Uncle Chris's Foster Dog Academy

Meet Goodwin!

1:24 PM
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Letting Go - How to say goodbye to your foster dog

The doorbell rings.

You go open it and smile and invite this wonderful person into your home. Or maybe you're meeting the adopter at a rescue sponsored event or at the shelter. It doesn't really matter.

Going Home!

This person or family has made the fantastic choice to adopt a new pet for their family. And they've chosen your foster! Hurray! Woohoo! This is great!

Right? Or is it?

First of all - yes, it is. But we've all spoken to the people who say, "Oh, I'd love to foster - but I can't because I'd keep them all. How do you do it?" Well, yeah, it's hard. That's WHY we do it. I'm always tempted to respond to those people with, "Oh, I know! It's so much better that they die in the shelter than tug at your heartstrings." But I don't. I just smile and nod.

Let's get one thing straight. My foster is my dog - right up until it isn't. I'll clean up poop and puke in the middle of the night if he's sick and I'll throw myself in front of a speeding car if she's about to be hit. I'll drive hundreds of miles for specialist care. But then, suddenly, it's not my dog. That dog walks out the door as a member of someone else's family. Which is? Exactly. How. It. Should. Be.

Some dogs only stay a few weeks, though we've had fosters stay in our home for close to a year. I think the record is somewhere around ten months. Let's be honest, that's longer than some people keep a puppy they got at Christmas.

So how do you do it? How do you let go? Here are some tips.

Get to know the adopter a little if possible. See if they are amenable to texts or social media contact so you can keep connected. If not, oh well. If so? Don't bug them!
Keep the mindset for the last couple of weeks that your foster might be moving on soon. While they're still "your foster dog" for the moment, take this time to get excited for them to be getting to do all the amazing first time stuff with their new family.
Ensure their success. Make sure your foster's training and skills are in tip-top shape for going to their new home. Knowing they are likely to succeed and be great family members greatly reduces your stress level as they move on.
Cry. Yep, I said it. It's okay, and a normal part of the process. This dog might have come into your life as a steaming hot mess, but now is moving on as a functional family member with great skills because of your love and effort. It's okay to get emotional. I certainly do.

Then you wipe away the tears and do it all again. You become a stepping stone for the next pupper in need of whatever you do best.

Have you seen the Disney Pixar movie, "Soul" yet? There's a scene in it that EXACTLY describes what adoption day is like for me. Without spoiling the movie, there's a scene where the two main characters are holding hands. Remember? When they let go - that's what it's like. That's the feeling.

One last thing to keep in mind. Failing fostering (adopting your foster) is okay. And sometimes it's the absolute right thing to do for your family and the dog. But keep in mind when you do that, you take away a space for a dog who really needs to get out of a bad situation and into a great foster home like yours. Maybe you can still find room in both your heart and your home to have that former foster dog teach the new foster dog the ropes!

9:07 AM
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Uncle Chris's Foster Dog Academy

About

Hi!

Thanks for taking the time to check out Uncle Chris's Foster Dog Academy, where your new best friend learns the ropes of how to become a great pet. "Uncle" Chris and "Auntie" Kate have been fostering dogs in their home for local shelters and rescue groups since 2003. Rescue dogs sometimes just need a little help getting ready to be pets, and Uncle Chris just helps them get there.

Skills they often learn:

Housetraining & Crate Training - these are great skills to help a dog get adopted.
Stairs - some dogs have never been in a house before and need to learn the basics of how to live in a home.
Leash Walking - walking well on a leash is a great skill for a dog heading to a new family.
Basic Obedience - the dogs learn basics like Sit, Stay, and Down with positive-only reinforcement. While Uncle Chris isn't a certified dog trainer, he's trained almost 100 foster dogs to be excellent family members. Obedience is a fantastic way for a dog to understand their relationship with their new family.

How about a couple of examples?

Tucker on his way to Uncle Chris's house

Like Tucker, here. He had a bit of a rough landing in the shelter when his owner passed away, and needed a soft spot to get a fresh start. He polished up his home skills and got adopted at age 10 to go live his best life.

Poor Selma could barely walk.

Or Selma, who had been found as a stray and was discovered to have been eating gravel to try and survive. She got all fixed up (and recovered at UC's house from two shelter-provided surgeries - one that discovered the gravel in her tummy, the other to fix her ACL), learned some new skills, and got adopted into a loving home.

Selma turned out just fine after some good nutrition and love.

