eveliens
Songster
- Jun 24, 2020
- 207
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I've been fostering dogs on and off for about 20 years. Here are some tips:
Think about your boundaries in advance and be very clear on what you can handle when choosing a dog. For your first foster, I would recommend a trained adult dog that has previously lived in a home and was just unlucky enough to land in a shelter. They exist and they often get looked over for puppies or young dogs. I'd avoid young male dogs (9 months-2 years old) - this is when they hit puberty and are dumped for a whole host of unpleasant behaviors such as aggression, marking, humping, extreme fear reactions, etc. If you don't have the experience/confidence/patience to deal with that, I'd skip it. I'd steer away from puppies because they require a lot of care and will probably annoy and/or accidentally hurt your small older dogs or other pets. I'd also avoid bully mixes ("pitbulls") - they are notorious for animal aggression and could put your smaller dogs at high risk. Same with heelers and any other dog with a high drive.
Also understand the dog will probably not be housebroke or leash trained and it'd be good to brush up on your training knowledge. If you have the time and money, a cheap training course at petco or petsmart is great for learning foundational dog training skills you can use for all future dogs.
It is great you're looking into fostering and asking for advice! It can be a lot of fun and these dogs do desperately need to be in home settings learning to be good pets or just chill away from the stress of the shelter. Good luck.
- consider what you won't tolerate in a dog and be very clear with the organization this will end in the foster being returned ASAP. My No's are animal aggression and child aggression. Do not keep this dog thinking you can work through it because you will more than likely burnout and return the dog anyway after a lot of struggling.
- realize a foster dog can take 30-60 days to fully decompression and show their true behaviors; it can be very frustrating that your formally sweet and quiet foster is suddenly showing its true colors if you're not expecting it. Some dogs don't do this but most do.
- choose the organization you work with VERY CAREFULLY. They should vet you and you should vet them. A lot of rescues and shelters are wild wild west, and sometimes they will do shady things to unload a problem dog on someone else hoping your emotions will stick you with the dog.
- you said 'large' - I would be extremely careful adding an unknown large dog in with chickens and small, elderly dogs. Avoid breeds that are known for animal aggression, be clear with the organization you have other animals at home and cannot take any dog that shows aggression towards other animals.
- set up a crate and/or x-pen that is the dog's space - keep them in there for a few days while everyone gets used to each other and let the dog know it has a safe space to go if it gets overwhelmed. Set the dog up to make good choices and slowly give more freedom as the dog shows it is comfortable. I usually do crate/pen -> leash -> supervised free range -> free range. Some dogs, especially adults who are already trained, just breeze through. Other dogs like puppies or untrained adults need more direct supervision.
- be liberal with the treats - food is a fast way to build trust and make friends LOL High value treats like hot dogs and cheese in small amounts are good to get them to learn their name and to come.
Think about your boundaries in advance and be very clear on what you can handle when choosing a dog. For your first foster, I would recommend a trained adult dog that has previously lived in a home and was just unlucky enough to land in a shelter. They exist and they often get looked over for puppies or young dogs. I'd avoid young male dogs (9 months-2 years old) - this is when they hit puberty and are dumped for a whole host of unpleasant behaviors such as aggression, marking, humping, extreme fear reactions, etc. If you don't have the experience/confidence/patience to deal with that, I'd skip it. I'd steer away from puppies because they require a lot of care and will probably annoy and/or accidentally hurt your small older dogs or other pets. I'd also avoid bully mixes ("pitbulls") - they are notorious for animal aggression and could put your smaller dogs at high risk. Same with heelers and any other dog with a high drive.
Also understand the dog will probably not be housebroke or leash trained and it'd be good to brush up on your training knowledge. If you have the time and money, a cheap training course at petco or petsmart is great for learning foundational dog training skills you can use for all future dogs.
It is great you're looking into fostering and asking for advice! It can be a lot of fun and these dogs do desperately need to be in home settings learning to be good pets or just chill away from the stress of the shelter. Good luck.
