Rescue Shit

E6- What to Expect When Fostering: Part 2

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In this episode, we continue with some general things you should know about what to expect when fostering! These are more general concepts than specifics, but we will soon have an episode about some of the supplies and other tools you might need too.

Axl Rose a 3 mo old husky was our in-studio guest this week. He is adoptable, but doesn't have a profile yet. Email adopt@motleyzoo.org for more.

Got questions or comments about our podcast? Reach us at rescueshit@motleyzoo.org!

Original music by Matt Setter and friend Sean!

Original content by Matt Setter and friend, Sean!

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Pate:

Hey there, it's Pate with Motley Zoo Animal Rescue with Jme. And we are here to talk about Rescue Shit. Continuing from our previous episode, we talked about what to expect when fostering, but there's so much involved in it that we are going to have a part two.

jme:

Yeah, there's a lot to say about it and we hope you learned a lot last time. And this time we have Axl Rose, the three month old Husky. He's crashing around in our room, so if you hear any noises, we're trying to get him to not eat cords and play with toys instead.

Pate:

Or eat your backpack. Ah-huh

jme:

If you were thinking about fostering or maybe you've gone and fostered because you thought it was very exciting. We did focus a little bit about illnesses then, and, we did say it wasn't, too scary, but yeah, we just wanna keep going on more of the topics of things that people, you know, wonder about. Especially when they say that it's too hard and they can't do it.

Pate:

And you should always at least try it once. Cuz you're making a difference, it's not gonna hurt you.

jme:

No.

Pate:

To just try it.

jme:

I always say you can do anything once. The chances of you not being able to foster are so slim compared to the likelihood that you can foster. It's easier and more convenient for people to imagine that they can't foster, but that's so often not true, and I always say, I mean, maybe you're not old enough to know the Life cereal, but, the...

Pate:

Mikey!

jme:

Mikey, the little boy, the little brother was really picky with his food. And one day Mikey tried the Life cereal and he liked it and then...

Pate:

Hey, Mikey, he likey!

jme:

And then the rest of the kids in the group ate the cereal because if Mikey liked it, geez, then it must be really great. So you never know. You might like it, you might like fostering. It might be something that really changes your life and that even if you only do it once, it might be something that changes your life. It's like you're denying yourself a really amazing opportunity to find some real serious purpose and meaning, and even if it's not something you stick with...

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

It could be the doorway to finding a passion.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

And in some other kind of mission or purpose. And oftentimes I think that is what happens.

Pate:

Right. And everyone should have a passion, whether it's animals or children or whatever. Everyone has a passion and it's okay to have different passions. Otherwise, the world will be very boring if we all were passionate about only one thing.

jme:

Yeah. And so, we've got the animals covered...

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

And we, we need people's help to do that. But we encourage you to give volunteering in general a try. But fostering can be a great way to do that in a relatively familiar way in your home.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

And with support and guidance. It might be something that changes your children's life.

Pate:

It definitely change someone's life...

jme:

yeah. It changes the animal's life, that's for sure. Rarely is it going to be this nightmarish experience that you can't tolerate or you can't get through it's so rarely that. A nd a good rescue will not leave you with a situation like that. They will not leave you with something you can't handle. And I will say that that is a founding principle of why Motley Zoo does things the way that we do. Because when I first got into fostering, I experienced a situation where I was afraid of the dog and I didn't know how to deal with it. And I needed someone to take this dog and put it somewhere where they knew how to deal with it, and no one would help me. And you know, they all gave me words of advice like,"Oh, you'll always remember the ones that are the toughest". And sure, that's true. That is true. I will tell you now that that is true, but that is not what I needed to hear. I had never had a dog before, never had a dog in my life. And here I am dealing with a dog that's growling at me and flinging its food around. And I didn't know how to deal with it. Thankfully, my husband did and he agreed to kind of take the lead on that one, b ecause he knew, and I knew if that dog went to the shelter, it would've been euthanized. But I didn't know what else to do and I didn't have the capacity to deal with it. So thankfully my husband was the one that turned that whole thing around and he took some initiative and we found a trainer and we figured out what the dog's issues were. They happened to be separation anxiety and barrier aggression. And this dog was locked in the garage in the dark for 18 months, and it was barely two. So it had been locked up in the garage for most of its life. And it was next to a very aggressive dog that was barking and barking and barking. So it learned how to be that way. And while the dog went right with me and she didn't give us a problem, as soon as I set up the cage and tried to feed her in the cage, like it turned into a different story. I don't want anyone to feel that way, to feel like there isn't someone out there to help them and that there isn't someone available to take that dog. Motley Zoo will not leave you in a situation like that. If we know what's going on, we will help you walk you through it if we think it's safe. If we don't think it's safe and we don't think you can do it, then we are not gonna leave that animal with you. We will have you bring them to us. And on the rare occasion that maybe a little dog bites somebody, same thing. Like, please bring us the dog. We are gonna figure this out. We are gonna fix it. So a good rescue will be responsive and they will help you with that situation. One thing I find is that sometimes people are afraid to tell us what the animals are doing...

