Just picked up this baby girl yesterday! Think she’s a husky mix (~50 lb)!
We’re dealing with a little bit of resource guarding from my resident dog against her but working through it. She is such a sweetie!! Had to be owner surrendered due to housing instability (owner had a really hard time parting with her at the shelter) 😭
I picked up Gigi a little over a week ago. She is a 6-8 year old Yorkie seized from a backyard breeder who neglected her pretty badly. She was so matted with feces that walking was painful.
However, I was able to get her groomed 2 days after pickup, and she is feeling SO much better! Just wanted to share her glow-up. She is such a great little lady, and is going to be adopted so quickly once she is medically cleared.
I knew it was going to be hard tonight. I committed a few days ago to staying home with him and setting up a panic room, because he is insanely anxious even without fireworks.
The neighbors set off some explosions that startled even me. The house shook.
Foster was working on a lick mat, but when the nearby fireworks went off, he lost his mind. Bolted straight toward the sliding glass door balcony at full speed.
The door broke, but thankfully the glass didn’t shatter and I caught him before he went off the balcony ledge (or slammed into the railing, not sure which way that would have gone, but it probably would not have ended well.)
He was already dosed with 150mg trazodone. I brought him into the panic room, put ear muffs on him and a blanket over him. He’s been pretty much frozen in place, just panting rapidly. He’s just now starting to move a tiny bit. Like just nosing his way out from the blanket a tiny bit.
Poor dog.
i have 1-2 more weeks with this 6 week old foster puppy and it is getting harder and harder as he gets older and becomes more curious. it’s try to provide him with enough mental stimulation/socialization but recently even just sniffing outside for two minutes makes him over stimulated and scared. i haven’t slept in so long and he has this uncanny habit of always waking up/whining ten minutes into my nap but if i stay awake he’ll somehow sleep for hours. i just don’t want to give him separation anxiety but i don’t get a moment myself to truly to cook, clean, or sleep. i don’t want to traumatize him in the crate or pen but don’t want to teach bad habits. do you guys have any recommendations
Hi! I'm new here and not sure if I should have posted here. I own a 11yo male pug (not neutered, not an option to neuter him at this point).
Due to the recent double earthquakes in Venezuela, lots of people and pets lost their homes and families. 2 female pugs (12 and 10yo, mother and daughter, sterilized) were found alive and my husband and I immediately agreed to take them home.
I am now freaking out because I know nothing on how to make all 3 pugs get along, avoid my male pug from humping them, etc...
The female pugs will stay with my MIL for a few days while we manage to go back to Venezuela and my male pug is staying with my mom. Was this a bad decision? How can I do this transition without making any of the animals suffer? I live in an apartment and so does my MIL so she can't keep the 2 female pugs for too long.
Thanks!!
I’m on day 3 of solo parenting our 9wk old foster puppy (mixed breed Pyrenees or St. Bernard?) plus my 6 year old and after a hellish day/night 1, I’m proud to say that it’s okay now. The constant pee breaks are not as annoying as I expected (and it’s been pouring rain everyday) and he hasn’t had even one accident inside. His personality is sweet and funny and gets cuter by the day. Our cats already tolerate him which is saying a lot about how gentle he is. Nights he sleeps in a dog bed on the floor and is a good little sleeper for his age. But he has trauma about being confined and panics when crated or even shut alone in a room. Loose in the house he is fine ,even alone, but obviously we can’t leave him like that. Whoever has him as their family dog may need to work with a dog behaviourist to support with the separation anxiety. It’s gonna be surmountable but it will be a lot of work and money.
This background is to say thank goodness I fostered first. I love this puppy! I also realize we wanted the lifestyle and sweetness of having a dog, but do not have the capacity to do the huge amount of work that takes. Of course it’s possible, and much of that labour is even enjoyable! It’s not as bad as people say. The nightmare extremes are instagram, not reality — both the good and bad extremes. Fostering made me realize I am totally able to do and to enjoy this. But also that having a dog for its whole life means taking away a little attention each from my children, my job, my hobbies and my freedom. And the cost of the sweetness of a family dog is a measure of personal freedom.
My heart breaks a bit not keeping this puppy after he has gotten attached to us, but I know he will be okay and that we gave him a reprieve from a stressful situation. His forever family is gonna be so lucky. But his forever family is not us.
