All of our fosters and volunteers bring different things to this group. They all have unique histories and opinions and thus have different contributions. Because Morgan has a history of working in a local shelter, I asked her to write some of what she learned along the way. -Laura Weve all had that preformed mis-conception about dogs when we walk through a shelter. That dog is jumping on the door of its kennel barking, it must be aggressive. That dog is hovering in the corner scared, it must be unsocialized. That dog is running around in circles, it must be hyper. Dont feel bad, I too felt that way the first time I walked through shelter kennels looking for a dog. Now, looking back, I realized I passed up ALOT of good dogs because of what I thought I was seeing in their behavior. What changed my perspective, was taking a job in a kill shelter. Sure the dogs still jumped, barked, and hovered in corners scared. But now I understand why. Shelters are STRESSFUL! They are LOUD! They are SCARY! Imagine being plucked from your home and put inside a cage, surrounded by people you dont know that are all yelling. Just like boot camp is culture shock for humans, the shelter is a culture shock. I know this from getting to know these dogs on a day to day basis. Watching them learn to trust me, to look forward to me coming in and singing bad 80s music to them while I cleaned. I also know this because I adopted one of those dogs that was typecasted as aggressive. Because he would jump on his cage door and bark when someone walked by. Hes a rottie/gsd mix, and his name is Chase. And if he werent snoozing on my floor right now he would be dead. But I fought for him. For two months. To keep him from being put down. And finally he was fostered. And I adopted him immediately. And he is hands down the best dog Ive ever owned. My point is this, dont assume when you walk through a shelter. Ask to take the dog outside. Ask the shelter employees about the dog... Because I guarantee you that they KNOW that dog. They care enough to get to know them. Make more than one visit, get to know the dog. And most importantly, trust your instincts. Because when you look in your future pets eyes, regardless of how they are acting in that cage... You know. -Morgan
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 02:34:33 +0000
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