While Luna isn't a Sibe, I wanted to brag that little Luners has found her forever home!

I had a LOT of applicants on her so it took me forever to go through all of the applications. We had a meet and greet this past Sunday with a family who owns a lab/poodle mix male and a terrier mix male. Both dogs are CGC certified, and the husband used to work on the Omaha bomb squad with a bomb sniffer pup (just a tid bit of cool info on that last one ). They fell in love with her as soon as they saw her. Luna got along FANTASTIC with their two males and she was handing out loves to both the husband and the wife.

She is on a week "trial", but she has definitely found her forever home.

I think however, I'm done with fostering for awhile. Has anyone else had to take a step away from fostering for awhile? Luna is my third foster and it's getting pretty draining for me at this point. It doesn't help that Luna had a lot of behavioral/health issues that were very emotionally draining. Plus, it's so much easier with two dogs LOL. It'll definitely be a lot of work to smush my bleeding heart..

That's great news for Luna! So glad she's found her forever home.

I've been following your journey with her from the sidelines and have been very interested in reading about all the heartbreaks and joys that fostering can bring. I've been thinking about eventually working with a Sibe rescue in my area by fostering for them, but it wouldn't be for a few years and after we get a second dog. Hearing your story, though, makes me kind of rethink that, since it sounds like it could be more work than we're prepared for, and having three dogs may be a lot more difficult than I had previously thought. We certainly have the space and the love for a foster, but I would also worry about bringing a potentially unstable dog into my house and how that would affect my well-socialized and behaviorally stable dogs.

I know how you feel, though, about it being a lot of work to resist taking in another foster, at least for a while. I'd feel the same way! Maybe once your pack dynamics "normalize" again after Luna's in her permanent home, then you can reassess and take a look at who's out there who needs saving.

Fostering for a rescue, IMO, would be easier I think then what I do. The dogs I usually foster are owner toss outs that they don't want anymore. All of my fosters I pay for out of pocket and know nothing about them before I take them in. With a rescue, you would *more then likely* have background info on the dog, info on the dogs personality, the rescue pays for the food, vetting, and I think training-but I don't know that one for sure. Plus, with a rescue organization, you don't exactly have the option of just keeping the dog like I do lol.

Three dogs isn't too bad, really. The things that made it difficult with Luna was her reactivity issues. In the beginning, she would bark at a leaf going down the street. And it wasn't just "Oh look, a leaf!!!" it was "OMG THAT LEAF IS GOING TO KILL ME I HAVE TO GET AWAY" kind of bark. It was really stressful. She would especially freak out about people, and dogs, and squirrels, and birds... It was really hard to control her and keep the other two girls (especially Sheba) under their threshold with Luna jumping all over and going plain nuts. The cost of food wasn't too bad. Vetting with Luna kind of sucked, she didn't have any shots or anything like that, so that sucked lol. It wasn't this hard with Ares. He was very easy going and the pack dynamic was much more fluid then it was with Luna.

Luna also had a lot of health issues that took a lot of time to get through. She was being destroyed by fleas and her skin on her stomach was tender, raw, and scabbed over. I had to give her honey treatments three-four times a week and give her bath in soothing shampoo/conditioner twice a week. That's what was the most draining thing emotionally. Plus, dealing with her and Sheba's shit was just horrible. I felt so bad for Luna, but I didn't think anyone else could help her like I could.

Another thing is that I went from foster dog to foster dog in like, two years time. My first foster boy was named Prancer (Std Poodle) and I had him for about 6 months in 2012. I got him in April, and then I got Sheba in June? We had just the two girls from October to May, then we got Ares. Got Ares at about the middle of May (I remember I got the text to see if I could take him at a graduation party). Luna we gooot around August sometime. Ares found his home October 12 (ish?) and Luna obviously just got hers lol. So, it's been a lot to get over going from dog to dog and not really having anytime to get over the "loss". Another reason I think it would be easier to foster for a rescue.

As for bringing in an unstable dog... I can't really comment one way or the other. I can say with certainty that both dogs made it out better then they were. But, it doesn't always happen like that. But, there aren't always problems either :/. It's really a toss up that only you can decide is worth the risk or not.

I'm not sure what it is about poodles, and especially poodle mixes (I refuse to use the term doodle), but for whatever reason they just drive Diz crazy. If one comes into the dog park, especially a puppy, he just has to chase it and try to play with it. He will totally fixate and normally we have to leave. He's better with purebred adult standards, but if its a mix or has any puppy bounciness he obsesses. It's the only breed specific behavior I've noticed with him. Other than the normal husky on husky rough play.

I refuse to use the doodle term as well. I won't give into that BS.

That's really odd!!! He would have definitely fixated on Luna then, LOL!! Once she got to going she was very bouncy and all over the place.

I really wonder about that, especially the mix part. How odd....

wpskier222 wrote:

I'm not sure what it is about poodles, and especially poodle mixes (I refuse to use the term doodle), but for whatever reason they just drive Diz crazy. If one comes into the dog park, especially a puppy, he just has to chase it and try to play with it. He will totally fixate and normally we have to leave. He's better with purebred adult standards, but if its a mix or has any puppy bounciness he obsesses. It's the only breed specific behavior I've noticed with him. Other than the normal husky on husky rough play.

Layla's like this with keeshonds. There's one named Penny that regularly goes to the dog park we go to sometimes and Layla fixates on her and pins her and makes these horrible-sounding growls like they're fighting. She never bites, just acts really intimidating. Luckily Penny's owner is pretty nonchalant about it and we just kind of let them "play" like that. Penny doesn't seem to mind either, but usually I try to get Layla away from her just because I'm afraid of what other people in the park might think and try to intervene when they really don't need to. We have a keeshond that lives next door to us but as of yet Layla hasn't gotten close enough to him to say hi.

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

I refuse to use the doodle term as well. I won't give into that BS.

That's really odd!!! He would have definitely fixated on Luna then, LOL!! Once she got to going she was very bouncy and all over the place.

I really wonder about that, especially the mix part. How odd....

It's like that bouncy, excited, wiggly, energy they give off is just like a magnet for him. It's just normal rough husky play, but he just gets so excited he can't stand it and won't leave them alone.