My dear friend Christine replied to my post about taking a break from fostering. Her wonderful idea is to use my blog to give support and help to those who may be fostering their first dog, their 100th or still just thinking about giving it a try. By sharing tales of past foster dogs and comments from readers lets try to do just that. Sound good?
First, you should know that many many dog lovers have done this far longer than I. I do not profess to be a trainer, it's not my strong point. Our home here at Shedd has been dubbed more than once as a "summer camp" for Border Collies.
Everyone has different criteria in how they rescue and maybe even why they rescue. We are all independent but generally have the same goal in mind, to take a dog from a bad situation and prepare it the best we can for a much better one.
Please chime in anytime with your comments/suggestions. The more we learn together the better to achieve our goal.
4 comments:
This is a wonderful idea. I am fostering my first dog (a BC) that came from Oregon.
My first question is: How much or little interaction should my foster have with my own dogs and what would you do if they squabble??
I introduce a new foster dog to my pack of 5 border collies one or two at a time over the course of a few minutes to a few hours. It depends on the foster's age, sex, temperament. All the dogs share the same yard and indoor living space. Sometimes I will use a long line on the new dog if I think I'll need to separate them quickly due to pending problems. I'm very lucky in the fact my own dogs have become so used to having strange canines join the pack that they rarely react. The fact that I don't have a kennel or other space for a foster dog to stay, they all have to get along. I do keep crates set up in the living room if a dog needs to be separate from the others for a while, kind of a time out. New fosters are usually crated at night.
First of all i'm so happy you started this dialogue, I think there is so much we can learn from one another and pass on to others what we know!
For me it depends on the resident dog, if they all would be as experienced as Vicki's it would be a breeze. Unfortunately we don't all have such easy going critters.
My Gwen was one of these typical Border Collie bitches who carried the name Bitch with a capital B like it was a title. Mrs. snarky face. A lot of dogs had problems reading her doggy body language which obviously said ' go away'! And than she would give a fair warning by showing her pearly whites. I knew her better than she knew herself.
So whenever I brought a foster home I made sure introductions were made on neutral grounds. With neutrals grounds I mean your yard, with doggy toys out of the way, nothing that can be claimed as, mine, mine, mine!
I would let the new dog sniff around and later bring out Gwen, who ignored the new dog if all went well.
We go indoors, first me, Gwen and the new dog, I would show the new dog the home just walk him/ her from room to room and finally ending with her crate, in a quiet spot but still part of the family. And our home is they same as Vick's, dogs are part of the pack, no difference between resident dogs or foster dogs. They need to get along and if they have issues they need to work it out.
Even though my Gwen was mrs.B she never got into a fight with another dog. She just didn't need to.
If they squabble I let them, as long as no one is seriously injured they just growl or snark at each other I ignore it. But I can hear at the tone of the snarling at which level we are and I tell them to knock it off when it gets too intense.
No fights inside my home and no snarling and growling with me in the middle. You have to set the rules what is acceptable behavior to you and what isn't. Have a spray bottle with water handy to break up squabbles. Take note, squabbles are totally different than fighting.
As to how much interaction a dog must have with your pack; to me a dog becomes a member of the pack and will be treated that way. After all you want him to be socialized and knowing what it is like to live with other dogs. If there are no medical reasons to keep them separated I would not do that. I would teach him to sleep in his crate from day one, his own safe place, but as for the rest it would be normal family life, same rules for the new dog as for the rest!
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