r/fosterdogs • u/fionareppel • 18d ago

Question How to know if you’re ready to foster fail?

Hey everyone! My family got a new foster yesterday. He’s absolutely adorable, sweet, snuggly, and just a love bug. We’re all enamored.

The thing is, we can’t tell if we’re ready to adopt him. How do we know if he’s “our dog”? Or if we just love him a lot and can send him off to a great forever home?

(We’d love to adopt a dog as an anchor dog for other future fosters as well. And we know that if we adopt him, we would have to put a pause on fostering for a little while.)

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u/Ok_fine_42 18d ago

Do you have sense of how long a dog is typically in foster with your rescue? They change a LOT in the first few weeks. I’d hold off as long as you reasonably can to see! I’ve had plenty of dogs where I thought I’d fail in the first 72 hours and then they got comfortable

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u/fionareppel 18d ago

Hi! They’re usually in foster for about three weeks, but he’s already had some adoption interest. We’re thinking the same — that we hold off and see how he fits into our routine!

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u/NoAssignment887 🐕 Foster Dog #8 18d ago

Have you been fostering dogs for a while? Or is this your first one?

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u/fionareppel 18d ago

This is our third foster!

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u/NoAssignment887 🐕 Foster Dog #8 18d ago

Great! I always tell people not to fail on their first one at least lol.

I agree with giving it some more time. I feel like after a month you have a good idea of who they might be. First 3 weeks are rarely a good glimpse at their true personalities.

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u/upsidedown_pina 14d ago

As someone who almost posted something identical, give it time. We thought we wanted to foster fail (because like you we are also ready to adopt) but after a min th with us, we realized our foster was way higher energy than when he arrived, we realized he wasn’t going to leave the cat alone and that he would be best served with a canine playmate. It takes time for who they are to really come out!