What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[Lotsaquestions]

Where in the world are you where you get to foster Rough Collies, Giant Schnauzers, and Bernese Mountain dogs? We only get Staffies, staffies and the occasional husky here.

[Shalista]

yeah i mean like..... i think nettle wanted you to wait and recognize how much work one dog was and the unique needs of that one dog before bringing another dog into your house PERIOD. The line between fostering and adopting doesnt really matter in this case? if your certain that your going to be fostering ANYWAY..... why wait to adopt? it's really the same dif to Samson......

[ZaraD]

Where in the world are you where you get to foster Rough Collies, Giant Schnauzers, and Bernese Mountain dogs? We only get Staffies, staffies and the occasional husky here.

In the UK , between stoke and Cheshire , it's a local rescue , we mainly have staffies , terriers , terrier cross's , loads of labs and border collies and instead of huskys we have loads of northern Inuit here .

They only let locals foster in there rescue they mainly have staffies and Foster's tend to have the dogs that can't handle being in rescue , I think I'm Just lucky as most of the other Foster's I know have either border collies or labs as there filled with labs and borders.

Iv had Mia for 4 days so far but the rescue rang an hour ago as someone is interested in her so iv stayed with Sampson and mom has driven Down to the rescue so they can meet her. She's been up for rehoming for tow weeks but she was in kennels but was very stressed so they have been trying to find a foster for her but no one would take her as she's a giant breed.

So just waiting to see if they do take her, if they do they will have to have a home check which will be done next week and if everything ok they can take her home a few days later.

[ZaraD]

yeah i mean like..... i think nettle wanted you to wait and recognize how much work one dog was and the unique needs of that one dog before bringing another dog into your house PERIOD. The line between fostering and adopting doesnt really matter in this case? if your certain that your going to be fostering ANYWAY..... why wait to adopt? it's really the same dif to Samson......

I think if I find I foster a dog who not only clicks with Sampson but me as well then I think I will adopt. Sampson is not happy at the moment he's looking out the windowsill , I think he's looking for mom and Mia .

I know at the moment they have just border collies and labradors in the Kennels but they have tow terriers cross's and a Newfoundland puppy that was just left out side the kennel gates.

[ZaraD]

The couple have decided to re-home Mia , and the manger of the rescue knows the couple so they won't need a home check as they have adopted before, so they are able to take her today, the manger asked if I or Sampson wanted to say goodbye but I decided to say no as it's the only part of fostering I hate and I didn't want to upset Sampson even more so I said no but asked if they have another dog I can foster as I don't want Sampson upset again and I can only take female as Sampson hates males so she told me they only have tow females that have been spayed and are finding kennels stressful , a border collie and a mini schnauzer cross who has been in kennels for 5 weeks , so I'm taking Sampson down to meet them both to see what he thinks.

[JudyN]

You do need to ask yourself whether fostering is good for Sampson as every few weeks he's going to lose his new best friend Is the time he spends enjoying the company worth it (to him) for the distress he feels when the dog goes?

Which would be a shame as fostering is such a wonderful thing to do, but you do have to put his needs first.

[ZaraD]

You do need to ask yourself whether fostering is good for Sampson as every few weeks he's going to lose his new best friend Is the time he spends enjoying the company worth it (to him) for the distress he feels when the dog goes?

Which would be a shame as fostering is such a wonderful thing to do, but you do have to put his needs first.

How can I stop him being miserable though , since sharing his home with Coby he just hates being the only dog , I think he likes company from his own kind?

[JudyN]

Hmmm, if he's also unhappy once he's got used to the foster going, it's a tricky one. As far as I can see you have three choices:

(a) Continue as you are doing now, with a mind to adopting a foster permanently or buying a dog in a year or two.
(b) Stop fostering, and be a single-dog family for a year or two until the time is right.
(c) Try to find the right dog to add to the family as soon as you can find one that fits in.

I honestly don't know the right answer. It's tempting to say that you should go for (c), as that might be the best for Sampson, but that has to be weighed against all the good reasons that Nettle said for not adding a new dog now.

[ZaraD]

We went down as I decided he definitely wants to have a friend to play with so I decided that for Sampson it would be best if I foster again but with the intentions of adopting once a foster is right for both of us, as a puppy would not suit me and mom and Sampson just ignored puppies so I think and adult female would be best. He met the border collie and snapped at her as she was getting a little energetic for him , Sampson is a lazy schnauzer and even more at the minute with his injured paw. Then he met the mini but the mini was clearly very nervous of Sampson so I said no , she said that there are no other females I could foster who would suit Sampson unless I would be happy to take on a dog who has medical needs. So I asked what dog and what type of medical problems , she said she's a sable female German shepherd who is 1yrs and 5months and suffers with kidney failure and is on medical and supplements for life , aslong as she has her supplements and meds she's fine , she's also on a diet that suits her condition.

