Adopting a pet

Puppy outdoors on a sunny summer day.

Are you thinking about adopting a pet? You’ve seen tons of adorable animal influencers all over social media, and the puppy/kitty fever is now in full force. Now it’s time to decide: Will you adopt from a rescue or shelter, OR will you buy from a breeder? If you’re looking to buy from a breeder, read our blog post about questions you should ask your breeder before adopting. While raising a puppy or kitten can be exciting, it also comes with a lot of work. Do your research and make sure you have the time and energy to dedicate to that puppy or kitten before they come home with you. Adopting from a rescue or shelter is also a super rewarding experience. You will give these pets another chance to have a better life. Of course, adopting from a shelter or rescue can come with its own workload, but today we’ll talk about an option that might help prepare first time adopters or those with other animals or people at home already.

In lieu of National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, let’s look at how we can lend a hand to these hardworking shelters and give these pets even better lives! One way to accomplish these simultaneously is to foster or foster before adopting a pet. Fostering an animal from a shelter can benefit not only the shelter or rescue, but also the animal – who knows, maybe you can also benefit from fostering!

Shelters and rescues don’t have unlimited space to house the animals they care for. Fostering allows space to free up, so they can take on another dog or cat in the meantime. While you care for one animal at your house, the shelter can bring in and care for another animal with the extra space you opened.

Your foster animal will also learn a lot from you! Living in a shelter is different than living in a home. Socializing these foster animals to a home environment and providing positive experiences can help your foster adapt to life off the streets and outside the shelter, making them more adoptable in the long run.

Fostering an animal for a few months can also help the shelter or rescue learn more about the animal’s temperament and needs before finding their forever home. It’s important to provide adopters with as much information as possible to make sure the animal won’t end up back in the shelter after realizing it wasn’t a good fit.

There are some rescues or shelters that run “foster-to-adopt” programs. These programs can actually help you find your perfect companion! When fostering before adopting a pet, you can have the animal live in your home for a predetermined period before committing to adoption. This allows you to ensure the animal gets along with other members of the household, such as kids, partners, or even other animals.

You can also determine whether owning an animal will be right for you with foster-to-adopt programs, especially for first time adopters. Many times, we are caught off guard with how much work taking care of another being can be. It can be overwhelming, and may not be for everyone. Therefore, do your research before fully committing to adoption. Fostering can be your first step, as you won’t have to immediately commit to caring for the animal for the rest of its life.

Whatever option you decide, our trainers are here to help every step of the way! Give us a call to schedule a consultation where we can help set you up for success with your newest family member: 786-299-1552.