At Forever Hounds Trust, we are always looking for new ways to better help hounds in need. With this in mind, we’re expanding our fostering scheme. Increasing our team of volunteer foster carers will make a huge difference to the dogs in our care!
Placing a dog into a foster home has obvious benefits for that specific dog; they get to spend their time in a loving home rather than in kennels, and we can learn much more about their behaviour and homing needs during this time. This will make it much easier to match them with the right forever home, as well as making them more attractive to potential adopters! This is especially important for some of our overlooked dogs, who don’t have any particular issues but who don’t seem to get much attention from prospective homes. Having experience living in a home environment can really make these dogs stand out!
Perhaps even more importantly, whenever one of our dogs moves into a foster home, a kennel space opens up for another hound in need of help. This means that our foster volunteers are effectively helping two dogs every time they open their home to a new foster hound.
As part of our new approach to fostering, we want to make sure we’re supporting our foster volunteers as much as possible. We have a foster carer training program, to ensure our volunteers have up-to-date knowledge and skills in dog behaviour and body language, dog handling and in continuing the behavioural assessment of each foster dog during their stay. We also have a support system for foster carers, including regular telephone support as well as in-person visits where needed.
Since the majority of our dogs come from the racing industry or a working background, many of them have no experience of the home environment or life as a pet. Moving into a foster home is a great way for them to start learning about the world, ready for their adoption day!
Could you be a foster carer?
All of our foster carers will receive full training on dog behaviour, handling and assessment via our new Foster Carer Induction program. You will also receive ongoing support from our qualified and experienced staff whilst your foster dog is staying with you, both via telephone and in person.
In order to best meet the needs of our dogs requiring foster care, we are looking for foster homes who match the following criteria:
- Based in Devon, Dorset or Somerset.
- No resident children under 10 years old.
- Any resident dogs must either be sighthounds, or medium-large sized breeds.
- No cats!
- Dogs should not be left more than 4 hours in one go (and you must be able to spend around a week gradually building up to any time alone).
- Able to foster for a minimum period of 1 month per dog.
- A secure garden OR easy access to a safe outdoor area for the dog to toilet in (ideally no more than a few steps to access the home).
Think you could help a special hound out? Click the link below…