Petfinder - Adopt a Pet Reviews

by Steve'sDad'sCousin

I once had a simple happy life, perusing through a plethora of good boys in any spare time I have. Pet finder was my most used social media app. But this was all changed with this atrocity of an update that is discriminative against those individuals using an iphone 6 or less. So imagine this - you search for dogs within your area, scroll a bit, find one youd like to inquire more about. You click, scroll through the pics, imagine how great your life would be with said dog, sigh and hit the back arrow to look at more dogs. Nothing happens. You hit it again. Nothing happens. You do this multiple times until youve convinced yourself it must be your fingers fault. But youre friends try too and your family does and your coworkers do and NO ONES FINGERS WORK. my life has been destroyed by the fact that the back button no longer works with this update. I guess I will just have to get a new iphone.

by TwirlGirl85

this app has been my preferred website/app to search for new pets. It’s very clean, easy to use, and I like that I can use it on both my phone and PC. But there are a few kinks that definitely need to be worked out.
1. As other users have said, even if you log in with the same credentials, your favorites don’t sync between devices.
2. It would be helpful if you could rule certain breeds out of your search. My apartment complex doesn’t allow several breeds, so it’s time consuming to comb through all the results to find breeds that are allowed.
3. The latest update to Petfinder is a deal breaker. I don’t know what they did, but after about 5 minutes running Petfinder , it starts severely lagging, and within a minute freezes up not just Petfinder , but my phone as well. A pet search app should not bring my iPhone 11 Pro to its knees.
So unfortunately, for the time being, I’ll be switching to WeRescue as my main pet search app. I hope this app can work out the kinks, since I really like their app/website.

by SharaChes

I do not understand, all these years later, why you can only search up to 100 miles and the next highest option is everywhere. Ridiculous. In Petfinder when searching “everywhere”, it will not organize results by closest to farthest away - even though that is a a filter option, it does not work. Neither does “farthest away” and why the F is that a filter option anyway? No one needs that. I also wish they offered a filter for excluding breeds - this may be for political reasons, but I have a baby and don’t want to include certain breeds. It would also be great to have a “purebred only” option, but this is also probs for political reasons.

by Devildante21

This is a searching app. The search should be more dynamic and should allow for more filters. For example, the distance filter caps out at 100 miles. There needs to be more options for that. Increase the distance the user can search by; lower the increments; let us search by a state: like show me all pets in the state of Florida.

Create better sorting algorithms. The sort doesn't even work if you set the distance to anywhere. I set the distance to anywhere, and hit sort by nearest, and the first result was in California and I'm in Florida lol! Let us sort by age. Let us apply double sorts. Let me find all dogs in the state of Florida sorted by distance and age. Allow sort by breed, etc .

These are some basic and crucial features all searching apps should have so users can find anything they are looking for.

by Midulin

This had been a very robust app until recently. Ever since the most recent update, I’ve been able to filter and scroll through about four or five dogs before hitting one of the imbedded ads in the scroll feed. The first ad - no matter what it is - will cause Petfinder to freeze for 3-4 seconds, after which you can continue scrolling through pets (unless it freezes entirely and closes out). Once you get to the second ad - no matter what it is - it freezes and Petfinder locks up and closes out. This has been happening every time I have attempted to use Petfinder in the past two weeks. This renders Petfinder virtually unusable as, at most, I’m able to see about 10 (out of let’s say 75 filtered). At this point I’ll need to switch to a different app as we are actively looking to add a new dog to our household. Hopefully this will get fixed soon, or the developers will offer a paid, ad-free option.

by Nolessthanill

I only downloaded Petfinder because the website wasn't working. When searching rabbits, it is not possible to sort by animal name, so if you had a rabbit picked out, you cannot find it again without going through all results. I tried and failed many times, so I cannot create a profile and save favorites. Furthermore if you sort by one particular shelter, Petfinder crashes every time. And if you see an interesting shelter on an animal profile, you cannot click it to see other animals at the same place.
That being said, this app is the convenient place where almost all adoptable pets can be found and a lot of essential info is available on each animal.

by Wishesluna

I used to like Petfinder even with all its glitches. I especially loved that you could hide animals you didn’t like. This made it so easy to see new animals as they appeared and kept you from reading the same animal profiles over and over. But in the update you took out this feature and now Petfinder is no different from the website:( please put back the option to hide pets.