We’ve had our foster dog for 3 weeks and we’re at our wits end with his separation anxiety.
I work from home 4x a week, my partner fully in person. The one day I go into work we give him trazadone as prescribed by the vet to use when needed. A week after we got him we told the rescue and they got us a vet appointment that day to get it. He’s fine on trazadone, but insanely tired the rest of the day so we only try to use it when we are gone 3+ hours.
I only leave other times about an hour or two to workout, grocery shop, etc. and have had a lot of anxiety that’s grown over the last few weeks bc I feel super guilty for leaving him. Maybe I am a bad foster parent for having non negotiable for leaving for going on a run and going to the gym, but I have to leave to keep my mental health in check. Maybe our lifestyles don’t support having him as a foster and that’s okay, but we want to do what we can before giving up on him.
He usually cries a lot of the time we leave, but it’s not too loud and sometimes he will chill out for a few minutes, cry, then chill out. As long as he’s not barking it was fine. But, now he’s started aggressively biting his crate and it’s getting to the point where it’s extremely dangerous and he I’m going to seriously hurt himself. He drew blood today and we saw him going feral on the crate for the first time on camera. It was really scary. We know that when he’s alone without being crated he can be destructive too. We’ve only left him once for 45 minutes in our hallway, and he chewed a hole in the door. We thought it could be because he hadn’t been comfortable in the hallway and so that was our fault, but we think it’s just because he was alone. For the 20 minutes we’ve left him alone supervised with cameras he scratches at the doors and floor. We haven’t had a chance to leave him out of his kennel for more time, but he definitely cries and screams.
When we leave the room he is fine. He sits at the door, but he doesn’t (usually) cry and is comfortable with that, it’s just when we leave because he can hear our creaky doors. AND when we leave, he could not care less about food. He goes feral for the Kong when we are home but completely ignores it when he’s anxious, even with any other high value treat. He literally is the opposite of food motivated and I don’t think any type of food could distract him.
With his behavior with his kennel we are extremely distressed and don’t know what to do. We know we need to talk to the rescue, but we wanted to see if there’s any tips right now besides give him trazadone every single time we leave no matter how long. It’s honestly getting to a point where I’m anxious all the time and might need to give him back to the rescue. He’s so perfect besides this.
I picked up 3 puppies who were listed as 8 weeks old off a euth list this week. Looking at their teeth and their motor skills with very limited knowledge, I think they are closer to 10-11 weeks old.
I am absolutely losing my mind. I had an enclosure in the backyard for them to play which they managed to climb out of (using the bars of the playpen fence as rungs). I then spent hours covering the pen with plastic netting from Lowes and they managed to jump and tear it up. They scream when they are not with me constantly and they are wild (20 pounds each) and jump and scratch despite trimmed nails.
I’m losing my mind. I am walking a dog, feeding a dog, and cleaning up after a dog at all hours and can’t even sleep properly. There is no time for anything else I need to do
I need help or ideas to manage. I’ve fostered pairs of puppies many times but all under 10 weeks and this experience is draining me.
Meet River. 💔
Earlier this week the Lowndes County Animal Shelter reached out to us for help after River’s owner brought her in requesting euthanasia. River had a puppy stuck in her birth canal for two days and needed emergency medical care.
When she arrived, our incredible veterinary team immediately jumped into action. River was rushed into emergency surgery, where they discovered her bladder was extremely full because the puppy had completely blocked her from being able to pee. It was a difficult surgery, but River pulled through. She is one incredibly strong girl ❤️
After surgery, River went to a wonderful foster home to rest and recover, where she is being showered with the love she has always deserved.
Unfortunately, her fight isn’t over yet. River hasn’t eaten in three days and is now undergoing additional testing to determine if she is experiencing kidney failure. 😞
Stories like River’s are heartbreaking, but they are the reality of animal rescue. They remind us why we fight so hard for animals who have no voice of their own.
Please keep River in your thoughts and prayers as she continues to recover
We’ve been fostering an 11 year old dog MAV for over 6 months.
We LOVE him, but my husband isn’t ready to adopt. I think in large part, because of Mav’s age and the likelihood that we’ll face mounting vet bills in the near future.
