How Do You know if you should adopt Your Foster Dog?

Hello, we wanted to share about what it’s like trying to decide if you should officially adopt your foster dog!

It’s not always an obvious choice, so we know exactly what you’re going through if you currently have a foster pup.

First, Lindsay writes about trying to decide whether or not to adopt her foster dog, Lana. then Barbara writes about why she decided to adopt her foster pup, Pablo (now named Wally West!).

Last, we try to answer a few common questions to help you make the right decision with your own foster dog.

Should I adopt my foster dog?

Lindsay here!

This won’t surprise anyone, but my husband Josh and I are wondering if we should adopt our foster dog Lana (Robin).

We’ve been going back and forth about it ever since she came to stay with us two weeks ago.

Here’s why: I can’t think of a better second dog for us.

If we don’t adopt Lana, it won’t be because of her. It’s because we might not be ready for two permanent dogs quite yet.

You’d think this would be an easy choice, but it’s very hard! I love Lana but I’m not sure we’re quite ready for two dogs.

I’m not looking for advice on whether or not we should adopt. It’s a decision Josh and I (and our dog Ace) need to make for ourselves.

Still, I’m curious how the rest of you decided whether or not to adopt your foster dogs or cats. let me know in the comments.

Note that I’m definitely not one to get attached to my foster animals normally.

I’ve fostered about 14 dogs and 4 cats, and the typical text I send Josh when I find out one of them is getting adopted goes something like:

“Barkley got adopted!! slava Domnului!!”

And then he responds with something like, “WOOOO!”

And then I crack open a beer to celebrate.

Of course, I love my foster animals, but most of them are very stressful.

Foster dogs are a lot of work!

Fostering is usually a lot of work, and Lana is no exception.

She’s been waking me up at 5 a.m. every morning, yipping, and it pisses me off.

She hogs all the attention from Ace, which I find extremely frustrating.

She whines and gets way too excited when we pass other dogs on walks, and I’m realizing she is leash aggressive.

Far from perfect. pretty much a brat, actually. but we still love her. She’s so cute!

Someone please apply for her soon! ?

2020 UPDATE: We ended up finding the perfect home for Lana, a very athletic, recently retired couple adopted her. They live on a ranch in southern California and are very active with their animals every day. Lana is so happy with her new family, and we ended up getting a weimaraner puppy, Remy.

Now Barbara will share her story about her foster pup, Wally.

“Foster fail:” Why I decided to adopt my foster dog

Hi, Barbara here! I write regularly for That Mutt. I’m also a blogger over at K9s Over Coffee and a foster failure! Here’s how it happened.

I fostered my now pup Wally for exactly one month before I decided to adopt him myself. That was in January of 2019.

I had lost my previous pup, Boxer mix Missy, to cancer in April of 2018. A few months before that, her brother Buzz had moved in with my ex, so I went from having two pups at the house to none.

That feeling of coming home to an empty house sucked. As a matter of fact, it didn’t feel like coming home anymore at all. home was always where my dogs were, and suddenly my home was nothing but an empty building.

While I really wanted to have a doggie companion again, I just couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger on finding a new furry friend.

I know it sounds silly, but it felt like I’d be cheating on Missy and Buzz. Every now and then, I watched a friend’s little pups at my place, but it wasn’t the same as being with my own dogs.

How I became a foster mom in the first place

8 months later, in December of 2018, I finally decided that I was ready to browse pictures of adoptable pups on PetFinder.com.

A pretty female pup, Delilah, caught my eye. She was a larger black & white mutt. once I started inquiring about her, the rescue organization told me that she was being fostered by a family.

Long story short, I submitted an application along with a virtual tour of my house and multiple references.

Once it was approved, I went out to the family’s home and met Delilah. She was a real sweetheart, and her foster mom and I took her for a walk so that I could experience her on a leash. She was great!

I would have been able to take her home with me right then and there, except that I had already made plans to go to the beach for a few days over new Year’s with a friend.

We rented a beach home that didn’t allow dogs, so I wouldn’t have been able to take Delilah along with me on that trip.Am întrebat salvarea dacă vor ține Delilah o săptămână până când m -am întors din călătoria mea. Spre surprinderea mea, nu au fost dispuși să facă asta și au explicat că câinii au fost adoptați la prima venire, prima servire. destul de corect.

