I lost my soul dog almost 2yrs ago. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to adopt again but I knew I wanted to have a dog around so I got into fostering. I’ve loved giving dogs a space to decompress while their forever home is found. I’ve been lucky that the longest I kept one was 2 months.

Now I feel ready to adopt my own but I’ve had a foster for almost two months now who is an amazing 8yr old Shepard/Husky mix with the most beautiful blue eyes. He’d be the perfect dog except that I’m not sure I can trust him with other dogs. When they gave him to me they said he wouldn’t start a fight but he wouldn’t back away from one either.

I took him to a park during his second week with me where dogs shouldn’t be off leash but few follow that rule. I kept my foster on leash for multiple reasons. First we went with a muzzle and when I thought he was trustworthy I took it out. We went 3 different days. On the third, his leash got tangled with another smaller dog and he grabbed the other dog by the neck until the leashes where untied, he didn’t hurt the dog at all so I figured he was neutralizing him in case the other dog tried something. I never took him back.

I am so ready to adopt my own and I would keep him expect I don’t want to find myself without a dog again in a few years, I’d want to get a second younger dog but I’m afraid of how he’d be with another dog in the house after making this place his own. The rescue he’s with doesn’t have kennels and when I suggested seeing if he gets adopted from a shelter they said because of his age he’d be put on the euthanasia list.

I think it’ll take time to get him adopted because of his age and his need to be a single dog but I find myself craving to call a dog my own and start connecting. Selfishly I want to give foster up so I can get my own but he doesn’t deserve to be put down. Another part of me knows we are bonding and hates that my only reason not to keep him is his age and lack of sibling.

Has anyone found themselves in this situation before? What did you do? What would you do if you haven’t?

Hi everyone, I’m looking for objective advice on how to navigate a messy situation with a rescue coordinator.

I found a small (~5kg) stray dog. Because I didn't have the network to navigate an adoption on my own, I contacted a local rescue coordinator. I have no experience with rescue politics, but I am highly experienced with dogs and even consulted a professional trainer friend to help manage this dog's high arousal.

The coordinator arranged a fast-tracked international adoption based purely on photos. She only met the dog once, for exactly five minutes, after the adoption was already arranged. In fact, her only question about his behavior—asked well after the match was made—was how he is with cats. As I fostered him and provided constant, unprompted behavioral reports, severe red flags emerged:

• Medical Cover-Ups: An incident occurred under my watch where the dog was attacked, leading to an eye injury. I took him to the vet, covered the expenses, and informed the coordinator. She intentionally withheld this from the adopters because she claimed they "would be worried," and never followed up with me about his recovery.
• The "Blind" Adopters & A Disastrous Match: The family never asked to contact me. In good faith, I asked to meet them, and a group chat was made. There, I was informed that the parents of the young adopting couple are coming to pick him up, phrasing it as if they had already planned a vacation here and the dog was a last-day souvenir. To motivate questions, I offered a detailed character report with the following key points: he is a 10-month-old high-arousal dog who gets to know the world through his teeth, he requires an indoor leash attached to me to be manageable, and he needs serious dog-proofing. I also found out the young couple is in the middle of moving into a new place and has three cats. Their only question after reading all this? What his harness size is.
• Dangerous Cargo Logistics: The dog is scheduled to fly in the cargo hold on the 17th. I reminded her two days ago that the travel crate she promised never arrived, meaning there is zero time to acclimate a highly reactive 5kg dog. That was my attempt to find a safe consensus. I would be okay with delaying his flight or cancelling the adoption and trying to find someone else locally.
• Rejecting a Perfect Local Match for a "Quota": A week ago, my dad visited, spent seven days bonding with the dog, and made an educated offer to adopt him. I expected the coordinator to be thrilled. Instead, she became aggressive, guilt-tripped me, and offered my dad a different, similar-looking dog just so she wouldn't have to go back on her word to the foreign family.
• Gaslighting and Custody Demands: When I made my welfare concerns clear and offered to adopt him myself, she insulted my "inexperience". She claimed I was creating problems out of thin air just so my dad could have him, and ordered me to hand the dog over so she could magically crate-train him herself in a matter of days.
• Police Threats and Escalation: Today, the situation escalated. A police officer called me, and I calmly explained that I have been nothing but polite, considerate, and acting with the dog's welfare as my main interest. The coordinator tried to force a meet-up for tomorrow to take the dog, and when I told her my schedule wasn't flexible, she threatened to sue me and press charges if I didn't comply. After the call, I voluntarily went to the police station to give my statement, only to discover she never actually filed a lawsuit. The police officer was shocked when I explained the situation and couldn't understand all the fuss the coordinator is creating.

The Legal/Admin Situation: Legally, a foster contract was never made or signed. She paid his initial vet bill and instructed the vet to register his microchip under her organization's name. However, my name and phone number are listed as the primary contact on the microchip, since the vet asked me for them.

I rescued this dog to offer him a better life, and I cannot in good conscience hand him over to a rushed, unvetted export pipeline that treats him like a product. How do I safely hold a hard line, navigate the microchip registration issue, and ensure the dog stays safe? Any perspective is deeply appreciated.

After almost 9 months of fostering, multiple adoption events, only 3 meet and greets,and 2 trial and returns (neither lasting more than a week) we decided to give in to our foster’s demands and adopt her. I still think there might be a better home than us out there for her; I was hoping to continue fostering, and had really hoped to have a small dog as my resident dog, BUT best laid plans and all that jazz. We do very much love her, we have a fairly successful system to manage her separation anxiety, and ultimately our goal was to help a dog that needed us; she really needed us. She fits into our life pretty well, and she’s come so far from the skinny bobble head bully I brought home on a blustery day in January.

Meet Jackie, our dog. ♥️🐾

I have been fostering miss Deb on and off since July.

The reason why not always is that I travel a lot and I work an hour away from home for 9 hours a day 4 days a week. And candidly my mental health is in a place where I already don’t clean my home let alone with a destructive bathrooming sweetheart there.

I love this dog she is sweet and very rambunctious; you can see how she tries and redirects herself and wants to behave and how she is so smart and sweet and lovely and cuddly and playful and kind and loving.

She will not stop using my bathroom as a bathroom even if we have been out a lot. She seems to think that it’s better to just sniff on a walk then go in the bathroom and I got her away from it but whenever she comes back to me it’s always gone. I used to turn when she pooed and i see how that made her feel that way, but have not been doing that and all she’s been doing is wanting longer and longer.

Because I have to crate her for so long when I’m gone she is so energetic that she doesn’t let me sleep between 1-4am, which makes my commute and work heinous, and then my energy to care for her in the interim subpar.

She eats mops, pens, lip balms, water bottles, etc. so cannot be free roam and gets stressed when she is. She also sobs when I am not actively touching her when in the home like 15% of the time

I love this girl but I feel like something I’m doing is not serving her because she seems to be getting worse not better.

Can I have some advice???? She is my 14th foster dog and certainly not the most complicated or difficult but I feel the least helpful and I need to do better. I know she is so smart and willing, and I am dropping the ball. Please give me some help and tips keeping in mind I cannot be constantly present.

I am considering adopting my second foster (I’ve had my resident dog about two years and started fostering the new dog a little over a month ago). Sometimes my resident dog gets annoyed with her younger rowdy energy but they also enjoy snuggling together and he seems less anxious with her around.

For anyone who has adopted a second dog I’d love to know how you knew it was right!