Need experienced foster fam opinions

[K10]

I've found that I'm currently torn.

I foster for my county's shelter, and have done so for years. I thoroughly enjoy fostering. I like meeting different dogs. I like to see changes, and transformations. My dogs are welcoming of the added playmate.

The person who is in charge of the foster program used to be great to work with. Then something changed. Communication is severely lacking, and I just get the feeling that I've done something that has made her decide that while she still needs to utilize my commitment as a foster, she'd rather not deal with me. It's possibly bc I decided to foster a dog who was surrendered to our vet's care when a family was unable to financially and physically commit to the dog's care. The dog needed surgery, and the vet knew we fostered, and that we would be diligent in followup care, and asked us if we would do it. Being in between foster dogs for the county, we agreed. The foster coordinator never said so, but her communication with us went from "good enough" to "extremely minimal" after that happened. Also, I think her opinion, and my opinion of a "good match" for a dog are different. Sometimes she thinks a particular dog "NEEDS" another dog to play with, while I think that the same dog would do well with just an active family willing to include the dog on plenty of outings. Sometimes I think a dog "NEEDS" a person who will do more than just have the dog be a stay at home house pet, while she thinks the same dog will be okay to just tag along to children's soccer games. In the end, it is her decision. It's not like my differing opinion trumps hers. She decides who gets to adopt the foster dogs. I wonder if maybe she's just starting to think I'm a PITA.

Regardless, Saturday morning one of my foster dogs was adopted. She was too busy to come out and see how things were going. Hey, it happens, right? But, I sent her a message when the dog and family left to say that the dog had been adopted, and sent along a picture of the dog with her family. She hasn't even responded to that. I KNOW it gets busy. I know life is busy. But, when your job is to oversee the foster program, should I not expect a quick text message back at some point over the next 48 hours to acknowledge the fact that you got my message? In the past, by now, if I didn't already have my next foster dog... we would have a definite time set up for when we'd come to look for our next dog.

So, now I am thinking about looking into other places to foster. There are no other shelters very near, so I would probably end up fostering for a rescue instead of a shelter. It looks like the biggest differences will be that there is no in house vet, so I'll have to get estimates before we go to the vet every time and get approval from the rescue, and in some cases have to use a vet that they approve, and that we won't really have many dogs to choose from. The second of those things is what makes me a little unsure. Most rescues will pull from places pretty far away, and only pull when they have a family willing to foster. Having two other dogs who are a little picky about their playmates, could make that complicated. My boy sometimes can't handle a dog who is a little more on the demanding side, and my girl gets very nervous around very timid, fearful dogs. It's pretty important to me to choose a dog who can get along with both of my dogs and vice versa, because doing crate and rotate just isn't something that ends up being fair to the dogs. The time constraints I have make that situation very unfair. Some of their time in the evenings just needs to be shared at some point.

Also, I know that especially for my boy, formal introductions are a must. I can't just bring another dog home. He is fine with most any dog so long as they get along with other dogs after we introduce by having them walk together, then do the "Go say hi, 1,2,3" type greetings, and repeat that when we get home. It's just him. It worked great with the way we met dogs at the shelter, and most of the time we had very good fits in our home. I would be at least extremely hesitant to foster without being able to give him his proper introduction.

So, I'm curious to know if any one has any advice for selecting a rescue versus a shelter. All breed, or specific breed rescues? Any weird signs to look out for? I know I have to see who is responsible for what in regards to vet care, food, interviews of potential adopters etc... but any other questions I should make sure to ask?

And... I know I might not have given enough info to even be asking this, but, I still am just not sure that I'm making the right decision to move on. I walked through the shelter before leaving on Saturday, hoping to pick a new foster dog before I realized that the foster coordinator wouldn't communicate with me that day anyway, and I just feel so sad that I'm letting all of those animals down. I don't get why so many rescues have stories of pulling most of their animals from shelters that are hours and hours away when I know that the shelter in our own county is overfull... and overfull means that they need to slim down to just "full" and if adoptions aren't plentiful...

So maybe I'm not giving the foster coordinator enough slack. But, I just feel that after this long record of poor communication, the non-acknowledgement of a foster dog being adopted was the last straw. I know if I called her a couple of times she'd eventually answer to ask what I need quickly then tell me that she'd call back later, only to have to call back myself a few times. Do I play the game, or do I move on? Sigh. I guess this is half venting, but I'm looking forward to seeing if any responses help me decide where to go from here.

[Tanya]

ok so my two cents: no two rescues are the same. so unfortunately you would need to really chat with fosters and the rescue itself to see how THEY do things. I don't think there is any one that is better (breed VS all breed). Each rescue is entirely unique. I think breed rescues have an advantage as they may have outstanding apps of people who want that breed and waiting for a "good fit" and the dogs they bring in are more "similar" then say a totally all breed rescue.

You may want to start with a conversation with the foster coordinator. Awkward and the last thing I would do but if you are about to leave anyway - who knows maybe you'd be able to talk thru whatever is going on and get back to how things "were" before. If not, i don't think it's worth dealing wtih to "volunteer" when you are treated like shit.

I have fostered for many rescues over the years. Recently I totally distanced myself from one (I will leave it at that publicly). No two are the same. And even within a rescue things can change when the "people at the top" change. And there can be a lot of changes.

But yes a rescue can only pull if they have a foster (or should anyway - otherwise where would the dogs go?). There can often be a bit of an assessment done at the shelter/pound but that's worth what it's worth. The dog can change quite a bit once they leave that environment. Some rescues may have a few temp fosters where dogs go for a bit more of an assessment but I don't know too many rescues that do this.

If things don't go super well then you can generally move dogs. But it won't happen overnight and you don't want to do this often.This means some time with crate/rotate sorta stuff for a bit.

Depending how and when dogs come in you could arrange meetings and all that. My friend has a dog that needs slow integration but she can't always do that right when the foster comes in. So she crates/segregates the dogs and they will go out and do intros a few times as needed. She tends to seperate quite a bit the first few days.

I've mostly worked with small rescues. so I even had pull to be like "I want that dog" and have it pulled. That's sweet. But I am not applying to foster for a bigger rescue so I won't have that ability. but I may try to get trained to help them with shelter assessments so then I can maybe asses a dog and be first to foster it. Some rescues will have the foster do "all the work" (so apps are sent to you and you do all the screening). other rescues will do all the screening then send you "approved" candidates. Others it's somewhere in the middle. Find the system that works for you. I like having control but by the end I was burnt out and stressed out processing apps. I stress too much about it, it was getting worse every year for me.

Since adopting pen I haven't fostered much. Walking three dogs is a pain and Pen needs work (in a lot of ways - see my jumping post haha). But I am tempted, if I can find the right dogs she could play with. But you can't know that before taking the dog in (how well they will play). But I live in a townhome where sound travels easily and my neighbour is home ALL DAY. so - that's rough. I can't have a dog that barks all day it's not fair to my neighbour. and you can't know what a dog will do til you bring them home and try. so yeah, i'm very gunshy at this point.