Well in light of how things turned out, I think I
will post what I was biting my tongue over previously!
Fostering may look like an attractive alternative to having a full-time new dog, or it may look like a cleaner and less heart wrenching way to volunteer for a rescue centre, but it has it's own difficulties
If you already have a dog yourself (or recently had one), you and your dog will have had a set of 'rules' or understood situations which you don't even think of as rules, but which a new dog entering your home will have no idea about at best, and at worst will try to bring a set of rules from a different house and impose them upon you!
Before you bring a dog into your house, consider what those rules will be. When we have a foster dog, they aren't allowed on the furniture, they sleep in a crate in the kitchen, they sit and wait to go through doors and to be fed, and they aren't allowed upstairs or on the sofa. These rules are there to make the transition to a new home easier.
A new owner can choose to allow their dog upstairs which easily over-rides my training, but the reverse is (for some dog reason) more difficult for a new owner to teach! Sleeping in a crate whilst here will hopefully make a new home easier to settle in as the dog will already regard the crate as their piece of familiar 'home', so it's me who's been through the sleepless 3 nights of howling, not a new owner who may have less determination!
If you have other pets in your home, the safety of those animals
has to be your primary concern... but that doesn't mean you bring a dog in, see if it bites one of your animals, then whisk it back off to the rescue centre! You should prepare for the introduction of your animals to the dog. It is best for your own dog to meet your foster on neutral territory, so preferably outside and on leads, and going for a walk together rather than approaching head on is the best way to avoid 'confrontation'. For the first couple of days, even if you think both dogs are okay with each other, don't leave them unattended together, and it's safest for them both to wear loose leads or houselines when in the house, to ensure you can quickly regain order in any 'misunderstandings' which could arise.
Crates are perceived by some people as 'cruel'. I remind people that we are perfectly happy for every child in the country to be placed in a cage for their own safety and comfort, and just because we call that cage a 'cot' does not mean it isn't a container with bars - it just doesn't have a lid, as babies can't jump as high as dogs! Having a crate training regime here enables me to make a commitment to the rescue centre that I
will look after a dog for them, and enables me to guarantee the safety of both my own dog and their's. I've had dogs here who couldn't stand to be in the same room together, but the use of multiple crates enabled me to work at their aversion and eventually bring about peace - obviously not something every fosterer is going to want to have to tackle, but it is essential to know a situation is manageable if it's been thought out beforehand
Cats are territorial animals. Even if they have a dog in their home already they are unlikely to spend the first night snuggled up to your foster dog! It will help if you can bring something foster-dog scented home a couple of days before the dog arrives, and put any dog equipment in place too. A baby gate is a fantastic tool for ensuring the cat has an escape route away from the dog if necessary, and again, this should be put in place a couple of days prior to the introduction of the dog, so the cat knows where 'safety' is if there is a panic situation! When deciding where the foster dog will sleep, bear in mind that the cat may not want to enter this room, so don't cut off the route to the cat flap - even if you are crate training - the cat may not regard a crated dog as a safe obstacle to negotiate
It all sounds like a complete nightmare, but those are 'worst case' scenarios - and anything better or easier is a bonus - you just need to be prepared for the worst, and
know that the animals will be stressed upon introduction, but in 95% of cases will settle quite easily if given the chance, even if that requires a little guidance
I'll see about uploading the photo's from my nightmare fortnight tomorrow so everybody can see how rewarding it can be when dogs are introduced methodically
Calendar
so again, homechecks went out the window and I just had to get stuck in
)
and feel a failure hence the reason i didnt post
