Fostering plays a crucial role in the well-being and welfare of these animals. By providing temporary care for a dog, you create a safe and nurturing environment where they can thrive. Many dogs come from shelters or other rescue organizations, and fostering allows them to escape the stressful and often overcrowded shelter environment. It gives them a chance to experience a loving home, human companionship, and socialization, which are essential for their physical and emotional development. Fostering also helps assess a dog’s personality, behavior, and any special needs they may have, which can assist in finding them a suitable forever home. By providing temporary care, you become an invaluable bridge between a shelter dog’s past and their future, offering them stability, love, and a second chance at a happy life.
Furthermore, fostering dogs has a broader impact on the community and the overall animal welfare system. By fostering, you free up space in shelters, enabling them to take in more dogs and prevent overcrowding. This, in turn, increases the chances of other dogs finding permanent homes and reduces the risk of euthanasia due to lack of space. Fostering also allows shelters to allocate their resources more effectively, focusing on medical care, behavior training, and finding forever homes for the dogs in their care. Additionally, fostering helps potential adopters by providing valuable insights into a dog’s personality, behavior, and compatibility with different households. This information helps match dogs with the right families, increasing the likelihood of successful adoptions and reducing the chances of dogs being returned to shelters. By opening your home to a dog in need, you become an essential part of a network of compassionate individuals working together to improve the lives of animals and promote responsible pet ownership.
Some of your responsibilities as a foster parent will include:
- Visiting your veterinarian, at MAESSR’s expense, to provide a foster dog with basic vetting services, an assessment of overall health, and to spot and treat health issues
- Assessing a Springer’s temperament and personality for a minimum of 2 weeks
- Thoughtfully introducing a frightened dog to the human and 4 footed members of the foster family
- Grooming a soiled or matted foster at home or arranging to visit a groomer so the dog can feel and look its best
- Exercising a foster dog much as one would a resident Springer, through leash walking, playing ball, free time in a fenced yard or dog park, swimming
- Shaping manners in the home and house training
- Writing a brief description for a foster dog’s webpage and capturing its beauty in pictures
- Updating the adoption home coordinator and volunteers who plan adoptions on a foster dog’s progress
- Emailing or phoning a prospective family to share details on a foster dog who has been offered to them
- Finalizing an adoption and arranging for a foster dog to join its new family
- Experiencing the joy, many months later, of seeing a former foster dog who is well settled in the company of its new family at a MAESSR picnic
Springers come into MAESSR’s care through no fault of their own. Many have been in loving homes for their entire lives but need to begin anew when brokenhearted owners can no longer care for them. They arrive with complete vetting histories, their toys and beds, and require minimal time to place.
Others come into foster care with no information on their past but are clearly victims of neglect, illness, poor socialization, or outright abuse. These Springers may take longer to prepare for adoption. With the help of committed foster families, and a host of additional MAESSR volunteers who provide support, most rescued Springers reach their happy endings.
If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent, please fill out the volunteer application.