Pate:

Yeah, they're afraid for whatever reason.

jme:

Mm-hmm.

Pate:

Whether they don't want the animal to leave their home o r not, or what's gonna happen to the animal because of this incident, things like that.

jme:

But you have to be honest, you have to be honest about it because you don't wanna get a dog as an adopter that you don't know what to expect. So, think about that this dog could be going to a family with little kid and you need to protect that little kid. So if that dog really shouldn't be with little kids, then you need to tell us that. As a foster also, you are expected to, what's the word?

Pate:

Communicate.

jme:

Yeah, communicate and the burden of responsibility of communication is on you. You need to tell us what's going on. You need to report to us how the animal's behaving and whether they're healthy or what's going on. You need to send us pictures and videos. We cannot ask you all the time...

Pate:

Right.

jme:

To do those things. Those are your basic responsibilities...

Pate:

Yeah.

jme:

Just as much as feeding and watering and protecting that animal, you need to take the initiative and give us this information. Pate does not have time to chase 50 people down for information, about 50 different dogs. But if she has the information coming to her very easily, she can pass it along to the people that create the pet profiles online and, puts the pictures up and every time you send pictures, we can change them because that's a good idea to change the pictures relatively frequently to get more attention as well. You have to remember that you are one of many when it comes to being a foster. And while we are here to serve you, you need to help us out.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

You need to help Pate out. You need to give her this information and not make it be like pulling teeth.

Pate:

Right. And then we do set you up with the vets initially, so we will send an email to the vet to make them be aware, copy you and the vet on that email- so both of you know what is expected at the vet appointment. Whether it's a dog that came from Texas who needs a heartworm test in addition, or if it's just a puppy who needs blood work for a spay or neuter. All of that is gonna be written and communicated to you. And then Fosters will be in charge of setting up that appointment based on their schedule within a timely fashion, as well as transporting the dog or the cat to and from the vet for their appointment.

jme:

And timeframes are important when you're talking about vaccines. You can't just do a vaccine whenever you feel like it. There's a window of time between three and four weeks that that vaccine needs to be done, and that has to do with the antibodies that the animal produces in response to the vaccines. And if you don't continue on this series with these windows of time, it's a waste of money. It's a waste of time. And we have to start over because we don't know when the vaccine is actually effective. That's a little bit more scientific, but when we tell you you need to go within the next week, you need to go within the next week, you cannot put it off. You cannot make excuses, and if you don't have a ride, tell us. We'll try and help find volunteers. Some volunteers like to just drive animals around but don't rely on that either. It's important that you do have reliable transportation...

Pate:

mm-hmm.

jme:

As a foster. And we do ask that, are you able to get this animal to and from the vet? And if you're housebound or something like that, it might be a little harder because we need to have extra help for you, b ut that's still possible. We like to make sure that everyone knows that they're welcome to foster and we try and make it possible for everybody. People who are unemployed, people who don't have a lot of money, people who have disabilities. We try and make it possible for everyone to do that. But there is an element of responsibility that you have to have in terms of we can't just cater to you. We have a hundred other animals that we have to deal with, so we need this worked out before we put an animal in your home. That's part of the application process and that's part of getting to know you so that we know what animals might suit your needs. And then when we get a list of animals that need help, then we put out an email or a post that says, Hey, fosters, these are the animals that we have coming in. Who can take these ones. And then people speak up for them. Sometimes honestly it does surprise us who steps up for which animal because we knew them to never take cats, or they only like little dogs.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

And all of a sudden they'll be taking a big German Shepherd.

