Vetting is the action or process of
ensuring the loyalty or trustworthiness of a person or thing by investigation
of the background and credentials.
The HSUS has prepared profiles to
assist the Military Personnel in Vetting their dog or cat. The forms can be
easily adapted for civilians. In addition The American
Kennel Club has prepared the Good Citizen (CGC) Program.
The Humane
Society http://www.hsus.org/ has a personality profile for cats on their
site. This form, in PDF, can be downloaded and printed out.
It provides a good summary of your animal and should be used
as a first step in describing your animal to a potential foster parent. You may
want to post the content at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foster_pet/
as an aid in locating a foster parent.
The American
Kennel Club developed the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Program http://akc.org/love/cgc/testprocedures.cfm
. The information below was adapted from the actual test posted on their
website. Check with the AKC to find a person certified to give the test. Foster
parents who agree to care for dogs are encouraged to verify that the owner's
dog has passed the CGC test or if the dog hasn't past
the test they are capable of dealing with a dog that has the problems
identified when they failed. "Any dog that growls, snaps, bites, attacks,
or attempts to attack a person or another dog is not a good citizen and must be
dismissed from the test." There are ten elements in the test. They consist
of; accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely for petting, appearance and
grooming, out for a walk (walking on a loose lead), walking through a crowd,
sit and down on command - staying in place, coming when called, reaction to
another dog, reaction to distraction, supervised separation.
The Humane
Society http://www.hsus.org has a
personality profile for cats on their site. This form, in PDF, can be downloaded and printed out. It provides a good
summary of your animal and should be used as a first
step in describing your animal to a potential foster parent. You may want to
post the content at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foster_pet/
as an aid in locating a foster parent.
The Humane
Society http://www.hsus.org has a
personality profile for dogs and cats on their site but it is hard to find an organization
of their stature with a lot of help for exotic
animals, fish and reptiles. You may want to post a description of your animal
at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foster_pet/
as an aid in locating a foster parent.
You need not
only to ensure that you find a foster parent with the specialized knowledge to
manage your pet but also you need to be clear they understand the needs and
personality quirks of your pet. For example if your exotic bites, marks, or has
some undesirable trait the foster parent must know how
to manage it. It doesn't mean that your pet is totally
unsuitable but if the foster parents don't understand at the beginning this
trait needs to be managed and know how to manage it they may need to give up
the animal and you will be in a poor position to find a new place for your pet.
It is important that the owner
ensure the people who offer themselves as foster parents are suitable. The
determination of suitability rests with owner. The Foster Pet Project only
provides considerations and a list of people. It is possible that people with
unsavory motives will attempt to use the Foster Pet Project to gain access to
animals. The owner must be prepared for that possibility.
It is more likely that a well meaning foster parent will accept a pet that they
are not able to manage. For example a poorly trained
dog or cat that sprays and not wish to care for the animal for the entire
period.
There are programs developed by
shelters to ensure the people they place their animals with are suitable.
Potential foster parents are encouraged to contact their local shelters and examine the process used for vetting the shelter’s
foster parents and then show the owner that they have reviewed the
requirements in place locally and that they meet them. Here are a couple of
pointers http://www.gbhs.org/bhs/volunteer_foster.asp
or http://www.cockeradoption.com/fosag.htm
to get you start and help set expectations. These programs unlike Foster Pets
seek to provide foster care to pets in transition to new homes. Many shelters
use a foster program to care for injured or pregnant animals until they can e
adopted. This is not the intent of the Foster Pet Project it is out hope that
animals who enter the program will be reunited with
their original owners.
Being a foster parent is hard
because you must be the kind of person who will treat the animal as though you
will never let it go and yet you know that you do intend to let it go and that
makes you extra special.