If you want to rescue a Bichon Frise instead of buying a puppy, good for you! You can keep checking your local animal shelters for Bichon Frise dogs, but that can be iffy at best. However, you could ask the animal shelter workers if they know of any Bichon Frise rescue groups in your area. There are breed rescue groups for almost every dog breed imaginable. Since the Bichon Frise is such a popular breed, the chances are there is a Bichon Frise rescue group within driving distance.

You can find great Bichon Frise rescue groups on the Internet. You can also find scams that prey on kind-hearted dog lovers on the Internet. The most common are puppy mills that pretend to be dog rescues and a scheme called pay-ahead by the computer security firms. Using some common sense and the advice in this article, you should be able to tell the real from the fake in no time.

First off, there is no national parent organization in charge of monitoring all of the Bichon Frise rescues in America. Caring volunteers, who often have to wing it in order to get an abandoned or abused dog a good home, run most of these rescue groups. They are often run out of people's homes, so try to be sensitive to this situation. These are non-profit organizations and should be able to show you their charity registration number. You can find good Bichon Frise rescues on the internet through the BFCA Bichon Frise rescue web site or by contacting your local animal shelter.

You might find web sites that claim to be Bichon Frise rescues, but they are really just virtual fronts for puppy mills. If the rescue group offers more than two breeds, be wary, especially if those breeds don't have much to do with each other. Bichon Frise and Toy Poodle would be a logical rescue breed combination, as they have similar needs. But a Bichon Frise and an English Bulldog rescue group should make you very suspicious. If they offer to take orders for puppies it is defiantly a puppy mill and not a genuine humane rescue group.

A good Bichon Frise rescue will never put in an order for a puppy or treat their dogs like merchandise. They should be up front in telling you that the adoption process should take weeks or months. Good Bichon Frise dogs can be found at Petfinder.com, the Bichon Frise Club of America web site and the AKC website.

You can also ask your local animal shelter and your vet if they know of any good Bichon Frise rescue groups.

Another sign is that the pictures of the Bichon Frise dogs will not look like any of the show dogs you see on televised dog shows. They will often seem too big, their coats too corkscrewed and their coats full of stains. They still are Bichon Frise, but not show quality Bichon Frise.

A good Bichon Frise rescue group will let you call or email questions about your new dog long after you've taken him home. Some groups will even offer to take the dog back, even years later, if you fall into hard times.