Pet Introductions
Many fosters and potential adopters are interested to know if a potential new pet is a good match for a home with children or other pets. Some of our GPG animals may come to us with a known history of socialization to dogs, cats, kids, and other animals. Others do not. In an effort to know what future home environment would best be a match for your foster, there are a few opportunities to test what level of comfort your new foster has around children, cats and dogs. Please be advised that whether an animal has a known history or not, it is strongly encouraged that all introductions take places in a safe, secure, and supervised environment. Please reach out to training@gatewaypets.org to have staff help facilitate.
KNOW THE BASICS ABOUT DOG & CAT BODY LANGUAGE
Check out the useful resources below about basics of dog and cat body language to get you started
While the shelter does initially assess for dog social skills, not all dogs transition to foster homes from shelter and not all dogs behave in the shelter as they do in a home. It can be difficult to guarantee how a dog will behave towards a resident dog. Not all dogs will get along, even if both dogs have always exhibited high tolerance and sociability to other dogs!
The shelter does occasionally "cat test" dogs in the shelter. Since this is not consistently conducted and dogs may behavior differently while in the shelter than in the home, it is recommended to always properly introduce dogs with cats in the home.
Most of the pets coming through GPG have an unknown history; we do not always know which humans the adoptables are most compatible.