As a  foster volunteer with Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue, your responsibilities are very important.  Some of the dogs we take in are extremely sick and/or malnourished.  While a few of them are healthy physically, most are not emotionally healthy.  It will be your “job” to ensure that when they are adopted, they are healthy in both aspects.  When you make the decision to be a foster volunteer, you must keep in mind that most of our dogs come from animal shelters.  Therefore, some of them may have kennel cough, worms or have possibly been exposed to other contagions.  It is your responsibility to keep the foster seperated from your personal pets if you are concerned about the dog’s health.  Kennel cough is common in sheltered animals and is fairly easy to treat.  We recommend that your personal pets have a bordetella vaccine.  This vaccine prevents kennel cough, however, it is not 100% effective.  Please take the foster dog to a seperate potty area from the one your own pets use initially as a precaution in case the foster dog has intestinal parasites.  You are responsible for assuring that no disease is spread between BRBR’s foster dog and your own pets.  The care of our Boxers is our priority, as is assuring the perfect home for them.  Fostering a Boxer in need is a very rewarding experience, but can also be challenging at times.

We ask that when you foster one of our Boxers, you allow the dog to live inside with your family and other pets and treat it just the same as you would if it were your own.  Our Boxers must be kept indoors.  If you have a fenced yard that you allow the dog access to, it must be out alone only when you are home to supervise it.  If you must go somewhere, the dog can NOT be left outside.  Many Boxers have been known to scale 5 foot fences.  It will also be your responsibility to observe the dog for any odd behaviors such as: dog aggression, seperation anxiety, cat aggression, pottying in the house, being destructive in the house, mouthing/playing rough.  It will be up to you to work with the foster dog on any of the issues it may have.  Most of our older Boxers are already housebroken.  If you receive a foster that is not housebroken, it will be your responsibility to train it.  Crates work extremely well for this purpose.  We recommend that all of our dogs be crate-trained because it is easier to housebreak a dog and a lot safer when a dog can’t be fully supervised.  Keep in mind that these dogs have had a rough life, so we never really know quite what to expect.  When working with a dog, Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue does not allow, nor will it tolerate, any kind of physical punishment.  If you find you aren’t making headway with the dog, feel free to ask any of the volunteers and they will be happy to assist you and give their advice.

You will be required to give an update on the dog’s health and progress at least once a week.  We love to get pictures of the dogs to post on the website.  We will always need a before picture (the day you get the dog) and subsequent pictures to monitor it’s progression.  Digital cameras are wonderful for this purpose.  You may need to scan and email a picture if you don’t have access to a digital camera.

You will also be required to take to the dog to an approved veterinarian when needed.  You need permission from a Director before you schedule an appointment.  Once you get to the veterinarian’s office and they suggest performing procedures that are not on your checklist, they will also need to be approved first.  Veterinary expenses are covered by the rescue.

A good quality dog food should be fed to our foster Boxers, and they should be fed no less than twice per day.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive food, as long as it’s healthy.  Our favorite food that we recommend is Nutro.  There are several different types of Nutro for different diet needs.  Along with Nutro, we recommend Purina and Pedigree.  We do not support Iams/Eukanuba brand due to the animal testing and treatment of the animals under their care.  Dogs that are thin and malnourished may be fed rice and/or pasta mixed with their dog food to aid in weight gain.

These are just a few of the responsibilities you will have as a volunteer for Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue.  If after reading our requirements, you feel this is something you would enjoy doing, please complete the Adoption/Foster Application, and feel free to reach out to us with any questions. It is truly one of the most rewarding experiences you can have!

If you have time or skills that you’re willing to donate, we’d love to hear from you! Fundraising is critical to our ability to rescue dogs in need. Most require medical care that exceeds what we recover in their adoption fees, so donations, events, etc. are extremely important.

Our fundraising needs include meeting & greeting people at Adopt-A-Thons, event planning, merchandise donation and sales, grant writing, etc.