How You Can Help

1.   Become a foster home. Anyone can apply to be a foster home, whether you belong to Contented Canines or not. What will qualify you to foster a dog is your abilities to properly house and work with the dog we have needing fostered. There are all types of dogs out there, with different types of personalities, sizes, and needs. We place dogs in foster homes, just like we do when we adopt them, where they will do best. Some dogs come in with no training and will need some basic training before adoption. Some may have more issues that will need addressed. We do not take in overly aggressive dogs. The time frame you have the dog can not be defined, it depends on how quick we get interest in the dog. If you are on our foster list, when we have a new dog coming in, you may be notified of the need of a foster home. You can let us know if you are able to foster the dog or not.

2.   Responsibilities of a Foster Parent: Take the dog into your house. House it appropriately, most times, in a kennel/crate, when left alone. Work on whatever issues that have been identified with the dog. Examples: house breaking, training basic command, fix jumping, fix mouthing/biting, improve social skills, etc.

3.   Responsibilities of our Rescue: Make sure the dog is brought current and kept current on vaccinations, heartworm and flea preventative. Spay/neuter the dog. Make sure the dog is in good health. Our rescue pays for all these expenses. The foster home may need to transport the dog to a facility to take care of medical needs. Our rescue covers the expenses of the dog’s food and any other needs.

4.   Spread the word about our Rescue. Watch for postings stating what dogs we have for adoption. Hang fliers where you can. Tell as many people as possible. Our dogs are listed on Petfinder. Anyone who wants to see pictures and info. on our dogs can go to the Petfinder website. Telling people about our rescue also gets the word out so that we may rescue more dogs, save them from shelter time and maybe even from being put to sleep.

5.   Donate money. I don’t really push for donations because we are such a small rescue with very little overhead expenses. When we adopt out dogs I charge the expenses we put into the dog + $25 to go into our Rescue fund for future expenses. Our Rescue fund is used if we get a dog in with larger than normal vet expenses, so we don‘t have to charge a huge adoption fee.

6.   Spread the message of Spay /Neuter. The reason shelters and rescues are needed, are to take on the responsibility of the excess dogs that are in our world because too many people are breeding their dogs. Use our information sheets “Are You A Potential Responsible Dog Breeder?” and “Should I Spay / Neuter My Dog?”.

7.   Encourage everyone you know who owns a dog to do dog training, especially with new dogs and puppies. Almost all the dogs that end up in shelters and rescues have had little to no dog training. Dogs and Owners that have not gone through adequate dog training programs tend to have more issues that result in the owner giving up the dog.

* If you are considering becoming a foster home please contact Kim to fill out our Foster Home Form