Foster FAQs

Fosters must be 23 years or older, and cannot have children under 6 years old in the home.

All existing pets in the home must be spayed or neutered.

Everyone living in your residence is in agreement to have a dog. Co-fosters with you (i.e., anyone who will be walking or helping care for the dog) must also sign the foster contract and attend a foster orientation and training with you.

You must be able to transport the dog to adoption events, vet appointments, and occasional meetings with potential adopters. These occur 1-3 times per month on average.

You must be able to take your dog for potty walks at least 3 times a day, provide high-quality food, and basic training.

We rescue dogs of all breeds, sizes, ages, and medical needs. You should expect to foster a variety of dogs as a Badass foster. We often don’t know the complete background and history of the dogs we rescue. The Badass Foster Team works to pair you with your foster dog. We will recommend a dog for you based on your level of experience, availability, and housing restrictions.

Our fosters provide food, water, shelter, walks, and basic training to the dogs. Fosters are expected to transport their dogs to vet appointments and adoption events and/or meetings.

Fosters help get our dogs forever-home ready, providing them with exercise, basic obedience, crate, and house training. We provide every foster with basic training on how to work with foster dogs and have professional trainers available if needed.

Fosters are responsible for the safety of each foster dog that comes into their care, and for the safety of other dogs and people the dog comes into contact with. This includes ensuring foster dogs have proper walking gear, always kept on a leash when outdoors, and have structured introductions to any new dogs or people.

We schedule a half-day foster orientation and training to make sure you feel fully prepared to provide your foster dog with the basics. Our Foster Team is available to support you if you need any additional advice, help, or questions, and we have a private Facebook group for fosters to support each other.

We supply collars, ID tags, leash, and a crate (if you don’t already have one at home). All gear is available for pickup at the Badass office in Prospect Park South. We also pay for all required medical procedures and expenses (vet visits, medications, etc.).

We provide monthly flea/tick and heartworm preventatives for all foster dogs.

Whenever we can, we offer donated items for the dogs, like food, treats, toys, beds, etc.

Joining the Badass Foster Family means getting to know other amazing fosters, volunteers, and getting support from them. We have a private Facebook group for fosters and organize regular events for our fosters to meet and get to know each other.

Yes, all approved medical expenses for each foster dog are covered by Badass.

We will help schedule and approve medical care with our designated veterinarian partners, and we also have a Vet Team that is available to answer questions.

Applying to be a foster through our foster program is applying to provide a temporary home for a dog only while waiting for their forever home. Fosters are the key to our ability to continue to rescue dogs — we ask that our fosters do their best to commit to our program for at least 6 months.

We do not have a foster-to-adopt program. If you are interested in adopting (even if not for 3-6 months), please apply through our adoption application.

The application is the next step! From there, we review it, check 3 references, and a vet reference if you own or have owned another animal recently. We then conduct a home visit to make sure that your home is dog-ready.

The final step is attending a half-day foster orientation and training. You should be prepared to take a dog immediately after training!

Yes, as long as your other pets are spayed/neutered and do not have a history of aggressive behavior with other animals. We have some tips for introducing foster dogs and cats to each other — even if your foster dog or your current pet has been housed with other animals before, no one can guarantee its behavior with your other pets will be the same.

Just as with children, foster dogs should not be left in the same room as other animals unattended.

Similarly, ensure you have separate areas for feeding your foster dog and your other pets, and don’t leave toys and treats laying around the house.

If you need help, you can always contact us. We can put you in touch with an experienced foster or trainer to assist you with introducing your animals!

Yes (as long as they are aged 7 or older)! Since we don’t know the complete background/history of the dogs we rescue, our dogs should never, under any circumstances be left unattended with children, and parents should be cautious and observant when children are eating with the dog in the room.

Only adults who have attended training are allowed to walk the dog (besides a professional dog walker).

Also, keep in mind that a child in the house with a dog is at risk of being accidentally knocked over, scratched or nipped etc.

To provide for as much stability as possible, we ask that you keep the foster dog until they are adopted. This can range from a couple of days to a couple of months, depending on how quickly a dog is adopted.

If you are traveling or something comes up, just notify the foster team in advance of any dates that you are unable to foster (ideally a week or more in advance), we will make appropriate arrangements to move the dog to a temporary foster until you return.

Each and every foster dog is different. Because these dogs are coming from shelters, rural environments, former homelessness, etc. fosters may have to work through many different things, such as separation anxiety, fear of the city, or housetraining.

We have many experienced fosters and mentors who can help you with these challenges, as long as you are willing to work through it! Having first-hand insight from our fosters into the dogs, any issues, and their training status helps us get them adopted into the right forever home much faster.

All of our dogs are fully vetted and spayed/neutered when they arrive (or in a small number of cases, very soon after they arrive). If there are any known health issues, you will be notified in advance. We will make sure that you are comfortable dealing with any additional issues that the pup may have.

In addition, all approved medical expenses for each foster dog are covered by Badass.

We actively advertise our foster dogs through social media, adoption events, and other media outlets to help their adoption prospects, but your efforts in the promotion of your foster dog can help them get adopted!

Our adoption events are a great way for potential adopters to meet the dog. Fosters are responsible for transporting the dog to adoption events and occasional meetings with potential adopters.

To help make the best match, we have a weekly Pupdates form that helps our teams learn more about your foster dog and its progress. In addition, we can always use great photos of your foster dog, and you can share those with Badass or post on social media about them.