Dogs In UK Foster

Why do we use foster homes?

Fostering provides many advantages and helps to give our dogs the best possible start to their new life. In a foster home situation, the dog’s true personality will have a much better chance of shining through, which is sometimes harder to see in a shelter environment. This foster home gives potential adopters a much more accurate insight into the dog’s temperament and character (the good and the quirks!). Foster also allows the dog to socialise in a family situation with other people, dogs and other types of pets, so that any quirks that need work become apparent.

Many of our dogs have had terrible experiences of cruelty, neglect or living on the streets in harsh conditions. They lack the experience of ever having lived in a home environment with proper boundaries. For the dogs that have come from this type of background, simply living within a calm, secure environment with experienced foster carers can make all the difference in helping the dog get ready for their forever home.

Why do we only have a few dogs in foster in the UK?

Most of our dogs go directly from Happy Tails (our shelter in Romania) into their new family’s home. Our transport bus (affectionately known as the Freedom bus) has 20 places, so we aim to find homes for 20 dogs each time. 

Occasionally we have a couple of spare places on the Freedom Bus, so we take that opportunity to bring across dogs that we believe will very quickly find loving homes in the UK. Whilst they wait for those homes, the dogs go straight into foster. 

We also run a complete rescue backup service, so occasionally, we find that a home hasn’t worked out for a dog, and so we bring those dogs into our foster homes whilst we find them a new home. 

What is the benefit of re-homing a dog from a UK foster?

Some people may find the prospect of offering a forever home to a dog they have never seen a bit daunting. Our foster dogs provide the perfect opportunity to find out lots of information about how the dog is in a home environment and for potential adopters to meet the dog in person. Usually, the dogs who have been in foster homes are house-trained, lead-trained and socialised with other dogs, so the re-homing process can be slightly more straightforward as someone else has helped with basic training first.

We always keep our dogs in a foster home for a minimum of two weeks before putting them up for adoption, so we really get to know the dog’s personality in the home environment.

About our foster carers

We are passionate about our dogs, and we are lucky to have some wonderful foster carers who are extremely experienced with dogs. Our foster carers help our dogs by giving them a calm home, usually with other dogs (and sometimes cats), which helps our dogs to settle into home life. Our foster carers assess our dogs and work out what kind of home will best suit each individual dog in the future. Our foster carers help with crate, lead and house training and introduce our dogs to a multitude of situations to see how they react. This ensures that the future owners have a rounded picture of the dog from a person who really understands dogs and their needs. Our foster carers play a key role in helping us to choose the right family for each dog.

Meet our dogs in UK foster that are available