[Lilly's Mom]

Hello,
We adopted Lilly 5 weeks ago and she is doing great! I take her to puppy play classes and she loves the other dogs. I would like to get a second dog but that is not an option right now. Some local shelters are looking for foster families for 2 weeks while they find forever homes for the dogs. Does anyone have any experience with this? I would love for Lilly to have another dog to play with but wonder if it would be too traumatic for her when the dog has to leave?

 

[Squeeker]

I fostered a dog for about 3-4 months this past winter, and while it was an amazing experience, and I will do it again once I move, it is certainly not something to be taken lightly. Fostering is a LOT of work, and IMO, 2 dogs require way more time than just one.

Some of the great things about fostering include the fact that you are saving another dog's life. That's a huge plus! Also, your current dog learns to share her space, toys, and you, and gains a playmate. You get to "try out" a second dog with no strings attached, too.

Some of the disadvantages include the time commitment. Each dog needs 1-on-1 time: exercise, training, cuddling. Walks might be possible to do with both dogs at once, depending on the foster's leash skills and triggers. The dogs may get along, but they also may not. Both have their problems: either the dogs spend every second of the day rough-housing, or they may fight. Both are annoying, and require separation to some degree. You need to be prepared to crate-and-rotate. Also, things like food or toy aggression may pop up out of nowhere.

I would tell you to go for it, however the fact that you have only had your current dog for a little over a month tells me that this could create problems, as you might not know your dog enough, or your dog might not yet trust you enough, to get through the huge change in routine that a foster dog brings along. I would give it some more time and consider fostering again later.

 

[hulkamaniac]

I fostered a dog once back before I had Zero or Brutus. I must say that I had mixed feelings about it. The dog was awesome. He was a 3-4 yr old basset hound that was rescued from the local animal shelter. He was incredibly mellow, never once tried to get in my garbage can or on my counter or anything. I kept him crated inside because he was intact and in my inexperience I was petrified that he would mark everything inside my house. As I said, he was the mellowest guy I've run into. When I let him out of his crate (which he never resisted going in in the first place) he would come out and come straight to me and want to follow me around. When I let him outside (it was winter at the time) he would head out, pee immediately, then turn around and come back inside. He did whine inside the crate at night a time or two but aside from that, he was a very, very cool dog. He even walked on a leash fairly well. Looking back, I probably should've kept him as I likely would've ended up with Zero anyway as I'd have got him to be a companion to this guy.

My only problem was the foster agency I was working with. They were a pain in the butt. First they were supposed to drop the dog off at my place. Then they changed their minds and told me I had to drive across town to meet their transport. When I balked, I got a phone call from the lady I was talking to about this in the first place asking why I wouldn't cooperate. They told me I would only be keeping him long enough for them to get him fixed and vetted and off to a permanent foster home. After 2-3 days I hadn't heard from them so I e-mailed asking when all the vet stuff was supposed to happen. Got a quick response with basically no information just that it was going to happen. This happened 3-4 times. Finally, someone else came and picked up the dog to have him vetted. They then told me they wanted to bring the dog back to me for 2-3 days afterwards. I told them then and there that I couldn't do it. I didn't mind the dog, I just didn't want to deal with these people any more. They seemed more disorganized than anything. I think they're just a grass roots organization with no real leadership or coordination.

Since then, they've asked me a couple of times to foster. I begged off because I do have two dogs now and legally that's all I can have. They then asked me to leave work early and do a transport for them of 2-3 hours that day. The e-mail was something like, "We need someone to transport this dog to XXXXX, KS by 4 pm today. Please let us know if you can't do it." Of course, I work 8-5 and this e-mail was sent at about noon. No thanks. I would personally think twice about fostering in the future just because of this experience.

 

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

Depends a lot on the rescue, how organized things are, and your situation. We foster regularly, but we've run into a lot of problems. The place we were fostering for before we moved was all volunteer based and in every situation I think I talked to 4 or 5 different people, and each would call not completely knowing what was going on or why they were returning my calls in the first place. When I applied and interviewed, I had the "head" volunteer meet my dogs, and explained each of them in detail and stressed what kind of dogs we could have in the house. Smalls is extremely dominant, and does not like other dogs that are like minded. Jonas and Jack couldn't care less, but prefer not to be jumped on and bugged to play. I said sorry, we could not take puppies, or high energy dogs. They matched us with three dogs, each turning out to be under a year old (we were told older ages) and had each for less than a week. The first one for all of a couple hours, because he turned our entire household upside down and created several fights.
They're doing what they can for these dogs, but it can complicate things for you.