Choosing the Best Fit

Today after work I stopped back at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control to meet a couple of dogs who could use getting out of the shelter. So, I thought it would be a great opportunity to share how I narrow down which dogs we can consider. As I mentioned before, part of the success of fostering is finding the right dog for your situation. So my intent with this post is to share the breakdown of how you can determine the best foster dog for your family and lifestyle. (Hint: this works well and just the same when you are trying to add a permanent member to the pack).

We currently live on 1.25 acres in the southeast corner of the Phoenix valley. If you follow on my personal Instagram @Randi_Lea you probably know that our little family consists of: 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 horses. Oh, and my favorite person, Tyler. We have no kids, however, our 4 year old neighbor boy (aka my bff) comes over regularly.

Given our household here are the top 5 things I look for when looking to add a dog to our pack permanently, or foster temporarily:

• Dog Friendly
• Cat Friendly
• People Friendly
• Healthy
• No Puppies

That’s pretty much it when it comes to non-negotiable things I look for when bringing another dog into our home. In order to set the new dog up for the best possible success, I feel these 5 things are the qualities needed in order to do that.

Let me break each quality down and explain the reason why it’s a part of my must-have list.

Dog Friendly:
You might think this is #1 on the list for obvious reasons, but it goes beyond the fact that we currently have 3 dogs in our home. If you have dogs in your home, you owe it to them to really assess their personality.

Let’s start with old lady Prim. Prim came from a puppy mill where she spent the first 10 years (yes, you read that right 10 YEARS!) of her life cranking out puppies living among hundreds of other dogs. She is almost blind, and pretty much clueless to the world around her. She doesn’t know how to behave around other dogs, and without hesitation will stand right at someone else’s bowl waiting to eat. Given her deteriorating eyesight she also will easily bump into other dogs, and gets neurotic when she can’t find me which results in her sprinting around yipping. So, I’m looking for a dog that won’t see her as a rabbit and try to attack when she’s running around, as well as something laid back that isn’t going to lash out if she tries to eat with them when I’m not looking (I always bring her away when I see her doing this as it’s not fair to the other dogs).

Next is Rufus. Rufus is the world’s greatest dog, the end. I’m just kidding. While he is absolutely amazing and loves other dogs, he can be intimidating due to his size which gives him a natural position to tower over other dogs. He also feels the need to address every dog’s energy and can be known to correct them if needed. Past mistakes (yep, you read that right, I’ve made mistakes before with all this) also tell me he does best with females or neutered males. Since he was roaming in South Dakota he was neutered late and he can have a tendency to want to be top dog with un-neutered males, as well as put them in their place.

Lastly, Rooster. Oh Rooster… My neurotic, brilliant, little sidekick. Rooster was found in a housing development where Tyler worked when Rooster was estimated to be 10-12 weeks old. He still had all his baby shark teeth when Tyler agreed to bring him home to find his family, or a new one if need be. As you can see, no one was looking for him and Rooster decided he actually didn’t want to leave, so yeah, here we are. The thing to know about Rooster is, he’s a typical Chihuahua. He thinks he’s much larger than he is, he plays super rough and the obnoxious-jumping and biting- and can sometimes have a very nervous, anxious energy. While I am still working on all of this with him, he will likely always have some of these characteristics that can easily set him up to be attacked if I’m not careful.

So while I am looking for a dog that is listed as dog friendly, I am looking for something more submissive, or at least really laid back. Something that is not so young that we can’t devote the time to it, but not so old that Rooster will literally just torment it trying to play.

Cat Friendly:
While I only have a picture showing Salem, we still have Oliver, and both cats are super dog friendly. This usually plays to our advantage, because even though some dogs have never been around cats, it helps that our cats won’t run away, hiss, cower, or show other cat behaviors that can spark prey drive in some dogs. While this could easily go the opposite way, both are pretty good at reading dogs and deciding if they need to be in their room or perched somewhere for safety. And of course, we set the dog up for success by making sure to have controlled introductions, with a leash still attached in case things were to get out of hand.

People Friendly:
This may seem silly, but let me explain why at this time I have to look for something that isn’t leery of strangers. Again, everything I look at and do revolves around setting a dog up for success. Currently, Tyler and I are away from home for at least 10 hours a day, usually more. So our amazing neighbor (read-she’s a saint) comes over twice a day to check on the dogs. Rooster gets to come out of his kennel and my 4 year old best friend plays with him, while Prim has a chance to relieve her old lady bladder.

While Rena was here, Pam also was able to let her out during the day because Rena was so sweet and loved people. If I chose to bring home a dog that did not do well with strangers, I put my neighbor at risk, set the dog up to possibly defend itself i.e., fail, or it has to stay crated for the entire 10 hours we are gone. All around not ideal. So, at this point in time given our current situation, we are looking for dogs that aren’t overly leery or protective when it comes to strangers. I have taken in a dog like this before, but I was in a much different position to manage the situation and it still didn’t turn out the way we all would have hoped- more on Winnie later.

Healthy
This one is tough for me. Because, ultimately, the dogs who are currently sick in the shelter are the ones who could really use getting out of the environment in order to get better. However, our current house is not set up in a way that would offer proper quarantine or the ability to keep everyone separate if a dog was contagious. Given Prim’s age and her own health issues, we just can’t risk her getting sick. That being said, one dog on our list of pups to see today is extremely emaciated. Assuming this is only due to the stress of the shelter and not a contagious, underlying issue, she’s still on the list of potential fosters.  If you are equipped to properly quarantine, or maybe don’t have any current dogs, please consider giving a dog a quiet resting place to recover; they really need it.

No Puppies
Not only is this a rule because I have a special place in my heart for seniors, but as I said before, we simply don’t have the time to devote to a puppy. When Tyler brought Rooster home, I did not want to keep him. No one believes me when I say this, but truly. I didn’t feel we had the time he would need and they’re just such a pain! Like I said before, we’re gone too long from home and in order to set a puppy up for success, they need a lot of work and time. So if you work from home, by all means, get the puppy. It will get adopted fast and you’ll be all smiles while you foster, but probably also be all smiles when you say good bye.

 

The goal of this post is to give you an idea of the types of things you should consider when adding a member to your pack.  Your list could look completely different and I encourage you to take the time to think about your current family members and lifestyle even if you aren’t looking to change your family dynamic. 

At the end of the day, if you have a current pack, you owe it to them regardless if you decide to foster or not, to know the dynamics and their personalities. You owe it to your own pack to not put them at risk or in danger when you choose to bring another dog into your home, whether it’s family visiting, temporary fostering, or permanent adopting. I whole-heartedly believe we are our dog’s guardian and we are responsible for setting them up for success.

If you need help or tips on how to assess your pack, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I am happy to have a conversation and give you my best assessment, or help find someone locally who could do this for you.