Helen Woodward Animal Center

"Adopted my dog Jack, aka "furry child," from Helen Woodward's. He was chipped, neutered, health checked & vaccinated. We camp, run trails, swim, visit Dog Beach, and generally hang out together doing all the fun stuff! Dr Gaeto is his Vet at Helen Woodward's Companion Animal Hospital, too! Hands down the best place to adopt a dog."

"I had a great experience my very first visit. We were welcomed immediately and shown to the 3 kennel areas for the dogs. We made our list of ones of interest & got to meet with 3 of them & were able to walk out shortly after with our new pup! Process is seamless & easy and they make sure you’re very well informed on the history of the dogs. This place is much nicer than many other Animal Centers in the San Diego area, and extremely clean! Definitely can recommend this place."

"Worst adoption process in the city. Filled out application was told to come in early . Treated me like a second class citizen because I'm gay and have a Deaf partner who can't wake up to a phone call cause he sleeps during the day"

"I adopted a Husky mix who was 2 yrs old and had lots if energy. He was transferred from East County animal center because no one adopted him. They had a hard time and were told he would not make a good pet. I fell in love and took him home. After 2 weeks of training he was amazing. He was my therapy dog for 16 years. My vet was amazed he lived until he was 18 yrs old. He changed my life and my children's too. My grandchildren used him as a couch. Helen Woodward gave Buddy a chance, and saved his life. I will forever be grateful."

"We adopted Oreo (formerly known as Janice) from HW on June 1st, 2022. She has become a member of the family ever since. We walked around the kennels and jotted down a few names we liked. Then we had some private outdoor interaction sessions with the dogs and a professional trainer. I had a different dog in mind, but my mom liked Oreo because of her energy and outgoingness. Oreo was 6 months old and it cost 450 USD to adopt her. We were told she was healthy and spayed (It turned out she was indeed really healthy: never got sick except occasionally rashes from food allergies). She was labeled a terrier-mix but we didn't know what that meant. A vet from elsewhere told us she looked like a pitbull mix but it remains a mystery until we do a DNA test. I saw on their websites a lot of the dogs are pit-tull-looking dogs labeled something else. We then learned a lot of bad stories about Pitbulls. Oreo definitely changed my mind about pit bulls, even though it was still a difficult process to train her and I don't recommend first-time dog owners to get one unless they are ready for the extensive training and the frequent judgments from others). We were told that she was a rescue from Texas and she should not be home with a young child. HW also acknowledged the time and effort the owners need to put in because of the absence of training/family from her childhood. What she needed was training, socialization, and a lot of love! She was already potty trained before coming to the house. She did have a playful bite thing where she liked to bite people's hands for attention in a non-hurting way. She has gotten much better with private and group training sessions. During her first few months at my house, she chewed 3 pairs of shoes and 2 of my packages. After she got older and we bought her chew toys, she no longer destroyed the house. We then found out that pit bulls are not super energetic and are a low-maintenance dog breed once she is trained. She loves to take naps in her little bed. Somehow she leamed to go on the couch when people are asleep. She never goes on top of the counter to reach for food. She doesn't have separation anxiety (mainly because we didn't let her go upstairs at night, crate training will also be very helpful on the first night). She IS however very reactive to other dogs on walks but she never shows aggressiveness when we have her in the dog park. So it was mainly our fault for not socializing her much when she was young. Right now she is attending socialization courses to help her get better. So yeah, socialize your pup! And do a lot of puppy training & crate training. She is the perfect dog I have never imagined a perfect dog would be. I am glad we chose her on that date and we didn't give up on her. We took her on camping trips, ski trips and we will take her everywhere we go!"