u/icecreamofficial

We’ve been fostering a petite 1 year old female heeler for 5-6 weeks now. She was originally adopted from the rescue around 6 months then returned about 5 months later. This apparently was due to “financial issues” and not related to her behavior. She’s very sweet and loves people.

We were told she was leash reactive, which we found to be true after her turning into a velociraptor on our first walk after spotting two dogs. I do know that she has been around other dogs at some point, as her former adoption profile has videos and pictures of her with other dogs.

I’ve been working with her on walks to relax and not react. Rewarding her with treats is pretty effective and she is able to easily listen and sit whenever I tell her to. I’ve discovered her “threshold” for reacting to other dogs is a little bit more than the distance across the street - think diagonal. Any closer than that and she freaks out with high pitched barking and lunging. I’m usually able to easily redirect with treats and she calms down once we move further away. She also fence fights with our neighbor dogs. I’m not sure yet if her reaction is from fear or frustration being on leash.

1. Any recommendations for how to lessen this threshold? Do I just keep doing what I’m doing?

2. She has a martingale collar. Is there any chance this could add to her reaction? I’ve only ever used harnesses on my dogs.

3. I want to try to introduce her to other dogs to see if she’s only leash reactive or doesn’t get along with dogs on or off leash. My friend has a super passive labradoodle who would be the perfect test dog. I’m not sure the best way to go about it so looking for any recommendations there. Neutral ground? The labradoodles backyard? My instinct is to not introduce them in leash since she’s leash reactive.

Thanks in advance!

We’ve been fostering a petite 1 year old female heeler for 5-6 weeks now. She was originally adopted from the rescue around 6 months then returned about 5 months later. This apparently was due to “financial issues” and not related to her behavior. She’s very sweet and loves people.

We were told she was leash reactive, which we found to be true after her turning into a velociraptor on our first walk after spotting two dogs. I do know that she has been around other dogs at some point, as her former adoption profile has videos and pictures of her with other dogs.

I’ve been working with her on walks to relax and not react. Rewarding her with treats is pretty effective and she is able to easily listen and sit whenever I tell her to. I’ve discovered her “threshold” for reacting to other dogs is a little bit more than the distance across the street - think diagonal. Any closer than that and she freaks out with high pitched barking and lunging. I’m usually able to easily redirect with treats and she calms down once we move further away. She also fence fights with our neighbor dogs. I’m not sure yet if her reaction is from fear or frustration being on leash.

1. Any recommendations for how to lessen this threshold? Do I just keep doing what I’m doing?

2. She has a martingale collar. Is there any chance this could add to her reaction? I’ve only ever used harnesses on my dogs.

3. I want to try to introduce her to other dogs to see if she’s only leash reactive or doesn’t get along with dogs on or off leash. My friend has a super passive labradoodle who would be the perfect test dog. I’m not sure the best way to go about it so looking for any recommendations there. Neutral ground? The labradoodles backyard? My instinct is to not introduce them in leash since she’s leash reactive.

Thanks in advance!

We’ve been fostering a petite 1 year old female heeler for 5-6 weeks now. She was originally adopted from the rescue around 6 months then returned about 5 months later. This apparently was due to “financial issues” and not related to her behavior. She’s very sweet and loves people.

We were told she was leash reactive, which we found to be true after her turning into a velociraptor on our first walk after spotting two dogs. I do know that she has been around other dogs at some point, as her former adoption profile has videos and pictures of her with other dogs.

I’ve been working with her on walks to relax and not react. Rewarding her with treats is pretty effective and she is able to easily listen and sit whenever I tell her to. I’ve discovered her “threshold” for reacting to other dogs is a little bit more than the distance across the street - think diagonal. Any closer than that and she freaks out with high pitched barking and lunging. I’m usually able to easily redirect with treats and she calms down once we move further away. She also fence fights with our neighbor dogs. I’m not sure yet if her reaction is from fear or frustration being on leash.

1. Any recommendations for how to lessen this threshold? Do I just keep doing what I’m doing?

2. She has a martingale collar. Is there any chance this could add to her reaction? I’ve only ever used harnesses on my dogs.

3. I want to try to introduce her to other dogs to see if she’s only leash reactive or doesn’t get along with dogs on or off leash. My friend has a super passive labradoodle who would be the perfect test dog. I’m not sure the best way to go about it so looking for any recommendations there. Neutral ground? The labradoodles backyard? My instinct is to not introduce them in leash since she’s leash reactive.

Thanks in advance!

I am a first time foster and wondering if my experience is typical. I consider myself to be pretty easy going and accommodating so it's sometimes difficult for me to see if situations are abnormal or if I'm being taken advantage of.

My partner and I lost our senior dog earlier this year and now have no pets. I signed up to be a vacation foster for a local rescue after seeing a plea online- knowing I'd still be helping, would get to spend time with dogs, but not have too much responsibility just yet. We are 100% not ready to adopt another dog as we dealt with medical issues for the last 1.5 year of our pup’s life and lost a lot of freedom.

The rescue called me the day after I put in my application and I spoke with a volunteer for about 25 minutes - typical interview questions and reviewing my application answers. I told them the longest we'd want to have a foster is 2 weeks. On that call, they asked if I could take a dog THAT DAY for 10 days while the fosters were on vacation. I felt like my arm was being twisted, but ultimately I said no. I was watching a friend's dog that day and was not ready to take in another dog same day. The following day I get another call from a foster coordinator, asking me to take in a different dog. This one was not a vacation foster - it had been returned by the original adopters and had nowhere to go. The coordinator kept saying that they had no other option and the dog really needed to be at a place with no other pets to decompress. I reiterated that we really only wanted to do temporary fostering and were not interested in long term arrangements. The coordinator said that we could do 3 weeks - which is a week longer than I originally wanted - and then they would place the dog somewhere else. I asked what would happen if they didn't find anyone else at the 3 week mark and she assured me that they'd start looking ahead of time. I could see that the rescue is clearly desperate. They don't have a brick and mortar location so they rely on volunteers and fosters. I took some time to talk it through with my partner and we agreed to take it in after seeing pictures. A few hours later the dog was dropped off. Total sweetheart who just wants to cuddle. They provided food, treats, toys, a bed and crate. Within hours I realized this dog is probably in heat. I told the coordinator and she said she'd check to see if the previous owners had spayed her as they were supposed to. The next day it was completely obvious the dog was in heat and not spayed. I went out and bought diapers and covered all of our furniture and rugs. Not at all what we signed up for but I am a dog lover and was happy to deal with it.

A few days later I took her to be spayed per the rescue's coordination - no notice until that morning. I literally had her at the vet 30 minutes after being told they got her in for an appointment. That's fine, I was happy to do whatever is best for the dog. She recovered super well, but has still been having discharge all over our house. 

We're now on day 12. I texted updates and pictures to the coordinator 2 days ago and have not gotten a response. Previous to that, the last time we talked was the night of the spay when I sent an update. The dog has still not been posted for adoption.

We really do care about her and I've enjoyed fostering. Part of me wants to keep her until she is adopted, but at this point we're not really sure how long that will even be. I am going to contact the coordinator again today and ask what their typical timing/process is for getting posted as adoptable. 

Is this normal? How much do you typically keep in touch with your coordinator? Do I need to put my foot down going forward about what we will and won't do? Should we stick with our plan to have her 3 weeks or just ride out the process until she is adopted?