Also I have the same thing to say as everyone else, please make it possible to search by state or 200 or 500 miles.
The option to eliminate breeds would be very helpful as well.

by Jk62007

We are searching for a puppy and I have used the website for awhile. There’s lots of information about animals, breeds and more and I appreciate that the site is tied to shelters and not breeders but I do have to log in every time and sometimes multiple times during the same search. Last week I decided to see if there was an app that would make our search easier. While Petfinder provides all the same information as the website I was disappointed when my favorites from the website did not transfer to my favorites on Petfinder despite using the same log in information. I was able to search for the pup by name and add them that way but it’s time consuming. I was also not able to refine my search by location and unlike the website Petfinder doesn’t appear to sort by distance. The farthest search you can do is 100 miles and the next option is anywhere. We are willing to drive up to 300 miles but not necessarily across the country. When you search “anywhere” you have to open each profile to see where the animal is located and since there are so many dogs it’s too hard to find one that’s near us. For now I am searching on the website and keeping my favorites in Petfinder . I do like Petfinder and find it useful but I think it could be even better!

by Echo0217Chloe

It’s a great app and I think it’ll work amazing if you adjusted a few things. First, make it so you can search for multiple things instead of one option. For example, instead of just large dogs, you can click large and medium sized dogs. And same with the age option. Second, if a dog is adopted, it should be updated immediately and the dog taken off the site. Having a dog up for adoption on a site when it already has a home can cause a problem. Also, put more in for a dogs personality. Like whether or not he’s housebroken, can handle other animals, can handle children, can handle both men and women, and is easily trained or something of the sort. It would make Petfinder easier to use.

by Xaurthaon

Petfinder is great, but is could easily be so much better and more useful if it let you swipe left or right toward what dogs you either do or don’t want to see again. That way, you don’t have to wade through the same profiles you know you aren’t interested in pursuing adoption with when you go through Petfinder multiple times looking for a dog to adopt. You can favorite dogs and shelters, but you can’t exclude them, which makes repeated searches less easy-you keep on seeing the same dogs you know you’re not looking to adopt. And it’s harder to check back to see new profiles. Also, some shelters have certain rules that will exclude people’s family situations. It would be great to take those shelter’s listings out of the results.

Additionally, and tangentially, you should be able and to exclude breeds that you don’t want to see. Regardless of how you feel about breeds like put bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman’s and other such work/guard dog breeds, adoption is about finding the right fit for dog and family, so if a family doesn’t feel comfortable having a certain breed in the mix, it is an easy fix in Petfinder to try to exclude that. I got it, mixed breed is never a guarantee, but there are enough honest listings that say that the dog in profile has some/most/all part of these type of dogs that it would be better to not waste people’s time including these dogs in the search results.

by Too Beast

Petfinder is very useful, but I find myself constantly re-searching for new dogs every few minutes. I would love to use the notification feature, but I cannot figure out how to set that up... it seems like you would have to save search criteria but I cannot find that option.

So, I went to the website to save search criteria. That works well... except the website and my device don’t seem to be linked even though I have logged into both with the same credentials! Recent searches and favorites do not show up in both places (nor do multiple phones with the same login share this information!). What is the point of logging in if I cannot use these features? For reference I have logged in using Google.

by WisdomofPearl

I want to like Petfinder a lot and I do like the idea behind it, but there’s at least a few things that should be fixed/changed. Whenever I open Petfinder and try to favorite a shelter or animal, it tells me that I need to sign up or sign in in order to do that, even though I have signed in at least 10-15 times. I agree with other reviewers that you should be able to hide profiles that you know are not a good match for you or your family - it takes SO much time just to scroll through pets you aren’t looking for. And finally, Petfinder is just overall super buggy for me if I select more than 1 to 2 filters - I’ll have opened maybe three profiles and then Petfinder crashes, then I’m forced to login again, and then the cycle repeats. I’m sure Petfinder will be great once I can access more content!

by Babycats1017

App keeps crashing! Every time I find a Kitten Rescue I like, with several beautiful cats & kittens, I will scroll through the various profiles to see which fuzzy face speaks to me. Once I see that face, I click on “view profile” (there’s a brief pause) & right then is when the whole app shuts down.

In order to get back to that specific profile, I must redo my last search, find a cat that I’ve previously favorited (from the same rescue,) go to their profile & then click on “see shelter details” in order to get the full list of pets & re-find the kitten I was looking for. This has happened several times in the last 24 hours, making the search for my new pet EXTREMELY frustrating.

I have to agree with another reviewer too, that there should be a general Pet Finder application for all users. If you’re interested in three different pets from 3 different rescues - you’ll have 3 different applications to download, fill out & email. Not to mention there is no link in PF. you must copy the url into your browser in order to get to each application. I’m sure that I’ve missed out on cats because I couldn’t get the application finished soon enough.

Please listen to everyone’s reviews & improve Petfinder. It’s a life-saving service for animals & in many ways, for people too. It would be a shame for someone to give up on their commitment to adopt, because Petfinder is just too frustrating to use.

by Beasters712

But for Petfinder crashing with no warning, Petfinder is pretty well designed. I am hoping the crash problem will be remedied with the newest update.

