Hvordan ved du, om du skulle adoptere din fosterhund?

Hej, vi ville dele om, hvordan det er at prøve at beslutte, om du officielt skulle adoptere din fosterhund!

Det er ikke altid et indlysende valg, så vi ved nøjagtigt, hvad du går igennem, hvis du i øjeblikket har en plejepunkt.

Først skriver Lindsay om at prøve at beslutte, om hun skulle adoptere hendes fosterhund, Lana. Derefter skriver Barbara om, hvorfor hun besluttede at adoptere sin Foster Pup, Pablo (nu navngivet Wally West!).

Til sidst forsøger vi at besvare et par almindelige spørgsmål for at hjælpe dig med at tage den rigtige beslutning med din egen fosterhund.

Skal jeg adoptere min fosterhund?

Lindsay her!

Dette overrasker ikke nogen, men min mand Josh og jeg spekulerer på, om vi skulle adoptere vores fosterhund Lana (Robin).

Vi har været frem og tilbage om det lige siden hun kom for at blive hos os for to uger siden.

Her er hvorfor: Jeg kan ikke tænke på en bedre anden hund for os.

Hvis vi ikke adopterer Lana, vil det ikke være på grund af hende. Det er fordi vi måske ikke er klar til to permanente hunde endnu.

Du skulle tro, at dette ville være et let valg, men det er meget svært! Jeg elsker Lana, men jeg er ikke sikker på, at vi er helt klar til to hunde.

Jeg leder ikke efter råd om, hvorvidt vi skal vedtage. Det er en beslutning, at Josh og jeg (og vores hund Ace) er nødt til at tage for os selv.

Stadig er jeg nysgerrig efter, hvordan resten af ​​jer besluttede, om du skulle adoptere dine fosterhunde eller katte. Fortæl mig det i kommentarerne.

Bemærk, at jeg bestemt ikke er en til at blive knyttet til mine plejer dyr normalt.

Jeg har plejet omkring 14 hunde og 4 katte, og den typiske tekst, jeg sender Josh, når jeg finder ud af, at en af ​​dem bliver adopteret, går noget i retning af:

“Barkley blev adopteret !! gudskelov!!”

Og så reagerer han med noget i retning af “Woooo!”

Og så åbner jeg en øl op for at fejre.

Selvfølgelig elsker jeg mine plejepersoner, men de fleste af dem er meget stressende.

Fosterhunde er meget arbejde!

Fremme er normalt meget arbejde, og Lana er ingen undtagelse.

Hun har vågnet mig kl. 17 hver morgen, Yipping, og det irriterer mig.

Hun svækker al opmærksomheden fra Ace, som jeg synes er ekstremt frustrerende.

Hun vælger og bliver alt for ophidset, når vi passerer andre hunde på vandreture, og jeg er klar over, at hun er snor aggressiv.

Langt fra perfekt. Stort set en brat, faktisk. Men vi elsker stadig hende. Hun er så sød!

Nogen ansøg venligst om hende snart! ?

2020 -opdatering: Vi endte med at finde det perfekte hjem til Lana, et meget atletisk, for nylig pensioneret par adopterede hende. De bor på en ranch i det sydlige Californien og er meget aktive med deres dyr hver dag. Lana er så tilfreds med sin nye familie, og vi endte med at få en Weimaraner -hvalp, Remy.

Nu vil Barbara dele sin historie om sin Foster Pup, Wally.

“Foster Fail:” Hvorfor besluttede jeg at adoptere min fosterhund

Hej Barbara her! Jeg skriver regelmæssigt for den mutt. Jeg er også en blogger over K9S over kaffe og en plejefejl! Sådan skete det.

Jeg plejede min nu hvalp Wally i nøjagtigt en måned, før jeg besluttede at adoptere ham selv. Det var i januar 2019.

Jeg havde mistet min tidligere hvalp, Boxer Mix Missy, til kræft i april 2018. Få måneder før var hendes bror Buzz flyttet ind med min eks, så jeg gik fra at have to hvalpe i huset til ingen.

Den følelse af at komme hjem til et tomt hus sugede. Faktisk føltes det overhovedet ikke som at komme hjem mere. Hjem var altid, hvor mine hunde var, og pludselig var mit hjem intet andet end en tom bygning.

Mens jeg virkelig ville have en doggie -ledsager igen, kunne jeg bare ikke få mig selv til at trække i udløseren ved at finde en ny lodret ven.

Jeg ved, det lyder fjollet, men det føltes som om jeg ville snyde Missy og Buzz. Af og til så jeg en vens små hvalpe hos mig, men det var ikke det samme som med mine egne hunde.

Hvordan jeg blev fostermor i første omgang

8 måneder senere, i december 2018, besluttede jeg endelig, at jeg var klar til at gennemse billeder af vedtagelige hvalpe på petfinder.com.