This is all about the dogs - they come in as fosters, often needing a little extra attention or help, they learn basic household and obedience skills, then they get adopted by awesome people like you and become fantastic family members. And most importantly? All the dogs are loved just like family and are welcome to stay however long it takes for them to find their perfect home.

How you can help: Share, Share, Share!! The way these pups get adopted is by being seen by as many people as possible. You can follow Uncle Chris on Facebook here - Uncle Chris's Facebook Page and Instagram here - Uncle Chris's Instagram Account.

Would you like to adopt one of the dogs you've seen? There is often information in the FB or IG posts about how to fill out an application - or just send a direct message on either of those platforms and UC will gladly send you more information.

Thanks so much for all your support!

"Uncle" Chris Miller

More Stories...

Pluto turned out to be a snuggle monster.

Pluto was struggling so much in the shelter that the staff was given an ultimatum: he needed a foster or permanent home, or he was going to be euthanized. He was going crazy in that shelter, doing backflips anytime a person walked by his kennel to try and get attention. He walked into Uncle Chris's house like he owned the place - crated easily, learned all his obedience skills in a snap, and walked like a professionally trained dog on the leash. He went from death row to being a cherished member of the family who adopted him.

Check out this video of his fantastic walking skills - https://youtu.be/bTASQo8ITeI

Eyes (AKA Charlie) is a recent foster and did great.

"Dyin Eyes" is a retired racing greyhound that came to stay with Uncle Chris and Auntie Kate. He came with some great skills already (stairs, leash skills, house/crate trained) and he flourished with his obedience training. He learned Down, Stay, and Sit - and he learned them so well! He's a good boy and is going to be fantastic in his new home with his Forever Family.

We hope you'll join us as we work towards putting great dogs in great homes!!

10:35 AM
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Meet Nala!!

3:02 PM
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Garfunkel has an update!

7:02 PM
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Simon and Garfunkel: A Busy Couple of Weeks

Garfunkel

We love to get Love! Who's up for some Ear Scritches? (Garfunkel-left, Simon-right)

Hi again everyone!! It's us, Simon and Garfunkel again.

Have we ever had a busy couple of weeks here at Uncle Chris's house. Gosh, who knew there was so much for a pair of doggies to learn? And he says we haven't even started school yet.

We're still a little careful around new people and situations (that happens to doggies like us who have been in bad hoarding situations), but we're doing a good job coming out of our shells slowly and steadily. Some turtle told us that's how you win races.

We've started to embrace Uncle Chris (UC) and Auntie Kate as our new Foster Parents until we find our Forever Family. And they are pretty good at it. They feed us and love us and take us for walks and stuff. We like the love part best.

Garfunkel and I (Simon) have some skills we bring to the table as well! We're housetrained - not a single accident since we've been here! And we let UC and AK know if we need to go out. How about that? And we both know how to SIT when asked!

Did we mention we love getting love? How about these silly pictures of Auntie Kate loving on us? Simon even gave her kisses back :-)

Happy Doggies getting Love!

Garfunkel with a big smile...

And Simon giving AK some kisses back to show his appreciation and love!

And we got to go on an adventure!!

UC and Auntie Kate live downtown here in Chattanooga - so we're Southside dogs now. And you know where the coolest place for doggies and their people to hang out is in Southside?

The Flying Squirrel!

We went last weekend down to the Squirrel and sat out on the patio and enjoyed the evening for a little while. Garfunkel and I (Simon) met several very nice people and had our pictures taken and stuff - so I guess we're real celebrities now?

Our super-nice server brought us each out a bowl of water and a milkbone! You want to talk about service? Let me bark - this was top notch.

Let's see, I think we'd like to start off with a dish of water...

Then maybe a milkbone for each of us...

And we'll finish the evening with a bit of cheese from UC and AK! Yummy!!

Our foster peeps ordered a cheese sampler plate. Cheese? are you joking?

Yes, Please! We love cheese!

I think we each preferred the Spanish "Manchego". Oh who are we kidding? We love all cheese...

It was a super fun adventure, and it brings up an interesting point.

Would you like to go on adventures with Simon and Garfunkel? Or love us and rub our ears? We're available for adoption, you know... We're a bonded pair of survivors from that terrible hoarding situation (which makes us best pals), we're a little shy at first but warm up in no time if you are just patient with us, we're housetrained. Kids? We would do okay with older or calm kids, wild kids might make us nervous. Cats? Maybe - we haven't shown any issues with the neighborhood kitties we've met.

If you'd like to meet us? Just leave a comment below in the comments section of this post - or you can contact the nice people at www.heschatt.org.

More cute pictures!!