Become A Short-Term Foster Home For Dogs

Most recently, I’ve decided to take an extended break from fostering dogs, as dictated by life. home repairs and aging parents mean a lot of travel, an upheaval of interiors, and honestly, way too many distractions.

I miss fostering dogs!

I prefer to have more flexibility so I’m able to pay attention to my foster dogs! Happily, I’m able to be a short-term foster home for dogs so that they can get to safety and begin their vetting.

Short-Term Foster Home For Dogs

A short-term foster home for dogs is typically a 2-4 week placement. Although, fostering dogs for 3-4 days or even overnight is still considered being a short-term foster home! Dogs need a place to stay while waiting for transport and even those few days will give me an opportunity to observe a foster dog and learn information that is useful to the agency.

[Since writing this post, I chose to “short-term” foster Carter, a little guy who’d been stuck in boarding for 9 months with absolutely no one interested in adopting or fostering. I couldn’t bear the thought and went after him. He’s now been with me for months and months. I’m not completely sure why. His perfect family is out there, I know it.

Sometimes, short-term fostering dogs turns into long-term fostering! ]

Finding Baci: I Was Available To Be Her Short-Term Foster Home

It never fails – when my schedule takes me to coastal Alabama, I usually find a Boston terrier (or similar) that needs rescue assistance. It’s like I’m a magnet!

Baci’s picture was posted on a lost/found pets page. In the photo, she was laying on a pile of insulation she’d fashioned into a dog bed. So smart, this little Pug/Boston/English Bulldog mix chose to shelter under the roof of a new construction home in the works. She remained there a week before it became apparent to the carpenters that she wasn’t going home.

All efforts were made to try and connect her with her family. Shelters were called, she was scanned for a chip (and she had one with information that was not updated, all our attempts led to a dead end) looking around the town for any evidence that anyone was making any effort to find her.

While we were looking for her owners, volunteers took her to the vet for a thorough wellness exam. Blood work results revealed what I’ve come to expect from the coastal counties: Baci was Heartworm positive. I’ve heard the diagnosis scores of times and it still makes my heart sink.

Heartworm treatment for her would take a minimum of 4 months, and I knew I couldn’t foster her that long. I agreed to be her short-term foster home. She would stay until she could recover from her spay surgery and catch transportation to her new foster home in a few weeks.

How Being A Short-Term Foster Home is Helpful

Preparing to head home from the vet’s office, Baci wasted no time in revealing her personality. She’d ridden to the vet in a crate, and by golly, she was not riding home in one! No luring or sweet-talking worked. She was NOT going in there.

Put her in any way? Baci braced herself against the crate opening like a starfish. Forcing her in there bordered on being unkind and was out of the question – even though I’m usually a stickler about transporting dogs safely. Using a tethering system, we secured Baci on the seat with a seatbelt. That made her happy and she curled up on the blanket and slept the 2-hour ride home.

The First Week’s Observations Reveal Helpful Information!

I think the first week with a new foster dog is a favorite time for me, it’s an “I check you out, you check me out” time. With a list of things I want to know, I start with the basics: is the foster dog eating/sleeping/peeing/pooping normally and if not why and when might I expect it to normalize. Pee, poop, and I get personal the first week, so I can pretty much tell you how much and how often and what color. Poop. It’s the fifth vital sign.

I also learn pretty quickly if a foster dog is house trained, crate trained, and what – if any – basic manners the dog knows. Baci had one teetee accident in the house the first day – very common – and it was not her fault. I hadn’t yet learned her behavioral cues telling me she needed to go outside. Once I could recognize how she asks to go outside, I learned she was perfectly house-trained. I then could begin observing her bathroom routine.

All dogs have a potty routine! I learned how long our “business” walks needed to be. Baci is not a fast pooper. All of this information would be shared with her next foster home so the transition would be as smooth as possible.

If I’d had more time, I probably would have started to train her to poop on cue.

The Routine of a Short-Term Foster Home

As I observed Baci, I learned a bit about her former routine. She tried to replicate that routine. Her morning activities and what time she goes to bed, for example, are often habituated behaviors. Dogs are a creature of habit and routine, and by allowing her to show me what is familiar to her, I was able to provide similar structure and help her transition be less stressful.

Dogs who don’t show evidence of having a prior routine don’t quite get the freedom Baci did!

Baci put herself to bed in her crate (yay!) mid-evening and slept quietly through the night. Having fostered dogs that cannot sleep at all those first weeks, I was grateful for her ability to sleep restfully until dawn.

A Foster Dog Always Has A Story To Tell!

Baci was not a snuggler at all, but she was affectionate. She liked to stand on your chest while you relaxed reclined in a chair and she would put her entire mouth over your nose. It wasn’t a bite, but I know it used to be!

I began to encourage alternate behaviors and exposed her to the joy of belly rubs. For the duration of her time here, she preferred to sleep alone at the other end of the sofa after she’d smothered my face with her definition of a kiss.

