Heather's Foster Dogs

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Heather's Foster Dogs All breed foster home based rescue, located in the south suburbs of Chicago 🐕‍🦺🐕🦮 We are licensed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

With foster homes located in the south suburbs of Chicago, Heather's Foster Dogs, a non-profit corporation, promotes the well being of animals through fostering, adoption & placement services. Heather's Foster Dogs is an IRS approved tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. You can send donations to Heather's Foster Dogs NFP, 3040 Cappelletti, South Chicago Heights, IL 60411 (please note this is a maili

ng address only; all dogs are in foster homes; we have no physical shelter). You can also designate Heathers Foster Dogs as the charity you support on Amazon Smile; Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases. Thank you so much for your support. We cannot do our rescue work without your help. Heather's Foster Dogs is a member of the No More Homeless Pets Network which works with rescue organizations and shelters around the country that are reducing euthanasia rates and saving lives in their communities.

18/06/2026
17/06/2026

Please listen to your dog. Not all dogs are social and that is OKAY! We don’t like everyone we meet, do we?

Body language says a lot. Please pay attention.

If anyone knows that Love is Love, it’s dogs♥️🧡💛💚💙💜Wishing a Happy Pride Month to our adopters & followers🌈
16/06/2026

If anyone knows that Love is Love, it’s dogs♥️🧡💛💚💙💜
Wishing a Happy Pride Month to our adopters & followers🌈

10/06/2026
09/06/2026

The “immediately friendly equals well-socialised” myth

There’s a widespread assumption - particularly in Western dog culture - that an immediately friendly dog is a well-socialised one. But sociability and social health aren’t the same thing.

A dog that rushes up to every stranger isn’t necessarily confident. It can equally reflect overarousal (due to varying emotions), a lack of impulse control, or a lack of clear social boundaries.

Natural reservation and fear are not the same thing. This distinction matters enormously, and the two are frequently collapsed, which is a significant equivocation with real consequences for dogs.

Fear-based reservation tends to involve active avoidance, visible stress signals, and an inability to recover. Natural reservation looks quite different - the dog may be calm, observant, and fully functional - simply withholding engagement until they’ve made their own assessment. Conflating the two pathologises a healthy characteristic.

Some breeds were never bred for indiscriminate friendliness: Chow Chows, Akitas, and many Nordic and Eastern breeds among them. Applying a universal social template to every dog and finding them wanting does a real disservice to both the individual and the breed. The Eurasier standard, for example, describes the breed as reserved with strangers, but without signs of aggression - and in my experience, that’s accurate. There’s a spectrum, as with any breed, but natural reservation was genuinely one of the things that drew me to them.

The pressure for dogs to be immediately friendly with strangers largely serves the stranger, not the dog. A dog that takes their time is exercising due diligence. Appropriate social boundaries. Something we’d readily respect in a human.

There’s also a persistent assumption that reservation in adult dogs signals inadequate early socialisation. Sometimes that’s true - but a well-socialised dog of a naturally reserved breed, or any breed, may still be reserved. Socialisation does shape confidence and resilience, but it doesn’t necessarily alter how much social contact a dog seeks, or from whom.

Every dog deserves to be read as an individual - not measured against a template, or unrealistic expectations that we wouldn’t apply to other humans.

07/06/2026

Taking a few extra seconds to check the dog's leash attachment before every walk can help prevent a frightening escape and keep your dog safely by your side.

Adoptable Raiden is having a good summer so far! Here he is with his foster sister. He’s one of our longest residents, w...
04/06/2026

Adoptable Raiden is having a good summer so far! Here he is with his foster sister. He’s one of our longest residents, we don’t know why his forever home hasn’t found him yet!

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