Irish Retriever Rescue works hard to ensure that every rescued dog is kept in a loving foster home for the first short period of its freedom. This is because we believe each dog is an individual with its own personality and that they need careful assessment before they are matched to adopters. We need to find out how they will react to people, children, other dogs and other pets in a home environment.
As part of our re-homing process, we are always keen to welcome anyone who can temporarily open their hearts and homes to one (or two) of our new dogs. Our fosterers take these sometimes traumatised dogs into their human and doggy families for a short while. Our fosterers help them trust once again and, for some, help them adapt to living in a house for the very first time. Our fosterers give them the warmth, safety and love they may have never known before and so badly need.
We don’t expect our fosterers to be expert dog trainers. But we do look for people with compassion, patience and understanding. It matters not that you might live alone or in a flat. Or that you think you are too old, too young or feel you don’t have enough experience. It does matter that you would not have to leave your foster dog for more than a few hours on any one day. It is also very important to have a safe and secure garden.
Fosterers can live in any part of the UK, in fact, the more we have across the entire country, the better.
We have a wonderful support group where fosterers old and new can share ideas, worries and joys (of which there are many!).
There will be many questions you’ll want to ask, we have a wonderful fosterer co-ordinator who will talk you through the application process in detail and support you once you’re approved if you decide fostering is for you. You can read more about the nitty-gritty of fostering if you visit our Guidance for Successful Fostering page.
If you think you could help us by opening up your home to one of our dogs for a few weeks (or more rarely a few months) by becoming a Fosterer for IRR, please visit the Foster Application page and complete the application form.