She loved rope toys and dental bones, she de-stuffed a dog bed and piled blankets up really high to make a pillow for her head.

Her leash walking skills were a bit rusty, but she remembered after a day or so that someone had taught her that when she feels tension in the leash, she should sit. It’s not what I teach, but I still praised her for remembering her manners.

I turned the nanny cam on, and when left alone in her crate, she appeared to be calm and relaxed, not overly stressed at my absence.

Someone taught her how to shake hands.

She can scale a baby gate like a gazelle.

She’s not a huge barker.

She doesn’t like thunderstorms or fireworks.

She acted like she’s a picky eater, and true, she didn’t know much about fruits and vegetables as treats. A McDonald’s bag got her really excited, so I know she’d been fed junk food. And no, she didn’t get a cheeseburger at my house!

She had a few tummy issues, possibly acid reflux, and the veterinarian suggested try her on low-dose Pepsid to reduce her occasional projectile spit-ups. If your dog spits up or vomits, talk to your veterinarian. Don’t take this information as freedom to give your dog Pepsid without veterinary guidance.

Once I saw her fiddling with the door latches on the crates, trying to work them open. Baci was a thinker and a problem solver. She also kept her nose to the ground when outside. Baci would probably love to be involved with nosework activities.

Her tail would wag at the slightest thing, and it just made you happy watching it.

And she loved attention from strangers. Little people, big people, girl people, boy people. She’d make a GREAT therapy dog.

Each nugget of information that I learned or observed would carry over to the next foster home along her journey.

Baci’s Next Foster Home

Baci activity was restricted while she healed from spay surgery. Because of that, AND because Otis is, well, Otis, I elected to not introduce these two dogs to each other.

Normally I would begin slow introductions a few days into the foster dog’s arrival. Spay surgeries are invasive surgeries, even if the incision is small, so it’s super important to keep all that tissue nice and quiet until it heals. Baci’s next foster home had the opportunity and responsibility to do pet interactions and would contribute further to Baci’s total report card.

It was a delight to get to help this little darling get to safety and to be a part of the restoration of her health and happiness. Once cleared for adoption, she will be a special pet for her perfect family.

Ciao, Baci!

How Can You Become A Short-Term Foster Home?

I’m so glad you asked! I think becoming a short-term foster home is an easy way to introduce yourself into the world of fostering dogs. You can decide to always be a short-term foster home, or you can decide to broaden your fostering skills by becoming a long-term foster home or an expert, specialized home for a foster dog with special needs.

Agencies That Can Use A Short-Term Foster Home

Your local public shelter may use short-term foster homes to help free up kennel space, offer medical care, respite care, or when there is an emergency such as a natural disaster. During The COVID-19 crisis, many dogs went to foster homes as shelters were forced to close.

Private shelters also use short-term foster homes for many of the above reasons, too.
Private, non-profit rescue organizations use short-term foster homes, many of these organizations use foster homes exclusively. You may offer to be a foster home while another foster home goes on vacation or has a medical emergency, with the dog returning to the original foster home after a short period.

As in Baci’s case, I fostered her while she healed from surgery and we waited for her transport to her long-term foster home, where she’d complete heartworm treatment.
South-to-north rescue groups use short-term fostering to prepare dogs for transport to to their northern partners. These dogs typically stay in foster homes for 2-4 weeks and then head up the highway where often a family is already waiting to adopt the dog.
Respite short-term fostering for domestic violence victims is a wonderful way to give back as a foster home. Often, a person will stay with an abuser because of the worry of what will become of their pet if they leave. There are a growing number of agencies that arrange for the care of pets in foster homes so that a person can leave an abusive situation, find safety and a new life, and then be reunited with their pet.
Transport runs need overnight foster homes. There are a couple of ways dogs get transported long distances. One way is for a large group of dogs to be loaded up in a trailer or cargo van and are driven to directly to their destination. The other way is by a team of people each who drive a “leg” of a transport. Usually it involves one dog or two dogs, but sometimes, especially if the dogs are small breeds, there can be a few dogs.

If the distance is particularly long, dogs may need to overnight in foster homes and then be picked up by the next person driving a leg of the transport. It is a wonderful way to help out without a long-term commitment.

Benefits of Being A Short-Term Foster Home.

Short-term fostering is the best way I think to try fostering dogs to see if you like fostering dogs.
Short-term fostering gives you the opportunity to, rather quickly, determine if you happen to like fostering puppies or seniors, big dogs or little dogs, or other niche fostering opportunities.
It is much easier to take breaks from fostering if you short-term foster.
You are a valuable resource, especially during certain seasons of the year when foster homes are less available, like during the summer or at the holidays.

There you go! These are my thoughts on becoming a short-term foster home.

I hope you consider this gateway to fostering dogs. Fostering dogs certainly has enriched my life, made me a better pet owner, grew friendships, and I’ve met and cared for some amazing dogs along the way.

Do you have questions about fostering? Do you have a short-term fostering experience you’d like to share? Drop me a line! I’d love to hear about it.