Mav has finally found a family that is 90% likely to adopt him
I’m really struggling to imagine life without him. And I’m kind of resentful towards my husband that we didn’t decide to adopt him.
We have fostered dogs for 6 years. None of the goodbyes have felt as painful as this. My heart is broken and I’m not sure if I’ll get over this.
Hi foster friends. I am new to this. Title should read 48h, apparently I can’t count!
A week ago I’d never even considered fostering - I have an adolescent boy and a 15.5 year old dog who’s almost blind and has dementia.
We are friendly with the breed rescue coordinator and on Monday, she asked us to collect a dog from a lady who couldn’t care for him any more due to ill health, since she was only an hour from us. We didn’t have any foster training but I’ve had rescues before.
We arrived on Tuesday and it was very emotional. I don’t think I was prepared for supporting someone terminally ill in giving up their dog. She cried a lot but begged us to keep her boy.
Since then, he’s mostly settled with us really well. He’s a 2kg ball of fluff and all he wants to do is snooze on my lap. He’s a bit grumpy with our teenager but respectful of our elderly dog. He seems really attached to me. They’re all the same breed.
Today we’ve been asked to drop him off at a forever home, a 4 hour round trip away. We’ve only spent 48 hours with him and we’ve fallen in love, along with the emotional impact of the owner begging us to keep him. It feels so fast.
We really considered asking to keep him but we’d have wanted to foster for longer and allowed him time to decompress and to see how he fits in with our lives.
We took him to the beach tonight and it was pretty hard to meet the needs of all three dogs, considering the blind old man, the teenager still in training, and the new foster. And we were not even looking to foster or to get a third dog. But we feel so sad about letting him go to someone else. And I feel so so guilty about having to tell his original owner we didn’t keep him.
I think I’d feel better if we knew what kind of life he’d have with the new owner. Whether she can give him the best life for him. He would do well 1:1 with an older person who dotes on him and has lots of time for him.
And lastly… how do you know you’re doing the right thing?
I’ve had my foster dog for over 4 months, though only 1.5 months has she been approved and up for adoption. I know that’s not a long time!! But I’m growing impatient, she’s my first foster and when I signed up for this I didn’t think I’d have her for so long, but now I feel like I’ve made a commitment to her that I refuse to break
She has her own social media page that gets decent traction, and we take her out with the “adopt me” vest where she gets a lot of love, but no one has seriously inquired about adoption. She’s older (8) and a 60lb hound who is still trying to learn her manners.
I guess I’m just getting a little impatient and nervous. How long does it typically take for an older pup to get adopted?
HELP! My fiancé and I decided to foster a dog to see how she did with our cat and to see how she fit in our lifestyles. We are fostering a beautiful 2 year old black lab. Despite potty accidents and chewing stuff up, she’s the light of our world since this past Thursday. She’s great for us and keeps us in a routine. We are very active and spend a lot of time outside, and our foster dog loves tagging along with us. She also reminds me of my family dog who passed away the week of Christmas, has the same nickname as my grandfather, and looks identical to one of my fiancés past dogs and he didn’t know which dog I was going to bring home.
We’re in a dilemma. Someone already put in an application today to adopt her! We have to decide today if we want to adopt her or not. When I got the text about the application to adopt her, I burst into tears because I can’t imagine giving her up now after we’ve bonded so much in less than a week. She really is the perfect fit for us, but we weren’t anticipating someone applying for her so soon. That’s the tough part about fostering I wasn’t ready for, I guess.
Question/discussion for you all, how did you know it was time to adopt your foster dog? Did you feel selfish adopting her? Because now I’ll feel selfish adopting her for some reason. I’m thinking we full send and adopt her since she’s perfect for us.
I recently fostered a dog that was a bit shy and skittish (not unusual for me, that’s my speciality) but this guy explored the perimeters of my yard in a way that made me nervous. My yard is pretty solid, and he was never left out unattended, but I clocked it and kept the rescue informed.
I only had him 3 days, so we didn’t have a lot of time to figure out if he was a runner for sure, or just a little nervous. My amazing rescue coordinator made a spur of the moment, guy decisions and overnighted me a Fi collar to put on him before we sent him to his adopter. Our thought was it could stay on him during his trial period, just to be safe. (Our rescue recently had a dog get loose from an adopter who was missing for more than a week - thankfully he was found uninsured).
