Warning - Fostering Dogs

[EllenFrasier]

If you foster a dog, especially a puppy, you might fall in love with it! My daughter works for a humane society and they had a litter of puppies that needed fostering. Since they were beagles I said yes, that we could foster two of them. Not that I have anything about beagles, but they are not my breed of choice.
Guess I was wrong! There is a male and a female. The female is what is known as a lemon beagle - she is white and yellow. The male is your typical beagle markings, but he is beautiful! And he is so cute - he cocks his head when you talk to him, wrestles with my big Golden Retrievers and runs all over the yard.
Now I don't know what to do! We have two dogs, my daughter lives here with her dog - and if we kept this one it would mean four dogs! How are beagles as pets? I know they howl sometimes - is there such a thing as a quiet beagle?

 

[Luv Bunnies]

You're right about fostering being dangerous. There was a huge rabbit rescue near our house last summer and the shelters were brimming with bunnies. We agree to foster some so they could have the experience of living in a home and be socialized with people. We already had 2 bunnies of our own and swore we would only be fostering for 2 months. But, the little con artists hopped right into our hearts and we couldn't bear to give them up. We are now a 4 rabbit family!

 

[Val]

Boy do I hear ya!

Our neighbors foster Australian Shepherds. At the end of February they brought in a blue merle female, 8 wks, registered but deaf. They had several others, and this pup had an "attitude' and wasn't getting along with the other fosters. As an animal behaviorist, I walked over to see if I could offer some advice (mistake #1). DD12 who is hearing impaired followed (mistake #2). Offered to try and foster her at our house until a better home could be found (mistake #3).

We are now proud owners of miss Silent Zoomba Luna....she was 6 mos on Tuesday. DD12 takes her to agility and obedience each week. DD is so proud to be training a dog using signs....and is pleased to have a dog just like her!

Zoomba has no respect for our aussie/hound mix (age 11) or our golden (age 5)....but they seem to love her just the same. They let her chew on them and steal their toys.....but stealing bones is taking it too far and she has learned that. Zoomba has a strong desire to herd the 4 cats, and they seem to put up with her......she steals our shoes and makes piles of them in various locations in the house, and is always bringing us contraband ......spoons, cups, anything she is not supposed to have. At least she is not a chewer!

We love her dearly. But next time I am asked to foster I am going to remember that magic word....NO! I needed a 3rd dog like I needed another hole in my head!!!!!

 

[KathyTX]

There are quiet beagles- mine does not howl.

She does "talk" to me a lot, though- she makes little grunts, and we have whole conversations like this, going back and forth.

 

[EllenFrasier]

There are quiet beagles- mine does not howl.

She does "talk" to me a lot, though- she makes little grunts, and we have whole conversations like this, going back and forth.

Oh good, you're a beagle owner! I was hoping someone would respond that has a beagle. If I can figure out how to post a picture, I'll put one on here and you'll see how cute this little guy is!

 

[Liz]

I bet they are adorable and I'd love to see pics of both puppies! We brought two puppies home from the same litter to stay overnight so we could decide which to keep. That was ten years ago and of course we fell madly in love with both of them. Sadly we lost one last September but we never regretted the decision to keep the little brother and sister basset pups together!

 

[yoopermom]

We have a beagle cross, and hounds, and some will be more vocal than others. Ours tend to bark at other animals, but rarely at people (being hunters and all). They are VERY smart and you can teach them a redirect at a young age. Ours I taught from little on that when they barked, if they would run to me and sit quietly instead, that they would get a treat.

Teach them to use their noses in a positive way from little on up. With the same two I would play "hide the toy/treat". First you show them the toy, put it under a pillow, let them get it, and praise. Slowly hide it farther and farther away, and eventually they'll go look for it on command.

And our one hound is a "crooner/talker", too. You can put that on command, too. Olive knows "talk" means "croon". (She's one of our craziest barkers, otherwise, so I wanted to give her an alternative to use her "voice".)

Puppy class is great, too! God bless you for helping these pups!

Terri

 

[hercamore]

We have owned Samuel Hercamore beagle for 15 years. Beagles are wonderful pets.

Stubborn , smart, and very food oriented, and very loving. Theyveeakky like kids. Beagles will follow their nose right out of the yard unless they are fenced.

Pl post pictures.

Herc

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

Definitely need pictures of all these doggies!

 

[tennisfan]

We lost our 15 year old Westie in February & are looking at getting another dog. We may go for another Westie or Beagle. Both are really cute

 

[kacaju]

- is there such a thing as a quiet beagle?

YES!! My neighbor adopted a beagle about 2 years ago and I will tell you the first time I saw the dog I almost died, I thought oh no...this dog is gonig to be barking howling all the time!
I never, ever hear that Beagle....my collie and my shep mix...forget it... the second that quiet beagle comes out of his house I know it because my guys start barking!!

 

[KandD]

I'm not allowed to foster anymore! LOL.

