koalathebear

Received a lovely photo of Ollie our first foster dog :) Here he is with his doggy sister Pip, the 10 year old Australian Cattle Dog and the two little girls in his family :)

iggy mum - good on you for fostering such a sweet dog and giving her a second chance. It's so sad what these dogs go through before they come to us I haven't fostered a blind dog before so I hope you can continue to get more great tips from experienced people like kirty and little gifts. Good luck with Buffy!

Juniper's doing well on her trial adoption! Managed to get human bed privileges from day #2... With her doggy sister Jazz the Kelpie/BC cross :) Enjoying a bone in the yard Was bought a new maze bowl of her own to slow down her greedy guzzling of kibble at dinner :)

CBD: I loved watching Smudge run. It was one of the reasons why I didn't want her going to a purely pet home like Nutmeg. These are some of my favourite photos of her where she looks like a speedy little piglet Can't wait until she's old enough to start agility :) I'll be at the sidelines dabbing my eyes and going: "That's my former foster!" :)

The little ones occasionally come into care. For instance, little Osha the cream Kelpie we rescued the other day and is now in foster are in Sydney is 11-12kg :)

Juniper is beautiful and only 12kg so a very little fairy Kelpie :) If we didn't already have three dogs, we would have been in danger of foster failing her.

Danny's Darling - I have been very teary these last few days. Juniper went on trial adoption yesterday and the family is absolutely wonderful and love her to bits so I couldn't be happier - but we do miss her a lot because she is such a sweet thing and wriggled her way into our heart. I usually do a music video/adoption video for all of our foster dogs but things were very busy so I never actually got around to it ... I didn't want Juniper to miss out so I've made one for her even though she's already on trial. Let's call it her Christmas Video instead of her adoption video Hopefully the video conveys how much progress she's made and what a gorgeous girl she is.

Juniper had her meet and greet this morning and it went really well. We weren't even done driving home yet when they emailed us to say that they wanted to adopt her - today even! :) She starts her two week trial adoption tomorrow! She'll be going to a lovely home with another doggy and will be attending the same dog club as us! We will miss her horribly but it makes it much better to know that she won't be far away. Some photos from today :) My husband giving Juniper her pre-adoption bath. Juniper was not impressed but she is so clean and fluffy now and smells so nice Juniper and the contents of her Hobo Bag Miss Juniper Berry modelling her brand new collar Purple is her colour! So stylish :)

CBD - have received an awesome application for Juniper today. Hilariously they were actually at the flyball competition yesterday but I didn't know they were there and they didn't know we were there :) They will do flyball, agility and obedience with her and they have an existing young Kelpie/BC cross. Just perfect! :) Meet and greet is on Tuesday.

Heh heh. It was a Kelpiepalooza :) Smudge! Reggie, Smudge and Juniper Reggie & Juniper

chequeredblackdog posted a cute cute CUTE photo of former foster Smudge :) She is still a darling.

I have a friend who also fosters dogs and she has a little five year old sister who loves playing with the puppies. I ask how she explains the dogs coming and going to her sister and how she manages to minmise the sister feeling distressed when the dogs leave. She told me that before she started fostering, she explained to her sister: "These are not our dogs, we are looking after them for their real owners and one day they need to go to their real families." I thought it was an excellent explanation, not just for her sister but as a reminder for me when I grow too attached to a foster :p That being said, I DO have one foster fail ;)

Cream is a very popular colour. I'm a red and tan or a black and tan Kelpie person myself but Osha won me over with her lovely personality

Thanks tdierikx - I am always telling other carers (particularly first time carers) that it gets easier as you foster more but then when I get to the point like I am now with Juniper that I know she's ready to go to a new home, I just feel ridiculously sad/bad about it. I'm sad because she's so settled and happy here but it is silly because I know that she's come so far and the right home is out there where she will be even more happy and relaxed than she is here and it's a good thing for her to move to that home where she will get heaps more time and attention than she does here in a pack of four :) I know it's ridiculous though - the whole idea of fostering is to find them a home! :) Michelleva - thank you so much :) She's a beautiful dog. When I first got her, I thought it would take much longer to get her up to scratch because she was so unsocialised and timid, but she really has transformed herself so much. It's one of the best and most bittersweet parts of fostering :) persephone - I can't believe Elbie is turning four next year either!!! He gave us so much trouble as a puppy and these days he's so good about helping us foster and train the foster dogs that come through ... I think I learned more about dog training and dealing with naughty/problem dogs from Elbie than I have from any other dog though! :) In other news, this gorgeous girl is Osha, the Kelpie girl who was recently at Gundagai Pound. Yesterday we transported her to Sydney. Picking her up from the ranger. We had her vaccinated while she was still at the pound. Poor girl was so terrified. She was surrendered because her owner had dementia. We dropped her at the vet for vet-work in Sydney I felt absolutely awful leaving her in the pen at the vet's because it looked just like the pound But her carer picked her up today and the lovely girl is coming out of shell nicely

She really is gorgeous and I'm so pleased with her because she's come such a long way and seems like a completely different dog these days. Friendly when meeting strangers and not running away in fear anymore. I do want her adopted out but I'm already feeling the: "Oh no, I will be so sad" pangs :p I am such a loser.

