Domesticating a street dog? Problems?

[Scarlet13]

I am considering adopting/fostering a stray dog. I have a dog already she is very small (about 6 pds), and I want to make sure she is safe during his transition. I need to get an idea of what I will be dealing with if I bring in this new dog. The dog is very friendly, male and they have meet and they seemed to get along pretty well. I didn't let them play together because he isn't neutered and frankly I don't trust him not to try something;).

If he moves in he will first spend the night at the vet, get a check up and be neutered. Can anyone give me an idea of the sorts of problems we might have bringing a street dog into a very small apartment? Housetrainning? boredom? I have a feeling he has been outside his whole life, so if he is to join our family I need a game plan.

Thanks:)

[pukka]

ALways take the stray to the vet first and get a heartworm test and kidney/liver test.
Ask the vets groomer to shower the dog(they usually do it for about 10 or 15.000won)
If the dog is tested healthy then you can do the neutering because you cannot neuter
or spay a cat/dog with heartworm or weak kidney.
You must have the time to train the stray to live in your apartment. A week or so while
recovering from the neutering also helps the dog to be calm and use to live inside.
I suggest dog owners to think more than twice to take a 2nd dog when they don't have much
time.
The house training is no different from any other dog.

[Scarlet13]

We have lots of time, I have dogs back home though and that is really my only real concern. I don't want to have more pets than is healthy for them. I have been looking after my sister's dog for a few years and I am not sure if she will still be in my charge when I return to Canada. We'll have the room for this stray but I would how many is too many?

[Karen]

When you bring a stray in from outside, I would recommend having a room or space cleared anything they can damage for when you go out. Way way before I was ever prepared for fostering we found a stray, vetted him, and placed him with a friend who had been looking to adopt a dog... Well, Benji bit through all the wires in the house, the floor, etc. etc. and caused an amazing amount of damage.

Also, I know it depends on the dogs, but I would not leave 2 dogs who are unfamiliar with each other alone together for a couple weeks, or until you feel confident that they have established their little hierarchy and there isn't any fighting.

As for your question about how many is too many? Good question. So hard to say, I guess it depends how much energy each dog has, how much time/money you have to devote to them, and what type of place you'll be living in. Younger ones and certain breeds need so much more attention, even one seems exhausting enough for a household (I'm thinking of my mom's new dog, Scruffy, who I just spent Christmas with. What a handful, my god.), but if you have some laid back dogs that you can exercise all together and if you have your own yard, then of course the story changes.

Will you have a fenced-in yard when you return to Canada?

[Scarlet13]

Yes, it is fenced, and we are literally one block from open prairie land.

Oscar is full of energy always has been but his sister Pandora even as a puppy "outside" and "run" were like dirty words to her. Even now when we ask them if they want to go outside oscar runs to the door and Panda hits the floor and hopes we won't notice her. hahaha. My cats are awesome too very friendly and really good with dogs, still it might not be an issue for this particular stray now, the situation is not quite as straight forward as we thought.

He does appear to have people taking care of him, we met one today. It is the employees at the car park where he lives. We noticed today someone had trimed his fur, and he was very happy to see his caretaker show up today and he went right inside with him (after returning for the rest of his treat;)). This was the first time we have ever seen anyone tend to him.