# Fostering, again?



## blehmannwa (Jan 11, 2011)

I worked with the Seattle Animal Shelter and Pit Bull Rescue for a couple of years--2003-2005 and helped place about six dogs. My shortest foster was 3 days, my longest was over six months. I only fostered puppies.
At that time, my household was 2 GSDX female seniors that had lots of off leash interaction with other dogs and I had a 3 year old female pitbull who wanted my approval. Felony was dog aggressive but in a controlled environment, she played by my rules.She was great with the pups, I'd let her play with them under my watchful eye.

Now I have handsome Havoc--who is dog reactive but obedient and Tempest who is a nerve case but does have the pitbull desire to please. I have crates and gates and experience but I just don't know if I want to go back into fostering.

One thing is that I don't sleep well or much so I have a lot of patience for puppies. I'm thinking of volunteering again--just male pups because I think that Havoc would tolerate a young male and I'm not sure that Temps would like female competition. 

Any thoughts? I stopped fostering because my big girls were getting too old for the pups. They hated them when they came and missed them when they left.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

I think fostering puppies is probably a good way to get started again, especially if you're not 100% sure you want to do it, because puppies are so much easier to place on average than adult dogs can be.

My puppy fosters have all taken less than three weeks to turn around (some only 48 hours, which is the absolute minimum amount of time I'll allow), and the ones who were here for two or three weeks only took that long because they had medical issues that needed treatment or because they already had committed homes, but I was holding them for foundational training at the adopter's request.

So my experience has been that puppies are SUPER fast and easy to place, and therefore not nearly as much of a commitment as older dogs can be, especially if you choose cute fluffy extra-adoptable pups.


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## blehmannwa (Jan 11, 2011)

Thanks. I think that I'll talk to some old rescue buddies and let them know that I'm available for the right dog. You must have been lucky with turnover. I had two pit pups that spent over 5 months with me.


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## Merciel (Apr 25, 2013)

It could be regional differences, maybe. There's a HUGE demand for puppies in this area. Pitties are still the slowest to place, even here, but they seldom stay in our rescue for more than a month if the fosters are diligent about bringing them to adoption events.

I'm also really _really_ active about marketing my foster dogs -- I often have a waitlist (my incoming foster isn't even here yet, but she has eight waiting homes to choose from) and I've adopted dogs out to great homes in Minnesota (twice), Wisconsin, Alabama, Vermont, etc. People will spend four days on the road or buy plane tickets to adopt these dogs.

Such is the power of posting cute trick videos on the Internet, I guess. But yeah it's all marketing. Evocative writeups, cute pictures, fun stories, and videos that make the dogs seem like good, friendly, easily trained pets (which they legitimately are, because I won't foster the problem cases anymore).


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## Bear L (Feb 9, 2012)

Fostering has helped my dog reactive weak nerve dog for the better. And she in return has helped the shy dog and shown dogs how to do certain things that I cannot convey as well as a dog can to each other. Each foster helped my dog to get better with the subsequent one. 

Your dog may benefit just as much as the dogs you foster. =)


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