My 1st foster didn't work out

Don't feel bad, not all dogs like eachother, even if they like most dogs. Ripley and Penny had a couple of growling/snapping episodes when I first brought her in. They settled down after a couple of days of seperating them, but they never were buddies or anything, They both get along fine with other dogs, so you just never know. I'd be sorta wary of a recue who came into my house, spent five minutes with my dog, and then told me he was dominant, plus the organization should know that they need to arrange metings on neutral territory, especially for a dog whose background is unknown.

SalemsMom

The rescue guy blamed Salem and said he was dominant

I think he was mistaken in that conclusion. Any dog will normally defend himself if pushed far enough. As you noted, Salem was recalling to you after the first challenge. He only returned fire when the other dog continued the forward progression. Salem acted perfectly, imo. And I am sorry it didn't work out. You weren't a bad person. Now, you are a person who will insist on neutral territory. And give Salem a belly rub for being such a good dog and listening to you. And kudos to you for listening to him. The desire to return to the house was a clear sign and you picked up on that.

Did they get to meet outside of the home? 

Liesje

Did they get to meet outside of the home? 

No the man from the rescue didn't want to.  Makes me think he wasn't really familiar with dog behavior....maybe he was new? (Trying to give him the benefit of the doubt) 

I think next time your going to have to insist on that, SalemsMom.  And I wouldn't worry about what happened, Salem listened to you so he did exactly what he was supposed to.

Thanks for answering everyone. Ron, I think Salem acted normal as well given the circumstances. I don't blame him at all. You can only be pushed so far.

They never actually got to sniff outside. We tried but the rescue dog just went crazy barking and growling when we got within 20 feet of him. This made Salem just want to run home. We tried to give the other dog time to cool off and try again, but it just wasn't going to happen.

We are very dissapointed but we still want to try again. Hopefully the next time it will turn out.

You did not let anyone down.  Salem DOES come first.  Not all dogs get along.  I DO question the rescue guy who dropped off the Golden.  He should know better.  Trust me when I say that you'll have plenty of other opportunities to foster.  There never seems to be a shortage of dogs in need.  You learn with every foster you get.  Bless you for WANTING to foster.

When I foster, I don't always do things the way everyone else would. But, firstmost, I know the dogs that I am bringing into my home. I have physically examined them, learned their behavior, and spent one-on-one time with them. I bring home the foster, Casey goes in the backyard. The foster sniffs around, meets everyone else, and the cats.

Then the foster goes outside, leash dragging, and runs around with Casey. However, Casey is not territorial, and is very used to having dogs come and go. He is currently laying right next to the current foster, they met the way I described, and everything has gone well. Yes, they DO get into squabbles, esp over bones and food. I feed all animals seperate, and if bones and toys cause a problem, they are picked up right away and not given back until the dogs have calmed down and are seperate.

With dogs that I do not know, or have not spent a ton of time with, and the few that have not been around many other dogs, I will take Casey down to the shelter, neutral ground, to meet. I've only done this once or twice.

Yes, there are more than one way to do things, but you need to do what is comfortable for YOU and YOUR DOG. I highly reccomend to people that the dogs meet OUTSIDE, and take a nice long walk together. This relaxes them, and gives them a better feeling about eachother. That also gives the humans a chance to talk about the dogs, and understand what is going on.

It sounds like the golden was too ovewhelmed, and seeing another dog just pushed him right over the edge. He may have a history of dog aggression, or other things in his past that will never be known because he was a stray. I would request that for the first few fosters, you only bring home owner surrenders, with some known history. Makes things easier, and once you get comfortable with that, tell the rescue you may concider taking in strays. Also - with strays, find out when they were vaccinated, and wait the appropriate amount of time for the vaccines to kick in before bringing him home to your dog.