Everyone else saw the writing on the wall except for me...when I said that I wanted to keep him my DBF said "of course you do!" Everyone else I knew said "saw that coming!" LOL.
So fostering is an awesome thing and I commend people who do it but it is just not for me! We have four dogs and no more space in the bed!

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Boy do I hear ya!

Our neighbors foster Australian Shepherds. At the end of February they brought in a blue merle female, 8 wks, registered but deaf. They had several others, and this pup had an "attitude' and wasn't getting along with the other fosters. As an animal behaviorist, I walked over to see if I could offer some advice (mistake #1). DD12 who is hearing impaired followed (mistake #2). Offered to try and foster her at our house until a better home could be found (mistake #3).

We are now proud owners of miss Silent Zoomba Luna....she was 6 mos on Tuesday. DD12 takes her to agility and obedience each week. DD is so proud to be training a dog using signs....and is pleased to have a dog just like her!

Zoomba has no respect for our aussie/hound mix (age 11) or our golden (age 5)....but they seem to love her just the same. They let her chew on them and steal their toys.....but stealing bones is taking it too far and she has learned that. Zoomba has a strong desire to herd the 4 cats, and they seem to put up with her......she steals our shoes and makes piles of them in various locations in the house, and is always bringing us contraband ......spoons, cups, anything she is not supposed to have. At least she is not a chewer!

We love her dearly. But next time I am asked to foster I am going to remember that magic word....NO! I needed a 3rd dog like I needed another hole in my head!!!!!

Your story brought happy tears to my eyes.

 

[Schminston-Mo]

"Sure, I'll foster this litter of kittens for 2 weeks, while the regular foster mom is on vacation. I'm not a cat person, so no big deal" ...Spoken 4 years ago, one of the cats is sitting behind me as I type this along with another cat we adopted after another one of the fosters I kept for 2 years passed away.

I love beagles! They do have to have good fences because they will often follow their nose and lose track of where they are supposed to be.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[Val]

We are very lucky that our miss Zoomba is generally silent...as she is deaf. Our other 2 are a little noisy when people approach, so it is nice that she doesn't add to the mix......BUT, every once in a while she finds her "voice" and goes on crazy barking sprees....sometimes it is during play, other times it is just because. The other 2 look at her like she is crazy....it seems she isn't "saying" anything, just making noise. It is a weird high pitched bark that just doesn't sound "right"....and then she is back to being silent.

Thanks AlexWyattMommy.....my DD12 has had a tough time with her ears....just had her 16th surgery on her ears 2 weeks ago, and came home from camp with the tube out of the "good" ear....so it is back to the ENT. Hopefully we can wait until after our WDW trip to put that one back in. DD12 really, really loves that silly deaf dog. They seem to be soul mates in a weird way and their relationship reminds me of the girl and the dog in that movie Because of Winn Dixie. As a dog person, I know how much you can love these silly furry beasts!

 

[clh2]

To all of you who fostered...YOU ARE FOSTER-FAILURES!!!!But the puppies (or cats or bunnies) are the real winners!!!!

There is a family in our subdivision that has 2 beagles, and no fence. I do not know "how" the dogs go outside. (Does that make sense? What I mean is - we let our dog go outside to take care of his business without being tied up, or on a leash.) To the best of my knowledge - these beagles have never "run off", as our subdivision is pretty helpful when a dog goes missing. (We live near a very busy highway, so we really try to keep an eye out for a wanderer.)

The beagle family walks the beagles each and every day for a long distance - at least a couple of miles. As with most dogs - the walks for beagles is really important.

Oh - and should I say...congrats on the new family members????? And - as with any thread that involves new dogs - we DEMAND pics!!!!

 

[DianeV]

We have our second beagle right now. Our first lived until 15 1/2 and was such a good dog. The one we have now we adopted from a shelter when she was already a year old and you can tell no one took the time to train her to do anything but we still love her. She is a challenge for sure but she is so darn sweet and when she looks at you, you just melt. She will be 2 in August.

Beagles are very nice sweet dogs who love people however yes they do go with their nose so watch that. Ours goes crazy when she sees another dog go by and that is hard to stop at this point

 

[sunlver]

Yes I can relate. I have been fostering dogs for an all breeds rescue for 5 yrs now. We kept one, a black and tan coonhound named "Ashley'. I would of never thought of adopting a hound dog..but she is the sweetest most laziest dog Ive ever had. She was my foster for 2 yrs..then we adopted her:confused
I mean its hard to let them go after a month..but 2 yrs..besides we always said who would hold the couch down all day if she got adopted

 

[michellev]

My current dog is a foster fail. My husband claims not to be a dog person, however he always wants to keep the dogs we foster. lol The one we kept fit too well into our family to let go.

 

[MyManGoofy!]

Yup - I have failed Fostering 101 4 times now!! However - I have also successfully managed to pass on 30+ other cats/kittens to their forever homes. So it CAN be done. It is just really hard.

Speaking of beagles, my next door neighbor has one and the only time I hear him is when she is outside coaxing him to "sing". It is the cutest thing to see the two of them out there howling away!