I’ve fostered 60 dogs for this rescue and we’ve never put a tracking collar on a dog. We run on a tight budget and they aren’t cheap. But for whatever reason, our guys were telling us to do it for this dog.
Lo and behold, today (less than two weeks after he went home with his adopter) we get frantic messages that he has gotten out. Thankfully he was still wearing his Fi collar, so I fired up the app and we had a precise location on him right away. His adopter immediately jumped in her car and drove to where he was. He was found hiding behind an A/C unit between two houses. But he was almost 2 miles from home! So who knows how long he’d have been out in the heat (it’s 96° here today) waiting for someone to miraculously find him. Thankfully his adopter got to him quickly and he’s fine (though he’s at the vet getting checked out just to be safe!)
I’m not sponsored by Fi or anything (though we wouldn’t hate if they threw a few collars our way!) and it would be prohibitively expensive to put them on all of our foster dogs, but for today, it was a lifesaver!
After losing our beloved dog over a year ago and still completely heartbroken about it, I come across dogs here on Reddit that need homes and think about fostering. I'm not sure whether we would be good foster parents. I am currently in graduate school in addition to WFH full time, but my partner has more flexibility with his job. We rent our apartment and the landlord was okay with our dog without any written approval, but not sure about other dogs. There's lots of very loud impact noise at times from upstairs neighbors, which may scare an already traumatized pup. The neighborhood is loud, filthy and not very nice for walks. On the upside, we are huge animal lovers and I especially have lots of experience with dogs as a former dog walker.
What made you come to the decision to foster?
Partly venting my anxieties here but also open to all advice from experienced fosters!! I just picked up this little lady to foster and she is very nervous. The rescue organization I'm fostering her through recommended that I keep her separate from my dog because she's been outside for 2 years and they're not sure if she has anything contagious. I have a bedroom at the back of my house set up for her but she barks and howls every time I leave. Should I just stay in the room with her as much as possible? Try to exercise her? She's already pooped and peed so I think it's just pure separation anxiety. I'm also navigating my dog who whines when he can't see me though he settles down fairly quickly. I think it would be easier for both of them if I could have them together, just not sure when I should introduce them. I live alone but could call a friend or maybe have someone from the rescue come help me take them on a walk together. Right now she is not interested in my dog at all and he just seems excited, which is honestly out of character for him. I let them see each other through just the one gate and he was whining and wagging his tail, so I added the second gate because I felt like he was being a bit much for her. He is older (10YO) and usually is not interested in other dogs. I dog sit fairly often (just friends' dogs that he already knows) but he ignores them, even if they try to get him to play lol
My first foster is up for adoption and has several interested adopters. She is a recovering mill dog who I believe has separation anxiety. I have told my humane society this with “we will tell future adopters”.
I believe she needs a home with someone who is home consistently or who is retired. Unfortunately they did not put that online in her add. I am hoping she doesn’t get returned. She tears apart potty pads, gets into cabinets and barks for hours upon me leaving.
Otherwise she is an amazing dog and I can see her blossoming in a home with a confident dog to lead her.
Quick backstory: My husband and I have been fostering a Frenchie with right-sided heart failure, heartworms, and Chagas disease, for almost a month now. She was abandoned in rough shape, but she’s been improving so much and we absolutely love her.
We just found out the rescue is going to search for her forever home through match-based adoption. We’re supportive of that and we want what’s best for her. But I’m honestly not sure what to expect.
Has anyone had experience with match-based adoptions, especially for medical/hospice dogs? How long does it typically take? Is it harder to find matches for dogs with complex medical needs? Are there things that made the process smoother or more difficult?
And real talk: if a match doesn’t come through, my husband and I are already her forever family. We’re prepared to be in it for the long haul with her, however long that is. But we also want to respect the rescue’s process and see if there’s someone out there looking for exactly what she needs.
Any experiences or advice? I’d love to hear what others have gone through with this!
I’m working with a new foster group and they didn’t disclose my foster has mites. I’m irked. She’s on meds so it’s being treated. Since she sleeps in bed with me I’m starting to get bites. I messaged my doctor.
Has anyone dealt with this? Suggestions?