Rom-just because a dog has papers doesn’t mean it’s a quality dog, or a quality breeder. The small chain of pet stores where I lived a few years ago bred their own dogs, and they had AKC papers, plus they bought from mass breeders with papered animals. The dogs were a conformation disaster, and even though they were sold for premium prices, they were still a version of puppy mill dogs. My dog was bought from a mass breeder of that breed, and I knew even though she was eligible for AKC registration that she wasn’t that quality, but I couldn’t leave her there (I know I shouldn’t have, but that awful person was in business for years, with her political connections locally she was untouchable by AC). There are a lot of people that make a tremendous income off of scams like this, and it makes me sick that they only care for money, and don’t care about the animal. They know that even with refunds that no one will give the animal back, and they rely on the owner getting attached to the animal.
Not to hijack your thread, but…
I was looking at Petfinder for a friend the other day and I saw a rescue group seeking fosters. But get this: they REQUIRED THE FOSTER HOME TO PAY THE DOG’S $250 ADOPTION FEE, and for all of its care. If the dog was adopted, the foster was refunded the adoption fee.
It just struck me as an absolutely absurd way to go about it, since I imagine it’s hard enough to find foster homes as it is.
Has anyone ever heard of this??
Not a hijack at all, Lazy PH! I’m finding it really interesting, reading about everyone’s experiences, and hopefully this discussion will be helpful for other would-be fosterers.
It may be presumptuous, but imo the feedback here from horsy people is invaluable, as we tend to come from the same place, as the saying goes.
I happened to bump into the dog catcher yesterday, and she was saying that our local SPCA/HS group are in dire need of fosterers. She’s fostering a teeny sickly kitten for them that she has to keep VERY separate from her three big rambunctious cat-eating dogs, horrors!
On the one hand, I figure that, if she can pull that off, then surely we can give a sober rescue dog a bit of a breather on its way to its new family, but otoh, your sad story in particular, hasahorse, really did hit a nerve, and I am so so sorry for your loss.
We’ve been through too much dog and cat misery and loss recently, and I feel I couldn’t risk losing the cat we still have simply because we were trying to do the right thing. I see there are other things we can do to help, such as transportation (have SUV!), so maybe I’ll take that route for now, instead.
But, if anyone still has other experiences or thoughts to share, I’m sure it’ll be helpful!
[QUOTE=Romany;7670477]
I wish there was some way of fully funding spay/neuter programs right across the continent, and I WISH more people were responsible and got it done. Met a lovely young woman yesterday with an expen$ive but patently badly-bred (but he came from a good breeder!) French Bulldog - all sorts of conformation oddities, still has his nuts at 10mo, and VERY studdy around me: WHAT is she thinking??? She was complaining about the anticipated $1,000 vet bill for fixing his cherry eye, poor misbegotten creature. All the pure-bred dogs we know, come to think of it, have various congenital issues - conformation, temperament, etc - so one assumes there must be a ton of second-rate breeders out there churning out a ton of not-quites. Nooooo, not doing it for the money, noooo, of course not. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]
Did she say she was going to breed the dog? I have a 3 year old unaltered sheltie who I have no intention of ever breeding- he’s neurotic, oversize, and has at least two serious conformation flaws. However, unlike with female dogs, the health benefits of neutering are not totally clear.
No one would ever know my guy was unaltered unless they dug through his hair to check. He’s well trained, obedient, and doesn’t act “studdish.”
As long as an owner is responsible about training their dog, not letting it roam, and not giving access to unaltered females, I don’t see why keeping a male dog intact is any issue at all.
It helps if you’re specific about what you’re good at, and what you want to deal with.
I worked for one shelter, and each person in my dept kind of had their “specialty” area - I did terriers/small prey-drive dogs. I on various occasion took dogs home, for breaks or training, but rarely what I wanted - mostly whatever needed out of the shelter right then/what was dumped on the doorstep 5 minutes after we ran out of kennels.
So, when I moved and went to the local HS, I said give me terriers/medical cases. I got a few medical cases (specifically stated that I am not the kind of person to get all sobby if the animal eventually gets pts, which can be an issue with some - I’ve seen some crazy fosters trying to get the shelter to go all out of save the foster kitten, who was obv not going to make it, while there were kittens coming out the windows) and I got some medical fosters that were ok/some that were not. Being able to do injections (/SQ fluids) is helpful for them.
I then got a medical/behavior/palliative dog, who was old, black, and lab. (my three strikes dog) and was having some issues (dog aggressive, which was an issue with even my very chill personal dog - there’s no way I could have done this foster successfully if I had been working) and the shelter paid for two sessions with a trainer. She eventually got adopted - but I was taking her to the shelter, introducing her to everyone that walked in, and showing her off. Even with her mile long list of requirements, she got adopted - but if you don’t have a set time to bring them in, make one. The website is not nearly as good as adopters having the dog in front of them doing tricks.
I ended up with a foster flunkie, but he’s my preferred breed, and would have been a hard placement.
Why I go with a bigger/more established/physical location HS:
-If something goes wrong and I need the dog out NOW, they have a physical location and don’t have to coordinate volunteers/guilt someone else. Also a good mingling/get to know everyone you work with place.