Pate:

Right. Right.

jme:

Or you know, they fostered 20 dogs and all of a sudden they're like, I want a cat now.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

So we post the whole list and allow people to see the animals that need help. And having a picture to go along with that animal actually really helps.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

So that's something that we do as well.

Pate:

Although as a foster, sometimes we don't have a lot of information about the animals, and so our fosters get to learn their personalities and things like that to help us find that home.

jme:

And the more you foster, the more you'll become confident in your skills that it's not gonna be this crapshoot of this terrible nightmare situation. And so you won't be so nervous about taking, maybe an animal that you don't know that much about because

Pate:

Sight unseen, which happens sometimes.

jme:

Yeah. We understand that a new foster might not be into that or might not feel comfortable doing that, and chances are we're not gonna, you know, wanna put a sight unseen dog in a new foster home anyways. But you can't always see the animals and you can't always know the stories. And by the time you see the animals on our adoptable animal page on our website, they are already in foster homes. We cannot take in an animal if we don't have a foster home. So a lot of people say,"Can we meet the foster before we say Yes"? No.

Pate:

The commitment is to foster

jme:

Yes.

Pate:

Not to adopt.

jme:

Right. And it, the commitment is to foster that animal, with all the unknowns.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

Unless or until there is something seriously impeding your ability to do that or there's some kind of serious problem. That might be different for a shelter though. So a shelter, the animals that need foster are already in the shelter. You might be able to meet the foster animal that you're supposed to take home as a foster because it's in a cage there and they need to get it out of that cage to maybe treat it for an illness or do a surgery, or it's stressed out or it's a baby. And so you might be able to meet the animal in that situation. But with a foster based situation, there is nowhere for the animal to be if we haven't already figured out a foster home for it. So you gotta go with, with faith on that one and put faith in your foster coordinator and the organization. A lot of people ask us,"Well, how long do you foster for"? And that's a funny question because

Pate:

It's such a variable. It's, it's, it's really such a variable. You know, it depends on the dog. It depends on the age of the dog, it depends on... like you, someone just sees a dog and falls in love and I mean, we had that one dog that we thought was gonna stay with us forever. It was like just a tan Chihuahua, not like a huge personality. And he was like, what, 12 years old or something? And he looked like a little old man, and we're like,"Ah, you know, he's, he's just an average little guy that we'll probably, you know, have for a while". And at two weeks he went to his first, obviously after quarantine, he went to his first event. And someone wasn't there to meet any of our dogs, but just happened to be there shopping was like,"Him. I want him". And that was the fastest little senior foster ever cuz he went home.

jme:

Yeah. The important thing to remember about fostering and the timeframe is it's based on the animals needs and whatever circumstances are happening in the world, in their life, it is not based on your agreement to foster for four weeks.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

I only will do this for six weeks. Right. Great. Maybe in four to six weeks and you might be able to adopt an animal out but there's a chance to maybe not, and if you take a litter of puppies that are four weeks old, well, you're certainly gonna have them for a minimum of four more weeks.

Pate:

Right? Right. Yeah.

jme:

Until we can split them up, and then you're gonna have two of them or three of them until they are ready to be spayed and neutered. And then if you have a dog that has a health condition.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

You know, maybe the dog has a heart murmur. Well, obviously not everybody wants to adopt a dog with a heart murmur.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

And while it's not a big deal in most instances, and it's unfortunate that people might not consider a dog with a heart murmur...

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

That dog's probably gonna stay with us a lot longer than another adult that doesn't have a heart murmur.

Pate:

Right.

jme:

And so sometimes it's the season, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Pate:

Or it's that litter curse.

jme:

Yes.

Pate:

There's always one little puppy out of a litter that is a hanger on.

jme:

Mm-hmm.

Pate:

So the entire litter will be gone. They'll be adopted just like that, except there's one little guy. It happened, with Willow, who happened to be the cutest, smallest of that litter. And the rest of the Willow litter got adopted lickety split, and then the little runt stayed with me.

jme:

Yeah. Extra...

