No, I am not going to appear on the next episode of Animal Hoarders. At least, I sure hope not. A good number of the aforementioned couch-hogs are not mine – they are my foster dogs. They are my very welcome, temporary canine guests who are staying in our home until the perfect adoptive family comes along to give them a permanent home of their own.
Standing there wondering how and when I might be allowed to relax on my own couch, it did dawn on me that there might be a little flaw in my fostering plan.
Dogs free-range in the house and on the furniture… Hmmm…. What if a great prospective home comes along that prefers dogs stay off the furniture? (All of my dogs just gave a huge collective shudder.) Fostering homeless dogs is a great thing to do. No, this is not me patting myself on the back. This is me patting myself, and a huge number of dedicated people in our area, on the back. The ability to house rescued dogs in private foster homes helps relieve the strain on crowded shelters. It helps non-profit groups save more deserving animals while saving the expense of boarding fees. And for the animals fostered? It lets us learn as much as possible about their temperament and habits, while also getting a jump start on important training. Oh… we’re supposed to be training them.
Ok, I am selling myself a bit short. I do work with my foster dogs to integrate them into normal home life, although I am not sure you can call anything at my house normal. Jim, my ever-patient partner in life and fostering, and I do teach our foster dogs that they should potty outside. We teach them that a dog crate is really just their own private room.
We teach them that sitting politely will earn them a cookie. But is that enough? Perhaps not.
According to Amy Hoagland, volunteer with Pet Adoption League (PAL), the most common reason dogs are returned to the rescue is because they are not housetrained. Additional complaints include destructive behavior and/or a lack of manners.
Time for a tiny soapbox moment here.
It makes me a tad bit crazy when I am approached by people who want to rescue a dog, but would like one that is housetrained, behaves perfectly in all situations, doesn’t need to use a crate, heels on walks, and if it could make the morning coffee that would be great, too.
Really? Oh yes, dogs just like that are turning up in shelters and rescue programs every single day. And now I’ll hop back down. Truth be told, anything a foster volunteer can do to jumpstart a rescued dog’s training is a great thing. It’s part of the job and, hopefully, part of the fun.
Hoagland says that in addition to “It’s also important for foster families to help socialize the dog and teach it good basic manners – things such as no jumping up on people, not allowing begging from the table and walking nicely on a leash,” says Hoagland.
“Instilling routines and boundaries during the foster process will help the dog succeed when it gets to its new home.” I decided that I should create a pro/ con list of sorts for my foster dogs. If you know a dog’s strengths and, let’s call them “areas in need of improvement,” then you can devise an adoptionfocused training plan. Let’s take a look at one of my dogs in waiting.
Meet Suzy. Found stray outside of a convenience store, she is a young mixed breed dog. So mixed, in fact, I can’t really even decide what breeds came together through the generations to create her.
She’s about two years old and has a great temperament. A great candidate for adoption, right? But, she has not yet found that perfect home, so let’s take a closer look at Suzy, and the things I could do to improve her potential.
into my living room, and there was no place for me to sit down. housetraining, her foster home wish list includes crate training and a routine feeding schedule (no free-feeding!).
Suzy is young, friendly, good around children and good with other dogs. She is housetrained. She will stay in a crate without fussing. She is a nice, medium size and has a short coat that requires little grooming. She is out of the puppy destructive phase, and she’s very sweet and playful.
Without the convenience of a dog door? Well, I’m not sure she understands to cross her legs and whine at the door.
Finally, and perhaps odd for the con list, she’s friendly. Really friendly. When you meet Suzy for the first time, she acts as though you are her long lost best friend. To put it simply, she goes a little (…OK, a lot) nuts.
On the scale of cons, being overlyfriendly may not seem like such a big deal. Friendly is, after all, good. Suzy, however, is bouncy, squealing, jump-allover you friendly. Frankly, it can be a bit overwhelming.
To do my sweet foster girl justice, I need to teach her a few more skills to help her find and stay in a loving, permanent home. The housetraining issue just requires that I designate a few key times throughout the day and evening to take Suzy out the back door and then praise her for doing her business outside. I will crate her at night, so I can take her straight out the door in the morning. I can start a potty routine with her instead of letting her come and go as she pleases, via the dog door.
As for the crazy greeting ritual, a little creative training is in order. Suzy’s intentions are good, she just needs a bit of work on her mode of expression. In the positive training world, the best way to stop a dog from doing a behavior you don’t like is to pick a behavior you do like that is incompatible with the undesired behavior. So, for a dog that is jumping up on people, you teach her to sit for attention. The dog soon learns that jumping up does not get attention, and sitting does.
For a dog that is as enthusiastic about her greeting ritual as Suzy is, just teaching her to sit for hello may not be totally effective. In addition to sit for hello, I am going to teach her a few fun tricks that will allow her to interact and receive attention, but in a fashion that is not only appropriate, but also endearing.
Suzy is going to learn to high five, perhaps to sit up and wave or maybe to turn in circles on request – all ways to burn enthusiasm without knocking someone over.
I will also teach Suzy to “hug.” Often, when you put an undesirable behavior on cue, you can control it and give it an on/off switch. By teaching Suzy to “hug” on command, she will learn to do it only on cue, and I will be able to tell her when it’s time to stop.
I think this is a good solution because Suzy really loves to hug, and I really enjoy hugging her back. Anyone who doesn’t want a huggable dog should not adopt Suzy. Actually, I really believe that anyone who doesn’t want a huggable dog shouldn’t adopt a dog at all. Food for thought.
OK, back to the situation in my living room. Well, truth be told, I am going to continue to allow my dogs on the furniture. I truly enjoy having them relax there with me. I’m not going to tell my foster dogs otherwise, but my compromise is that I do teach every dog the “off” cue. So, while I am not teaching them to stay off the couch, I am giving prospective owners the ability to ask the dog to move off of prime seating when necessary. If anyone out there is interested in adopting Suzy, or any of my foster dogs, just know that if you don’t care to share your couch, then you’re going to have a little bit of work to do.
My guess is that Suzy’s beautiful brown eyes just might change your mind.
Well, yes, she gets on the furniture. Not a con at my house, but perhaps not what someone else would want. She is housetrained, but accustomed to using a dog door.
BY MARY GREEN
By Mary Green 
