[amedinaoh]

Does having a pet in the house make it harder for placement. I have a four year old yorkie dog. Are pets theraputic for most children?

[L-A-J-C-R-C]

We have 3 dogs (2 boxers and a mini daschound) and 2 cats and have had 9 kids placed with us in 2 years so my answer would be no it shouldn't be a problem. You will need to supply proof of rabies shots each year at your renewal time.

Best of luck.

Michelle

[Dmommab]

Only "problem" I foresee is that if a child has allergies to dogs they would not be placed in your home but that really isn't a problem I don't think. One thing you do need to be careful of is to watch the children around the dog - I have had several foster children that were mean to our animals when they thought no one was watching. Good Luck!

[IowaGirl515]

Originally Posted by amedinaoh

Does having a pet in the house make it harder for placement. I have a four year old yorkie dog. Are pets theraputic for most children?

I have the same concern as you.. we have five cats and 3 dogs but fortunately a decent sized house. Other than the allergy issue, I've been told the same thing about pets. Not a big issue as long as the vaccs are up to date and nothing dangerous.. which is why my lab rott mix (who's the biggest baby) is listed as a Lab mix! :-)

[Awaiting]

Yeah, the only issue was allergies. We had to get a written consent signed that our dogs were up to date on their shots and had never seemed dangerous. We have a rott\husky, a shepard\charpei and a jack russel terrier. Plus a fat egomaniac cat. So we had no problems when we were called for placements. Our FS LOVES our animals. I got up the other day and he was laying on our rotts bed with her watching cartoons, just snuggling. It was so sweet.

[roxanna425]

I have three dogs and one cat and I have never had a problem. I watch the KIDS behavior with the dog tho.

[carriewoman]

I have a 100 pound great pyraneese mix dog and two cats. My dog jumped on the social worker the first day he met her but lucky for me she liked dogs. Animals are welcome to a lot of children, especially those with attatchment problems (It is said children can bond with animals quicker than people sometimes). Just let them know how much of a part of your family the pets are. Are they inside cats or outside? And the dog, is it a go everywhere with you dog or a backyard dog. My Jayco, even at 100 lbs, goes where we go and is an inside dog for the most part, as are my cats. I would suggest though.......... when you do your homestudy, or any time if you allready have, keep in mind you can say you don't want placement of a child who has been known to be cruel to animals. There are children out there who don't understand and hurt animals. They should really be placed in homes that do not have family pets as a safety measure for them and your pets.
:-) carrie

[HeatherRene]

I have a 65 lb Lab. My new 19 mo old FS is scared to death. However, he has been with me exactly one week and we have progressed to looking at the "doggie" out the window and he thinks that is lots of fun. Pointing, saying "doggie" and then woofwoofwoof. I'm hoping he'll come around soon. Until then, the dog is outside or in my bedroom when T is in the house.

[kpospisil531]

you should be fine...like Michelle said, you have to have shots up to date. we have four dogs, 6 snakes, and 2 rats (rescued from work). my youngest dog licked our sw in the mouth during our home study.

[tybeemarie]

I'm tickled how we foster parents also seem to be animal people. We have 2 cats and a dog. Our dog is a very sweet, arthritic, 12 year old black Lab. Our cats avoid the children. The children are enthralled by the pets, especially the elusive cats. I have a policy of the first child dressed, clean, and with a made up bed and tidy room gets to feed the cats. They can get ready now in about 15 minutes! At first they were afraid of dogs, coming from a very dangerous part of the city where dogs are used for dog fighting and intimidation, etc. But after being with our dogs (one of our sweet dogs died in November ) for literally about 15 minutes, they became dog lovers. Two of our kids were reputed to have asthma, so that was an issue at first. It is now clear the children don't have asthma, and it was a ploy on the part of a terrible former foster mother to act as if they did in an attempt to get a higher board rate. Anyway, I do think pets are therapeutic for children, PROVIDED they are not abusive to animals. I made it clear that was an absolute no-no for our family when searching for kids. Good luck!

[Ebony Eyes]

That was the same question I posed to my CW. We adopted our puppy (he is now 3 yrs) from Adopt-A-Pet when he was ten weeks old. Anyway, our CW said that when children first move into a strange home, they are usually drawn to and talk to the pets because the pets don't judge and are willing to listen.

[shycar]

Well I cant help myself I am animal lover. I have one dog who is pure Mutt that we adopted 6 yr ago. Tomorrow we will pick up a 6 week old choc lab, we are sooo excited with our new addition to the family, especially my 2yr fs who chose the name for the puppy . So no problems having pets just keep good a good eye on both child and the pets so no one gets hurt.

[1of2moms]

Kids and pets, to me it is a natural fit. So many kids on the Wednesday's child in Idaho say they hope to someday have a pet. Our fson love to help with the animals and is very good about explaining that the old dog can't go up the stairs any more. We also have sheep, goats, a rabbit, a snake, a cat, and fson now has his own fish. In the spring we are getting chickens and signing fson up for 4-H.

We, as many have said, told the cw we could not take kids who had a history of being mean to animals. Our fson once lashed out at one of the dogs (pushed the biggest and mellowest of the dogs) and was told that was completely unacceptable. We talked it through and he has never done it again.

Good luck.

[mallory4]

So far I have refrained from complaining about almost everybody on the boards having what I don't (a placement!) but I can't keep quiet about the injustice any longer--1of2moms has GOATS!?

I have always wanted a goat, and here I am living in a big city with a yard the size of a hat

Totally unfair, and I am bitter, bitter, bitter....

[elismommy5]

I have 2 german shepherds, they're not mean dogs but they do act protective when strangers come over (they bark alot) and then they slowly warm up to them. Do all sw want to pet your dogs? or do they expect all dogs to be very friendly the first meeting? Just wondering cause i like to slowly introduce my pups.