| What Is Foster Care? Westie Rescue – SE Michigan 5/30/2000 You may be considering volunteering to do foster care for Westie Rescue. And we are always looking for good homes to foster our Westies in need. But often the term "Foster Care" has a different meaning to different people. Unfortunately, many people who want to do foster care have the idea that this means babysitting a sweet, little dog for a few days. And sometimes, the motive in volunteering is to use it as a method to screen for a dog that the foster home can adopt. Before you fill out the foster care application, we would like to help you understand the "reality" of foster care and what would be expected of you. TYPES OF DOGS IN FOSTER CAREIn Michigan’s Westie Rescue program, we only foster those dogs with special needs or concerns which make them hard to place directly. This means that all those sweet little dogs generally go from their original home to the adoptive home without foster care in between. The dogs in foster care usually have a special problem which requires some work on the part of the foster care giver. And sometimes this problem is large enough to require that the dog stay for a long time period, perhaps even months. Typical reasons for fostering: FOSTER HOME IDEALS AND GOALS Following are a series of requirements, suggestions and ideals for the care of a foster dog. These are what we should all be "shooting for" in the care of a foster dog. None of us will be able to do all of these things all of the time but we should be trying to incorporate these things to the best of our ability and as our life styles allow. LOVING CARE What could be more important than loving care? This doesn’t mean you need to truly feel love for every dog. In fact, to some extent you must take care not to bond too closely or you will find it difficult to stay in foster care. BUT there is a myth that you should not allow a foster dog to bond to you. The thought is that the dog has already had to break one bond and when he leaves you, he will have to break another bond. This is "human think". Dogs don’t seem to respond this way at all. What happens instead is that when a Westie learns that he can trust you and bonds with you, it makes it easier for him to transfer that bond to his new human when the time comes. The transitions you went through initially may not evidence themselves in the new home because this time he has learned to trust and doesn’t need to do as much testing. This doesn’t mean that you spoil the dog to death. It is a good medium point to treat the dog well, cuddle him and allow him to sleep beside you while you are reading or working. But leave some room for the next home to be "even better" in his mind. A good example is to not let the dog sleep in your bed. SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS You never know how the new home will handle sleeping arrangements. If it turns out that they plan to crate the dog at night, you have created a problem if you allow the foster dog to sleep in your bed. It is better to train them to sleep in a crate at night. Then the permanent home can make their own decision about where the dog will sleep and he will be able to adjust to whatever they decide. Another reason for not allowing the dog in your bed is that it can encourage the dog to feel as though it can challenge you for Alpha. If the dog is a dominant dog, you DO NOT want him or her in your bed. It will make your life harder 24 hours a day because the dog will not see you as boss. And finally, you don’t really know this dog yet. Before we learned this lesson we had a couple of instances where the foster dog was startled in his sleep and snapped at a moving object. In both cases these dogs connected but it really wasn’t their fault. We didn’t know them well enough to let them sleep with us. Keep that dog in a crate at night. If the dog objects to the crate, put it in another room and close the door so you can ignore the barking. Give the dog something such as Calms before he goes in the crate for the first couple of nights if he is agitated. Don’t put him to bed early. Stay up as late as you can so that he will be very sleepy. When you crate the dog, put him in the crate by dropping a treat in the back of the crate. Once he is in the crate, don’t give in to his barking. If you do, you are re-enforcing his behavior. FOOD We really encourage all foster homes to research the quality of dog food that you are feeding to your own dogs. Please give serious consideration to changing to a "human grade" food such a Beowulf, Flint River, Innova, California Natural… Please see these web sites for more information: www.msu.edu/~silvar/ahealth.htm http://flintriver.virtualave.net/ Also look into The Missing Link as a food supplement: www.designinghealth.com (better prices at www.revivalanimal.com .) When feeding the foster, we would like this dog also to be on a high quality dog food. When the dog is adopted, please provide at least 1 pound of dog food so that the new owners can use that until they get their own supply or can slowly change the dog over to whatever they are feeding. Give them information from the dog food to encourage them to consider the switch to a human quality food. EXERCISE All dogs need some exercise. If you can do so, please try to take the dog for a walk each day. If that isn’t practical, then make sure they can get out into the yard and run around each day. But be sure they are protected by fencing or a dog run. GROOMING Dogs need to be able to handle some daily grooming. Try to do the following daily:
If the dog has socialization problems and you don’t have a lot of visitors to your home, you might take the dog to a local strip mall and walk the dog there. When people approach, they may want to pet. If you don’t feel confident that the dog can handle that, ask them to give the dog a treat instead (keep them in your pocket in hopes this will happen.) Have them lay the treat on the sidewalk in front of the dog but make sure he sees that this good stuff is coming from all of these strange and various people. Keep the dog on leash and under control and don’t take risks. But gradually allow the dog to learn that people are good. The dog can also be taken to the local pet store but kept on leash. CAR You will see helpful information on getting a dog used to a car in Health and Behavior on www.westieclubamerica.com. Using this information, get the dog into the car and give him good car experiences. Take the dog to the park whenever possible. Try taking him through the car wash. Any time a foster dog is in the car, it must be in the back seat away from the air bags and it must be restrained either in a seat belt harness or a crate. TRAININGYou probably won’t have the dog long enough to do formal training with him. But everyone can do some minor training. Examples are: SIT DOWN STAY SIT AND STAY AT THE DOOR These are all things that will help the new owners with the dog and will help to keep the dog safe. Most Westies will learn these things at an incredible pace. Occasionally you may have one who has had an unusual life and may not be immediately ready for anything much more than sit. We have had some dogs who lived their lives in a barn. When they came