I agree with DD. I tend to give foster dogs space when they arrive here. They might be crated or tethered near me to stop them doing messes in the house, but I try to let them wander around a secure room and become comfortable in their surroundings.

Juniper's "Adopt Me" vest arrived today. She is such a little darling :) Begging :) She is waiting for her Forever Home :) Juniper's weblisting here. Juniper's foster blog is here.

Michelleva - it's quite normal for the resident dogs to get a bit cranky at first towards the newcomers. As long as it's not a protracted hackling/growling, very aggressive type behaviour, a bit of telling off/crankiness is normal and understandable. It takes time whenever an interloper comes for the pack dynamics to be established. My dog Hoover gets upset with puppies because they cry/bark and sound distressed. Elbie gets annoyed with newcomers at first because they annoy him. Dodge gets hyper-excited by newcomers and can take a little while to settle. Sometimes it's the foster that paces restlessly, sometimes it's one of our dogs that paces restlessly. Our dogs always get along great with the fosters that come but there are inevitable times when foster oversteps the mark/foster gets in the face of resident dog and gets told off. Bringing in a foster can be a stressful experience for everyone and sometimes our dogs pick up on that, I think. I just watch, do not leave them alone unsupervised and do not keep anything high value around them until everyone is settled in and chilled. We feed our dogs together but supervise very closely but to be extra prudent, you would feed them apart or in crates. If you look at my foster dog thread a few threads down, you'll see that we've had a few doggies come and go and with all of them it takes a bit of time for them to settle in :) Some dogs settle faster than others. Usually within a week, everyone's chilled out here although we are still pretty cautious about leaving a foster alone with our own dogs. Good luck with it - fostering is quite stressful and challenging sometimes but it's so rewarding :)

We helped to transport these little cuties into foster care today. So sweet.

We received a good application for Juniper recently but alas it wasn't entirely suitable. She would have been a solo dog which would be very boring for her and she would have been alone in a backyard with chickens that weren't particularly well contained - and she was very interested in the chickens. A shame because the applicant was very keen and still asks about her, but it wasn't the right fit. I have no doubt that the right home will come along eventually. Juniper's beg is lovely :) She really is the sweetest dog - so smart and trainable and very affectionate. As much as I want her to find her forever home, I know I'll miss the little fairy girl when she goes.

Hoover Elbie Juniper our current foster dog

Sweet Juniper She has now learned to sit, drop, shake hands and spin :) It's taken longer to teach Juniper than it has with other fosters - partly because I've been busy but partly because she was so skittish. She was so timid and hand shy she kept running away that even a 'sit' seemed impossible for a while. My husband called her a wild animal and said it was like having a possum in the house - not socialised with people, no house-training, no training at all Also some video of the densitisation work we did with her to make her less hand shy and also less skittish when we walked towards her Elbie, Hoover and Dodge - unimpressed about being crated for 5 minutes while we film Juniper :)

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The sign is irrelevant and it doesn't mean your dog is dangerous and it doesn't mean that you are acknowledging any degree of liability. I think people are getting it confused with the mandatory signage required if a council has declared that your dog is a dangerous dog or if you own a restricted breed. We have a beware of the dog sign simply because we don't want utility people/tradesmen leaping into our backyard without being prepared for the fact that they will be licked to death by three Kelpies :p Some people are really scared of dogs. Most of the time the dogs will bark like crazy and people should know that there are dogs there - but sometimes they might be snoozing out the back and distracted when someone materialises in the yard. If your dog bites a person and you don't have any witnesses to evidence that the attack is unprovoked, then your dog is probably cactus anyway regardless of a sign or not. Liability for a dog bite will turn on the individual facts of every case and the existence or lack of a sign is not going to be the determining factor in such a matter. You could probably argue the dog was provoked if the person bitten was trespassing but again it will depend on the severity of the bite and what sort of evidence is put forward. It's a different matter though if you have a restricted breed/dangerous dog and you don't have a sign - that's an offence.