Pate:

Six months I think. Yeah.

jme:

Extra weeks or months and while that's not...

Pate:

There's nothing wrong with them.

jme:

No. And then usually one person will meet them and if they don't take them then that starts the curse. And then another person will meet them and not take them.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

And another person will meet them and not take them. And you know why every once in a while that happens? I don't know. And if you planned a vacation and you didn't expect that you were still gonna have a foster at that time, that's fine. We'll move them.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

But, don't take a foster expecting it's going to be a certain amount of time. That's just not gonna be that way. I would say for us, on average it's about two months.

Pate:

Yeah. I would say an average is...

jme:

And that's partially because we do the quarantine, partially because we are waiting on vetting.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

And that's because we might have to wait for their age or weight surgery.

Pate:

Mm-hmm.

jme:

But the other thing is, is that there is a crisis in the vet world right now, and we will talk about that in another episode, but there is a crisis going on and vets are hard to come by. Vet appointments are hard to come by, and so sometimes we're waiting a few extra weeks just to get the appointment, to get the animal spayed or neutered.

Pate:

Well, and then also the crisis of not enough adopters.

jme:

Yes. We are seeing times extending right now. Really, once you've invested in that animal and you've had them in your home for a few weeks, you don't know or care if it's a few extra weeks. If it's a difficult situation for you and you feel very challenged or you are really not liking the animal for whatever reason, which doesn't happen very often. then of course it's gonna seem like a long time, but you know, again, you will find it worthwhile whatever challenges or inconveniences you face, because you will have done something truly significant, something truly noteworthy and monumental, and you will have saved that animal. And so when the dog is barking, maybe in the middle of the night, that's what you need to think about. You need to think about why you're doing it. And talk to us. Tell us what's going on. Don't just tell us you're gonna bring the animal back because it's doing X, Y, and Z. We are gonna help you figure out how to solve that problem. Because if you don't like it, an adopter's not gonna like it.

Pate:

Definitely.

jme:

And you are test driving these animals to help us figure out where they need tune-ups, what work they need, and therefore, how we can place them in adoptive homes and make them the most desirable, the most prepared. And, probably one of the biggest things that that entails is training.

Pate:

Yeah.

jme:

So when it comes to training, different organizations may have different opportunities. Obviously a shelter or a rescue that has a facility might have more training options. But otherwise, a foster based rescue can still help you with training and you don't need to know a lot about training to be a foster. It's always a learning process for everybody. And you're gonna learn something with every animal you have. Every dog is different.

Pate:

Yep.

jme:

But the more you can d elve into training, the better prepared that animal's gonna be and the less likely it is gonna be returned. So talk to the organization that you wanna foster with and ask them what are the opportunities for you to either attend training or maybe they have videos online or YouTubes or

Pate:

Right. Find out what their resources are.

jme:

Yep. And is there a trainer available that you can talk to or someone in the foster care team that knows about behavior that can help you with housebreaking or some of the other things. Training is gonna be really important, but what you need to know is that, and what so few people really do understand about training is that training is not about setting all this time aside to crank through all these tasks and then all of a sudden you're done.

Pate:

Right?

jme:

So you taught the dog how to sit. Great. And you're done. No.

Pate:

It's an ongoing process.

jme:

It is a process. It is a process of how you do things. The order in which you do things, the way in which you do things. So once you teach the dog the idea of sit, have them sit before they go out the door. Have them sit before they

Pate:

A meal.

jme:

Yep. Before a meal. You can work on those training tasks in every interaction you have with the dog. And really you are whether or not you realize it or not. If your dog comes up to you and you idly pet them, you have taught them that they can get whatever they want from you at attention whenever they ask for it. Whereas if you make them a sit or you don't just idly pet them every time they come up or say they come up and they start barking in your face, okay, I know you wanna play ball. Okay, we're gonna play ball.

Pate:

They've trained you.

jme:

They have trained you to do their bidding because they did a certain behavior. So don't let them, don't train them with bad behaviors. Don't train them with, lack of impulse control.

Pate:

Help them have manners, help them navigate a human society.

jme:

Yes. Because they have to live in our world. As much as you might not believe in leashes or you might not believe a dog needs to have obedience, it is not your world. It is the human world, it is society. There are expectations of those animals.(Mm-hmm) And they could die if you do not help them learn those things. It is very important. And the other thing I think that

Pate:

It's so drastic!

jme:

Well...

