pounds annually and this is constantly increasing with the onslaught of inflation.
All help is greatly appreciated!

