Taking a shelter dog for an outing of just a few hours or fostering the animal for a night or two significantly increases the dog’s chance of being adopted — and not by you. When dogs are seen in the community and their short-term caregivers share these animals’ stories, people step up to take home the canines as permanent pets.
Researchers reporting in the journal Animals looked over the records of almost 2,000 dogs at 51 shelters who received short-term fostering and compared them to the records of dogs who did not. Brief outings increased a dog’s chances of being adopted five-fold. A night or two in someone’s home increased the chances of adoption 14-fold. Dogs who may have been at risk of euthanasia to make room in the shelter for more dogs tended to be adopted within an average of 10 days.
If you want to get more homeless dogs adopted, talk to your local shelter to see if they have a program for outings or overnight stays. Adoption or not, prior research has shown that being taken from a shelter for anywhere from a few hours to a night or two reduces a dog’s level of cortisol, a stress hormone, and also allows the animal to rest better.
