Volunteering as a Dog Foster - Love It!!

Each year when the 'big' holidays roll around it becomes the Giving Season.  Not just gifts we buy or make for family and friends, but charitable giving too.  I like to believe that it's human nature for each of us to want to make a difference for the better. I also definitely believe that when you're doing something to improve another's life you end up gaining more than you give.  Volunteering is one of the most rewarding forms of giving and it comes in many forms.  Not quite two years ago, I started volunteering as a dog foster for Dogs XL Rescue.

The First Five Fosters

Every pet for my entire life has been a rescue.  When I was five my Mom and Dad brought home Sandy.  She was a beautiful Collie/Shepherd/Husky mix who was advertised in Laurel as "Free to a good home".   After Sandy, my Mom wanted my younger brother to have a dog so my family adopted Scooby-Doo, a Cock-a-poo who's father we strongly suspect might also have been her brother.  She was a great little dog who lived to be seventeen.  Then, as an adult I adopted Maggy and now I have Alby.  I adopted Alby from Dogs XL Rescue when he was about 10 weeks old.

Alby is a friendly dog who loves other dogs.  It's his friendliness and general happy nature that prompted me to make the call to Dogs XL to inquire about fostering.  You have to complete a screening process to become a foster - a conversation with the volunteer coordinator to understand why you want to be a foster and you can ask all your questions about being a foster.  There's a check with your vet to make sure your pets are all up to date on vaccinations and preventatives like flea and tick and heartworm.  Then, there's a home visit as a final check to make sure everything is a-ok. Which for me meant cleaning the heck out of my house!  Then you find out you passed!!  Sign this agreement and you can be a dog foster and then, yikes, they give you a dog!!

I drove to the address I was given and they sent me home with "Brue".  Timid Brue was about a year and a half old and he and Alby got along really well.  Brue was a husky, lab mix, with maybe some hound, with one brown and one blue eye.  Hence the name, Brue.  He was a total sweetheart and was at our house for maybe two and a half weeks before he got adopted.  In that short time period he became part of our lives.  Every morning when I let him out of his crate he went on the daily walk with Alby and I.  He raced around the house like mad playing with Alby.  I brought home two antlers, one for each of them and they lay side by side chewing them and sometimes trading.  I took selfies with Brue and posted them on my Facebook page.  A lot of my friends wondered if Brue might be a permanent resident at my house as I wouldn't be able to let him go.

One of the requirements to being a dog foster is taking your dog to an adoption event.  Brue and I went to one at a PetSmart in Glen Burnie after he'd been with us his first week.  Here's what I didn't know - if someone has been approved to adopt with the rescue they can come to an adoption event and take home a dog! What?!!  I wasn't ready to give up sweet Brue after only one week.  So, everyone that came over to meet him I would ask "Are you approved?".  I don't know what I'd do if they said yes.  Maybe grab Brue and run to the car yelling "NOT YET!!"  Luckily for me I didn't have to make that decision because no one who checked him out was approved.

Brue did meet his forever family at the event though.  A family of 6, Mom, Dad and four kids.  Two of the kids were teenage twin daughters and Brue was going to be their dog and sleep in their beds at night.  I really liked them and when they told me that when they went away they signed their Guinea Pig up for extra petting I said to Brue "Hey, that's your family!  I love them."  Brue's family put in an application for him that day and came to my house about a week and a half later to adopt him and take him home.  Brue is a super happy fellow and he is well loved and well taken care of.  Yes, I definitely cried after they left, but I was so happy for Brue and so happy for that family.  He was such a good fit for them and vice versa.  They have a fenced yard for him to run around in and someone is nearly always home to give him attention.  Brue is a snuggly and cuddly dog so it's easy to love him.

Alby and I had no foster for about a week, and then we brought home "The Dude".  Even more timid than Brue, it took him a week to move from room to room.  Like Brue, he got along great with Alby and he was fun to have around until he got adopted by another foster in the rescue.

Super Gus

All the dogs I've fostered have not been easy.  One of the things I've learned as a dog foster is how little I really know about dogs.  Alby was a semi-well trained dog but like every dog he has a few issues.  His main issue is that when we're out on walks he would like to catch fast moving objects like Motorcycles, bikes, runners.  I always say if its running or on wheels, motorized or otherwise, Alby would like to catch it.  When you're walking two dogs this can become an issue if the second dog decides they like Alby's idea to chase.  The dogs I foster are typically the same size that Alby is and he's 75 lbs. so when you have two dogs going berserk it becomes an issue.  Our last foster, Super Gus, decided chasing cars and everything else Alby chased was the way to go and I knew I had a problem.  Not only did I have two berserkers out on a walk, but it started to cause fights.  Nobody bit anybody, they mostly made one another very spitty, but if you'd been a witness you would have thought it was a vicious battle.