-Vet services on site, and I know I won’t get stuck with a bill/jeopardize my relationship with my personal vet over a rescue’s bill (unless I take the dog to my own vet)
-Greater flexibility in being able to say yes/no on a dog - they bring in a wider variety, but are much more flexible on giving specific types to specific homes
-Don’t need to commit to every saturday at Petsmart, greater open hours to work in showcasing the dog to my schedule
-Usually have training classes/scheduled events that fosters can go to
Well, ask me in a week 
Tomorrow I’m picking up three 3-month old puppies to foster for our local humane society. They are already committed to a transport to an area in need of dogs for adoption, so it’s a fixed-term situation. They have just had their first vacs & worming. They will be living in one of my outbuildings, in a stall and pen that I used to keep my dogs in during the day; mine now have a much larger yard around my house. I do not intend for the fosters to mix with my house dogs.
I’ve wanted to do this for ages; I’ve known of the organization for years and have known the person who organizes it through work for an equally long time. Since I got sucked into facebook and see their posts constantly, it’s drawn me in.
One of my hesitations has always been getting too attached. I will be in the market for a new pack member in a short while when my oldest girl finally goes to the Bridge, so that’s part of my motivation. But I definitely do not want to do another puppy–I usually don’t have the time, but right now, late summer, is a down-time at work, and this is a fixed term situation.
We’ll see what happens!
All of the litters I have had had the bitch with them. The one huge litter of 9 had a runt that was not doing well so I supplemented him 4 Xs a day with goats milk/coconut oil mix a bit of yogurt too. Vet was unsure he would make it but he did fine, flourished and ending up catching up with the rest of the litter. He and one of his sisters were adopted to a family with 5 kids into a wonderful home. They specifically wanted to adopt siblings from the same litter after they had lost their beagle mix the year before to old age. I had some of that litter for 5 months. Great puppies. The bitch went to another foster when we weaned the crew because at that point I had no room at the inn! I had 6 puppies (3 others were shifted to other fosters) the hit by car and Petunia the pit bull bait dog.
[QUOTE=JBD;7666643]
The group I volunteer and foster for has adoption events every Sat and Sun. It’s a little easier to not be a foster failure when your foster is seen. They also are on adoption websites as well as the rescue has a Facebook page and a website. Beware of groups that have a lot more intake than adoption.
I think the real success factor is that our rescue coordinator works very closely to match us with the type of dog that we. And we have a big dog, a small dog a very old male small dog and cats. We usually try for smallish females of certain breed types or puppies. And we’re not pit people but our last foster was an 8 week old pit type with hacked off ears (one completely gone) and a case of mange so bad, she looked like a burn victim. She was the BEST puppy and got a fantastic home.
Someone mentioned dogs that are adopted out multiple times. It’s sad but people return pets and our rescue lets them know up front that we want the dog/cat to come back to us if they give it up. Yes, most return reasons are shallow and avoidable but better to take them back than to have them dumped.[/QUOTE]
I work with a rescue that does fairly the same. Our lead President is very familiar with all the fosters and pretty much allows them to foster the dogs they want.
If she’s not comfortable with the match, she may suggest otherwise, yet rarely as our fosters work so closely with our President that there’s never a doubt that they already know what dog will work in their home environment.
We take in all types of dogs, puppies, dogs expecting puppies, strays, etc. If a dog doesn’t have a home in our area…we pretty much do our best to take them in, get them fostered, get them vaccinated and spayed/neutered, etc.
We even have trainers that work with the dogs to make sure that they’ll one day be placeable.
Being a rescue that strives to save dogs from high kill shelters, we have many fosters down in the Alabama area that pull the dogs, get them vetted, and then someone from our rescue goes down and picks the dogs up.
If a dog may be heartworm positive, we make sure that they’re free of heartworm before they are transported. We are also very careful about mixing groups of dogs to alleviate any chances of parvo.
We have two events per month. One is an intake where all the dogs are brought up and we have the adopters come and pick up their dogs while we go through the adoption agreement that includes the fact that we send all our dogs out healthy, with all their shots, spayed/neutered, etc. All the dogs are chipped to us and we add the owner upon adoption. If something should go wrong regarding the dog not working out, they sign an agreement that they’ll return the dog to us.
In addition, we also keep the adoption event open to those dogs that haven’t already been adopted. People can come to the event and fill out adoption paperwork. We do background checks, check with vets, etc., as we would any other adopter.
We also have an event at a local mall twice a month where fosters bring their unadopted dogs. It gives folks a chance to see the dogs and fall in love with them. From there they fill out adoption paperwork, we do background checks, along with visiting them at home to see how their home environment will fit. Most of the time our fosters do this as they know the dogs they foster best and THEY have the final say as to who adopts their fosters.
Hope that answers some questions…
This post is 2 years old.
I can give you one reason: Do you have any idea how annoying & upsetting it is to drive 60 or 70 miles to see a dog, decide to get it & then be told that the “foster decided to take it”?
If the foster wants the dog, don’t advertise it as available. Really not cool.
Whoops - didn’t see the date or get to the PSA until hitting ‘post’.
My neighbor fostered for a local rescue and she specialized in the dogs that needed vet care or a place to recover from surgery or heartworm treatment.The dogs all lived outside, with shelter and another dog for company and she was very good about managing meds and special needs. The dogs would stay with her until they were ready to ship up North (Wisconsin, I think) for adoption there. None of it was long-term and the food and meds and vet bills were all covered by the rescue.
StG
