Be A Foster Home

Fostering a Golden can make all the difference for that dog

As a foster home, you provide a safe haven for a Golden in need. You provide food, water, an indoor home for the dog, and, most importantly of all, love. You will evaluate your foster dog to see what type of permanent home would be best. You will be responsible for taking your foster dog to the vet for any necessary routine veterinary care including shots, a heartworm test, spaying or neutering. Love a Golden Rescue will pay the vet or reimburse you for that routine care, for any emergency care, and for any other veterinary care which is pre-approved by the Foster Home Coordinator.

We all have our own dogs and understand the need for the foster dog to fit into your home with any other pets you may have. Many foster dogs enjoy playing with other dogs and often seem to learn the ropes faster if they have another dog to teach them.

We will offer support for your fostering. If you have any problems with your foster dog, we’d like to discuss it with you and see what types of solutions we can work out. If a foster dog does not work out in your home for any reason, we will move it as soon as possible.

Some foster dogs come directly from loving homes and will often fit right into your household routine. Others may not be so lucky and may need to learn about what it’s like to be part of a family. Although those dogs may be more of a challenge to foster, they also provide huge rewards as you see their personalities unfold and their confidence grow. You truly have the opportunity to teach them what love means.

Some people (including all of us at one time or another) are reluctant to foster for fear that we will become so attached to our foster dog that letting the foster dog go to its permanent home will be very hard. Rather than deciding not to foster though, please consider that fear to be a good sign--it shows how deeply you care about the dogs. We each deal with this reluctance in our own way. Some people focus on how happy the dog will be in the adoptive home and how happy the adoptive family will be with the dog. Other people reason that when the foster dog goes to its adoptive home, another dog then has a desperately needed chance and can come to the foster home. Still other people think about their foster dog as belonging to an unnamed friend (who is identified at the time of adoption). They look at fostering as similar to dog-sitting and care for and love their friend’s dog, but also look forward to the time when the friend and dog can be together as they are meant to be. Rest assured that if you try fostering and then find that you absolutely can’t let your foster dog go, there is a solution—you can adopt your foster dog.

To become a foster home, please contact us at volunteer@loveagolden.com. The process is very similar to adopting a dog from our rescue. We will set up a convenient time to come visit your home with one of our dogs and can discuss fostering in more detail at that time.

You may also complete an application form "on-line" to apply to be a foster home - just "Click" - HERE.

There’s almost always an extra pair of dark brown eyes looking for love.