Rescue/foster Dog Health Issue

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

I use vinegar/water or Napisan and water to clean up their wee, disinfectant or wool wash are no good.

Your shelter should be providing this type of advice to all foster carers. I run a rescue group and foster carers should be housetraining dogs and providing any feedback to me on any health or behavioural worries. All of our dogs go straight to the vets with any health issues and adoptions don't go ahead unless the dog is 100%. Should it have an ongoing condition then this is disclosed before adoption and people can decide to go ahead or not.

Someone from the shelter should have come out to watch her behaviour - they need to be expert enough to know what is causing it and to delay adoptions until it's fixed.

Edited October 7, 2012 by dogmad

[schnauzer]

Dogmad

Parrotpea,

Sounds like you have done all you can and thankyou for caring so much about this girl:) "Excessive urination" is not normal for any dog - so unsure what your foster care coordinator means by this

Glad you are in contact with the adopter and if the bitch is still excessively urinating she should seek immediate advice from her vet.

[WreckitWhippet]

Another dog that is destined to bounce, because it's been adopted out with an issue that needed to be fixed prior to adoption, be it medical or behavioural.

[Steve]

Parrotpea - You did the best you could and you should have had much better support from the rescue group.

There were several things here which just were not conducive to best practice to ensure you and the new owner and especially the dog had a fair deal.

[persephone]

Parrotpea - You did the best you could and you should have had much better support from the rescue group.<br style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17.600000381469727px; background-color: rgb(238, 242, 247); ">There were several things here which just were not conducive to best practice to ensure you and the new owner and especially the dog had a fair deal.

x1

[kiwikitten]

I have a foster here who also spent the first few weeks cocking his leg on every corner in the house and sprinkling on it. It is marking behaviour. Annoying as hell, but as he has settled in, he has been doing it less and less. I leave the back door open so he can come and go when he feels like it, and he always goes outside to poo and do a proper wee. He is 8-10 years old, and is learning what is acceptable house behaviour and what is not.

As for my own dog, she was an excited piddler and a submissive piddler. This is where she pees whenever someone arrives home, or sees her after being absent for more than 5 minutes. She peed when you looked at her, talked to her, touched her, moved her, or told her to do something. This behaviour has taken substantive rehabilitation over the last 18 months and I can now say I rarely get piddled on anymore :-)

As for being worried about coughing, if you ever get a small breed dog as a foster you will need to become familiar with the concept of a reverse sneeze - it sounds like they are about to keel over and die, and indeed, one of my dogs has been known to do it until he vomited, and yet there is nothing wrong with them.