Advice about foster dog

lokii

Hi all. We fostered a lovely dog last Oct for a rescue. She was a puppy/teenager of about 6 months. She was extremely clever, confident and fun but needed constant exercise and games to keep her out of trouble! We put a lot of work into calming her down and after 4 weeks she was crate trained, pretty good on recall, had learnt some basic tricks and was getting better with her lead. Every time we brought her out she got compliments on her temperament and looks so after 4 weeks when we had to give her back we were sure she would have no problem getting a home.
Well it turns out that she is still with the rescue and has been kept in kennels for over two months since we gave her back. That seems like a very long time for such a young dog.

Will she now be adapted to life in kennels? If I arrange to take her home with me for a couple of days will it do more harm to pamper her when I need to return her back to the kennels?

Any advice on what can be done for the dog in this situation?

muddypaws

Can I ask why you had to give her back? Usually a foster home would be until the dog finds a forever home. Unfortunately, if you can't foster her again, and there are no other fosters available, kennels will be her only option, there is a very real shortage of good forever homes out there, even for young, attractive dogs. Hopefully it is a good rescue, that spend a lot of time with her?

lokii

Thanks for reply. I only had 4 weeks off work - the rescue were happy with this arrangement.
I could give her a weekend mini-break from the kennels but I don't know if this will do her more harm than good?

aonb

our rescue 'frowns' on people taking dogs out for weekends - its very hard to return the dog to the kennels, after a lovely weekend of 'freedom' etc.

Could you find a home for the dog with some friends or relatives? You never know, if you start a little campaign of your own to find this dog a home, you might be successful!

Toulouse

Is there a way around it?

The rescue I volunteer for sometimes has working foster homes but only if there's a support network of volunteer dog walkers etc. nearby. Might that be an option.

As in you walk her in the morning, a volunteer comes around lunch to walk her and then you're home in the evenings. Or sometimes there's access to day care a couple of days a week too. Same as it would be if the dog goes to a working home.

lokii

Thanks aonb. I get that about the weekend idea - it makes sense.

While she was with us I got a photographer friend to take some gorgeous photos and I started my own campaign. I found two people (friends of friends) who wanted to take her but I don’t know what happened after I passed on the rescue details to them.
I had checked with the rescue that it was ok for me to do this and while they didn’t object outright the didn’t seem impressed so I haven’t pushed it since.

lokii

Toulouse wrote: »

Is there a way around it?

The rescue I volunteer for sometimes has working foster homes but only if there's a support network of volunteer dog walkers etc. nearby. Might that be an option.

As in you walk her in the morning, a volunteer comes around lunch to walk her and then you're home in the evenings. Or sometimes there's access to day care a couple of days a week too. Same as it would be if the dog goes to a working home.

Oh - that could work. I hadn't thought of asking them about support or day-care options. Will definitely look into that.

sillysmiles

lokii wrote: »

I had checked with the rescue that it was ok for me to do this and while they didn’t object outright the didn’t seem impressed so I haven’t pushed it since.

Can I ask the people on here who are involved with rescues, why a rescue would be less that impressed with a foster carer sending them potential rehomers?

Nody

sillysmiles wrote: »

Can I ask the people on here who are involved with rescues, why a rescue would be less that impressed with a foster carer sending them potential rehomers?

From my experience because the quality are usually low; when I picked up our latest litter (three four week old kittens) we had a referral for one of them who wanted one as an outdoor cat and wanted to take it directly (4 week old kitten dumped outside in November? Seriously?!) who was already known by our rescue and evaluated as not suitable. Often the referrals also expect they'll simply get it directly, no house checks, no fees etc. and once they hear it's actually going to involve more then picking up said animal they start to stall or back out... Not that we don't evaluate every referral but yea, quality tend to be dubious from my personal experience.

DBB

sillysmiles wrote: »

Can I ask the people on here who are involved with rescues, why a rescue would be less that impressed with a foster carer sending them potential rehomers?

It wouldn't bother me, particularly if I knew the fosterer well, but anyone they'd send to me would go through the same checks as someone who had approached me off their own bat

Toulouse

Sometimes friends of fosterers have a certain sense of entitlement.

They might have met the dog, liked the dog and it puts the rescue on the back-foot from the get go as they think they can avoid the homechecks etc. just because they know the fosterer.

Sometimes it works out but sometimes they can get pretty nasty about it and then if they are particularly good friends the fosterer gets insulted and so you lose a foster home too!

lokii

sillysmiles wrote: »

Can I ask the people on here who are involved with rescues, why a rescue would be less that impressed with a foster carer sending them potential rehomers?

I don’t know why but the rescue themselves seem reluctant to advertise for a home for this dog: she is not in the rehoming section of the rescue’s website and wasn’t put on facebook for homing. It’s all a bit odd but maybe there's a backstory that I'm not aware of.

Toulouse

lokii wrote: »

I don’t know why but the rescue themselves seem reluctant to advertise for a home for this dog: she is not in the rehoming section of the rescue’s website and wasn’t put on facebook for homing. It’s all a bit odd but maybe there's a backstory that I'm not aware of.

That is odd OP, perhaps she's booked to go to another rescue? But you never know, there could be something else going on.