The shelter here in Geneva, sgpa.ch allows you to take your prospective new best friend for a walk outside of their facility on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from 14h to 17h, so you can get to know the dog before you even start the adoption process.

In the case of the adoption of my Bull Mastiff last October, I don't know how much of my experience would apply to an average adoption process in that I was adopting a dog on the banned breed list here. It took a lot of effort, and I don't know if the cantonal veterinarian would allow it again. I think they were just tired of me continually stopping by their office to plead my case, and granted me permission to adopt the dog so that I would stop bothering them.

Price wise it was only 260 francs even with the dog having been neutered while at the SGPA. My background, living situation, and experience with dogs had already been closely scrutinized, so I don't know if there is any kind of interview process involved in the adoption of a regular dog.