Puppy Finder Review

Wednesday, July 16th

2025 Pet Adoption Site Reviews

Puppy Finder

• Adoption fees are listed up front
• Includes dogs from breeders and shelters
• Breed Selector tool to help match dogs to owners' lifestyles
• Allows for personal ads to find dogs meeting specific criteria
• Contact form built into the page for easy communication with pet owners and rescues
• Site is functional and straightforward to use
• Offers a paid Premium plan with additional features

As the name would imply, Puppy Finder is a search engine for adoptable dogs - adults as well as puppies. If you're looking for cats, birds, reptiles, or fish, you'll need to use a different website. While their listings are not technically limited to those in the US, you may have difficulty finding pets listed in other countries.

See how much the fee is up front

Puppy Finder's listings are organized a little differently from other sites: you can tell at a glance, without clicking on individual profiles, how much the adoption fee is. Like other sites, you'll also see the breed, name, age, gender, and location. To add a dog to your favorites, click the star on the upper left corner of their listing.

Breeder listings included

Unlike some of the other pet adoption websites in our review, Puppy Finder lists results from breeders, not just rescues and shelters. So, if you're looking for purebred dogs, you might have a better chance here - but expect to pay breeder prices. We also encourage you to do your own research into the breeder's practices to make sure they are ethical and the dogs are healthy, since Puppy Finder likely does not vet them.

Take a quiz to learn what dog fits your lifestyle

Not sure what breed you're looking for? Have a vague idea of what would fit your family's lifestyle? Try out Puppy Finder's Breed Selector tool. You'll choose the size of dog you'd prefer, how much time and energy you can commit, whether you want your dog to be a protector, and the climate you live in. You'll rate your answer on a scale of 1-10, but we found it hard to decide where to place our answers for some of the questions - like, "how extreme is your climate in the summer/winter”. That depends on what part of the world you're used to. (A Midwestern winter might not feel extreme to a Midwesterner, but would feel extreme to an Arizonan.) When we finished the quiz, we were given one match and several runners-up with explanations of why these breeds were matched with us.

Shelter and rescue listings included

If you're committed to adopting from rescues to make a difference in the life of a needy dog, navigate to the menu in the top right corner and choose "dogs for adoption” under the "Adopt & Rescue” heading. On Puppy Finder, you can email pet owners and rescues through the contact form built into the page.

Place personal ads and get contacted by owners

If you're looking for a specific breed or a specific breed available in your location, but you're not finding anything from search, you can post in Puppy Finder's wanted ads. On a free, Basic account, you can post an ad that stays up for 7 days, and you won't get notifications when new dogs are listed. With a paid Premium plan (starting at $4.99 a month), you'll get a few more perks, like ads that stay up for more than 30 days and new dog listing notifications. Puppy Finder will also verify your identity so sellers know you're serious.

Straightforward and functional pet adoption site

We found Puppy Finder more or less straightforward to use. While some of the design is a little cluttered, all the relevant information was there. We appreciate the adoption fee being listed up front. Whether you're looking for a purebred German Shepherd or a shelter mixed breed, you can find your future canine companion on Puppy Finder. We would give them a higher rating in this review if they included other kinds of pets, too.