Fostering a dog saves a life! If you would like to help us by fostering a dog, please fill out our Foster Application. Foster care consists of providing a safe, loving, temporary home for a dog until a permanent adoptive home can be found. All dogs are screened for health and temperament before entering our program. We can only rescue as many dogs as we have foster homes!

Our organization is comprised of 100% volunteers. We work with several counties in rural WV and Ohio and focus on pregnant dogs and puppies. Our mission is to get these animals out of their high kill shelter situations and into loving and caring homes. We transport into our Frederick MD intake centers every 3-4 weeks. Our fosters play a critical role in the rescue effort!

For our organization fostering is typically short term. The duration can range from a day or two to several weeks. We do try to keep open fosters if families are going out of town, or have other commitments and we need to shift a dog for a period of time. Our fosters need to be flexible as we often are not sure who is in need of foster placement until after weekend adoption events, or incoming transports. The dogs often need to be brought back and forth to our adoption center at Wagsmore, as that increases their chances of adoption.

While we do our best to match our dogs with fosters, we cannot guarantee that a dog is going to be a “perfect fit”. The intention is to foster, not adopt the animal, or necessarily fully incorporate into the family as one would their own pet. If that can happen…wonderful, but realistic expectations should be made going in. Every dog is different.

This often means separating the foster dog from other animals in the house. (dogs, cats, etc)

For families with small children, interaction should be monitored at all times. Older puppies tend to jump and are teething. Play biting, running, and romping are all part of this stage of their development. Older dogs can sometimes have resource guarding issues with food or high-value treats, so all interactions with children should be supervised.

When fostering for LHAR, we provide crates, harnesses, leashes, food, toys, etc.  All vetting and medical needs are handled through our vet: Jefferson Veterinary Hospital. We do not look for our fosters to place our dogs in permanent homes, although networking is always encouraged. As a foster, your role is to provide love and care to the dog in this crucial part of their journey.

If this sounds like something your family would like to be a part of, please complete our Foster Application.

Additional questions can be directed to lharinfo@gmail.com