"Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in
case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in
your ear." ~ Dave Barry
Our Volunteer Trainer
Shall We Dance?If any volunteer activity at our shelter requires a sense of humor it has to be
the position our trainer Regina Petty holds. She is a professional who gives freely of her time
and knowledge to help not only staff and the dogs we house, but even sets aside an evening
out of a busy schedule to work with families who are having problems with their own dogs!
She goes that extra mile and then some. Here she demonstrates some fancy footwork as a
group of enthusiastic dogs and beginner handlers gather for a lesson. Her techniques
involve lots of repetition, absolutely no force, just gentle guidance and absolute consistency
from the owner.
She has brought order to our kennels with her insistence that
everyone handling the dogs, from feeding time right through to
more formal lessons, use the same voice commands and
signals. It's so great for the dogs. They don't need to try to learn
a different "language" every time they meet with a new human.
They know what you are "talking" about!
As you might guess, the dogs who wind up in shelters very
seldom have any training of any kind. They may be sweet and
loving and playful but they are definitely diamonds in the rough
when they first come. That's a nice way of saying they are pretty rude and need to learn the
rules of civilized dog behavior! Slowly but surely, as the staff and volunteers work with then,
always under the guidance and rules set up, personalities begin to emerge and so do much
better manners. Trainer News click here.
When a family comes to look at possible dogs to adopt it's so great to be able to bring a dog
out for that first meeting knowing that he will do his best to "sell himself". "Hey look at me!
See how nicely I sit and greet new people? Wouldn't I just fit into your family?" That's the
message a dog can convey once he knows how to do it!
Regina, we can't thank you enough....and that comes from dogs as well as people!
And Speaking of Selling Yourself.....
Volunteer groomers perform an important special service!
Sis Hale has put in countless hours helping dogs do their job
of "selling themselves". When you are dirty and matted and
lets face it....smelly, it's pretty hard to have the self confidence it
takes to meet new humans! Dogs know when they look great
because humans respond to them with signals that are loud
and clear to their sensitive egos. And besides it just plain feels
great to be clean & well groomed. It's unlikely that any of us
humans have ever known the sensation of having hundreds
of fleas walking around in our hair and all biting us. It's really almost impossible to imagine
how awful that would be. So is it any wonder that the dogs have a new lease on life after Sis
has worked her magic?
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the
way its animals are treated".
--Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
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