just volunteered to foster dogs and now I;m nervous!

[steppemum]

We dog sit regularly for friends, but don't have a dog oursleves as it is too tying. But my dcs woudl love a dog, and love it when we dog sit.

So, was at our school fete and there was a local rescue centre. Was chatting to the lady at the end and she said they are always looking fro temporary foster homes. I came home and chatted to dh and he seemed keen, and kids are delighted.

So I have just signed up. The lady on the stand said they are happy for us to specify what and when (so I wouldn't have any dogs in december because of visiting relatives over Christmas etc)
haven't told the cat yet, he might not be happy.

I am ridiculously excited and very nervous and now think wtf do I know about dogs really??

and I fully expect that in the next year a foster dog is going to come our way and not move on, bit don't tell dh that

I'm so excited for you, and envious!! I'd looove to foster dogs

apparently they don't use kennels so all the dogs who come to them go to foster homes on their way to being adopted.

the lady was very keen as my youngest dc is 9 and we have a large enclosed garden.

Ooh good luck, when is your home check?

I'm sure you'll have a new full time family member in no time!!

I foster, and the rescue doesn't use kennels at all. I just do puppies, and you never know what you are going to get tbh. Its bloomin hard work at times, but very satisfying when they go off.

CMOT - I did specify not puppies! I am past the days of babies and toddlers and that applies to dogs too!

No idea on home check, I've just applied on-line as told to on saturday, and I'm waiting. we may not have enough doggy experience, although my friend who we dog sit for would give us a reference. We aslo have their dog the first week in August and then holiday, so it is unlikely we would have anyone before september.

Good luck with it, OP: this is something I am contemplating in the longer term...

Had an email back. They will come and do a house visit, need to meet everyone living here, including the cat - good luck with that, if it is a nice day he is asleep under a bush somewhere!

I've fostered a few dogs, and it was very rewarding.
Then I got a call to take an eldery retriever for a few weeks while they found her a home (the alternative was a shelter that would probably put her down due to her age)
We decided after a week we were keeping her. She was such a perfect fit for our family, we've had her 18 months now, and she is getting quite frail (still happy but definitely aging). I hope she's with us for a while yet, but I'm glad we could give her a happy home for her final year or so.

fatowl, don't tell dh, but I am 90% certain that that will happen to us too. I wouldn't mind, dh is very practical, and says we can't but we could if we wanted to and kids would be over the moon.

I have fostered four dogs and only one made it out of here. The first was elderly and terrified so it seemed mean to send him back. The second (after the first had died) didn't like other dogs but was fine in all other ways (he was eventually adopted by someone else) and the third and fourth have been so brilliant from day one that it seemed silly to rehome them.

I would advise being very clear on what is expected of you. If the rescue is overwhelmed (as ours is) the end of your foster may not be cut and dried. Our second foster had a 'fixed term' as it were (I was going abroad on a specific date and he was meant to be collected by the rescue) but there was a delay as the rescue had to juggle their other fosters so my dh had to arrange to be home from work on a different day to hand over the foster dog. It was fine (when you know what they endure to do what they do it's hard to get too upset about that kind of thing) but it's best to adjust your expectations.

Have you got any baby gates?They were helpful when we were still figuring out how housetrained the dogs were.

Thanks for that outright.

hmm no baby gates and we have carpet!
Hadn't thought about house training. We have a think.

We regularly dog sit, but all the dogs we sit for are downstairs dogs, not allowed upstairs, and that works really well for us, so I might have to babygate the bottom of the stairs. (dogs down, cats up!)

We do go overseas at times, which is one reason we don't have a dog ourselves. We both work from home, so always someone around. I am sort of expecting the times etc to get a bit stretched, you know, can you have him for a couple of weeks and it ends up being a couple of months!

I fostered a dog once.

She stayed with me for 7 years - the rest of her life. ❤️

Not all dogs have a problem, esp if they haven't been in a kennel. But it gives them more of a chance to get it right if you keep them nearby for a while so you can more easily identify when they need to go out. We have had dogs who didn't know how to show you they needed to go out if you weren't in the room with the outside door iyswim.

But no point in worrying, I expect you'll find out what you need when you're offered a foster.

Mind you, one dog we dog sit for never ever tells us, he just crosses his legs til one of us remembers to take him outside.

He has an iron bladder though!

I would ask the Rescue about insurance, vet's bills, flea/worming treatments etc. What are you supposed to cover and what will they do? You don't want anything coming as an expensive surprise!

I fostered 2 dogs from abroad (at diff times) I found a crate useful for the first couple of weeks, as I didn't know if they would destroy/chew things when left downstairs at night. I wouldn't have minded them upstairs but OH was against.

When they do come, try and give them a couple of quiet days to let them settle in, not too much hugging/loud games with the children. (I know that's difficult!). Also, if you don't want them on the sofa, for example, enforce that the from the beginning.

good advice Bagel, thanks.

I thought it took a while to crate train a dog?
We dog sit for a young dog who is crate trained and it was really good when she was very young and came to us for a week as her owner was in hospital. Not sure I would have managed without the crate, but she was only 5 month sold had lots of accidents.

will need to be downstairs at night. (or on ds bed, depending how attached he gets)

I did it from night 1 with the foster dogs. They didn't seem to mind. Granted, they were v tired after their long journeys to the UK and travel in big crates. I suppose they were quite used to being in the rescue kennels abroad, so it wasn't completely new to them.

So, the rescue lady is coming this evening to vet us!

Very excited. We are dog sitting from tomorrow and then on holiday, so we couldn't have a dog until end August. Kids are asking if we can have one the day we get back form holiday!

rescue lady came, seemed very happy, we get an official decision within 7 days.
dh was delighted to discover they pay for the food as well as everything else (he had started to mumble about cost)

Friend's dog arrived last night for 2 weeks. She is only 1, but well trained. It is a good exericise in finding the gaps. (she has already stolen cat's food twice, time for a rethink)
Just been on lovely long walk with her.

That's so exciting. Are you allowed to tell us which rescue - I mean is it breed specific?

No, not breed specific, it is a local one, local to my town.
SNDogs.

Let us know the final decision - I'm sure you'll be fine. What a lovely thing to do :)

(I'm suspecting a "failed foster" post on here before too long )

Hi all, I hadn't heard anything and then today I was at a local church sale thing, and the rescue had a stall, with the lady who interviewed us, so I saked her and she said yes we are passed, all fine, she will call us when we get back form holiday!