En smuk kvindelig hvalp, Delilah, fangede mit øje. Hun var en større sort / hvid mutt. Da jeg begyndte at spørge om hende, fortalte redningsorganisationen mig, at hun blev fremmet af en familie.

Lang historie kort, indsendte jeg en applikation sammen med en virtuel rundvisning i mit hus og flere referencer.

Når det blev godkendt, gik jeg ud til familiens hjem og mødte Delilah. Hun var en rigtig kæreste, og hendes fostermor og jeg tog hende en tur, så jeg kunne opleve hende i snor. Hun var fantastisk!

Jeg ville have været i stand til at tage hende hjem lige da og der, bortset fra at jeg allerede havde planlagt at gå til stranden i et par dage over nytår med en ven.

Vi lejede et strandhjem, der ikke tillader hunde, så jeg ville ikke have været i stand til at tage Delilah sammen med mig på den tur.I asked the rescue if they would hold Delilah for a week until I got back from my trip. To my surprise, they weren’t willing to do that and explained that dogs were being adopted on a first come, first serve basis. fair nok.

One week later, Delilah had been adopted by a different family!

I was disappointed of course, but then a few days later the rescue lady asked me if I’d be willing to foster a dog who’d just been returned after having been adopted a month before. I felt bad for the pup and said yes.

Enter Wally, the Feist Dog

That’s how Wally entered my life and turned me into a foster mom, except back then his name was still Pablo. Pablo-Wally was a 38 lb Feist mix.

If you’ve never heard about that breed, you can read more about it in that Mutt’s article What is a Feist Dog?

Feist mix Wally and Barbara

Pablo-Wally moved in with me in early January. one of the advantages of fostering a dog is that the rescue organization covers all food and medical costs. All I had to provide was TLC and a safe place.

Stressful first few days

The first few days with Pablo-Wally were stressful as we didn’t know each another yet. He didn’t know what I expected of him and vice versa.

So, Pablo-Wally was stressed out the first few days of our new living situation. He showed me just how stressed he was when he decided to lift his leg on the back of my beautiful midcentury sectional. flere gange. GULP!

I thought about it and then came to the conclusion that this had to be stress-related on his part and therefore temporary. However, the behavior itself had to be fixed right away.

So I went ahead and wrapped a doggie diaper around him in a first quick-solution attempt. That worked right away and his leg stayed down.

Another path I took was to leash him inside the house when he wasn’t wearing his diaper and either attach the leash to me or some nearby furniture, e.g. the fridge when I was cooking in the kitchen. When I wasn’t home, I crated him, but never for any longer than 4 hours.

The rescue lady also suggested to give him a few of those relaxation pills that he came with. I think it was Alprazolam, but I’m not entirely sure of the name anymore.

Those combined attempts worked out nicely and he soon stopped wanting to mark inside the house.

Do I really want to keep fostering this pup?!

I’ll be honest and say that that very question popped into my mind when I made the mistake of comparing Pablo-Wally to my late pup Missy.

After all, Missy had never peed on my furniture. She also never did any of his other “interesting” behavior! read on for a few more GULP moments!

The bed destruction

For example, Pablo-Wally had no clue what to do with a doggie bed. HVAD?! I still had Missy’s plush round bed, so I was willing to pass it on to him. Technically, she had always been a little too big for it, but she had loved curling up in it.

Pablo-Wally first preferred to lie down next to it. He finally agreed to walk into it when I put a tasty treat in there.

He then figured out fairly quickly that this was a pretty comfy space to be in.

However, just a few days into our foster adventure, he also figured out that it was super fun to bite right into the plush raised rim and pull the stuffing out. GULP! Missy had never done that!!

Pablo-Wally lounging in Missy’s old bed, before he decided to rip it apart!The “anything-plush” destruction

Clearly I also didn’t know that he had a thing for destroying anything plush, regardless of size, shape, and purpose. He destroyed that bed followed by countless plush toys and anything else that was plush, regardless of whether it was a doggie thing or not.

The expensive toy-kidnapping phase

The first few times I took him along into pet retail stores, he managed to “kidnap” plush toys we walked by and then refused to let go.

I ended up having to pay for them, and Pablo-Wally proudly trotted out of the store, tightly holding on to his precious “prey” which was promptly destroyed thereafter. GULP yet again. Missy had also never done that!!

By the way, he’s gotten a lot better at controlling his impulse to simply steal plush toys when we’re out shopping, but he’s still drawn to them. The moment I don’t pay attention, he’ll still grab one. except that now, he allows me to take it out of his mouth.

The itchy skin phase

Pablo-Wally came to me as one itchy pup. I immediately made the connection between his itchy skin and the poor quality dry dog food he was eating.

I have to interject that I’ve been feeding raw dog food since 2015. over the years I’ve come to majorly appreciate one of 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. FÆRDIG! 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