Sooooo, several of us, local rescue organizations, want to have a foster drive to seek more volunteers. The number of shelter dogs coming in has just intensified since Covid. My question is, “where” would you seek out potential foster help? Any particular organizations? We need them so badly here with the number of good dogs being euthanized.
We foster for Echo Dogs White Shepherd Rescue, currently have “Daggy” here, he has been here for a while as he came in as an uncivilized dog who had been turned into a shelter. He is said to be about one year old. He is becoming a civilized citizen, but being young really has a lot of energy, a five mile hike does little wear him out. To date those that have expressed interest in taking Daggy have not had the recourses needed for his wellbeing, so he is staying here until the proper family is found.
I known Echo is firmly behind the dog’s success. We had a mother dog and her Eight puppies last summer, we kept them in Socrates stall in the barn since it was air conditioned. Echo spent well over $15,000 in vet expense on that group of dogs, all nine found loving homes,
How we got tied to this group was through Dog Scouts of America which is an organization that took kid’s scouting to dogs. The dogs earn merit badges for things that dogs can do,
Echo narrowed its responsibility to White Shepherds rehoming dogs to east of the Mississippi River
https://www.echodogs.org/history
current foster dog
https://www.echodogs.org/daggry
Dog Scouts web site
https://dogscouts.org/base/
You might have some success by contacting the Dog Scout troop leaders in the area you ar needing assistance to see if there is any interest.
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I fostered and got burnt. They ended up giving me the dog, who is lovely btw. The foster group had me do meet and greets where I had to transport dog 1.5 hours a way and the potential adoptors were the absolute wrong for a 30 lb cattle dog mix who has energy for days.
First Adoptor - 70 year old who wanted a dog for quiet walks
Second adopter - lived in a studio apt and works 50 hrs a week.
Third Adopter - tried to discipline dog with a stick when she went to herd the ducks.
I had her for 8 months and finally just adopted here. Majority of people shouldn’t own dogs and should be banned from owning certain breeds.
If I was to foster, I would want to know exactly your process in finding suitable homes and feel supported in the costs of having a foster dog.
Contact your local tv station. They usually love to promote causes like this!
I think tabling at local events can be helpful when done well.
The core mistake I see organizations make over and over is that they don’t have a solid one pager. In a single aesthetically pleasing document you need a strong summary, the why, associated cost, expectations, and top 2-5 questions and answers with clear contact information. That contact information goes to someone with beautiful communication skills and a sense of urgency to respond.
I work in the nonprofit sector and volunteer extensively. With rare exception people set up tables and interested people are given a business card or murky handouts where they are left doing all of the leg work. Make the right decision easy and remove the barriers.
Many pet stores will let you set up a table on a weekend. Stock it with fun candy, a cool pull up banner, and if permitted a super stable friendly dog who will draw people in.
Local farmers markets can be an opportunity, especially if you can share a booth with a vendor that sells pet treats.
Annual fairs or festivals and do a drawing or giveaway of a donated big ticket item to get people to stop by.
Any social media should be really sharp and updated regularly. Sometimes volunteer requests come through illogical paths like a post comment so regular monitoring is super important.
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This information should be in an introductory information packet. It’s super unfair for volunteers to find out once a dog is in the home that the screening process is totally misaligned.
Personally, the rescue I worked with didn’t do same day adoptions but wanted pets dragged to weekly events. I did orphaned kittens and that was a hard stop for me. I’m not spending 5-7 hours on a Saturday for my kittens to get exposed to germs and handled by strangers. I negotiated a different set of expectations and placed over 30 using my methods. However, the ability to negotiate was clearly shared up front and I didn’t get bamboozled into the events.
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