The importance of the ‘foster family’ cannot be stressed enough. We feel that where possible it is crucial to get our dogs out of a kennel environment and into a home. We are lucky enough to have some superb foster families here at Arundawn. Foster dogs live with families until they are ready for their new homes and sadly, in the case of dogs needing palliative care, they will remain with the family until the end. 

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Arundawn provides support and advice to the foster families in order to give every dog the best chance of succeeding in finding their perfect forever home. Photos, videos, new information and regular write ups are all invaluable in ensuring the Arundawn team are able to match dog and owner. 

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Fostering is an essential part of dog rescue in our opinion and we are always grateful for new fosterers joining our team.  Please complete and return an application if you feel you can offer a foster home to one of our dogs in preparation for their forever homes.

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Our aim and goal is to find the BEST home possible to suit each and every dog – this takes time and effort and some of you will be disappointed as we may not feel that the dog is appropriate for your situation. 

 

 Fostering can be challenging and requires hard work and dedication.  With that in mind these are the qualities we expect from our Fosterers.  Please read them through and consider if you think you have all of these qualities before you apply.  

 

• Time 

• Honesty 

• Integrity 

• Empathy 

• Understanding 

• Patience 

• Kindness 

• An Open Mind 

• Flexibility 

• Willingness to listen to us about the dogs, even if against what you are used to, and work with us on this journey.  We are here to support you.  

• Willingness to learn about NATURAL FEEDING which is so important to Arundawn and our dogs’ wellbeing. Here is a link (https://honeysrealdogfood.com/advice/free-book/) to a guide to raw feeding for you to read in advance.  We strongly advocate raw feeding and are happy to discuss the benefits for our dogs if you have any further questions.

 

It is also really important that you are fully committed before we begin the process to make sure our volunteers time is not wasted, but more importantly so that the dogs are not put at risk.  So ask questions now if you are not sure.  

 

We fully appreciate that life can happen and things don’t always work out the way we want, but we also need to make you aware that if you have seen a dog with us and you start the process it’s really important that you don’t change your mind at the last minute.  The dog’s wellbeing is paramount and they may have missed out on another home because they were reserved to you and extra time in kennels can be both stressful and damaging to them.

 

Please also note we cannot (except in very exceptional circumstances) complete home checks on behalf of other organisations.  Please with that in mind do not ask us to do so.  

 

We respect that sometimes when the dog first enters your home there can be challenges.  Settling in, and of course, sometimes we do not know what their trauma has been nor if they will behave as we expect when they arrive with you.  If this is the case we ask that you let us know and allow us to work with you to help you and the dog acclimatise.  Time is really important and we are here to help you.   You may have had dogs before, all your life maybe, but these dogs have been through it, and we are still learning, so you may need to adapt what you thought you knew.  Times have also changed and we understand dogs so much better now than we did 20 years ago, so please be open minded and prepared to try new things.    

 

We will also need to give you a lot of information, and it can be a lot to take on all at once. If you are worried or have forgotten something we have said, no worries at all please just call us, we are here to help you.  We may feel we need to remind you of something we said.  Please do not take this personally, we just want to help it work for you and the dog.  

 

Also please note, If for any reason you need to change plans, cancel our appointments, or just simply have changed your mind please let us know with Urgency.  These dogs are special, and they deserve the best life someone can give them, and our volunteers need to be maximising their time with the people who can give the best life to one of our dogs.  

 

A dog’s love is the one of the very best kinds of love you can find, but it isn’t instant and they need to learn that you are their person/family, that you have their backs, that you are safe and will love and respect them.  They are a new personality also in a new home with everyone needing to adjust and settle into the new rhythm.  This takes time, but once you get there you will never look back.   Most people with our support have few worries or problems.  We just ask if there are issues, you work with us and remain open minded and willing to adapt.  We have an amazing network of volunteers and we will help you to get there if you let us.  

 

Read all of that and still want to continue then please complete a foster application form below.

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We have strict criteria and processes in place for a reason. We are not being obstructive when we say 'not suitable' - we simply cannot take chances and our aim is to get it 'right' for each and every dog.

 

Click here to read our fostering agreement.
 

Thank you for reading and please feel free to call to discuss if you think you can help.