O săptămână mai târziu, Delilah a fost adoptată de o altă familie!

Desigur, am fost dezamăgită, dar câteva zile mai târziu, doamna de salvare m -a întrebat dacă aș fi dispus să încurajez un câine care tocmai a fost returnat după ce a fost adoptat cu o lună înainte. M -am simțit rău pentru pui și am spus că da.

Intră pe Wally, câinele feist

Așa a intrat Wally în viața mea și m -a transformat într -o mamă adoptivă, cu excepția faptului că numele lui era încă Pablo. Pablo-Wally a fost un mix feist de 38 lb.

Dacă nu ați auzit niciodată despre acea rasă, puteți citi mai multe despre asta în articolul respectiv al lui Mutt Ce este un câine feist?

Feist Mix Wally și Barbara

Pablo-Wally s-a mutat cu mine la începutul lunii ianuarie. Unul dintre avantajele încurajării unui câine este că organizația de salvare acoperă toate costurile alimentare și medicale. Tot ce trebuia să ofer a fost TLC și un loc sigur.

Primele zile stresante

Primele zile cu Pablo-Wally au fost stresante, deoarece încă nu ne știam. Nu știa ce mă așteptam de la el și invers.

Așadar, Pablo-Wally a fost stresat în primele zile ale noii noastre situații de viață. El mi -a arătat cât de stresat a fost când a decis să -și ridice piciorul pe spatele frumosului meu secțiune de la mijlocul centurului. de cateva ori. ÎNGHIŢITURĂ!

M-am gândit la asta și apoi am ajuns la concluzia că aceasta trebuie să fie legată de stres din partea lui și, prin urmare, temporară. Cu toate acestea, comportamentul în sine a trebuit să fie fixat imediat.

Așa că am mers înainte și am înfășurat un scutec de cățeluși în jurul lui într-o primă încercare de soluție rapidă. Asta a funcționat imediat și piciorul i -a rămas jos.

O altă cale pe care am luat -o a fost să -l lipesc în casă, când nu purta scutecul și nici nu -mi atașa lesa la mine, fie la niște mobilier din apropiere, de ex. Frigiderul când găteam în bucătărie. Când nu eram acasă, l -am înfipt, dar niciodată mai mult de 4 ore.

De asemenea, doamna de salvare a sugerat să -i ofere câteva dintre acele pastile de relaxare cu care a venit. Cred că a fost Alprazolam, dar nu mai sunt în totalitate sigur de nume.

Aceste încercări combinate au funcționat frumos și a încetat curând să vrea să marcheze în interiorul casei.

Chiar vreau să continui să încurajez acest pui?!

Voi fi sincer și voi spune că această întrebare mi-a apărut în minte când am făcut greșeala de a-l compara pe Pablo-Wally cu regretatul meu pui Missy.

La urma urmei, Missy nu a făcut niciodată o privire pe mobilierul meu. De asemenea, ea nu a făcut niciodată niciunul din celălalt comportament al său „interesant”! Citiți mai departe pentru câteva momente Gulp!

Distrugerea patului

De exemplu, Pablo-Wally nu avea niciun indiciu ce să facă cu un pat de cățeluși. CE?! Mai aveam patul rotund de pluș al lui Missy, așa că eram dispus să -l transmit. Tehnic, ea fusese întotdeauna un pic prea mare pentru asta, dar îi plăcea să se curbeze în ea.

Pablo-Wally a preferat mai întâi să se întindă lângă el. În cele din urmă, a fost de acord să meargă în ea când am pus acolo un deliciu gustos.

Apoi și -a dat seama destul de repede că acesta era un spațiu destul de confortabil pentru a fi.

Cu toate acestea, la doar câteva zile în aventura noastră de plasament, el și -a dat seama că a fost super distractiv să mușcă chiar în marginea ridicată de pluș și să scoată umplutura. ÎNGHIŢITURĂ! Missy nu făcuse niciodată asta !!

Pablo-Wally Lounging în patul vechi al lui Missy, înainte de a decide să-l smulgă!

În mod clar, nu știam, de asemenea, că a avut un lucru pentru a distruge ceva de pluș, indiferent de dimensiune, formă și scop. El a distrus acel pat urmat de nenumărate jucării de pluș și orice altceva care era pluș, indiferent dacă a fost sau nu o chestie de cățeluș.