A couple of suggestions:

I would like to see some indication of which pets must be adopted in pairs. It isn’t immediately obvious in some cases, and I would like to wasted less time finding the perfect pet only to dig through information and be disappointed that adopting just a single pet isn’t an option.

Another thing that would really help is to expand the profile options beyond just the three currently available. As stated above, having an option for “single” and “doubled/bonded pair)” etc. would weed out pets that aren’t relative to the search

Lastly, it would be nice to be able to choose what adopters are not looking for. For example, if I don’t want a black cat, find a way to not show those. I realize I can go in and check all the colors except black, but it seems inefficient.

I hope these are helpful. Overall, I think the site is great. I like how regularly new pets are updated, the map feature, breed and color selection.

by Gtnovini

We so appreciate the service that helps match people to the right pet. It helps you learn about the individual animal temperament current skill set, the breed and the story about the new pet’s history. We also love the photos. We know it takes a lot of time and individual attention for each animal. But it is so helpful. We also appreciate the information for contact about the organization and how to proceed with adoption. So informative. We know there’s a lot of devoted time for each animal. Bless you in your work as it is greatly appreciated and helpful.

by Eightmillionmaddies

I’m thinking about adopting a cat, and Petfinder is really good at finding me matches and valuable info. To be a “good match,” however, you need to be exact about your preferences - if you don’t have a lot of specific preferences (i.e. age, gender, etc.) you might not match with specific animals. Not a huge deal, but just something to be aware of. I also had trouble getting the “find similar looking pets” feature to work, but that’s a new feature and also not a huge deal. Otherwise, this is all laid out really nicely and is great for me.

by Kookerhonj

I love ❤️ 💕 Petfinder and I hope you do too! There is two problems I would like you to help me with. 1: you NEED TO ADD A LAPDOG AND LAPCAT FILTER!!🐈🐕 l’m begging 🥺 you PLEASE!! The other problem is that whenever I try to get onto Petfinder , it crashes and I get kicked off and that is really annoying!! So I gotta go get on safari and search it up to go on it and that makes me really really 😡😡 but I like Petfinder and I found my new little dog 🐶 on it. Now we’re searching for a lapdog and that’s why I think 🤔 you need to add a lapdog filter.I really do love Petfinder and don’t ever destroy it.I hope you read my review and that you change the things I asked you to change.

by Cash Option

I was shocked to see what I found when I checked yelp about a few "rescues" that advertise on Petfinder. Please if this can save just 1 person from a broken heart and extensive vet bills my review was worth it. It's a neat app but should implement the ability to report these sham rescues out to just make money! 5 stars because it is easy to use. But please add the ability to let users give rescues a rating system. Until then do your homework check yelp!

by Eleemay2012

I had given up on Petfinder —- but then the most recent updates! The new map feature, user navigability/UX, ability to search by housetrained, good with cats, etc. are all FANTASTIC features. Makes it much easier to look for our new addition 😊 Next helpful update would be to have an option to mark a dog that you are not interested in, and maybe then it would be filtered out of your search results for at least two weeks or a month. Might also be helpful for shelters to see those analytics in terms of what pets are getting turned down or whose profiles need more info.

Thanks so much for the amazing and helpful updates! Loving the user-friendliness of Petfinder now.

by Just_a_gurlgamer

Petfinder is great and very user friendly. It helped me find a dog that met all families requirements and within a couple days we had our new puppy! She is so sweet and she is perfect for us! But if there’s one thing I could change it would be additional health icons. For instance, the puppy I got had a fractured knee and kennel cough. We didn’t know until we committed. So what I would ask is a little box in the description of the pet saying what health problems they have currently, and if they are being treated. It would’ve saved us the trouble of running to the vet the second we got her. Other than that I love it!

by Pevans1027

I am searching for pets in Scottsdale ARIZONA and it is giving me choices in every other state besides this one. How is that helpful at all? The search for large female baby dogs near Scottsdale returns those closest in Utah? You think people are using Petfinder to adopt rescues from another State? How could there possibly not be any dogs like this anywhere in my state and further why don’t you return “none found” instead of me having to click through each just to find out they are in a different state. 3rd dog on my list is in Illinois... very poor app. Poor pups.

by Antjeintexas

Had downloaded Petfinder a year ago and experienced issues. Decided to give it another try and just downloaded it again today and continuously keep getting “An unexpected error has occurred”. This happens when I search by location as well as by organization. On that note, the this app website has been down a lot too lately. It’s a great tool if it works, which it doesn’t very often. Sadly Rescue organizations rely on this app as one of their platforms to find homes for the pets in need and if it’s not working then pets don’t get found and adopted. this app PLEASE HIRE SOME PROPER ‘IT’ PERSONNEL!!!

by Brownhedge

I can’t seem to refine my search. Instead I need to quit Petfinder and start over completely. I’d also be interested in selecting more than one option when it comes to age of the pet. Right now I can only pick one and then have to quit to go back and search the other. Finally, I can enter my zipcode to find animals nearbye but I can’t limit the number of miles I would travel to adopt a pet.

