1. You increase that dog’s chance of being adopted.

You would take photo and video evidence of the dog’s journey to help the rescue promote them and spread the word about what a good dog he or she is, how they interact with people and other animals. By living with you, dog has the chance to learn behaviour, absorb how to be from resident pets, and learn skills and commands that will make him/her more likely to be a forever dog to potential adopters with less experience than you.

2. Your own dog will usually benefit

from the socialisation (as well as the dynamic between the humans and resident and visiting pets and humans, and on walks too).

3. Could I be an adopter?

It’s a good way to see if you and your family are ready for another dog in general. Fostering can be hard work and the reality of standing out in the rain at 4am pleading for a pup to pee is not easy, but the rewards when they learn are incredible!

4. You help the rescue learn more about the dog’s personality.

It’s hard to know much about a dog when he's is living in a shelter environment with many other dogs. Placing dogs in foster homes helps rescues learn if the dogs like children, beg at the table, chase cats, bark or chew when left alone (we are a no crate rescue), and know/can learn basic commands. Or if they’d be better living in a town with parks or out in the country, or if they’d love an active home with loads of days out or would prefer a forever place that’s more chilled with more couch potato time…

5. You are saving a dog’s life.

Rescues are usually full because humans abuse, abandon, and don’t neuter dogs all the time, and cannot take in more dogs until there are available foster homes/spaces. If that dog leaves the shelter, we can pull another one to safety who is great danger of being hurt or killed.

6. Most reputable animal rescues can’t function without foster homes.

They won't place dogs in boarding facilities for long periods of time unless lack of foster space leaves them with no choice, or direct adopt a dog from a big shelter to a first time adopter. Without a committed foster team, they are unable to save a dog that is being surrendered by his owner or a dog from a shelter, or pull dogs from kill cages in time.

7. You might end up with a new family member. But don’t rush into anything!

Sometimes, foster families realise they are a perfect fit for the dog they are fostering! This is one happy ending for both the dog and humans of course. But we don’t want this to happen every time, else the fosters get full.

So the ideal for a foster is to provide the dog the start they need, and commit to offering at the minimum the time they need to fully decompress (which can take three months or more).

Giving them this minimum length of time means they’re settled enough to have the best chance in a forever home. It also means they can get consistent training and house rules to learn. Moving a dog every few weeks because a foster can’t commit does the opposite to a dog- so think before you apply!

Don’t go onto it thinking ‘we might adopt’ or 'it's a free dog' or ‘I have a spare couple of weeks but I’ll be away after that’

as that's unfair on the rescue and puts too much pressure on the rescue, the pup and you. Just be that warm safe space the dog needs to become the dog they were always meant to be!

8. The dog benefits more than you may realise.

The rescued dog gets to live with your family in a safe home rather than at a boarding or rescue kennels type of facility. They can simply start to learn what it’s like to be a pet (again.) When a dog is rescued from a shelter and delivered immediately to a foster home, they recover much more quickly from the stressful conditions to which they were subjected at a shelter. Boarding facilities are noisy with limited one-on-one interaction. The dogs don’t get enough exercise, training or socialisation. Also, when a dog is placed in boarding or rescue kennels with many other dogs, it's more likely they will get stressed or even sick from the spread of viruses from the other dogs living in such close quarters and if they do get sick, it's sometimes not detected or treated immediately, thereby risking more serious illness. When a dog is in a foster home, the fosters can notify the rescue immediately at the first sign or illness and take the dog to a vet for proper care.

9. Any volunteering makes a person feel good, that you’re making a difference.

Fostering a dog is a way to give back to your community and be a part of an experienced and friendly team to share experiences with as well as get support from. If you love animals, there is nothing more rewarding than helping a once homeless dog.

10. It’s a way to help…

if you don’t have enough money to adopt but have a home set up that could help a dog or pup. The rescue covers vet treatment* and a foster pack of beds, blankets, harness and loads of other things to start you off if you don’t have anything in, or the dog may come with items they have already used to provide continuity. We do ask fosters to help us create and promote fundraisers for the dog’s care and happy bus to the UK; and get involved in our organisation to better understand the needs and backgrounds of our dogs. We have a 4 day a week 12 hour a day live online support service for all fosters and adopters. And we can usually get food delivered to you (location depending, and we are a raw feed rescue) at a very good rate.

Please check out all our blogs, starting with our fostering blog that goes into more detail on what our fosters do, our website doggy list or social media applications pinned post on Facebook to see what dogs are in need, then contact us at lorasqueries@gmail.com with the subject line LL FOSTERING…

our rescue has so many available dogs that need you

- all sizes, ages and characters, and they all

🍀🐾✨💙💜🍀🐾✨💙💜

deserve the chance