Faza scumpă a jucăriei-kidnapping

Primele câteva ori l -am dus în magazinele de vânzare cu amănuntul pentru animale de companie, a reușit să „răpească” jucăriile de pluș de care am mers și apoi a refuzat să dea drumul.

Am sfârșit nevoit să plătesc pentru ei, iar Pablo-Wally a trotat cu mândrie din magazin, ținându-se strâns de prețiosul său „pradă”, care a fost distrus prompt după aceea. Gulp încă o dată. Missy nu făcuse niciodată asta !!

Apropo, el a fost mult mai bun la controlul impulsului său de a fura pur și simplu jucării de pluș atunci când ieșim la cumpărături, dar el este încă atras de ele. În momentul în care nu acord atenție, el va mai apuca unul. Cu excepția faptului că acum, el îmi permite să -l scot din gură.

Faza de piele mâncărime

Pablo-Wally a venit la mine ca un pui de mâncărime. Am făcut imediat legătura între pielea lui de mâncărime și mâncarea de câine uscată de calitate slabă pe care o mânca.

Trebuie să interpun că hrănesc mâncare crudă pentru câini din 2015. De -a lungul anilor, am ajuns să apreciez în mare parte unul dintre The benefits of feeding raw, which is the healthy dog skin aspect.

That translates into no itchy spots and no biting/licking/scratching at the skin. and that’s exactly what Pablo-Wally did at nighttime. Every 45 minutes or so I’d hear him lift up his head followed by “scratch, scratch, scratch” and “lick, lick, lick”. UGH! So annoying and it really messed with my sleep!

I remember immediately adding a raw egg to his dry dog food the next morning after scratchy/itchy night one, followed by emailing the rescue lady and asked for permission to change his diet to raw dog food.

Technically she was on board with a healthier diet, but she asked me to choose a food that would be easy to implement by his next adopter.

Translation: No raw dog food, but dehydrated raw dog food would be fine. TERMINAT! I went and got some dehydrated The honest Kitchen‘s Grain-Free Beef which helped A LOT. It didn’t eliminate his scratching and licking sessions 100%, but like I said, it got less intense.

When I thought about how different Wally was from Missy, I made the following mental list of Wally’s shortcomings:

Feist mix. Missy was a Boxer mix.
Marks on furniture. Missy never did.
Destroys dog beds and toys. Missy only destroyed plush dog toys when she was a puppy.
Steals plush dog toys from pet retail stores. Missy never did.
Has itchy skin. Missy didn’t – but then again, she was also raw-fed.
Doesn’t like water/swimming. Missy loved both!

Why I shouldn’t compare Pablo-Wally to my late pup Missy

And then it dawned on me. I adopted Missy (along with Buzz) when she was 8 weeks old. As a puppy. That meant that I was there to teach her what I wanted in a pup right from the get-go.

Wally didn’t have that advantage. He didn’t have the luxury of a permanent home with loving humans who gently guided him through puppyhood. Instead, he had been at 4 (!) different homes within the first year of his life. My house was home number 5!

No wonder he was confused and acted up! It was also unfair to compare his physical looks to those of Missy. After all, they were both completely different dogs and it obviously wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t part Boxer.

Once I realized that, my mission was clear. I had to jump over my shadow and give Pablo-Wally the good puppy life he deserved, meaning:

No more changing homes, but one forever home
Regular exercise to fulfill him mentally and physically
Real food over processed dry dog food
Lots of TLC

I came to this realization suddenly, about 4 weeks into our fostering adventure. When I emailed the rescue lady to let her know that I’d like to adopt Pablo-Wally myself, she immediately agreed!

That very evening, Pablo-Wally and I went on a little car ride to buy a doggie backpack for him. I wanted him to have one right then and there, and he’s been loving it ever since!

Wally trying on his new backpack at a pet store in Cary, NC

Will my foster dog think I abandoned him?

Honestly, I think that the answer to this question is usually a big fat “NO”. That’s because dogs are able to adapt to different living situations.

However, it’s one of the questions I asked myself when I weighed the pros and cons of adopting Wally. After all, he had already been at 5 different homes, mine included. I’ll admit that because of that fact, it carried some tremendous weight in my decision-making process.

Ultimately, it was also my main motivator in adopting Wally myself. I really didn’t want him to continue to be passed on from one house to the next. I had a hunch that his itchy skin and his working dog bac