but I would like to foster a dog in the future.If you are going to foster dogs, the biggest thing is to be flexible and please do not foster dogs if your motivation is not 100% to selflessly help a dog in need. It is hard work, it can be thankless work, and people who are in it to just say "look at me, look how great I am for helping this poor dog" will only waste time for all involved. You can't expect a perfect dog, and you can't expect it to be love at first sight with your own dogs. If you aren't able to handle potential scuffles or issues with house training and obedience, fostering is not for you. A lot of people have a fairlytale view of what fostering is like and expect Lassie to show up on their doorstep.
Dogs need you to help turn them into well adjusted family pets. You do all the work and the adopters get the spoils. The more work you do - the better the chances are for a great adoption. If you are going to return a dog because they don't get along beautifully with your own dogs after just a few weeks, don't bother.
If you cant drive 40 miles to an adoption event every once in a while - you may want to ask yourself why you are fostering. Remember that there are no paid employees in rescue, if you don't do it, someone else that also has a job and family will have to pick up your slack. Every rescue is made up of amazing people who have families and demanding jobs - yet they give a tremendous amount of time for one reason - to help the dogs. Volunteers come and go - people who think fostering is going to be fun and easy and expect rescues to cater to their every need as if they are owed a medal for fostering a dog in need have no idea what the true meaning of being a volunteer is - and are in it for all the wrong reasons.
Things I would ask:
Does the rescue do home visits for adoptions?
Is all vet care reimbursed?
Are all dogs vaccinated & HW tested, spayed/neutered before adoption?
Dogs need you to help turn them into well adjusted family pets. You do all the work and the adopters get the spoils. The more work you do - the better the chances are for a great adoption. If you are going to return a dog because they don't get along beautifully with your own dogs after just a few weeks, don't bother.
If you cant drive 40 miles to an adoption event every once in a while - you may want to ask yourself why you are fostering. Remember that there are no paid employees in rescue, if you don't do it, someone else that also has a job and family will have to pick up your slack. Every rescue is made up of amazing people who have families and demanding jobs - yet they give a tremendous amount of time for one reason - to help the dogs. Volunteers come and go - people who think fostering is going to be fun and easy and expect rescues to cater to their every need as if they are owed a medal for fostering a dog in need have no idea what the true meaning of being a volunteer is - and are in it for all the wrong reasons.
Things I would ask:
Does the rescue do home visits for adoptions?
Is all vet care reimbursed?
Are all dogs vaccinated & HW tested, spayed/neutered before adoption?
