Fostering for specific breed rescues

discussing this before and we were debating whether its a good way to get a feel a for a breed you think you like.

i thought it was a good idea, but only if you werent a novice dog owner, and had experienced dogs which werent necessarily easy.

i would quite easily foster for a specific breed, and in fact have gotten in touch with one before now. they said because i ad experience working with large breeds i would be suitable. i think working in a kennels for so long with a vast array of breeds large and small coming through that i could foster.

ive also been in touch with a general rescue to foster for them, but cant because my dogs are not spayed/neutered.. doesnt mean i wont get in touch with another though.

so what do you think, is fostering for a specific breed rescue is a good idea to get knowledge of a breed?

TBH i think it depends. If the dog you are fostering, is simply a hand in because of a divorce..and said dog has been raised trained correctly...then yes.

But if you have a dog thats had the poo kicked outta it, or a poorly bred example...then no

JMHO

Agree with the above plus if you are fostering they are relying on you to build and give a realistic picture of the dog. If you have no breed experience how can you say if the dog is typical?

Have to say we prefer fosterers that have experience with the breed

i agree that breed knowledge and experience is a good thing..

working in a kennels for 3 years, i think i have quite a good experience of different breeds, maybe not enough as some would like, but i do..

what if someone had fostered for general rescues for a while, so had numerous dogs come through their doors, then decide to foster for a specific breed?

Can't speak gor breed specific rescue but I would say that experience of a breed in a kennel setting is very different to experience of living with a breed...

oh i know that, but ive found with some ive spoke to, they want you to know how to deal with if they are big, and you can control them on lead etc, understand exercise needs and such.

not specific problems that breed could have, because any dog of any breed and size could have the same problems coming from a rescue background.

I understand where you're coming from for the large dogs, but take the springers, and i'm just generalising here if you haven't lived with one, you'd probably think the first foster you got was a manic eejit, who needs work on its recall because its constantly going out of site on walks, and thats had no training cos it pulls like a steam train, but thats normal for springers if you see what i mean, and i have an instance of that, we have a friend who now has 3 springers and fosters for us, but she started meeting up with us for Walks when she hadn't had meg (her first) long and she gave me a long list of Meg's problems, but actually Meg didn't have any problems she was just being a springer.

ETA you couldn''t assess the needs of that dog and the home that would suit if you don't know the characteristics of the breed well, i have had dogs that there is no way on this earth that i would put in a pet home, including a working cocker that went to West Yorkshire police cos he was so bonkers, but equally i have had working strain springers that wouldn't make working dogs

I think there are more appropriate ways of researching a breed tbh.

Fostering is all about learning about the specific dog in your care and working with that dog to ensure you help him/her find the best possible/most suitable home. It is not about using one particular example of a breed to see whether that breed would fit in with your lifestyle. You are looking at it the wrong way around I think.

I am sure that most breed specific rescue would not let you foster without experience and having had ownership of the particular breed in question.

Just to make it clear, I'm not on about me fostering a specific breed to see if i could live with it, obviously I know there are better ways to go about it