She was brought in a few months ago by her owners as they can't afford the life long treatment she needs , and she's been in foster with someone else for tow months but nobody seems interested in rehoming her because of her medical costs , which the manger said is a shame as she's beautiful and the fosterer who has her now can't continue to foster her as there landlord has told them he wants his house back and the only proberty they could find in time did not allow dogs so there moving ( the other foster does not own any dogs just Foster's) so she said we are looking for another foster, but she said I will warn you you may have her for a while as everyone who was interested in her changed there minds when they found out that about the life long medical costs, I said I'd like to meet her, and Sampson fell in love he was like he was with Mia , Peppa the GSD ( not struck on the name) is lovely , and she kept coming back to me and sitting for treats and then she played with Sampson for a good 30 mins non stop, so I said I'll foster her, and I'm picking her up later this evening so they can get all the paper work for me and get all her meds and supplements ready for me. I can't wait I'm hoping she's the one , I can't wait to tell Kera, my mom said gosh we'll never get rid of Kera when she finds out we have a shepherd .

[JudyN]

Can I be nosy and ask how much her meds will cost a week, Zara? Don't answer if you'd rather not, of course! I think some rescues will pay for essential meds for the dog's life, though of course it's much better for the rescue if the adoptive owner does.

I met a delightful little puppy today, still complete with needle-like teeth. His mum was a schnauzer (I'm guessing mini) x poodle, his dad was a Patterdale x Lakeland terrier. That's a sparky cross if I've ever heard of one!

[ZaraD]

Can I be nosy and ask how much her meds will cost a week, Zara? Don't answer if you'd rather not, of course! I think some rescues will pay for essential meds for the dog's life, though of course it's much better for the rescue if the adoptive owner does.

I met a delightful little puppy today, still complete with needle-like teeth. His mum was a schnauzer (I'm guessing mini) x poodle, his dad was a Patterdale x Lakeland terrier. That's a sparky cross if I've ever heard of one!

I don't mind Judy, I checked this before taking her on , and I asked my vet how much they would cost before picking her up , my vet said her meds would cost £67.99 but that's for 120 tablets and she has to take tow a day. Her supplements ( she has to take tow supplements) the first is £28.99 for a big tub and is in a powder fourm and you sprinkle it over her food , for her weight she needs 8 scoops the vet said and the tablet supplement ( they both are different for different things) is £30. She also has to drink plenty of water and have a special food for kidney failure, I have to be careful with treats too. Her food is by vet XX and is £74 which will last about a month but luckily I'm in a position to afford all of this and so far she's fitted in really well, when I have time to upload I will share a photo of her with you all, she's been very affectionate to me but is really spending a lot of attention on mom which is nice as sampson spends most of his affection on me so it's nice for mom, and she dropped her walking stick when we were walking them half an hour ago to let her see her surroundings outside and she went straight to mom before I could and tried to pick moms stick but she lifted it enough for mom to grab it. That was it mom was convinced she's the one. But there's time yet , the rescue said they would pay for her meds until she's adopted but I said no I'll pay as the money can then be spent to help another dog as like most rescues they rely on puplic donations and fundraising events.

There both watching Corrie with me and Peppa just howled along to the tune

[JudyN]

At a very rough guesstimate, then, the costs for her including food will be similar to feeding two large dogs a good-quality food. And it's still cheaper than feeding children

[ZaraD]

At a very rough guesstimate, then, the costs for her including food will be similar to feeding two large dogs a good-quality food. And it's still cheaper than feeding children

, definitely cheaper than feeding children, she's an expensive dog but shes worth it , Sampson's snoring and has fallen asleep while we were watching Corrie and Peppa barked and woke him up , I'm presuming it's because it was interupting Corrie for her

[ZaraD]

Good night last night, Peppa decided that mine and Sampson's room is not good enough so slept in mom's room and layed down beside her bed , so I moved her bed into mom's room.

She slept the whole night and this morning Sampson and Peppa played a whole hour , also I think it could be because she's a GSD but she's the first dog who is playing just as rough as Sampson does as he plays very rough with other dogs and my GS friends said all schnauzers play like that, and apparently so do GSD as normally the other dog will give up play first as Sampson can quickly start winning the game or get over them but she was not giving in to him and I thought he seemed to enjoy playing much more with her, she also follows him everywhere there like tow peas in a pod but every so often she checks on mom first and then me and then goes back to Sampson , she also tried to chase some birds that flew into our garden this morning which Sampson didn't understand as he has no interest in birds

[JudyN]

I've been asked to write an article for a lurcher rescue magazine - something lighthearted as there's already a couple of vet/training articles, and though Jasper has provided me with no end of funny stories, most of them could well put readers off getting a lurcher Any ideas, please? Last time I wrote an article about Latin dog names (they called their dogs the equivalent of Gnasher, Spot, Her Little Ladychip, and so on) and the person who asked me said she'd liked that one.