I think Petfinder has great potential. I found my border collie on this app back in 2006! She’ll be 14 the end of March.

by Apple And Nickname Junk = 💩

Too many problems with Petfinder :

1) Most importantly, I understand this is mostly the shelters, but when a pet is adopted Update immediately. It should be the most simplest thing for them, it should be four clicks away from when they turn on their phone. 1open Petfinder , 2click your pets 3click status 4change status to adopted.

If that’s in place and it’s that simple then I’m really frustrated at how nearly every adoption center/people need to stop being lazy.

It’s very frustrating.

It’s been months and dogs I called about that got adopted over two months ago, still are available and have active profiles.

2) Why are we so limited on our search filters?
Why can’t I pick multiple breeds, why can’t I pick baby and young, Why can’t I pick medium and large dogs?

by Nene____

Petfinder doesn’t update fast enough when dogs are adopted. There were many times that I saw a nice dog on Petfinder and went to the website, only to find the word “adopted” under his picture or that his listing had already been removed altogether. Sometimes a dog isn’t removed until a few days later. Until this is fixed, I’ll be using the website directly and checking the local shelters’ Facebook pages.

by Jelyca

For some reason, when I try to filter by breed—specifically Yorkie Yorkshire Terriers OR Sheltie Shetland Sheepdog—I get NO results ( and these are two breeds I am interested in.) This used to work a few months ago but not recently. I have tried in combination with both male/female, all sizes, all age groups but nothing. I try other breeds or breed groups and I have no problems. I know there are dogs from those two breeds up for adoption because when I search by a breed specific organization (e.g. Save a Yorkie, Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue), there are many results. I would love it if Petfinder developer can check out why this happens.

by ChemTunes

I find Petfinder totally useless. I used the previous version to monitor updated pets at a rescue organization. I can’t even search that organization on the new app, even though it had breed listings.
You can’t set alerts and you can’t search for organizations beyond 500 miles. This totally discourages specific breed adoption; people who are familiar with and would travel to pick up a breed pet they are familiar with will be totally frustrated with Petfinder.
Good thing we have 2 dogs and 2 cats, as I don’t need to search for myself. But I have friends and relatives who’ve asked me for help
Searching.
this app, you’ve dropped the ball.

by Sassybun

I really want to love Petfinder, but it glitches too much and takes minutes to load each photo for a pet. When I first go on it, it’s a little slow but works fine. But after looking through maybe 5 or so pets it’s stops working and won’t load the pictures on the profiles anymore. I can usually be pretty patient and wait for them to load. But waiting 5-10 minutes to view each pet profile is too long. If this problem were to be fixed I would use Petfinder a lot more. It’s just unfortunate because there are not many animal adoption websites as large and wide ranging as this app, but I find myself using it less and less.

by ACD & GSD Lover

This great app allows me to search on my phone with perfect ease (the website is not compatible with cell phones). However, I am really off put that I cannot search the same things. There is not an option for "housebroke" or to set a distance. You simply put in your zip-code and it orders from closest to farthest away. I do like being able to "save" dogs but once saved, they do not disappear after the dog is no longer available and when the post is edited, the new text and pictures does not change in your favorites.

by Zoogashaka

Love Petfinder . Works great on iPhone. BUT it really needs to have travel range added. Because when you are searching for a breed specific animal it brings up every single one available in the USA. Many states don’t allow out of state adoption. You have to waste too much time opening every profile to find out if it is even one you could adopt due to logistics or state I would rate it 5 stars if you added travel range. Thanks

by Kokoakita

Petfinder is great it’s like tinder for pups 🥰 but it could use some improvement. It seems to glitch on certain breeds and say no results though I know I have seen those breeds when looking in all dogs. St. Bernard is my example right now. also it would be nice to be able to choose large and extra large or two age groups at once. Finally it would be great to have additional filters such as good with other dogs, good with children, etc.

by Isabella Russell

It is a great app and lets me search for animals up for a adoption very easily. But there is one thing I have a problem with... it’s the favorites list. I have lots of favorites in my list because all the animals are so cute but when an animal is adopted that is on my list the pet isn’t taken off. This bothers me cause some of the pets are way down the list and I don’t feel like searching for it to see if the animal was adopted or not. Other than that Petfinder is great

by SuperSpumoni

Works well. Interface feels much smoother than one from a while ago! I don't know what the previous version was like, but I really like this current interface.

I absolutely passionately hate the new mobile web design of this app on my iPhone web browser, so I'll be using Petfinder instead! Sometimes the images won't load on Petfinder . But it is resolved when I restart Petfinder .