into foster care, they were not capable of learning these things immediately. They had so much other "stuff" to absorb that training just had to be set aside. After a week, one of them learned to sit and stay and sit/stay at the door but still could not handle down. But each dog is different and has a different background. These guys were unusual. On the other hand, I’ve seen some who could, within a week, also do SHAKE HANDS LEAVE IT (leave a treat on the floor until you told him ok) And this did not mean spending a lot of time on these things. These dogs are very smart and they do like to use their brains. They are very proud of themselves when they are given the opportunity to show off. And it teaches them a lot of other things than just the trick. A dog who can "leave it" or "sit/stay at the door" is showing a lot of self control. FOOD AGGRESSIONIf a dog comes to you and you find he is food aggressive, there are things to do to fix this. First, is he aggressive to humans or just other dogs. Second, is his aggression at the food dish only or over all treats too? When you find a dog with these concerns, we can send you a memo from Deb Duncan to help you work through these problems. WEIGHT If you realize the dog is overweight or if your vet tells you the dog is overweight, please immediately take steps to get that excess weight off the dog. This can mean cutting back on his food, taking more walks and usually the main culprit is FEWER TREATS. If you are using treats for training, take away some amount of his normal food to balance it out. In fact, for many dogs, you can do the training when he is hungry and use his actual kibble as the treats. PHOTOS If at all possible, please take out your camera and take photos for a memory book. Get some early on and some later. Try to get some of the foster brothers/sisters and other doggie or kitty friends your foster might meet. You can get a cheap album for $2 or so. It makes a great gift for the new owners to see their dog while he was in foster care. Also, if it becomes necessary to list the dog on the web site, the photos make all the difference. And if there is a medical situation for which WestieMed might get involved, they need before and after photos. VET CHECKS FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOU AND YOUR PETS, always take the dog to the vet as soon as possible after receiving the dog unless you have medical records in hand that show: ALL SHOTS ARE UP TO DATE:RABIES (One year for puppies; usually 3 year for adults; papers should show expiration date) DHLP (Annual) BORDETELLA (Annual if shot; 6 mos. if nasal) (At your option) WORM CHECKS: RECENT FECAL CHECK CURRENT HEARTWORM MEDICATION Check to see if the dog is actually taking a heartworm medication currently, no matter what time of the year and you have been given a supply of the pills. If the dog is not currently on heartworm medication, we want to be sure the dog is heartworm free, therefore we want to do a HEARTWORM TEST. Of course we would take the dog to the vet if the dog needs to be neutered or spayed (and ask the vet to check the teeth to see if a dental needs to be done while the dog is under). And if the dog exhibits any problems which might be medical in nature, we want to see the vet. NOTE: Check the dog for fleas….esp. if it has come from a shelter. If coming from a shelter, a flea bath is probably a very good first step. Before the worm checks are done, pick up after the dog every time it eliminates so that your dog won’t have a chance to sniff it. You can stop this precaution as soon as the vet gets the heartworm check back or the dog has been on a wormer for a day. DETAILS 1) Take all available medical records with you and give them to the vet staff to determine what the dog needs to bring it up to date on shots and if there are any other problems for which the dog is being treated (e.g., special diet, regular medications etc.) If no medical records or records are incomplete or you are not certain of how to read the records, BUT we know the name and location or number of original vet, when you make the appointment, give this information to the vet staff and ask them to call and gather all information required prior to the appointment. If no medical records and we don't know anything about the old vet, then assume the worst and do everything needed to bring the dog up to date. This can mean giving the dog his shots twice but we don’t have any choice. Pass on ALL records at time of adoption including those from your vet; one copy to Rescue and original to the adopter. 2) If the dog is exhibiting any sort of problem, have that checked out specifically, e.g., limp, peeing, possible pain in some area, ear rubbing, scratching etc. Tell the vet what is happening and then follow his/her recommendations. Note: If the vet recommends steroids, ask about alternatives. In some cases steroids are justified but in many cases the vets are very quick to jump to steroids before trying anything else. If this is a skin problem, discuss it with the others in the group before going to the vet so you will have an idea of what to expect and will be armed with other possible things to try before resorting to steroids. In fact, it would probably be of benefit to discuss any kind of problem with the rest of the group to gather facts before going to the vet. You will understand more of what the vet is saying if you have a concept of the problem before hand. An example of this was the research we did on Sassy’s limp before she went to the vet. We knew quite a bit about luxated patellas before the vet saw her. 3) If you are going in knowing that surgery is necessary (e.g.. spaying and neutering) or the vet recommends a dental be done, make the arrangements. Have the vet do a full blood panel first. This helps to ensure that the surgery will be safe and will also give us more confidence that the dog is healthy before we adopt it out. If the surgery recommendation is unexpected, please check back first with Rescue and discuss the problem and the reasons for the recommendation AND projected costs and probable outcome (e.g., likelihood of survival, after effects.) 4) If your dog is on year around heartworm prevention, then put this dog on the same prevention (to protect your dog). Buy 2 month's worth of the medication on the assumption that you will use one and hand one off to the new owner (of course, do the heartworm testing first). If the dog is in foster care longer, you can always pick up an extra pill later. If your dog is on seasonal protection, and it is March or later, put the dog on the seasonal medication. Get 2 months worth. NOTE: The reason for this is that the new owner is far more likely to get to the vet and keep up the prevention if we can hand them one tablet and give them instructions to give it on such and such a date and to get to the vet to renew it before the next month's date comes around. If we don't hand them anything, they are less likely to get themselves to the vet right away. A lot of adopters are new to dogs and don't necessarily realize that this needs to be done. And, of course, we would prefer to know if the dog has heartworm before we adopt it out.
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