I contacted the rescue and we made other arrangements for Gus (who I am happy to say has since been adopted) and Alby and I headed back to school.  We signed up for Basic Obedience at Teclas's K-9 Training Academy.  The training wasn't cheap, but it was worth every penny and rescue dogs do receive a 5% discount.  Alby's chasing is now under control, and I have more tools for getting not just him, but the fosters who come through our house as well, to behave.  In order for me to be a foster, the foster dog has to fit into our routine.  I have a full time day job and I rarely work from home these days.  That morning walk is hugely important.

We have also fostered a very reactive dog.  A lot of times dogs are shut down when they get to a rescue.  They land in the shelter for various reasons.  They could have been a stray who experienced extreme abuse, or been abandoned by their family and been in the loud shelter for a while or even had a reactive mother.  This dog, who I loved very much, was like that - completely shut down.  As she lived with us though she started to come out of her shell.  She learned to trust me, and she learned to like Alby - he was very afraid of her in the beginning.  In the house with myself and Alby, she was wonderful.  She had a sweet and funny personality and was super affectionate.  Alby and I were the only ones who knew that though since she didn't trust anyone else.  I did have to put a muzzle on her when we went out on our walks - living in Columbia people do use the paths even in the very early morning hours and I couldn't take a chance that she'd bite someone.  She wasn't the kind of dog who went after someone, but rather if someone came into her space, that's when the trouble would start. Eventually this sweet dog went to California where someone could work with her to overcome her issues.  While she was with us though, I read a lot of books about dogs with behavioral issues.  One of the things I found that I thought worked really well was called Behavior Adjustment Training.  I used all of the techniques I read about in the book.  Unfortunately, rescues have very limited resources and this type of training can take up to a year.  Yes, I cried very hard when this dog left because I want only the best life for her and every dog that comes through my door.

If you foster with Dogs XL they cover all of the expenses for the dog.  Food, preventatives, visits to the vet - all are paid for in full by Dogs XL.   You are supposed to take your foster dog to at least two events each month if you can.  The majority of dogs meet their new family at an adoption event so these are very important.  The average time it takes one of our dogs to get adopted is two weeks. I've picked up my dog and gotten an email that night that an approved adopter wants to meet them and I've had dogs for several weeks before they get adopted.  I've been volunteering with the rescue long enough now that they trust me to help with transport - checking all the dogs in when they arrive in Baltimore before they head out to a foster home.  We have to make sure they get their preventatives and that they're microchipped.

Except for one time, I have never considered any of the fosters to be my dog.  I love them all.  It's

Mora

harder to see some go than others.  Alby has gotten along with the majority of them although I'd say his favorites are probably Brue and the reactive dog.  I know, that sounds crazy but the two of them were quite buddy buddy when she left and he definitely missed her after she was gone.  I fell in love with Mora who of course was only with me for a week, but I loved her from the moment I saw her picture. When she got to my house she climbed right up on my couch where dogs are not allowed and I didn't make her get down.  I got a look from Alby, "Hey!!  What's going on here?"  I really wanted to keep her but I just didn't see how I could work it out.  Saying good bye to Mora was extremely difficult and yes, I cried.  Her new pet Dad loves her very much too and she's doing well.  Of course, she's a great dog.

I've had a total of 13 fosters come through my house.  Alby and I have been on a bit of a break while we worked on his training issues, but we're going to be getting somebody new in January.  It was a hardship for the rescue when I had to take a break.  Rescues aren't just hurting for funds, they're also hurting for volunteers.  If you think you have it in you to volunteer with a rescue, then I strongly encourage you to do it.  Volunteering with rescue is not easy.  It can be heartbreaking, but it can also be rewarding.  I love it.  I hope to be a dog foster for quite a while and when I don't think I can handle fostering, I hope to do other jobs that the rescue needs help with.  Dogs XL is a wonderful organization and a lot of people have found their furry family member through them.  Dogs add so much to our lives that I think when you save a Dog's life, you're also saving a human's life.  Happy Giving Season!