Sienna was part of a very fearful litter of puppies. While all the pups were nervous, Sienna seemed to be the farthest behind, and wasn’t able to be touched without full-on panicking. The shelter was very overwhelming for her, and while she made some progress in our Behavior Modification Program, we soon decided to try her in a foster home with a confident dog so she could continue her progress. Her first foster home had a playful husky mix that she loved, but the foster family felt her level of fear was a little more than they knew how to handle; so, we sent her to Behavior Foster Parent extraordinaire – our own Eleena Fikhman! In her second foster stint, Sienna learned to be more comfortable with people as well as dogs, and even became a bit of a snugglebug. Her adopters had an idea of what they could expect after adopting thanks to her time in the foster home.

Uma came into the shelter with little history, and though she started off as a calm, easy going girl, her stress level quickly rose when surrounded by other barking dogs in the kennel. She started to become reactive to the other animals, and then became barrier reactive with people as well. We were able to get her into a foster home, where her stress melted away and she turned into a totally different dog. Where she wasn’t able to be around other dogs in the shelter without quickly becoming frustrated and reactive, the time out of the shelter allowed her to settle enough to start meeting and walking with other dogs again. Uma now lives happily in her forever home with people who adore her, and even has a little chihuahua friend that she takes regular walks with!

(Dr.) Rowan was in the shelter system for over a year, the first half of which was spent in the shelter. During his time in the shelter pods, Rowan was very stressed in his kennel and would react to other dogs on leash. He became harder for our staff and volunteers to manage as his stress levels increased. When he did go into foster, he was finally able to relax (and even became good friends with the other dog in the home!) while he waited for his forever family to come. While Rowan still struggled with reactivity to cars in the foster home, we were able to find a plan that worked for him so both he and the foster parent felt happy and comfortable. His new adopters are totally in love with him, and were able to use the information we gathered during Rowan’s time in the foster home to make the transition easy for everyone!