Pate:

"They are going to die"!

jme:

Well, when you think about a pit bull that's jumping on people and being mouthy...

Pate:

Which is why they created the CGC classes for, for every dog. I think that every dog should pass a Canine Good Citizen test.

jme:

Yes. But to use that as an example, a playful pit bull puppy that is jumping up and mouthing people. That's a dog that you know is not trying to hurt anybody, but that little kid that comes from next door is gonna say,"He bit me".

Pate:

Right?

jme:

And all of a sudden you have a crisis that literally endangers that dog's life because you couldn't teach that dog to sit and because you let them put shit in their mouth when they weren't supposed to. Sorry, I got really serious there, but it, it's true. I mean...

Pate:

It's very true because dogs are supposed to tow the line in our society and so when we train a dog, we work on helping that dog curb impulses and basically give them better manners so that they can navigate a human world. They are not allowed to act like dogs. A lot of dogs communication with each other is through their mouths. And that is not allowed in our society because they are not supposed to put their mouth on anyone. And that's one of the fundamentals that we have to teach them.

jme:

One of the things I know too, is that people are like,"Oh, I feel so bad for him. He came from a shelter, and you know, so I just wanna let him have all the freedom he wants". I can tell you

Pate:

Too much freedom's bad.

jme:

Has a dog ever come to us because it's had too much structure?

Pate:

No, never. I mean,

jme:

Has the dog been too trained, overly trained? To the point where we don't need to do anything for them and we can relax on our structure. Never does a dog come to us because it's had too much structure.

Pate:

No. Every time a an owner surrender, the majority of the times an owner surrender is because of a negative interaction, with their dog.

jme:

They've had too much freedom.

Pate:

That would be like me in a candy store. It's just not a good thing. Too much freedom in a candy store. That's bad.

jme:

Yes. So never feel bad about providing structure for your animal, for your foster animal, because that's what they need. Just like a

Pate:

Dogs thrive on a schedule. And dogs thrive with structure. Dogs thrive when they have a job. If you look at Border Collies, I mean, look how excited those guys are when you look at the farming videos and they can go out there and tell those sheep to get into a pasture.

jme:

Well, just think about how many dogs have anxiety now and it's because they don't know where their stand in their families in the world.

Pate:

They don't have a job.

jme:

They go out on the leash and they just freak out because they don't know if you're gonna protect them and maybe they have to protect you and they're on guard and they're worried.

Pate:

Yep.

jme:

No, if you teach them that you've got this. Just like a kid. A kid wants to know you're in charge they might fight you. But...

Pate:

Teenagers!

jme:

They're gonna be far more comfortable and happy knowing that you've got their back. Then they are if they have to wonder. And I, I also equate that to like going to work. If every day when you went to work, you had no idea what you were gonna do that day, you had no idea who you were gonna encounter or how you were supposed to behave with those people or what you were supposed to talk about. That's a dog that has no structure and no direction. It's a dog that is stressed out.

Pate:

It's a loose cannon.

jme:

Yeah. They don't know how to behave. You have to help them learn how to behave. So training is a very important part of fostering, but again, you do not have to be an expert.

Pate:

Nope.

jme:

But you can become an expert.

Pate:

The basics, yeah. Foster training with dogs, especially, I mean, and cats too, cuz cats aren't allowed to bite and be little maniacs, you know, scratch furniture, all that fun stuff. But the training is pretty much just manners really, to walk on a leash, to sit to, you know, not destroy. Things in the home, what they can and cannot get into.

jme:

And that comes down to crate training, which is probably something that we should discuss an entirely in a separate episode and dedicated entirely to that.

Pate:

The purpose of crate training.

jme:

Yes. And if you foster, there is no fostering without crate training. The minute that I had a couple fosters and my dogs couldn't sleep with me anymore cuz I had too many dogs. I was like, wow, crate training, crate training. That is the key to sanity if you wanna foster and you wanna foster more than once and you wanna foster a dog, it is the key and it is the key to their success. That's all the time we have for today. Until then,

Pate:

Rock On.

jme:

Rescue on.

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Pate

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