Give a Dog a Home

Dog rescue in Kent, 
Sussex and Surrey
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Rachael's post for Fosterer Friday!

11/11/2017

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One of our lovely new fosterers, Rachel, has written this sweet piece about her first fostering experience with Give a Dog a Home...
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I have grown up around dogs – I was born into a household which included three rescue mongrels and was brought up with a constant succession of canine companions, big and small, rescue and non-rescue, pedigree and mongrel.
My partner Lewis, on the other hand, was rather nervous of dogs until the day he was introduced to Brian, my home-bred Border Terrier puppy. Lewis was smitten and quickly transformed into as big a dog-lover as I am.




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Fast forward a number of years, and Lewis and I moved into a cottage in rural Hertfordshire, with plans to adopt a rescue dog as a friend for Brian. We knew of Give a Dog a Home through our good friends Emily and Rob Lucas (adopters of the awesome Arild), and a few weeks after we moved in we adopted Nero, our wonderful chocolate Lab x.

Fast forward a further eighteen months; scrolling through Facebook, I saw a plea from Lynne, Give a Dog a Home founder, asking for a fosterer for a puppy who was in transit but didn’t have a home to go to.The timing was ideal (Lewis and I could arrange time off – a rare occurrence at such short notice!) and so we volunteered to foster him. That Saturday morning we picked up Chance, an eight-month-old Shepherd x.

Chance was understandably very nervous when we first met him. He didn’t make a sound the whole journey from Faversham back to Hemel Hempstead – even when we were parked on the M25 for a good half an hour – and I was nervous about how he would adapt to life at ours.

Initially he was very timid. We had to start off by carrying him in and out of the house, and we were careful not to let Nero, who is very boisterous and excitable, completely overwhelm him.

We introduced Chance to our dogs slowly, following the Give a Dog a Home guidelines, and far from making him more nervous, their presence actually seemed to help enormously. He drew confidence from their blasé attitudes towards loud noises, sudden movements and open spaces, and within just a coupleof hours was coming out of his shell.

Just a few days later, Chance is happily playing with Brian and Nero, zooming round the garden,enjoying a tug of war, and is really starting to show his real personality. The change in him has been incredible. He is staggeringly smart, mastering ‘sit’, ‘paw’ and ‘lie down’ within three days, and is thoroughly enjoying his walks in the Hertfordshire countryside. He has even been introduced to our eight rescue chickens, which he found rather underwhelming. The chickens seemed more interested in Chance than he was in them!
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Fostering has been so rewarding, even though it’s only been a few days. Seeing Chance blossom from a timid and tense little creature into such a playful and delightful dog has been wonderful, and although we can’t foster regularly, due to work commitments, we are looking forward to supporting Give a Dog a Home in other ways. I would recommend the experience of fostering to others – it really is so worthwhile, both for the fosterers themselves, and the dogs in need.

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If you are interested in adopting Chance, please view his profile page here and fill out an application form.
If you are interested in fostering a pup like Chance, please visit the fostering page and fill out an application form.
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Fosterer Friday – By Gary - 2015

12/12/2015

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25 years ago my wife Alice and I suddenly had to find homes for our two much loved dogs for reasons which were completely out of our control. Since then we have been dogless. This year I was able to give up work and it didn’t take us long to decide the time was right for us to finally be able to enjoy dog companionship once more. I can’t quite remember how we went from there to fostering a rescue dog from Romania but that is exactly what happened.
Captain arrived at my door three weeks ago today. He was clearly a bit stressed out and to tell you the truth, he wasn’t the only one. I hadn’t slept much having spent the night imagining countless disastrous scenarios: What if he hates me? What if he bites me? What if he manages to find an escape route and devours my neighbour's chickens? In hindsight, I realise that these concerns were borne out of anxiety; I was so determined for things to go well that it felt like I was going on a first date! My worst fear, ridiculous as it may sound, was that he would somehow get into my bedroom in the middle of the night and I would wake up from a deep sleep and find him staring at me (I’ve obviously watched too many ‘monster’ movies!).
The sun was shining when Captain arrived. I thought he might appreciate stretching his legs and a bit of peace and quiet so I took him to the back garden and attached a long rope to his lead. He unexpectedly bolted! He sprinted all round the garden looking for a way out. One section of the garden fence is slightly lower than the rest and he kept going back there looking at the top of it and I could tell that he was wondering if he could get over it. Although I was at the other end of the rope, he didn’t pay much attention to me in these first uncertain minutes. After a while Captain came to realise I wished him no harm and settled down. I followed the advice I’d been given and didn’t approach him for fear of spooking him again and instead gently tossed him a biscuit. His reaction was to pounce on it, dig a hole and bury it. I guess this was something he learned to do in his previous life when he wouldn’t have known where his next meal was coming from.
Following his somewhat dramatic arrival, I’m pleased to say, the most surprising thing since has been the speed at which he has relaxed and adapted to life with us. By the end of that first day he was wandering around the house and garden and enjoyed being petted by us. He followed me like a shadow and cried a bit when I left the room so I stayed up with him into the early hours until he was sleeping peacefully in his crate.
Captain continues to grow in confidence and is becoming more at ease with each passing day. For me the best thing is that he has learned to trust me. For example, the other day I tried to get him into my car but he wasn’t having it. Alice then took his lead and held him at the passenger door. Once I was in the driver’s seat he was happy to join me and remained

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    Give a Dog a Home

    Give a Dog a Home, helps find homes for rescue dogs from abroad.

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