Best of luck! Let me know if you have any other questions, I have fostered a TON. =]

You did nothing wrong except not be huffy, abrasive and insistent!! *lol* -- because you would have HAD to be with that person from the rescue.  People tend to think they can be like dogs -- "If I bark LOUDER and growl you'll give in!!"  He made YOU give in and then he blamed YOU for the fact that **he** was wrong!!  (if he were a dog I wouldn't want to foster HIM either! SO THERE!)

Sometimes we have to be really ... let's use the word "protective".  And you have to go to whatever lengths you have to go to in order to enforce it.

Case in point -- a few weeks ago my boss came to me and basically begged for a huge favor.  He and his wife were going out of town unexpectedly and he asked me to take his lab (a big HUGE boy -- probably 100 pounds - not fat just a BIG dog -- he's darned near as big as a dane) because he couldn't find a dog walker.

Ok -- I have some physical issues of my own -- I can *not* walk the dog, but I do have a fenced yard.  So I'll bring the dog to MY house -- it's not gonna work for me to go to their house and "walk" him out 16 times a day. 

Well the wife essentially freaked over the whole thing - she likes to be in control and she wanted to drive to my house to drop him off, except I likely wouldn't have been home, etc. ... the whole thing just became incredibly unwieldy -- and there was quite a kerfuffle over the whole thing - particularly that they wanted to just drop him off while I was there alone or worse, follow me home so I took him in with me when I first got home.

NO

Absolutely not.  I do something very similar to what Erica does except I have THREE dogs.  So that means everbuddy's gotta say hi to Mom, potty  and do all the normal "mom's home" stuff.

I didn't know this dog well -- I've 'met' him but never handled him -- and I know he IS a handfull.  Good boy, but headstrong, altho quite submissive.  But given my physical limitations and the fact that I wanted to keep this all really 'friendly' and give my dogs time to say 'hi' to me and time for him to explore as HE needed to, and then have the 'meet' be outside under controlled circumstances ... wow.

I actually made myself quite the immoveable object on this one.  Essentially I told them no, I could come and GET him later in the evening or after work, but it would be ME alone.  I didn't want his family standing there giving him any reason to be 'protective' while I'm trying to handle four dogs.  I didn't need an audience - I needed time and space to do it sanely. 

I won, but I was a bit afraid I"d cost myself my job in the process -- it didn't, and my boss was quite understanding that I needed to do this in a pretty set order to cause NO ripple at all in my own pack and physically in a way that I could handle it.

 I was just glad I'd had the experience I have had, so I essentially knew how hard I had to stand my own ground on this.  I've been in the "rolled over by an idiot" situation just like Salem'smom is describing.  It's a horrible situation to be in.

So, don't walk away beating yourself -- this dog is likely dog-aggressive and this idiot from the rescue is no one to deal with a dog like that.  You want to set a dog up to do well, not to walk into disaster.  But do realize that sometimes it is hard as heck to be as stubborn as you have to be to do what YOU know is right. 

And sometimes it has to happen early in the conversation -- when he said "No, I'll come to your house" YOU SAY:

"ABSOLUTELY not.  I don't mean to be rude, but I have learned very very very well **the hard way** that the first meet absolutely, positively, unequivocably, MUST be on neutral ground.  That's the only way I will do this and it is a deal-breaker.  Now, which park would you prefer .. Allen or Zookerby Street Parks??"

"Well, we don't usually ..."

INTERRUPT HIM --"SIr, you don't understand apparently -- this is non-negotiable.  I've experienced this badly -- we want this dog to be successful here, we want this to go well and we want this dog to get a fair shake.  MY dog isn't dominant and I know that well.  This dog is an unknown to me ... therefore we WILL meet somewhere completely neutral.  Do you have a 3rd park that is better or shall we just do it at Allen Park - it's the most convenient FOR ME."

While he trips over his own mouth, set the meet where you want it or let him think he's in control by naming another park.  But just plain be a big immoveable boulder that ain't going THERE with the 'drop by your house' meeting.

Bottom line -- he'll respect you for it.